If you have climbed far enough to unlock your first alternative Tower Troop — around the same stretch of Trophy Road where Heroes and Hero Coins come online — you have already discovered the strange truth about them: swapping your default Tower Princess for a Cannoneer, Dagger Duchess, or Royal Chef can quietly win or lose you games you never thought were about your tower at all. Pick the wrong one and you are handing your opponent free tower damage every match.
So which is the best Tower Troop in Clash Royale right now? The honest answer is that there is no single winner — the "best" one depends on your deck's biggest defensive hole. This guide breaks down all four Tower Troops as they exist in September 2026 (Season 86), exactly how each one is unlocked, what its ability really does, and which one you should slot for your archetype. Every mechanic below is checked against Supercell's official Clash Royale blog and the strongest community trackers as of September 4, 2026.
Quick answer: which Tower Troop should you use?
- There are four Tower Troops: Tower Princess (default), Cannoneer, Dagger Duchess, and Royal Chef. You equip exactly one at a time in a dedicated deck slot, and you can swap it between matches.
- Tower Princess is the balanced baseline: hits air and ground, never has a weak window. It is the safe default and still the pick for most beginners.
- Dagger Duchess is the strongest raw-defense tower for high-ladder cycle and control decks — a burst of daggers shreds early pushes — but her damage drops sharply once that burst is spent and the daggers reload, so fast re-pushes punish her weak window.
- Cannoneer is heavy single-target damage that hits both air and ground; its catch is a slow reload and no splash, so it struggles against swarms and back-to-back pushes even though it out-punches the Princess on a single target.
- Royal Chef is a support pick, not a defender — it periodically levels up your highest-HP troop. It shines only in specific tank/beatdown decks and is dead weight in most others.
- Do not sleep on levels. A Tower Troop can never out-level your King Tower, and an under-leveled Tower Troop is a real handicap — several players learn this the hard way on ladder.
How do Tower Troops work in Clash Royale?
A Tower Troop replaces the unit sitting inside your two Princess Towers and your King Tower for the whole match. It occupies its own dedicated slot in your Battle Deck — it does not take one of your eight card slots — and you choose which one to bring before the game starts. As Supercell-focused guides put it, Tower Troops "occupy a dedicated card slot in your Battle Deck" and "can be swapped out" between battles, so you can tune your tower to counter whatever you keep losing to.
Every deck starts with the Tower Princess equipped by default. The other three are unlocked separately (details below) and then live alongside the Princess in your collection, so you switch freely at no cost.
Crucially, a Tower Troop only matters on defense from your own towers — it is not a card you play on the field. That is exactly why so many players underrate it: the effect is passive, it never appears in your hand, and a badly chosen or under-leveled tower loses you chip damage in slow motion across the whole match.
How are Tower Troops leveled — and why level matters so much
Tower Troops are upgraded the same way cards are: with copies of that Tower Troop plus Gold. The maximum level is 16, in line with the game-wide cap — see our full breakdown of Clash Royale card levels and what maxing really costs.
There is one rule that trips up almost everyone, and it is the single most-repeated warning in the community:
"Tower Troops follow a straightforward leveling rule as they can't surpass the level of your King Tower."
Your Tower Troop is hard-capped at your King Tower level. If your King Tower is Level 12, a Level 16 Cannoneer still fights at Level 12. And it works the other way too — the effective tower you fight with is whichever is lower. This is why r/ClashRoyale is full of posts begging people to level their tower troops: an under-leveled tower loses HP-and-damage trades it should win, and it does so silently, every single match. If you are going to run a non-Princess tower, keep it at or near your King Tower level or you are actively worse off than the free default.
A note on balance: Tower Troops have been one of the most repeatedly nerfed categories in the game. When Supercell first brought the hammer down on them in a balance post, the developers explained the rationale directly: Tower Troops had "been the driving force behind many of the Decks dominating high ladder," so the goal was "to reduce how oppressive they can be in certain matchups." That pressure has continued through the 2026 patches, which were among the biggest balance shake-ups in years. Exact per-troop stat numbers move with every balance post, so treat the rankings below as archetype guidance, not frozen stats, and re-check the official patch notes after each monthly update. (For what the biggest 2026 patch actually did, see our August 2026 balance changes breakdown.)
The four Tower Troops, ranked by how useful they are
Here is the practical ordering for September 2026, with the giant caveat that "best" is deck-dependent.
| Rank | Tower Troop | Rarity | Hits air? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | Dagger Duchess | Legendary | Yes | Cycle, control, high-ladder defense |
| A | Tower Princess | Common | Yes | Beginners, all-rounders, air-heavy metas |
| B | Cannoneer | Epic | Yes | Anti-tank / single-target ground beatdown |
| B | Royal Chef | Legendary | Yes | Tank / beatdown support decks only |
(Tier order is our editorial read of the current meta and matches the general community consensus reported by trackers like MobileMatters and GameRant; it is opinion, not a Supercell ranking.)
Dagger Duchess — the high-ladder defensive tower
The Dagger Duchess is a Legendary Tower Troop with high hitpoints and a signature attack pattern: she opens with a rapid flurry of dagger throws that deals heavy front-loaded damage, then her output drops sharply once that flurry is spent and her daggers reload before she can unload again. In practice she absolutely deletes the first small-to-medium push that lands in her range, which is why she is the go-to tower for cycle and control decks that want to win every early exchange.
Her weakness is the flip side of her strength: after the opening burst, a second wave arriving right behind the first eats far less damage while she is reloading. Fast, repeated re-pushes (think back-to-back Hog Rider or a spam deck that keeps feeding chip) can bait out the flurry and then punish the reload window. Against a single controlled push, though, no other tower defends as hard.
Tower Princess — the default that is still genuinely good
Do not treat the Tower Princess as the "starter tower you upgrade away from." She is a Common, she is free from game start, and she is the most balanced option: consistent damage against both air and ground, no weak window, no exploitable gimmick. In metas full of air win conditions or when you simply do not want a matchup you can lose to your own tower choice, the Princess is the correct pick — including for a lot of high-ladder players who value predictability.
If you are newer, keep the Princess equipped until you both unlock an alternative and can level it near your King Tower. A leveled Princess beats an under-leveled Duchess every time.
Royal Chef — a support tower, not a defender
The Royal Chef is the odd one out. It is a Legendary Tower Troop that unlocks from Arena 13 (Rascal's Hideout), and instead of defending harder it buffs your own troops. Per Supercell's release post, "Every 18 seconds, Royal Chef increases the Level of your highest HP Troop by 1," with the boost taking longer while the Chef is actively firing, prioritizing troops that have not been buffed yet, and only affecting units above roughly 20% health.
That makes the Chef a genuinely powerful pick in tank and beatdown decks — feeding a level to a Golem, a Giant, or a Mega Knight mid-push can flip a trade. But in cycle, bait, or control decks that do not field a big surviving tank, the Chef mostly does nothing on defense and you are effectively playing without a defensive tower. As one long-time player bluntly put it, the Chef "works only in some decks." Match it to a tank, or leave it in the collection.
Cannoneer — the single-target sledgehammer
The Cannoneer is an Epic Tower Troop that fires slow, heavy cannonballs for big single-target damage against both air and ground. Against a tank or a lone win condition it out-punches the Princess hit for hit. Its catch is not what it targets but how it targets: a slow reload and no splash. One cannonball hits one unit hard, so a swarm (Minion Horde, Skeleton Army, Barbarians) or wave after wave of small units overwhelms it while it is between shots. Bring the Cannoneer when your losses come from big single threats punching your tower — not when you keep getting chipped by spam.
How to unlock each Tower Troop
This is the other thing players constantly ask — "how do y'all get any of your other tower troops?" Here is the current situation:
- Tower Princess — equipped by default from the moment you start; nothing to unlock.
- Cannoneer — an Epic Tower Troop added in the January 2024 update. It comes from Tower Troop rewards on Trophy Road and from Lucky Chests and Shop offers.
- Dagger Duchess — a Legendary Tower Troop from the April 2024 update. Higher-trophy players receive a set of guided training-battle missions that award the Duchess for free; otherwise she comes from Tower Troop rewards and chests.
- Royal Chef — a Legendary Tower Troop added on December 16, 2024, unlocking from Arena 13 (Rascal's Hideout).
Two honest caveats. First, acquiring the copies to unlock and level the Legendary towers is largely chest- and reward-gated, so it can feel luck-based — that frustration is real and widely shared. Second, you get Tower Troops through normal in-game progression, not by paying a third party. Do not buy accounts or use any "top-up" or generator site: account trading violates Supercell's Terms of Service and gets accounts banned, and off-store currency sites put both your account and your payment at risk. Everything here is earned inside the game, tied to your Supercell ID.
Which Tower Troop is best for your deck?
Skip the tier list and match the tower to your archetype:
- Cycle / control (Hog, X-Bow, Mortar, Miner control): Dagger Duchess. You defend in small, clean chunks and her burst rewards exactly that.
- Beatdown / tank (Golem, Giant, Lava Hound, Mega Knight): Royal Chef to super-charge your tank — unless you are Lava/air-reliant and worried about defense, in which case Princess is safer.
- Bait / spam / anything facing lots of air: Tower Princess. Consistent, covers air, no exploitable window.
- Facing big single threats (tanks, lone win conditions): Cannoneer — its heavy single-target cannonballs punish one fat unit harder than any other tower, as long as you are not being buried by swarms.
- Newer players still building levels: Tower Princess, leveled up, every time. A leveled default beats an under-leveled Legendary.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Tower Troops can you equip at once in Clash Royale? Just one. You choose a single Tower Troop before each match, and it occupies its own dedicated deck slot separate from your eight cards. You can swap it freely between battles, so tune it to whatever you keep losing to.
What is the best Tower Troop in Clash Royale in September 2026? For most competitive decks the Dagger Duchess is the strongest raw-defense tower because her opening dagger flurry shreds the first push. But the Tower Princess is still the best all-round and beginner pick because she covers air and ground with no weak window, and the "best" choice ultimately depends on your deck's biggest defensive gap.
Can the Cannoneer hit air troops? Yes. The Cannoneer targets both air and ground with heavy single-target cannonballs. Its real weakness is not air — it is the slow reload and lack of splash, so swarms and rapid back-to-back pushes overwhelm it between shots even though it out-damages the Princess against a single target.
Why do my Tower Troops feel underpowered? Almost always because they are under-leveled. A Tower Troop can never exceed your King Tower level, so if your King Tower is behind, your fancy Legendary tower fights at that lower level. Level your Tower Troop up to your King Tower or you are worse off than the free Tower Princess.
How do you unlock the other Tower Troops? Through normal progression: the Cannoneer (Epic, January 2024) and the Legendaries Dagger Duchess (April 2024) and Royal Chef (Arena 13, December 2024) come from Tower Troop rewards on Trophy Road, Lucky Chests, and Shop offers, with the Duchess also available via free training-battle missions at higher trophies. There is no legitimate way to buy them from a third party, and account trading is bannable.
Is the Royal Chef good? Only in the right deck. It does not defend harder — it periodically raises the level of your highest-HP troop, so it is strong in tank and beatdown decks that keep a big unit alive and near-useless in cycle, bait, or control decks that do not.
The bottom line
There is no universal "best" Tower Troop in Clash Royale — there is the best one for your deck's weakness. Run the Dagger Duchess for cycle and control, keep the Tower Princess when you want a no-weak-window all-rounder or you are still leveling up, feed a tank with the Royal Chef in beatdown, and reach for the Cannoneer when your losses come from big single threats rather than swarms. Whatever you pick, level it to your King Tower — an under-leveled tower is the most common self-inflicted loss on ladder.
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