Best Traits in Merge Tactics 2026

Merge Tactics is a compelling, simple autobattler mode that lets you practice your tactical prowess in short bursts of fun. The matches rarely last longer than 5 minutes, your builds are very easy to realize, and losing doesn’t hurt as much since you didn’t waste half an hour on this. The key feature of Merge Tactics is traits, which are attached to each unit in the mode. With thirteen traits and twenty-four troops, the team comps are potentially endless. But that’s on paper. In practice, there are clear winners and losers among the traits. To find out Merge Tactics best traits, read this guide. We’ll cover all thirteen of them and explain why some of them are pure trash, while others are absolutely stomping the meta.

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Read our other Clash Royale guides:

• Best Decks for Every Arena
• Best Decks
• Evo Tier List

 

 

Merge Tactics Traits Tier List

To save you time, we’ll provide you with a short, neat tier list. You can quickly refer to it and understand what traits you should aim for when building your team composition. Roughly speaking, you can split traits into two categories: main and secondary. This, however, doesn’t really influence their strengths. In theory, you want to build your squad around the main trait and add some strong secondary traits that complement it. In practice, there are only a few main traits worth building around, and some secondary traits are much stronger than the main ones. We’ll mark the main treats in yellow and the secondary ones in red. Now take a look at the Merge Tactics traits tier list:

Tier	Trait
S-Tier	Clan, Brawler, Blaster
A-Tier	Ranger, Ace, Assassin
B-Tier	Noble, P.E.K.K.A, Goblin
C-Tier	Brutalist, Superstar, Giant
D-Tier	Undead

S-Tier traits are the strongest and often offer the biggest advantage if you manage to build them earlier than everyone else. Though not all game-winning builds rely on them to win, you’ll notice that the majority of meta team comps use them. A-Tier are the second strongest and can also win you games, but they require learning good positioning and strategies to apply to certain traits. B-Tier are good traits that let you win during early stages, but in the late game, they’re redundant. C-Tier traits are not recommended to intentionally build towards. D-Tier is the Undead trait, as it’s the worst out of the bunch. Now, let’s break down each trait and explain why it is good or bad.

Merge Tactics Traits Ranked

In this Merge Tactics traits guide, we rank every trait from best to worst based on real in-game performance, consistency, and how well each trait fits into modern team compositions. The rankings take into account unit strength, scaling potential, synergy flexibility, and how traits perform against the most common meta strategies. Traits that offer strong frontline survivability, reliable damage, or flexible pairing options naturally rise to the top, while outdated or overly situational traits fall behind. Let’s have the Merge Tactics traits ranked now.

Clan

Clan trait is the strongest of the bunch. It relies on survivability and attack speed. Here are the bonuses that they grant:

• Healing: Once per round, once their HP drops to 50%, the Clans heal quickly and increase their attack speed for 5 seconds.
• Two-Troop Bonus: +35% max HP and hit speed.
• Four-Troop Bonus: +70% max HP and hit speed.

With the Juggernaut trait removed, you don’t have many frontline options. It’s either Clan or Brawlers. What makes Clan the best trait in Merge Tactics 2026 is that they have the best frontline defenders in Valkyrie and Barbarian, and great damage dealers with Wizard and Archer Queen. Their secondary traits are also really strong, including Brawler, Ranger, and Blaster. They’re cheap to build and upgrade, and they offer amazing compatibility with rulers like Loong, Machine, and even King.

Brawler

Another one of the Merge Tactics meta traits. Though Brawlers lack proper damage-dealing, they make up for it with huge HP pools and control options. While Brawler bonuses aren’t that strong, considering the lack of good frontline tanks, they’re frequently included in most builds:

• Two-Troop Bonus: +50% Max HP.
• Four-Troop Bonus: +100% Max HP.

They’re Clan-lite, majorly due to the fact that they don’t have any DPS bonuses. Their units have really strong abilities, though. Barbarian is the tankiest unit in the game, especially if you add another Clan to the equation. P.E.K.K.A deals lots of damage, and if combined with a match condition, where units increase their attack speed after killing another unit, it can become a real threat. Prince serves as a great off switch for annoying enemy units, stunning them for a couple of seconds. Mega Knight offers huge control potential, which he can consistently apply throughout the round.

Blaster

This is the strongest damage trait in Merge Tactics. Their bonus works very well with a good frontline, as their damage scales with the distance to the enemy unit. Three out of four units in this trait are able to do AoE damage, which punishes bad positioning. Here are their bonuses:

• Increased Range: Blasters gain +1 range and bonus damage based on distance.
• Two-Troop Bonus: +10% damage per hex.
• Four-Troop Bonus: +15% damage per hex.

The bonus damage acquired per hex makes them killing machines, capable of wiping the underleveled comps in a couple of seconds. Their best units are Princess and Executioner. If you are able to proc their main traits, Noble and Ace, respectively, you will see them destroy enemies even faster. Don’t sleep on them, as they’re super powerful. They work great with any ruler, and even having a two-troop bonus is enough for them to deal with most other enemies.

Ranger

What rangers lack in raw damage, they make up for in attack speed. And as we know, bonus attack speed means higher damage. While this trait isn’t that good on its own, it’s the combination with other traits that makes it so prevalent. Check out their bonuses:

• Hit Speed Increased: For each attack, Rangers gain bonus attack speed, stacking up to x25.
• Two-Troop Bonus: +10% Hit Speed.
• Four-Troop Bonus: +15% Hit Speed.

While Royal Giant and Skeleton Dragons are underwhelming in their performance, Dart Goblin and especially Archer Queen make up for it. Royal Giant is better played as a ranged tank, rather than a DPS unit. Skeleton Dragons are just weak and should be used only to proc the trait. Dart Goblin strives with a strong frontline, as it gains attack speed faster than any other Ranger. Archer Queen is just insanely broken, especially if you can find a spot for another Clan member, essentially skyrocketing her attack speed and damage output.

Ace

A pretty difficult trait to use efficiently, but when you get them going, they wipe everyone in their way. They have some of the strongest attacking and defensive units. If they weren’t such a coinflip to play, they’d be S-Tier. Here’s how their bonuses work:

• Captain: Your strongest Ace (i.e., the highest-level Ace) becomes a Captain. He gains bonus damage and a vampiric effect. All of the Aces also gain +20% hit speed passively.
• Two-Troop Bonus: Captain gains +40% bonus damage and +40% healing based on the damage dealt.
• Four-Troop Bonus: Captain gains +70% bonus damage and +40% healing based on the damage dealt.

There are two strategies to efficiently use Aces. First option: you take only two units with this trait, while upgrading only one, which is useful in the early-to-mid game. Second option: you take Empress as your ruler, upgrade your Aces normally, and try to 3-star one of your Aces as soon as possible. The second option is more efficient, but it’s a gamble. If it so happens that you upgrade Mega Knight to the third level, you’re basically missing out on the main bonus. If you upgrade Executioner or Bandit to the 3-star level, though, you’ll see units that are capable of wiping whole teams just by themselves. What makes it hard to play this trait is the randomness. You can’t reliably strategize around them until you’re able to get your first three-star. They’re also expensive, as the cheapest unit costs 3 Elixir. BLOG20

Assassin

They used to be a powerhouse. Now, they’re just strong. Not all of them are made equal. Golden Knight and Bandit are much more powerful than the other two units, thanks to their abilities and other traits. Assassin is a secondary trait, but it’s so strong that the devs might as well make it the main one. The bonuses they gain are as follows:

• Assassin Leap: At the start of the combat, Assassin troops jump to the enemy backline.
• Two-Troop Bonus: +30% Crit Chance and Damage.
• Four-Troop Bonus: +60% Crit Chance and Damage.

You’ll rarely see all four assassin units on the field. Usually, people take Bandit and Golden Knight as their main or secondary DPS, add units from their main traits, and inflict chaos on the battlefield. This approach makes for the best trait combos in Merge Tactics. Assassins work well against squishy or frontline-heavy comps. They’re better implemented in the mid-game, as early on, they’re pretty weak.

Noble

Nobles are in a strange place this season. With Knight’s removal, their bonus kind of loses half of its efficiency. Though they have strong units, nobody really builds them on purpose. People mostly use the second Noble to increase their carry Princess or Golden Knight damage. Here’s what Nobles gain when there are multiple of them on the arena:

• Defend the Weak: Frontline Nobles take less damage, backline Nobles deal more damage.
• Two-Troop Bonus: -25% Damage taken for frontline, +25% Damage dealt by backline.
• Four-Troop Bonus: -40% Damage taken for frontline, +40% Damage dealt by backline.

Forty percent bonus damage for someone like Princess or Golden Knight seems to be a major buff, and it is. The problem is that there’s just one frontline Noble in the game, and it’s the Prince. While Prince is a good unit, its main purpose is to dive face-first into the enemy crowd, stun one of them, and die. Noble trait feels half-thought-out this season, though combining a Prince + Princess, or Prince + Golden Knight, gives a decent buff. For a main trait, this is very underwhelming.

P.E.K.K.A

There are just two units in this main trait: P.E.K.K.A and Mini P.E.K.K.A. Their whole shtick is the same as in normal Clash Royale: they do lots of damage. This trait is pretty situational and best played in the early stage of the game. Here’s what P.E.K.K.A.s gain:

• Damage Buff: This trait gives P.E.K.K.A.s bonus damage and healing when they take down an enemy.
• Two-Troop Bonus: +40% Damage and +60% healing, depending on the max HP.

While normal P.E.K.K.A scales decently well, thanks to its main Brawler trait, same cannot be said about Mini P.E.K.K.A. It’s a decent starter unit that can win rounds even without the trait active, but it quickly loses its steam once enemies upgrade their units to 2 stars. Add a pretty weak secondary Brutalist trait, and you get a throwaway unit.

 

Goblin

Goblins are fun to play in early-mid stages of the game, thanks to their ability to create more goblins at the start of the round. Unfortunately, they don’t have any damage or HP buffs to make them truly great. If you use Goblin Queen as your ruler, though, they can easily become an A-Tier trait. The problem is to survive long enough to gain 4-star Goblin units. Goblin bonuses are:

• Free Unit: At the start of the next round, you gain a random Goblin troop.
• Two-Troop Bonus: Gain a 2 or 3 Elixir Goblin.
• Four-Troop Bonus: +100% chance of gaining a 3 or 4 Elixir Goblin.

Goblin Machine used to be really good, as the Brutalist trait was a bit stronger in the previous meta, but now nobody builds it. Our recommendation is to use Goblins as a cheap way to upgrade Dart Goblin for the Ranger trait, or to increase your Elixir output. In this meta, they’re pretty underwhelming to use.

Brutalist

This trait, on paper, seems one of the strongest. The main problem is that they have only one strong unit, while the other three are cannon fodder. This trait gives bonus hit speed and deals damage in HP%, which in other games is usually done to counter tanks. For some reason, though, it doesn’t work that well as it should! Look at the bonuses Brutalists have:

• Marked: Apart from bonus hit speed, Brutalists mark enemies with each hit. After 4 marks are applied, the enemy loses a percentage of their health based on their max HP.
• Two-Troop Bonus: +30% Hit Speed, -20% of Max HP dealt as damage.
• Four-Troop Bonus: +60% Hit Speed, -40% of Max HP dealt as damage.

Building the Brutalists for the full four-troop bonus is disappointing, as their units aren’t that strong. You have Mini P.E.K.K.A, viable only in the early stage. Then comes Valk, a really strong unit and the only good one in this trait. Then you have Goblin Machine, which is nerfed. And finally, Skeleton King, who has never been that good. In the end, you’ll settle for a two-troop bonus, and even then, having any unit other than Valkyrie feels like wasting space in your already limited team size. You can try slotting in another Brutalist if picking Loong as a ruler and going for Clan victory, but that’s about it. Very limited, with very high potential. Depending on what the developers come up with for the next season, we might see a Brutalist resurgence.

Superstar

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. At the beginning of the last season, not building Superstars equated to losing a game. That’s how broken they were. Simply having two in the build would be enough to decimate any squad, especially when Musketeer would enter its stunlock spree. Right now, they’re severely nerfed, and though you still can get to first or second place with them, it requires you to 3-star your Witch, which, considering her 4 Elixir cost, doesn’t seem realistic unless playing Empress. Here are the Superstar bonuses:

• I Got One More in Me: Superstars’ ability bar is partially filled at the start of the round, and they have a 50% chance to recast their ability.
• Two-Troop Bonus: ⅓ of the bar.
• Four-Troop Bonus: ⅔ of the bar.

While the stats remain the same as at the start of the season, the developers definitely did something with the recasting chance. They either changed how the 50% chance is calculated or limited the times Superstars can recast their ability. Nonetheless, you won’t see a Musketeer casting 10 stuns in a row, or Electro Giant covering the whole arena with its ability anymore. The Witch, though, can still be played decently, but it’s a very off-meta pick and feels like self-sabotaging most of the time.

Giant

Another trait that works better in the early game. At the start of this Merge Tactics season, giants were pretty good. The main reason for that was the Electro Giant secondary trait, Superstar, which was just broken on launch. Constant fullscreen damage and microstuns were countering any attempt at dealing damage. Now, they’re okay at the start of the game, but don’t even think about dragging them into mid-to-late game. Here’s what bonus the Giants gain:

• Thick Skin: Giants take less damage.
• Two-Troop Bonus: -40% Damage taken.

This bonus seems to be good until you realise that none of their other traits have any bonus HP buffs. They naturally gain more HP as you level them up, but due to the weak damage of Royal Giant and nerfed Electro Giant’s ability, they only occupy the board’s space. We’d say it’s currently the second-worst trait in the game.

Undead

Look who didn’t live up to their name. Undeads are dead for the second season in a row, and it seems their trait requires a complete rework. With Clan being so strong and a direct counter to Undead, nobody builds them. Not only do the undead have some of the weakest troops in Merge Tactics, but their bonus is so random that you just can’t rely on it. Their secondary traits aren’t that good either, making them the worst trait in the list. The bonuses Undead have are:

• HP Loss: The enemies with the highest HP are cursed, and your Undead gain 30% bonus damage when these enemies are defeated.
• Two-Troop Bonus: Curses 2 enemies, max HP cut by 25%
• Four-Troop Bonus: Curses 3 enemies, max HP cut by 50%

Why curse the highest HP enemies? It’s not like the Undeads have good damage dealers. Even the Royal Ghost isn’t that good as an Assassin, as he can’t deal high enough damage fast and requires the bonus to proc. Skeleton King, while dealing decent damage, is so slow that even P.E.K.K.A. seems to have a faster attack speed. Witch doesn’t deal enough damage and relies on her summoned skellies and the Skeleton Dragons… Well, Skeleton Dragons could’ve been called Pea Shooters. They also pick the worst time to use their ability. If the Undead would curse the lowest HP enemies, this would make them a bit better, but now don’t even think about using them other than for secondary traits.

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