Merge Tactics Season 3 - December 2025

The main news of the 2025 Q4 update will be published very soon. Today we get to look at some of the changes coming to Merge Tactics, the autochess mode of Clash Royale.

These changes are somewhat isolated from the rest of the game, so that’s why we get to cover them today separately.

Table of Contents

• Season 3 - December 2025
• Q4 Update Changes
• Emotes during battles
• Live Battle Stats
• Other Changes
• New Ruler: Battle Machine
• Ruler Cosmetics
• Buildings
• Tesla
• X-Bow
• Inferno Tower
• Mortar
• Elixir Collector
• New & Removed Cards
• Mini Pekka
• Monk
• Royal Giant
• New & Removed Traits
• Brutalist
• Giant
• Pekka
• Superstar
• New Modifiers
• Troop Trait Changes
• New Royale King Skin
• Rank Badges
• Feedback

Season 3 - December 2025

The 2nd main season of MT is scheduled to end on November 24th. This means that the start of Season 3 will coincide with Q4 update day.

As with other seasons, Merge Tactics will have new content:

• New Ruler
• New Cards
• New Traits
• New Modifiers

But that’s not it! Given this is also a client update, the team has taken the chance to add a few other minor changes to the mode.

Q4 Update Changes

The changes brought by this update mainly aim to improve the playing experience, but none of them seems transformative for the mode. The main ones are:

• Emotes added to battles
• Live Battle Stats

Emotes during battles

This was one of the most requested changes for Merge Tactics. Now you can use all your emotes during MT battles, just as you do in normal battles.

The used emotes are displayed under the top bar, where the 4 players are listed.

Live Battle Stats

There’s a new feature to help you understand the interactions that happen during battles. It’s shown in a popup, and to open it you’ll have to tap the icon above the emote deck.

This popup has 3 different tabs:

• Damage Dealt
• Healing
• Damage Taken

Other Changes

We don’t have a full list of changes, but we have noticed some minor things. For example, you can now zoom in on the action:

New Ruler: Battle Machine

Battle Machine is the new Ruler for Season 3.

Building Master is the ability of this Ruler, and says:

Brings one random 1/2/3/4-Star building into battle in Rounds 1/3/5/8, -1 max Team Size.

This basically means:

• You get buildings deployed in your arena at the start of Rounds 1, 3, 5 and 8. The level of the buildings you have deployed remains locked for the rest of the match.

• The max team size is usually 6. This reduction means that your max team size would be 5 instead. This drawback doesn’t affect early rounds, as in those the Team Size is capped below the max anyway.

To see the buildings available, check out the next section.

Ruler Cosmetics

As usual with Rulers, there’s an upgrade path to unlock cosmetics.

The cosmetics available at first are:

• Level 1: Default Machine (Skin)
• Level 1: Bombshell (Confetti)
• Level 2: Zebrawood Machine (Skin)
• Level 3: Blazing Bombshell (Confetti)
• Level 4: Scheme Machine (Skin)

Buildings

Buildings in some ways behave like troops, their HP restores at the start of each round. But there are some big differences: they can’t be moved, sold or upgraded, they also don’t count towards your team size.

A caveat to this is that you can move buildings when you first get them. But after using them in one round, they become locked into place. There’s a workaround to this initial lock, which consists on moving the building to your bench as soon as you get it; that way you can delay the locked placement until future rounds.

With buildings, HP increases exponentially as usual, but Damage has reduced scaling per level. Instead of scaling with base-2 per level, building damage scales with a ratio of 1.6.

There are 5 different buildings: Tesla, X-Bow, Inferno Tower, Mortar and Elixir Collector. You deploy them by opening mystery orbs, similar to other troop rewards you get during battles.

Quick summary for buildings:

• Don’t have collection levels
• Don’t lose HP over time
• Don’t count toward Team Size
• Don’t count for win/lose damage
• Can’t be used after being used in battle

Tesla

Deals damage to nearby enemies, only popping up when one is in range... or if it needs little stretch.

• Range: 1 tile
• Hit Speed: 1.4 hits/s

X-Bow

It may take a while to charge, but the rapid-fire payoff on the lowest HP enemy is worth the wait!

• Range: 8 tiles
• Hit Speed: 3 hits/s

Inferno Tower

Damage increases over time when attacking the same target. It may only attack one enemy, but it sees them all.

• Range: 3 tiles
• Hit Speed: 2 hits/s

Mortar

Long-range building that deals damage to the furthest enemy, shooting boulders that go boom!

• Range: 2-6 tiles
• Hit Speed: 0.4 hits/s

Elixir Collector

Generates Elixir over time, pumped from deep below the Arena.

New & Removed Cards

For Season 3, 3 new cards are being added to the card pool, and 5 are being removed. This is the full list of changes:

• Removed: Archer
• Removed: Baby Dragon
• Removed: Electro Wizard
• Removed: Giant Skeleton
• Removed: Knight
• Added: Mini Pekka
• Added: Monk
• Added: Royal Giant

Note: the following stats are based on Level 16, the maximum level.

Mini Pekka

• Elixir: 2
• HP: 625
• DPS: 135
• Traits: Pekka & Brutalist
• Description: A lightly armored heavy hitter with a soft spot for pancakes

Monk

• Elixir: 5
• HP: 1,625
• DPS: 97
• Traits: Ace & Superstar
• Description: Creates a Shield that deflects damage onto the offender and heals Monk for a few seconds every few hits

Royal Giant

• Elixir: 2
• HP: 1,170
• DPS: 63
• Traits: Giant & Ranger
• Description: A slow, tanky ranger whose crown is heavier than his cannon

New & Removed Traits

List of removed and added traits:

• Removed: Avenger
• Removed: Electric
• Removed: Fire
• Removed: Juggernaut
• Removed: Mage
• Added: Brutalist
• Added: Giant
• Added: Pekka
• Added: Superstar

Brutalist

Brutalists gain bonus Hit Speed, marking enemies with each hit. Enemy target loses HP after 4 marks

Troops: Mini Pekka, Valkyrie, Goblin Machine & Skeleton King

• 2 troops: +30%, -20% of max HP
• 4 troops: +60%, -40% of max HP

Giant

Giants take less damage.

Troops: Royal Giant & Eletro Giant

• 2 troops: -40%

Pekka

P.E.K.K.As gain bonus damage. They also heal after defeating a troop.

Troops: Mini Pekka & Pekka

• 2 troops: +30% damage, heals 30% of max HP

Superstar

Combat Start: Superstars’ ability bar is partially filled. 50% chance to recast after casting their ability

Troops: Musketeer, Electro Giant, Witch & Monk

• 2 troops: 1/3
• 4 troops: 2/3

New Modifiers

• Elixir Collector: Generates Elixir over time

• Inferno Tower: Damage increases over time when attacking the same target

• Mortar: Long-range building that only deals damage to the farthest enemy

• Tesla: Deals damage to nearby enemies, only appearing when one is in range

• X-Bow: Takes a while to charge, but rapid fires on the lowest HP enemy when ready

Troop Trait Changes

New Royale King Skin

This season Santa King will be available to purchase with Gems, instead of in-app purchases like previous skins.

Rank Badges

We still have no details for when season ranks would be added to in-game badges. In the meantime, the RoyaleAPI rank badges are already live and visible in profiles.

Our plan is to keep updating these badges every season, so that badges would display the best rank achieved by each player. I.e.: every player will only have 1 MT badge, but the rank will be updated if the previous one is improved.

Feedback

Do you have any questions or feedback about the update? Let us know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this article and all our other content, don’t forget to use our code: RoyaleAPI to support us!

You can also get bonus rewards at the Supercell Store. Using our code RoyaleAPI before you check out will help us greatly keep our servers running, and to keep providing quality content in the future.

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