TH17 Dragon Rider Guide 2026 -- Air Supremacy Attack Strategy

TH17 Dragon Rider is the largest and most powerful Dragon Rider air attack possible. With 360 housing, you can field six Dragon Riders -- the maximum count -- alongside five Dragons, four EDrags, and Balloons for cleanup. The Ricochet Cannon and Monolith remain irrelevant to air troops. The Multi-Archer Tower is the only new defense requiring approach angle adaptation. At TH17 with six Dragon Riders and max-level air troops, the air force DPS is high enough to three-star bases that resisted Dragon Rider attacks at lower TH levels.

Army Composition and Spells

Standard TH17 Dragon Rider (360 housing): 6 Dragon Riders (super boost, 60 housing), 5 Dragons (100 housing), 4 Electro Dragons (100 housing), 5 Balloons (10 -- cleanup), filler Minions (remaining ~90). Spells: 3 Lightning + 1 Earthquake (destroy one AD), 2 Rage, 2 Freeze (Multi-Archer Tower and Eagle Artillery), 1 Haste. Clan Castle: Dragon or Balloon. Warden on air mode.

Step-by-Step Execution

Step 1 -- Lightning pre-attack: Destroy the AD most directly in the planned approach corridor. At TH17 with potentially five ADs, removing one reduces anti-air concentrated fire by 20%. Step 2 -- Multi-Archer Tower approach check: Identify the Multi-Archer Tower position. Choose the approach edge where the Multi-Archer Tower is perpendicular rather than directly ahead of the Dragon Rider line. Step 3 -- Six Dragon Rider deployment: Drop all six Dragon Riders across a 7 to 9 tile wide line. Five Dragons immediately behind. Four EDrags behind Dragons. Step 4 -- Warden air mode: Activate ability when Eagle Artillery fires or when Multi-Archer Tower concentrates burst on the lead Dragon Rider. Step 5 -- First Rage: On Dragon Rider cluster engaging the outer ring. Six Dragon Riders with Rage provide the highest single-wave air DPS in the game at this TH level. Step 6 -- First Freeze: On Multi-Archer Tower when it concentrates fire on the lead Dragon Rider. Step 7 -- Second Rage: On the inner ring / Town Hall approach. Second Freeze: On Eagle Artillery burst. Step 8 -- Haste on Balloons for outer building cleanup. Minion sweep of remaining buildings.

Six Dragon Rider DPS

Six Dragon Riders firing simultaneously deliver six times the single-target DPS of one Dragon Rider, plus the Dragon mounting bonus. With max-level Dragon Riders and Dragons at TH17, the six-Dragon Rider formation destroys most TH17 defenses in 3 to 5 seconds per engagement. This means the air wave can sweep through most of the outer ring before the Rage spell even expires, giving the second Rage its maximum value on the inner ring where Eagle Artillery and remaining Scattershots are located.

Browse TH17 war bases at our TH17 war base collection.