Hero Equipment upgrades at TH13 cost massive amounts of Shiny Ore, Glowy Ore, and Dark Elixir. Protecting all three is the new farming challenge. Strong TH13 farming bases treat the Builder Hall storage and hero equipment resources with the same priority as DE.
TH13 changes the farming calculation. Hero Equipment was introduced with ore-based upgrade costs, and while ore doesn't sit in a storage that can be raided directly, Dark Elixir remains the primary currency for hero ability upgrades and equipment crafting. You're now upgrading four heroes simultaneously — Queen, King, Warden, Champion — and each costs significant DE. The farming base that keeps this DE safe determines how fast your heroes progress.
Dark Elixir is still the primary bottleneck. At TH13, hero upgrade costs per level scale higher than at any previous TH, and you have four heroes competing for the same DE pool. Gold and Elixir still matter for laboratory upgrades and walls, but DE is what actually limits progression speed.
Treat Gold and Elixir as sacrificial bait again — outer storages positioned to satisfy attackers before they reach the DE core. This works at every TH level, and TH13 is no exception.
At TH13, experienced farmers use either Super Goblins (fast, double resource damage) or Super Witch armies (mass Skeletons that overwhelm splash defenses and tank while the Super Witch targets resource buildings). Both attacks are cheap to run — Super Troops can be activated for just Dark Elixir that refills quickly — and both target resource buildings specifically.
The Super Witch defense differs from Super Goblin defense: Super Witches move slower but generate Skeleton swarms that die slowly to splash damage. Multi-mode Inferno Towers in the farming base core add consistent damage to Skeleton groups that would otherwise tank until Witches reach your DE.