Clash of Clans 2026: The February Update has escaped explained

Supercell's update and system announcement, "The February Update has escaped!", was published on 2026-02-23. This Clash Players edition reorganizes the announcement so the dates, requirements, rewards, changes and media can be checked in one place without changing the official conditions.

What this announcement covers

The sections below keep the source's technical details and sequence where they affect interpretation. Supercell's wording is presented as an official announcement, while the surrounding structure and headline are editorial to Clash Players.

The February Update has escaped, bringing with it a full Gold Pass rework, shiny new Town Hall 18 upgrades, fresh defenses, a new pet, and a whole lot of cool improvements across the village. There’s even a mysterious new Hero who’s about to make a very dramatic entrance.

Let’s break it all down.

Unleash Dragon Duke!

A new Hero is joining the battlefield… just not quite yet.

Meet the Dragon Duke, a fearsome frontline Hero with unique mechanics and a very understandable grudge against locked doors. He’s currently imprisoned deep beneath the village, and it’s up to you to break him out.

From February 24th to March 1st, players will take part in a special community event, navigating a dungeon maze filled with doors, rewards, and hopefully not too many questionable decisions. Choose wisely. Find the right path. Free the Dragon.

Once released, Dragon Duke will become available to all Town Hall 15+ players, bringing a playstyle unlike any other Hero. While most Heroes thrive alongside armies, Dragon Duke does his best work alone. When no other flying troops are nearby, he becomes enraged, massively increasing his damage output, takes half damage from traps, and turning isolation into pure destruction. Dragon Duke unlocks at Level 1, and his maximum upgrade levels depend on your Town Hall level.

Alongside Dragon Duke’s arrival, several UI updates have been made to support a 6th Hero. This includes adjustments to the Hero Hall, Blacksmith, and Profile screens interaction so all Heroes can be viewed and managed more clearly.

He also launches with new Hero Equipment options designed specifically for his unique playstyle.

Gold Pass Rework & Prospector

Supercell’ve already gone deep on the Gold Pass changes in this blog post (link here), so here’s the short version: Supercell rebuilt the Gold Pass from the ground up to make it feel more modern, more rewarding to play through, and better balanced for both Silver and Gold Pass players. Below are some of the highlights you can expect to enjoy when the new pass goes live on March 1:

• Gold Pass totally reworked from the ground up: same price, more value.

• Brand-new look & layout: clearer rewards, faster navigation, fancy fullscreen view.

• New Daily Task system: clash your way and earn points consistently.

• Gold Pass players will now earn bonus points from completing stamp cards. Because of this, the previous 200 bonus points you would get for repurchasing the pass have been retired.

• Choice Nodes: pick between rewards that fit your village.

• Hoggy Bank replaces Season Bank: It now starts at its maximum size right away, no more size upgrades or income multipliers. Instead, the Gold Pass applies a 5x payout multiplier when you claim it at the end of the season.

• Chests added to the Silver track: here’s your chance to earn Books, skins, and more.

• 1-Gem Self Donations are now called "Gem Reinforcements," and are available with the Gold Pass.

• New Helper: The Prospector (TH10+) converts a limited number of Ores per day (up to 2000 Shiny, 120 Glowy, or 2 Starry), with no bonus conversion multiplier.

• Rewards scale by Town Hall level, locked to the level you were at season start.

• Earn extra Season Points and finish the reward track more easily with catch-up events.

New Town Hall 18 Content

There’s a load of epic new levels for Town Hall 18 players:

• Giga Bomb level 4

• Seeking Air Mine level 8

• Mortar level 18

• Inferno Tower level 12

• Hidden Tesla level 17

• Firespitter level 3

• Spell Tower level 4 (Upgrading to level 4 unlocks a new spell slot for the Earthquake spell)

• Witch (+ Super Witch) level 8

• Hog Rider (+ Super Hog Rider) level 15

• Lava Hound (+ Ice Hound) level 8

• Electro Titan level 5

• Baby Dragon (+ Inferno Dragon) level 12

• Archer (+Super Archer) level 14

• Stone Slammer level 6

• Revive Spell level 5

• Earthquake Spell levels 6-8

• Pet House level 12

• 75 more Wall pieces at level 19

New Pet: Greedy Raven

Say hello to Greedy Raven, who's basically a flying feathered Goblin with an even greater obsession for shiny loot!

• Long-range flying attacker

• Prioritizes resource buildings near its Hero & deals 5x damage to them Unlocks at Town Hall 18

Ranked Mode Changes

Several improvements have been made to Ranked battles:

• Anti-spam protection added: Ranked battles now follow the same rules as regular attacks, you must finish a battle before starting a new one

• Fixed incorrect demotion warnings that appeared for some players

• Supercell’ve made changes to the required battle count in some Leagues:

• Updated promotion and demotion zones in multiple Leagues to better match player progression:

More Fancy Shop Items!

This new deco will be added to the Fancy Shop together with the Crafted Defenses season, starting April 1st, 2026.

Other Changes & Bug Fixes

This update also includes a large number of balance tweaks, improvements, and bug fixes. Here are some of the highlights:

• The Unbreakable achievement now requires 500 defenses, instead of 5,000 - That really was a bit much, huh?

• CWL now supports 5v5 wars! Bigger Wars will yield better bonuses!

• For tied wars, instead of giving 57% of the rewards Supercell is giving 75% of the rewards. After the change, total rewards Supercell give from wars for win+loss and draw+draw match.

• Poison Spells now affect Guardians, dealing full damage but applying only 70% of the normal Movement and Attack Speed reduction.

• Hero Potion and Mighty Morsel now apply only to attacks and not defense

• The “Add Effect” option will no longer show for those who don't have the Fancy Shop yet

• Reworked the combat logic for underground units. This means Diggy and Miners will act more consistently when fighting a horde of Skeletons

• Rebalanced geared up defenses (Cannon, Archer Tower, Mortar)

• Fixed geared up Mortar’s attack speed so that it doesn’t fire with zero delay

• Fixed Longshot attack’s splash damage to hit either ground or air, depending on if the target was ground or air, like most other units

• The Earthquake Spell now does damage to ground troops in addition to damaging buildings and walls. Affects Earthquake Boots as well

• Visibility of the special effects on decos and shoveled obstacles can now be toggled on or off

• Increased the inventory caps for numerous decos. This allows players to store any decos they may have received before

• The profile icons of troops, Heroes, spells, sieges, pets, and guardians, are now clickable for locked items, and will show why they are locked.

• The Blacksmith will now display equipment that is currently available in-game but not yet owned or unlocked, so players can see what they can obtain.

• The Hero Selector will now show locked heroes, locked common equipment and locked pets

• For troops that are not high enough level, the Super Sauna will now display what upgrade level is required to use a given super troop

• Thrower Level 4 buff reverted (new values: 2800 HP and 240 DPS)

• Totem Spell changes: Radius from 6 Tiles to 5, Damage from 70-100 to 0, Apprentice and Life Gem Aura no longer affect Totems

• And finally, the Ore Bug has been fixed for good and any excess Ore earned via the exploit has been revoked 

Official source

Read the complete announcement on the official Clash of Clans blog.