Hero Dark Prince

Dark Prince is a 4-Elixir Epic tank riding into battle on horseback, hitting everything around him with a splash attack and protected by a shield that must be stripped away before his own hitpoints start taking damage. Left unblocked for at least 3 tiles, he breaks into a fast charge and doubles the damage of his next hit, turning his splash attack into a much bigger opening strike — dangerous if he gets a clear runway, far more manageable if he's engaged or chip-damaged immediately after deployment.

• Dark Prince is a 4-Elixir Epic troop who charges in on horseback with a big health pool for his cost: at tournament standard he has 1,200 hitpoints plus a separate 256-hitpoint shield that has to be broken before his own health starts dropping. He hits ground targets only with a splash attack for 266 damage (190 damage per second), and his very first swing lands in just 0.6 seconds — much quicker than his normal 1.4-second attack rhythm — letting him get an extra early hit in.

• If Dark Prince walks at least 3 tiles without being stopped, he breaks into a fast charge, and his next hit deals double damage — 532 instead of 266 — as a splash attack landing on every enemy within about 1.1 tiles of him. Blocking him quickly, or making him bump into a target before he builds up speed, denies him that charge bonus entirely.

• His shield is a separate pool of health from his hitpoints — incoming attacks strip the shield away first, and any leftover damage from the hit that finally breaks it does not carry over onto his real health. Only once the shield is completely gone does his own hitpoints start to fall, which is why he can shrug off one big burst that looked like it should have hurt a lot more.

• Dark Prince got a straight damage buff in September 2025 — his normal hit damage rose from 248 to 266 and his charge-hit damage rose from 496 to 532, both about a 7% increase — because Supercell felt he was falling behind other 4-Elixir tanks like Valkyrie.

• In January 2026, Dark Prince's charge range was pulled in from 3.5 tiles to 3 tiles (about a 14% cut) as part of a wider rebalance that standardized charging distances across the game — 4-Elixir chargers like Dark Prince now build up their charge over 3 tiles, while pricier 5-Elixir-and-up chargers need just 2.

• Dark Prince's hit speed was slowed from 1.3 seconds to 1.4 seconds in the May 2026 balance update, about 8% slower — a deliberate nerf so the standard, free-to-earn Dark Prince wouldn't overshadow the newly-released Hero version of the same card.

• A timing bug that let Ronin's parry counter and his regular melee attack both land on a charging Dark Prince's shield within the same game tick — causing inconsistent bonus damage against the shield — was fixed in the August 2026 update.

• HeroA Hero version of Dark Prince arrived in Season 83 (May 2026) through Pass Royale. His Destructive Dismount ability costs 3 Elixir and splits him into two separate units — the Dark Prince himself dismounts and keeps fighting on foot with his shield intact (though he loses the ability to charge), while a Rhino breaks off and gallops toward the nearest building on its own, hitting hardest on its opening charge before settling into weaker follow-up attacks. A June 2026 update reworked that split so the Rhino can no longer land guaranteed Crown Tower damage the instant it spawns, instead needing to travel 2.5 tiles before throwing its first charge.