Ice Spirit

Ice Spirit is the cheapest card in Clash Royale at 1 Elixir — a Very Fast ground troop that can target both air and ground. Rather than sticking around to fight, it rushes in and detonates once, dealing a small burst of area damage and freezing everything caught nearby for a little over a second. That brief freeze stops enemy movement, attacks, and any charge-up abilities in their tracks, which is why Ice Spirit shows up constantly as cheap defense, a way to interrupt threats like Sparky or Inferno Dragon, or just as chip damage and cycle fodder. Its evolved version pulses that freeze-and-damage effect two extra times over a few seconds instead of just once, and covers a larger area, making it even better against swarms and charge-up units. Ice Spirit's own hitpoints are low by design, and an August 2026 balance change trimmed them further while also removing its ability to freely poke Crown Towers when left unopposed, pushing it further toward a pure utility and defense role.

• Ice Spirit costs just 1 Elixir — the cheapest possible card in the game — and moves at Very Fast speed as a ground troop that can target both air and ground units, reaching the action in about a second after being played.

• Instead of sticking around to fight, Ice Spirit detonates a single time on arrival, dealing area damage to anything within about 1.5 tiles and freezing those same enemies solid for roughly 1.1 seconds, briefly halting their movement, attacks, and any charge-up abilities.

• At level 11, Ice Spirit deals 110 damage on that single detonation and has 215 hitpoints of its own — down about 6% from 230 after an August 2026 balance change that hit all four Spirit cards (Fire, Ice, Heal, and Electro), meaning a single hit from cards like Archers, Musketeer, Tesla, Bomber, or Archer Queen now destroys it outright.

• That same August 2026 update also stopped Ice Spirit from automatically walking up to hit an enemy Crown Tower when no enemy troops are around to fight, removing the free chip damage it used to sneak in and leaving it as a purely defensive, distraction, and cycle card.

• Ice Spirit's freeze is prized as a cheap reset button against charge-up threats — a classic answer to Sparky, Inferno Dragon, Inferno Tower, Prince, Dark Prince, Battle Ram, and Ram Rider, since freezing them mid-charge forces the charge or lock-on to start over.

• Ice Spirit has been part of Clash Royale since 4 July 2016, joining a few months after the game's global launch as part of the family of budget 1-Elixir Spirit troops.

• EvolutionAdded on 4 December 2023, the evolved Ice Spirit gets a larger blast radius (2 tiles instead of 1.5) and doesn't stop at one freeze — after the initial hit, it pulses the same damage-and-freeze burst two more times over the next few seconds, catching whichever enemies are standing in the small radius each time it goes off.

• EvolutionThe evolved effect doesn't come back instantly — after it triggers once, two regular Ice Spirit deployments are needed before the next play turns into another evolved one, so it's best timed deliberately rather than spammed.