Castle Clash Resources Guide

There are many types of resources in Castle Clash, with different ways to use, obtain, and lose each type. This guide contains a practical summary of each resource with the best way to use it and the most efficient way to get it. I have listed the resources in order of how important/scarce they are, which basically means resources near the top of the list are ones that you should carefully conserve because they can constrain your advancement.

Overall, gold and mana production tend to be useless, as these resources are not very useful in the mid to late game: since all the upgrades take so long to complete, you'll have much more gold and mana than you can use unless you use Gems to speed the process, which you shouldn't be doing because you should buy heroes instead.

Gems
Best use: buying heroes at the Hero Altar (cost is 150 gems per hero, but hero received is random)
Other uses: speeding up building construction, research, or unit recruitment
Best way to get: daily checklist
Other ways to get: achievements, in-app purchases, downloading free apps from the "Free Gems" section
Ways to lose: (none other than spending)

Honor Badges (HB)
Best use: leveling up heroes
Other uses: buying heroes at the Hero Altar
Best way to get: Arena (passive collection over time, plus 40 HB per win and 6 HB per loss)
Other ways to get: clearing dungeons, winning raids against other players, buying or earning through "Free Gems" certain numbers of Gems
Ways to lose: losing raids that you initiate against other players

Hero Shards (HS)
Best use: buying heroes at the Hero Altar (can choose which hero to hire, cost varies by hero)
Other uses: donating to guild fund
Best way to get: clearing dungeons (for farming HS, focus on skull dungeons - see this page for more details)
Other ways to get: buying or earning through "Free Gems" at least 230 Gems in one day (resets daily at midnight EST)
Ways to lose: (none other than spending)


Experience (EXP)
Best use: leveling up heroes - EXP split evenly among heroes that participate in a particular battle, even the ones who die
Other uses: (none)
Best way to get: winning raids against other players
Other ways to get: dungeons
Ways to lose: (none)

Gold
Best use: upgrading troops and heroes
Other uses: upgrading magic, upgrading walls, upgrading buildings, buying magic spells
Best way to get: raids against other players
Other ways to get: harvesting from gold mills, dungeons
Ways to lose: being attacked by other players

Mana
Best use: hiring troops
Other uses: upgrading buildings
Best way to get: raids against other players
Other ways to get: harvesting from mana mills, dungeons
Ways to lose: being attacked by other players