Clash of Clans fans are getting ready for a new update in the SuperCell mobile hit game.  SuperCell has already begun its hype - allowing players to boost their elixir, gold and dark elixir for only one gem! This Gem Boost deal will last until the next Clash of Clans update, which will introduce the Friendly Challenge, among other things. What can we expect from the next update? When will it be?

What is the Friendly Challenge? This new feature will allow clanmates to attack each other for fun, practice or friendly competition. Players won't have to worry about losing their resources while they do these challenges, though.   You can play as much as you want, and it doesn't cost a thing! Troops, Spells, Heroes, and Traps will not need to be rebuilt.  The downside, or maybe it's an upside: you won't earn or lose trophies, and no resources will change hands.

When these new changes were announced on the 15th, there was both negative and positive feedback, so today, the Clash of Clans blog announced some tweaking.  Because of feedback about how Friendly Challenges could affect the dynamics of Clan War, they decided that layouts modified within 24 hours would not be available for Friendly Challenges for Town Hall level 9 and above. The Town Hall level 8 and below do not have restrictions.

They will also be making changes to War Preparation Day. After the update, an opponent's War Base layout will not be able to be viewed during Preparation Day. When an opponent scouts the village during the prep period, they will only see the active Village layout. So one can still get a feel for the strength of an opponent's village, but they won't be able to copy a layout and use it for practice with their Clanmates. 

Other updates that have been talked about at the Clash of Clans forum:

Town Hall 11 will be getting some more items like a level 14 Cannon, level 4 Lava Hound, and level 7 Balloon. People aren't using air armies as much at Town Hall 11. With the new levels, players might be more apt to use their high-level air armies in attacks.

There are rumors of more walls and level 8 Giants coming to the game, too.

The Bowler will only take up six spaces, instead of the eight that this troop member currently needs. The Bowler will be available at Town Hall 10 and above.

At Town Hall 7 and up, players will be able to upgrade their Spring Traps. This will be useful in taking out more units.

A new Dark Elixir spell is going to be coming with the new update, also. This new spell will be unleashing an army of skeletons wherever the spell is dropped.

Other changes listed on the blog include:

• Edit Mode tools: A bunch of features added to make editing layouts easier

• Donate fully trained Troops/Spells from production queues even if your army is full

• Drag troops/spells anywhere into a training queue - training progress is transferred

• Gem Troops/Spells for donation directly from the donation context menu

• War Logs for any Clan can now be publicly viewed, unless disabled in Clan settings

• Builder Suggestions: Tap Builder Info to see and select suggested upgrades to perform

• Live spectator count is now shown during the attack - see how many others are watching!

• Chat stream revamped with built-in Request button

An exact date is not released yet, but we know that it will be coming in June. Hopefully, it will be the first week!