Clash of Clans takes too long to upgrade buildings, how can I speed it up without gems?

One way to speed up upgrades in Clash of Clans without spending gems is by planning around events and the Season Challenges, which often include perks like 10–20% building cost and time reductions.

These rewards stack across different upgrades, so completing challenges early in the season helps you upgrade faster for weeks.

Another effective method is joining a Clan with active Clan Games and Clan War Leagues, since rewards can include magic items like Book of Building or Hammer of Building.

These instantly complete or skip upgrade times and are available only through participation, not gems.

You can also focus on upgrading resource collectors and storages early, ensuring you always have enough loot for continuous building. Keeping builders busy at all times with efficient resource farming prevents long idle gaps that make upgrades feel slower.

Finally, use Builder Base progress and events, since they often reward magic items or resources that carry over to your main village.

Do you have another way to solve it? We'd love to hear from you in the comments.