Nerf Miner

About

Nerf Miner refers to a series of memes in the Clash Royale community about the Miner troop being overpowered and needing to be nerfed or balanced by reducing aspects of its power. The phrase "nerf miner" became frequently used in both authentic pleas to nerf the miner unit and ironic shitposts within the community over the years, often as a way to mock people who support Miner nerfing by those who find the troop balanced or as a joke that the miner has been nerfed too much. The Miner has been nerfed numerous times since being added to the game. The phrase gained popularity on TikTok in early 2022 as a spam comment, attached to unrelated videos on heavy topics such as cancer and suicide for comedic effect. That year the phrase "Remove Miner" also became popular.

Origin

On May 3rd, 2016, the Miner troop card was added to Clash Royale.^[1] The Miner is the only troop that can be placed anywhere on the field when summoned, making it useful for surprise attacks on the enemy's towers. Shortly after the troop's addition, users of the /r/ClashRoyale^[2][3] subreddit started posting suggesting Miner is overpowered, requesting SuperCell (the game's developer) nerf the troop, with one post on July 7th, 2016 titled, "Please for the love of all things good, nerf Miner. Nerf, nerf, nerf, Miner," gaining over 70 upvotes and 180 comments in five years, many agreeing.

Balance History

On May 18th, 2016, SuperCell boosted Miner, giving the troop more hitpoints. On July 4th, 2016, SuperCell accidentally decreased Miner's deploy time, which was corrected in August, as well as decreasing his hitpoints back to their original value. On July 1st, 2019, SuperCell decreased the Miner's range. On March 2nd, 2020, SuperCell decrease the Miner's Crown Tower damage, further reducing it by 5% in August.

While some in the community still believe the Miner needs to be nerfed, others believe it's been nerfed too much, taking the Miner from a good card to a bad card.^[8] This disagreement largely seems to fuel the meme.

Spread

On August 1st, 2020, YouTuber^[4] B-rad posted a video complaining about the 5% nerf to the Miner's Crown Tower damage, saying the change isn't a big enough nerf, gaining over 469,000 views in roughly two years (shown below).

In late 2021 the meme spread to TikTok as TikTokers made largely ironic videos highlighting reasons to nerf the Miner, as well as generally commenting "nerf miner" on unrelated videos as a form of trolling, as if attempting to spread the word. On December 5th, 2021, TikToker @_matt_cr posted a meme about the need to nerf the Miner, gaining over 1.6 million views in two months (shown below).

On January 16th, 2022, YouTuber Kull Royale posted a Mr. Incredible Becoming Uncanny meme highlighting the strength of the Miner, gaining over 788,000 views in just under a month (shown below).

On January 22nd, TikToker^[6] @bobaslap posted a video showing the phrase "nerf miner" commented on a completely unrelated video where a girl discusses her trauma, gaining over 1.5 million views in three weeks (shown below).

As the meme became more popular, some started to grow tired of it. On January 29th, Redditor qhnr posted an image of the Miner to /r/ClashRoyale,^[5] writing, "Unpopular opinion: The 'Nerf Miner' meme isn’t funny," gaining over 4,100 upvotes and 22 awards in just under two weeks. On February 2nd, TikToker @builtbygamers posted an explanation of the meme, gaining over 700,000 views in a week (shown below, left). On February 4th, TikToker^[7] @nerf_miner767 posted a video showing a comment of "nerf miner" on a video celebrating a girl beating cancer, gaining over 1.1 million views in five days (shown below, right).

Remove Miner

On March 23rd, 2022, the Clash Royale Twitter^[9] page posted a video where they show off a number of "nerf miner" spam comments and then show the troop being killed in one hit multiple times, joking that they nerfed it to the point where it's essentially useless, gaining over 38,000 likes in a day (shown below).

You can stop spamming us now ⛏️🔻 pic.twitter.com/QGGAIFNdZL

— Clash Royale (@ClashRoyale) March 23, 2022

Following the post, TikTokers began spam commenting "remove Miner" instead of "nerf Miner," ironically suggesting the troop should be removed from Clash Royale altogether. TikTokers began posting videos showcasing the spam comments as well as calling them out for being annoying along with the Anyway, Here's The Recipe For Brownies spam comments dominating the platform at the time (examples shown below, left and right).^[10][11]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References