# Elder, Co-Leader, Leader: who to promote and when to stop > What each Clash of Clans clan role can actually do, the promotion bar that stops the arguments, when to demote, and how to remove someone without blowing up the clan. Source: https://clanwarden.com/blog/clash-of-clans-clan-roles Published 27 August 2026 · 7 min read · Leadership Keywords: clash of clans clan roles, when to promote elder coc, coc co-leader vs elder, clash of clans promotion requirements, how to demote clan member coc, clan leader guide clash of clans Clash gives you four roles and no guidance on any of them, so most clans invent a policy by accident: promote people who have been around a while, promote people who ask, promote people who seem nice. Then one of them kicks half the roster during an argument and the clan learns what co-leader means. ## What each role can actually do | | Member | Elder | Co-Leader | Leader | | ---------------------------------- | ------ | ------------ | ------------------ | --------------- | | Donate and request | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Accept join requests / invite | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Kick members | No | Members only | Members and Elders | Anyone | | Start a war search | No | No | Yes | Yes | | Edit clan settings and description | No | No | Yes | Yes | | Promote and demote | No | No | Up to Elder | Up to Co-Leader | | Kick a Co-Leader | No | No | No | Yes | Read the kick row again, because it is the one that matters. **Elders can remove members. Co-Leaders can remove members and Elders.** There is no confirmation, no log the clan can read afterwards, and no undo. A removed member is simply gone, and if the clan is invite-only they cannot get back in. > **The only truly irreversible mistake in clan management** > > Promoting someone to Co-Leader who should not have it. You cannot un-ring that bell fast enough to matter: a leaving Co-Leader can take a dozen people out on the way. Everything else in this post is recoverable. This is the one that has ended real clans. ## Elder: what it is actually for Elder is not a thank-you card. It is a small operational permission, such as accepting join requests or removing an obvious bot account, given to someone who is around often enough to use it. That is the entire job. The trouble starts when clans use it as a loyalty reward, because then not having it becomes an insult, and you end up with fourteen Elders, no Elder meaning anything, and a member quietly upset that they have been in the clan longer than someone else who got promoted. A rank everyone has is not a rank. A workable Elder bar is roughly: **a month in the clan, wars actually attacked, no outstanding strikes.** Specific enough to be checkable, low enough to be reachable. ## Co-Leader: trust, not seniority Co-Leader is a completely different question from Elder, and treating it as "Elder but longer" is the mistake. The right question is not "have they earned this?". It is **"would I hand this person the ability to empty my clan while I am asleep?"** Which means the criteria are not performance criteria at all: - **Months, not weeks**, and through at least one thing going wrong. - **Handles being disagreed with.** You are giving buttons to a temper as much as to a person. - **Actually does the work**: starts wars, chases attacks and welcomes people, rather than wanting the badge for the badge. - **Covers a gap you have.** Two Co-Leaders in the same timezone as you are worth less than one in the one you sleep through. Three or four Co-Leaders is plenty for a fifty-person clan. Every one past that is more risk, not more coverage. ## State the bar once, apply it to everyone Almost every promotion argument in Clash of Clans is the same argument: someone thinks they should have been promoted, and the leader cannot articulate why not beyond a feeling. The fix is not better judgement. It is publishing the bar before anyone asks. A bar that works is four measurable lines, all of which someone can check themselves: 1. **Time in the clan**: a real number of days, not "a while". 2. **Wars played**: enough that their record means something. 3. **A reliability floor**: attacks actually used, not attacks available. 4. **Strikes outstanding**: usually zero. That is exactly the shape ClanWarden's [clan manager](https://clanwarden.com/clan-manager) uses. You set the four numbers once in your workspace and the promotions page continuously sorts the roster into who clears the bar, who misses exactly one line, and, the useful one nobody expects, which existing Elders have since slipped below it. Nobody has to remember who joined when, and the answer to "why not me" is a list of lines rather than an opinion. > **The advantage of a stated bar is not fairness** > > It is that the conversation stops being about the person. "You need two more wars" is a fact someone can act on this week. "I don't think you're ready" is a judgement they will argue with, and they are right to. ## Demoting without a fight Demotion is treated as nuclear, which is why clans avoid it and end up with a rank held by people who stopped playing eight months ago. It is only nuclear if it arrives as a surprise. - **Announce the rule, not the person.** "Elders who miss three wars go back to member" is policy. Demoting Dave on Tuesday is personal. - **Say it privately first.** One message, before the button. Most people fix it. - **Do it consistently.** One exception and the rule is gone, and everyone notices which person got the exception. - **Never demote in clan chat.** Whatever you gain in deterrent, you lose twice over in the person's reaction. An inactivity sweep every season, applied to everyone at once and announced in advance, is far easier than deciding case by case. Nobody feels singled out by a calendar. ## When to remove someone, and how The threshold is not a personality one. Somebody being annoying is a conversation. Removal is for the pattern that costs the clan wars: repeatedly missing attacks, ignoring the war rules, or [turning up only for CWL bonuses](https://clanwarden.com/blog/cwl-roster-planning-guide). The thing that makes a removal go badly is almost never the removal. It is that the person genuinely believes it was arbitrary, because from inside, it was: nobody kept a record, so the only evidence anyone has is a leader's memory, and memory is exactly what they are going to dispute. So keep the record. In ClanWarden every war attack, every miss and every strike is stored per member, and you can generate a plain **decision receipt**: their attendance, their attack rate, their reliability score and the strikes with the reasons written at the time, as a link to hand to the person it is about. It deliberately excludes leaders' private notes. Arguments end fast when the other side is reading their own record. > **Rank does not exempt anyone from the rules** > > The fastest way to lose a clan's respect is an Elder who misses war attacks with no consequence while a member gets removed for the same thing. If the bar applies to promotion, it applies to keeping the rank, and being seen to apply it upward is worth more than any other leadership move available to you. ## Roles are not a clan management system Worth saying plainly: Clash's four roles are permissions, and that is all they are. They record nothing. The game does not remember who missed a war attack last season, who has been in the clan longest, or who was demoted and why. That history exists only in whoever's head is currently holding it, and it leaves when they do. That gap is the whole reason clans end up running on screenshots, or on a bot in a Discord server that half the roster never opens. There is a [comparison of the options](https://clanwarden.com/blog/best-clash-of-clans-clan-management-system) if you are picking between them, and the [war attendance guide](https://clanwarden.com/blog/track-missed-war-attacks-clash-of-clans) covers the specific record that promotions and removals both end up being argued over. **Set the bar once, apply it automatically**: Tenure, wars played, reliability and strikes, stated once and checked against every member, with a receipt you can hand to anyone who asks why. [See the clan manager](https://clanwarden.com/clan-manager) ## Frequently asked ### What is the difference between Elder and Co-Leader in Clash of Clans? An Elder can accept join requests, invite players and kick members. A Co-Leader can additionally start wars, change clan settings, promote up to Elder, and kick Elders. The kick difference is the important one: a Co-Leader can remove far more of your clan than an Elder can. ### When should you promote someone to Elder? When they have been in the clan long enough to be reliable, around a month is common, and have actually used their war attacks, and have no outstanding strikes. Elder is an operational permission for someone who is online often, not a reward for loyalty. ### When should you promote someone to Co-Leader? Only when you would be comfortable with them having the ability to empty the clan while you are asleep. It is a trust decision rather than a performance one: months in the clan, proven under disagreement, doing the work already, and ideally covering a timezone you cannot. ### Can an Elder kick a Co-Leader in Clash of Clans? No. Elders can only remove ordinary members. Co-Leaders can remove members and Elders, and only the Leader can remove a Co-Leader. Removals are immediate, unlogged and cannot be undone. ### How do you demote a clan member without causing an argument? State the rule before you ever apply it, warn privately once, and apply it to everyone including yourself. A demotion that follows a published rule is administration; the same demotion with no stated rule behind it reads as personal, and will be argued with. ## Related guides - https://clanwarden.com/blog/clash-of-clans-clan-recruitment.md - https://clanwarden.com/blog/track-missed-war-attacks-clash-of-clans.md - https://clanwarden.com/blog/best-clash-of-clans-clan-management-system.md --- ClanWarden (https://clanwarden.com) is unofficial fan content, not affiliated with or endorsed by Supercell.