P.E.K.K.A.

“A heavily armored, slow melee fighter. Swings from the hip but packs a huge punch.”

Summary

The P.E.K.K.A. is unlocked from the P.E.K.K.A's Playhouse (Arena 4).
She is a single-target, ground melee troop with both very high hitpoints and damage.
A P.E.K.K.A. card costs 7 Elixir to deploy.
She wears heavy dark blue armor, has red/blue (color depends on the side of Arena) horns and eyes, and carries a steel sword.
She does massive damage to one unit at a time.

Strategy

The P.E.K.K.A. is a powerful troop and an utter brute with the correct placing and support.
Only at the tournament standard can the P.E.K.K.A. kill Barbarians in one hit. This is useful to keep in mind if your opponent's only counter to your P.E.K.K.A is Barbarians.
If she is left overlooked, a multiple-unit spawning card like a Skeleton Army or a Minion Horde and Inferno Tower can be used to kill her, and the P.E.K.K.A. will likely be outnumbered and eliminated - unless her owner uses a counter card like Arrows or Zap.
- When the P.E.K.K.A. is by herself Guards will easily destroy her without her landing a hit on your tower if you pull the P.E.K.K.A. to the center.
- Troops that deal area damage are effective at backing up the P.E.K.K.A., such as the Bomber, the Witch or the Wizard. Their decent area damage and range can allow them to stop groups of troops from distracting and dealing large amounts of damage to her. However, a simple way to destroy such a combo is to kill the troop(s) behind the P.E.K.K.A., using a Valkyrie or Mini P.E.K.K.A.
Keep in mind that the P.E.K.K.A. can only attack ground troops. This means that air units such as the Baby Dragon or Minions can attack her safely without being damaged.
During the last minute of battle, it is entirely possible for the player to cycle their deck quickly enough to get two or more P.E.K.K.A.'s on the field at once. This is a high-risk, high-reward move as if this is countered, the player is usually left with low Elixir to defend an opposing counterattack.
If your opponent placed a P.E.K.K.A. at the rear of the arena, the most expected backup is a Wizard or a Bomber. This can easily be countered by placing a Giant Skeleton in front of her. Easily killed by the former and her reinforcements, the Giant Skeleton's death damage usually wipes out the backup, but always let the former be targeted by the Arena Tower before placing the Giant Skeleton. Placing Archers in the middle of the Arena is significant enough to kill the P.E.K.K.A. If she is barely alive, but still walking towards you, deploy Skeletons to finish her off.
If your opponent places a P.E.K.K.A at the back of the arena a cheap Hog Rider push with supporting units will dominate as they have no more than 3 Elixir to defend. This will cause serious damage to their Arena Tower and then they will usually place their supporting troops and make it so that they don't have a supporting troop for the P.E.K.K.A.
The Tornado pairs well with the P.E.K.K.A. as the slow P.E.K.K.A. usually has trouble getting to a ranged unit but the Tornado can pull the ranged unit to the P.E.K.K.A., allowing her to finish them off.
The P.E.K.K.A.'s slow speed can make it hard for her to reach Arena Towers, a good strategy is to use Rage to increase P.E.K.K.A.'s movement speed and attack speed to allow her to destroy troops and buildings faster. However, it is quite risky, as it costs 9 Elixir in total. You can try making it more effective by Raging other friendly cards in the area too.
The P.E.K.K.A. is effective to destroy an opposing X-Bow placed to target your Crown Towers, as her high hitpoints will allow it to withstand troops and spells cast to destroy her. Mortars have almost no effect on P.E.K.K.A.
P.E.K.K.A. + Dark Prince can be a very effective combo, as the Dark Prince deals area damage and the P.E.K.K.A. can destroy high hitpoint distractions. It also cannot effectively be swarmed, as the Dark Prince's charge attack is 360 degrees. Plus, his charge speed will push the P.E.K.K.A. towards the Crown Tower faster. An even deadlier combo is the Pekka Double Prince, which is a P.E.K.K.A.+Dark Prince+Prince. The Prince will now take out ranged troops with its charge that the P.E.K.K.A. maybe has a hard time getting to. Although it costs 16 Elixir, it is very rewarding if you can get the three down. Keep in mind that all of them cannot target air troops, so put something like Musketeer with them or simply have a spell card like Arrows ready.
The P.E.K.K.A. is also effective as a defensive unit, to destroy high hitpoint troops like the Giant and the Golem, much more effective than the Mini P.E.K.K.A. However, she is very expensive so in most cases that is a negative elixir trade, but it can pay off if you have managed to accumulate elixir for a counter-attack.
An excellent counter for P.E.K.K.A. is the Inferno Tower. Its ability to deal massive damage over time can completely destroy the P.E.K.K.A., creating an Elixir advantage.
A Mini P.E.K.K.A. can severely wound the P.E.K.K.A., provided that it gets at least 2 hits and is placed in the middle of the arena.
The Giant can be used to counter an attacking P.E.K.K.A., by deploying it behind her after she crosses the bridge. She will turn around, attack it once, then ineffectually try to chase it, exposing herself to heavy damage from the Crown Tower, as well as any unit that can attack it safely (flying units like Minions or ranged units like Spear Goblins). As an added bonus, the Giant will also draw fire from any area of effect troops like a Wizard or a Bomber that may be escorting the P.E.K.K.A. Place some Skeletons or Goblins behind her to push her towards the tower and do a little bit more damage.

History

The P.E.K.K.A was released with Clash Royale's soft launch on 4/1/16.
On 2/2/16, the February 2016 Update decreased the P.E.K.K.A.'s hitpoints by 13% and decreased the Elixir cost to 7 (from 8).
On 21/6/16, a Balance Update increased the P.E.K.K.A.'s damage by 8%.
On 24/8/16, a Balance Update increased the P.E.K.K.A.'s damage by 5%.
On 13/2/17, a Balance Update decreased the P.E.K.K.A.'s deploy time to 1 second (from 3 seconds).

Trivia

P.E.K.K.A. originates from Clash of Clans, costing the second most Elixir to train and doing the most damage out of all the normal Elixir troops.
The old image of P.E.K.K.A. on the Barracks info screen in Clash of Clans looks similar to the card image of the P.E.K.K.A.
There is an Arena based on P.E.K.K.A. called P.E.K.K.A's Playhouse, which was originally a single-player map in Clash of Clans.
P.E.K.K.A.'s eyes and horns are purple in Clash of Clans, and also in the card image – but they are blue/red in battle, depending on the side of Arena. On the card image, however, its purple color may be a sign of neutrality (blue & red mixed together is purple).
In one of the Loading Screen Hints, it says "P.E.K.K.A: No one knows what's behind that mask. Maybe even another mask.", which may be a reference to the anime Naruto, specifically the episode called: "Gotta See! Gotta Know! Kakashi-Sensei's True Face!"
The P.E.K.K.A. used to have the highest damage per second of any single troop in the game at max level until the introduction of the Inferno Dragon.