In Clash of Clans for the iPhone and for the iPod Touch, your two main non-premium forms of currency are gold and elixir. Elixir and gold are both used to buy new buildings, and to upgrade the buildings that you already have. It always seems like you never have enough of either one of them, though, or that you can never store enough of either one of them to get anything done.
Your output of both gold and elixir from your gold mine and your elixir collector is low enough to almost be considered worthless when you first begin the game. However, you can have two gold mines and two elixir collectors to start out with. Elixirs are more urgent because they are used to train your units, so buy your second elixir collector first.
Then, once you do that, upgrade your two elixir collectors. Upgrade your elixir storage so that you can hold more of it, as well. Buy a second gold mine, upgrade your gold storage and your gold mines, and max them out until you are able to upgrade the Town Hall to level 3. As soon as the town hall hits level 3, start upgrading everything again.
Fighting battles is the FASTEST way to earn more gold and elixir. Fighting against the goblins can earn you a lot of both. However, when you go back and fight battles that you have already beaten, there is no loot to be had, only the opportunity to get more stars and trophies. After awhile the new battles can get extremely difficult at well.
That’s when it’s time to start fighting PvP battles – player vs player. To do this, hit the “attack” button” and hit the button on the left to make a match. The game will automatically match you up against someone of your level. Not only are these battles very easy to win, but you will still earn large amounts of gold and elixir for winning them.