Guide:Skeletron strategies

This is a Guide page. This means the page will walk you through a specific task, strategy, or enemy/boss fight. This guide was last updated for version 2.0.2.003.

Skeletron

Statistics

Type	Boss
Environment	Dungeon
Damage	35 / 77 / 88 / 99 / 132 (Contact) 35 / 100 / 114 / 128 / 171 (Spin) 46 / 68 / 84 / 92 / 102 / 126 (Skull) 76 / 84 / 114 (Teleport Skulls)
Max Life	4400 / 8800 / 6600 / 4400 / 11,220 / 8415 / 5610
Defense	10 0 spinning 9999 during the day
DR	5% 99.99% while at least 1 hand is alive
KB Resist	100%
Inflicts debuff	Bleeding 100% chance
Debuff duration	6-10 seconds (Contact)
Debuff tooltip	Cannot regenerate life
Immune to

Resistances

Cold	-
Water	Vulnerable
Sickness	Resistant
Electricity	-
Heat	-

Drops

Coins	20

• Item (Quantity)Rate
• Bone (70-100)
  100%
• One of the following 3 items will always be dropped
• Skeletron Mask
  14.29%
• Skeletron Hand
  12.24%
• Book of Skulls
  10.5%
• Bone Glove
  100%
• Lesser Healing Potion (5-15)
  100%
• Chippy's Couch
  14.29%
• Skeletron Trophy
  10%
• Thank You
  1%
• Skeletron (Lore)(Only on first kill)
  100%
• Treasure Bag(Skeletron)
  100%
• Possessed Skull(In Master or Revengeance Mode only)
  25% / 25%
• Skeletron Relic(In Master or Revengeance Mode only)
  100% / 100%

Sounds

Hurt

Killed

Spin Attack

Teleport

Homing Skull

Shadowflame Bolt

Skeletron is a pre-Hardmode boss fought at the Dungeon. He is summoned by interacting with the Old Man NPC at night.

This guide will mention items exclusive to Expert and Revengeance Mode with no special formatting and will follow the intended progression.

Terrain Preparation

• Creating a long arena with at least 2 layers of platforms is recommended to have enough space to dodge Skeletron.
• This arena can be constructed around the Dungeon entrance so you can easily access the arena.
• Skeletron doesn't have a biome enrage, so your arena can be as large as you like without him enraging.

Gearing Up

For a Normal and Expert mode guide to Skeletron, see Skeletron strategies on the vanilla wiki.

Armor

• Aerospec armor is an all-around solid choice for each class, providing great increases to both damage and movement speed.
• Molten armor is the best choice for Melee players looking to maximize their damage and is especially potent with true melee weapons like the Volcano.
• Jungle armor is a solid option for this fight for mages, but a combination of a Diamond Robe or Mystic Robe alongside a Wizard Hat or Magic Hat will provide better damage output at the cost of some defense.
• Bee armor is the best option for summoner due to it providing more minion slots than the previous sets.
  • Obsidian armor is another choice for Summoners due to its whip bonuses.
• Sulphurous armor is viable for Rogue players at this point and has slightly more damage than Aerospec armor at the cost of mobility.

Accessories

• The Bundle of Balloons and Terraspark Boots provide powerful movement and jump boosts to help dodge Skeletron's attacks.
  • The Skyline Wings are another good option for vertical mobility.
• The Shield of Cthulhu can help the player dash away from Skeletron himself and potentially bounce off his hands.
• The Frog Leg and its upgrades provide a jump speed boost that makes it easier for the player to jump over Skeletron.
  • The Aero Stone is an equally viable option if the player chooses to make use of wings, though the Frog Leg is still just as good with wings as well.
• The Brain of Confusion can be used for its dodge and buff to critical strike chance.
• The Worm Scarf's damage reduction is still useful on Skeletron.
• Melee players can make use of the Bloody Worm Tooth and Feral Claws for extra damage and melee speed.
• Magic players can use the Mana Flower if they are not using Mana Regeneration Potions.
• Summoners should absolutely take advantage of the Voltaic Jelly and Spirit Glyph if possible.
• Rogue players have an abundance of accessories they can use, but the Bloodstained Glove or Filthy Glove the player should have obtained respectively from the Perforators or Hive Mind are especially useful.

Weapons & Equipment

Melee

• The Broken Biome Blade with the Arid Grandeur attunement is a risky option but does very high damage against Skeletron.
• The Wind Blade is another very powerful option.
• The Bladecrest Oathsword pierces, allowing it to deal with the hands effectively.
• The Old Lord Claymore is a powerful movement option that still deals solid damage.

Ranged

• The Aquashard Shotgun is a very powerful option for this boss.
• The Magna Cannon continues to be a very powerful weapon against this boss.
• The Bee's Knees can provide good damage on Skeletron.
• The Taser is good to damage the boss directly.
• The Dragoon Drizzlefish can help deal with Skeletron's hands.

Mage

• The Tradewinds tome has piercing and ricocheting abilities that can be useful during this fight.
• The Pulse Pistol is very strong in this part of the game and can chain to hit all the hands at once.
• Both the Water Bolt and the Flare Bolt are very useful during this fight due to their high damage output and bouncing ability.
• The Demon Scythe is a highly effective weapon against the boss due to its piercing and high damage output, although it can be difficult to aim at times.

Summoner

• For summoners, the best weapon is the Brittle Star Staff, but the Vile Feeder or Scab Ripper can both also be utilized.
  • The Deathstare Rod and Cinder Blossom Staff should also be used for their high damage output.

Rogue

• The Sand Dollar's stealth strike is still extremely powerful against Skeletron.
• Infernal Krises, Feather Knives, Rot Balls and Tooth Balls are all extremely effective due to their fast-firing rate.
• The Turbulance can be used to great effect due to its many homing attacks.
• Sky Stabbers can be extremely effective if used well.
• The Tracking Disk can provide a consistent source of damage with enough armor piercing bonuses and can hit all the hands at once.

Miscellaneous

• The Aestheticus can be useful during the fight for inflicting debuffs.
• The Slimy Saddle can help the player avoid Skeletron with its increased jump height, and natural bounce off of enemies, in case the player undershoots the jump.
• Any Hook can allow the player to move out of the way of Skeletron, especially if they have an arena with multiple layers. The best hooks at this stage are the Diamond Hook and Ivy Whip.

Notable Buffs

• The Well Fed buff and its upgrades provide useful all-around stat boosts.
• Rage and Wrath Potions are excellent ways to improve the player's overall damage.
• Endurance, Ironskin and Regeneration Potions all provide extremely useful buffs to improve the player's survivability.
• Swiftness Potions are a good way to avoid the boss' attacks.
• Melee players can use Ale to improve their offensive capabilities.
• Mage players should use Magic Power and Mana Regeneration Potions to massively boost their damage and not have to worry as much about the damage penalty of Mana Sickness.
• Summoning Potions will grant the player one extra minion slot, massively boosting their damage.
• Shadow Potions will give Rogues more overall damage as well as quicker stealth regeneration.

The Fight

When starting the fight, Skeletron will spawn in with his hands. He will swing his hands at the player and attempt to slap them. This can be reasonably easily dodged with the Shield of Cthulhu's dash or by moving perpendicularly to the hands. He will then start spinning and rapidly move towards the player. Both running away and circling him work for dodging this attack. The hands will also stop swinging at the player during this attack, but they can be mid-attack when it starts so pay attention.

After a hand is dead, Skeletron will start shooting skulls at the player. To dodge these, the player should circle him, as the skulls will not home fast enough to catch up to them.

Once both hands are dead, Skeletron will start teleporting, as well as firing his skulls faster. He will telegraph his teleports with purple dust, and when he teleports, he will shoot a spread of 3 skulls centered on the player. These can be dodged by travelling far away from them and going between the attacks, or by circling close enough to be entirely outside the spread of the skulls.

When Skeletron himself hits 33% health, his hands will respawn and he will resume his previous attack pattern, except still teleporting. He will shoot skulls and teleport at a slower pace while his hands are alive.

Death Mode changes

• Begins the fight and respawns with 4 hands instead of 2.
• Head and hands have reduced health.
• Head acceleration increases as health decreases.
• Hand attacks have much more velocity and quicker acceleration.
• Fires faster Cursed Skulls at a faster rate.
• Shoots 5 magic bolts instead of 3 after teleporting.