Skeletron

Type	Boss Part
Environment	Dungeon entrance + Night
AI Type	Skeletron Hand AI
Damage	20/44/66
Max Life	600/1560/1989
Defense	14
KB Resist	100%
Immune to
Debuff	Slow
Debuff tooltip	Movement speed is reduced
Chance	50%
Duration	1–2 seconds
Hurt
Killed

Type	Boss
Environment	Dungeon entrance + Night
AI Type	Head AI
Damage	32/70/105; 1000 (during the day)
Max Life	4400/8800/11220
Defense	1010+25 per hand alive; 00+25 per hand alive (while spinning); 9999 (during the day)
KB Resist	100%
Immune to
Debuff	Bleeding
Debuff tooltip	Cannot regenerate life
Chance	100%
Duration	6–10 seconds
Coins	51250
Hurt
Killed
Entering spinning phase

"The cursed guardian of the dungeon..."

Not to be confused with the Skeleton, an enemy found underground, or Skeletron Prime, the Hardmode version of Skeletron.

Skeletron is a pre-Hardmode boss. It must be defeated prior to entering the Dungeon, and defeating it grants unlimited access to all Dungeon areas for all players. It also causes the Clothier NPC to spawn, as long as a vacant house is available.

If attempting to enter the Dungeon before killing Skeletron, Dungeon Guardians spawn once a player reaches 0 depth.^[1] These enemies generally kill any player with a single hit, dealing 1000 / 2000 / 3000 damage. Managing to defeat a Dungeon Guardian does not grant access to the Dungeon, thus defeating Skeletron is mandatory for (safely) entering the Dungeon.

While Skeletron is alive, the music Boss 1 will play. When Otherworldly music is enabled, the track Boss 1 (Otherworldly) will play instead.

Summoning[]

Skeletron is summoned by speaking to the Old Man at the Dungeon's entrance at night, who will turn into Skeletron when selecting the "Curse" option. If the Old Man is spoken to during the day, he will ask the player to return at night. Skeletron can only be summoned once per night, as the Old Man will not respawn until dawn. While players with less than 300 maximum health and/or less than 10 defense are deemed too weak by the Old Man to lift his curse, he still offers the option to summon Skeletron.

Skeletron can be summoned repeatedly this way until it is defeated. Once it is defeated, the Old Man's curse will be lifted and he will no longer appear. Skeletron can be re-summoned thereafter once the player acquires the Clothier Voodoo Doll (from Angry Bones or Dark Casters), then by attacking and killing the Clothier during night.

Killing the Clothier using Flymeal will not summon Skeletron unless the Clothier Voodoo Doll is equipped.

Behavior[]

Skeletron is a large floating skull with two independent floating hands. All parts can travel through blocks, and will attempt to make contact with the player to inflict damage. Each part can be killed independently, but killing the head is all that is required to defeat Skeletron.

Skeletron alternates between two attack phases:

The head remains above while the hands slash at the player.
The head spins, dealing significant damage if touched, but dropping its defense by 10 (to 0 in classic mode) for the duration of the attack.

Skeletron switches between these two phases in a regular cycle during the entire fight, with the first phase lasting for roughly 13.33 seconds and the second phase lasting for roughly 6.67 seconds. It lets out a roar every time it enters the second phase.

If the player takes too long to kill it and dawn arrives, Skeletron will begin acting exactly as a Dungeon Guardian, performing a head spin attack with very high damage and gaining enough defense to only absorb 1 damage from all attacks, which will usually kill any players remaining in the vicinity quickly (it is still possible to kill it, but players are at an extreme disadvantage unless it only has a miniscule amount of health). Skeletron remains in this form until dying or despawning, even if players manage to avoid dying until the following dusk.

Expert Mode[]

Skeletron has additional properties in Expert Mode:

The defense of its head is increased by 25 for each of its hands, resulting in a total defense of 60, initially. Once one hand is defeated, it drops to 35 and finally to 10 when both hands are defeated.
- During the spinning, its defense is therefore also only reduced to 50 / 25. Only with both hands defeated, it is reduced to 0 like in normal mode.
Once either of the hands are destroyed or the head's health is reduced to below 75% (6600), the head begins to shoot homing skulls at the player which resemble Cursed Skulls that despawn on contact with a solid block. It shoots one skull roughly every 1.33 seconds, and doubles the frequency to one skull roughly every 0.67 seconds once both hands are defeated. It pauses firing during its spin attack.
Skeletron moves faster and has better AI when targeting multiple players. With this, it is able to "stun-lock" the player while spinning, able to almost instantly kill them if they are not able to escape (e.g. by using a Grappling Hook).
Skeletron is able to inflict the debuffs Slow (from the hands) and Bleeding (from the head).

Health in Multiplayer[]

In Expert and Master modes, the health of bosses depends on the number of players in multiplayer. Please enter the number of players (a whole number between 2 and 256) on your server in the input box below.

If you don't see the input box and the Calculate button, please check if you have JavaScript enabled in your web browser (instructions for the most popular web browsers). If you're certain that JavaScript is enabled but the button and input box are still not appearing, please contact the administrators on the Terraria Wiki:Admin noticeboard.

This calculator is synchronized with the Desktop version of Terraria: 1.4.4.9.

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Skeletron

Notes[]

The Old Man who stands in front of the Dungeon can be killed if his health is depleted. However, he will respawn on the following day as long as Skeletron hasn't been defeated once.
Killing Skeletron after the night ends will cause it to drop loot and grant access to the dungeon per normal.
- If players are somehow able to lure Skeletron around long enough during the day, it is possible for the Old Man to respawn, and killing Skeletron in this state will cause the Old Man to die immediately.
Skeletron's defense and damage will revert to their normal figures if the player dies during the day.
On the don't dig up seed the Old Man can respawn without enraging Skeletron if it is between 4:30 AM and 7:30 PM.

Achievement[]

Boned • “Defeat Skeletron, the cursed guardian of the dungeon.”

Defeat Skeletron for the first time.

Category:

Slayer

Tips[]

For more elaborate strategies on defeating Skeletron, including weapon and arena recommendations, see Guide:Skeletron strategies.

On a technical level, Skeletron is not necessary for game progression until Golem has been defeated. The Cultists, required for initiating the Lunar Events, will only spawn once both Golem and Skeletron have been defeated. However, skipping Skeletron in pre-Hardmode results in a lack of valuable Dungeon loot, in addition to access to the Mechanic as well as the Safe and Void Vault.
Do not jump onto Skeletron's head too many times with the Slime Mount, as going too high will cause it to despawn (also, in Space the low gravity will make it almost impossible to get back down past it).
- Nonetheless, the Slime Mount can be a valuable tool inside of the Dungeon entrance, as well as a means to escape Skeletron's head spin attack, if one ever gets caught in it.
Any ricocheting weapon ( such as the Water Bolt found in the Dungeon), or a gun with Meteor Shots are very useful.
With multiple players, it is a good idea to set the spawn point near the Dungeon, so that players can simply rejoin the fight if they die.
While Skeletron is immune to many debuffs on the Old-gen console version, Windows Phone version, Old Chinese version, Nintendo 3DS version, and tModLoader 1.3-Legacy version, it is not immune to Frostburn on any version.
Attacking the hands first is advised as destroying them both will make it very easy to dodge Skeletron for the rest of the battle.
- This is close to mandatory in Expert Mode, as Skeletron gains 25 defense for each hand it has alive.
- Going fast enough on a Minecart can cause the hands to despawn.
In Expert Mode, if the player keeps moving in different directions, most homing skulls will miss; also note that they do not travel through tiles.
In Expert Mode, it is a good idea to use a yoyo or a flail and an overhead barrier.

Trivia[]

Assuming that the player is at 5′ 9½″ (1.75 m) in terms of height, Skeletron's head would be about 11′ (3.35 m) tall and 8′ (2.43 m) wide. The hands would be 10′ (3 m) tall and 7′ (2 m) across.
At one point during game development, weak Skeletron Heads protected the Dungeon if it was explored before Skeletron's defeat. When one was destroyed, it somehow allowed access to the Dungeon without necessitating a Skeletron fight, so the Dungeon Guardians were introduced to protect the Dungeon instead.
- Skeletron's head sprite was recycled for the Dungeon Guardian.
Counting the health from both its hands, Skeletron has even more health than the Expert Mode Wall of Flesh.
Skeletron is the only boss not to have any guaranteed drops (with the exception of healing potions, a Treasure Bag if in Expert Mode and a relic if in Master Mode).
On the PC version, Console version, Mobile version, Old Chinese version, tModLoader version, and tModLoader 1.3-Legacy version version of Terraria, the Old Man has a health bar, but on the Old-gen console version, Windows Phone version, and Nintendo 3DS version, he does not.
In the Terraria and Edge of Space crossover teaser, Skeletron turns into a boss called Omegatron.
The name Skeletron is similar to the name Skeletor, the main antagonist of the Masters of the Universe franchise.
Blood emits from the joints between Skeletron's arms and head, possibly implying that they are severed. Going based on lore, it's guaranteed that this is the case.

Skeletron cloud — The Skeletron-shaped cloud.

Skeletron has 3 missing pixels in the bottom right quadrant in all parts of his sprite sheet.
Skeletron is required to beat the game, as the Lunatic Cultists will not spawn if he is not killed, as they are replaced by the old man.
In the PC version, Console version, Mobile version, and tModLoader version release, a cloud in the shape of Skeletron can occasionally be seen in the background.
In the first release of Terraria, prior to the introduction of the Wall of Flesh, Skeletron was the final boss of the game.
It is one of the two bosses that needs a town NPC to be alive in order to be summoned. The other is the Wall of Flesh.
The sprite file for Skeletron's arms is named Arm_Bone. Similarly, the sprite file for Skeletron Prime's arms is named Arm_Bone_2.
– According to the official game lore, the Dryads ripped out part of Cthulhu's skeleton, and a curse caused all the inhabitants of the Dungeon to become undead.

The Bestiary entry for Skeletron: "The disembodied bones of a former tyrant pulsed with a hatred so strong, it left behind a mighty curse which guards the Dungeon."

The "former tyrant" refers to Cthulhu.

History[]

PC version

Desktop 1.4.3.3: Now drops Healing Potions instead of Lesser Healing Potions.

Desktop 1.4.1: No longer immune to On Fire!, Cursed Inferno, Venom, Shadowflame, Celled, or Daybroken.

Desktop 1.4.0.1:
- Added Skeletron Relic, a Master Mode exclusive drop that acts as a trophy-like item.
- Added Possessed Skull, a Master Mode exclusive drop that summons a miniature Skeletron pet.
- Added Chippy's Couch, a reference to the youtuber/streamer of the same name.

Desktop 1.3.5: Sprite updated.

Desktop 1.3.4.3: Fixed incorrect status message when summoned (was "Skeleton has awoken" instead of "Skeletron has awoken").

Desktop 1.3.0.1: New AI and Treasure Bag added for Expert mode.

Desktop 1.2.1.2: Skeletron now spawns on the Clothier when using a Clothier Voodoo Doll.

Desktop 1.2:
- Can now be re-summoned with the Clothier Voodoo Doll.
- Has additional item drops. (Previously only dropped Lesser Healing Potions and money.)

Desktop 1.0.6:
- Head health decreased from 5000 to 4400, but damage increased from 30 to 32.
- Hands health decreased from 800 to 600, defense decreased from 18 to 14, and damage decreased from 25 to 20.

Desktop 1.0.5:
- Head health decreased from 6000 to 5000, defense decreased from 12 to 10, and damage decreased from 35 to 30.
- Hands health decreased from 1200 to 800, and damage decreased from 30 to 25.

Desktop-Release: Introduced.

Console version

Console-Release: Introduced.

Nintendo Switch version

Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced.

Mobile version

Mobile-Release: Introduced.

Nintendo

version

3DS-Release: Introduced.

Footnotes[]

↑ Note that the player's head needs to be below 0 depth. Since the Depth Meter measures depth at the level of the player's feet, and a player is 3 tiles tall, Dungeon Guardians will only start spawning once the Depth Meter displays "3′ Underground" or more.

dj alok

[1] Note that the player's head needs to be below 0 depth. Since the Depth Meter measures depth at the level of the player's feet, and a player is 3 tiles tall, Dungeon Guardians will only start spawning once the Depth Meter displays "3′ Underground" or more.

[1]

Terraria Wiki

Skeletron

Contents

Summoning[]

Behavior[]

Expert Mode[]

Health in Multiplayer[]

Notes[]

Achievement[]

Tips[]

Trivia[]

History[]

Footnotes[]

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