Skeletron Prime

. "You feel the air getting colder around you..."

Skeletron Prime is a Hardmode Mechanical Boss which is a much harder version of Skeletron. He is summoned with the Mechanical Skull at night. Players have until dawn to kill him. He can also randomly spawn at dusk in Hardmode if he has not yet been defeated, in this case signaling his approach via the chat message, "You feel the air getting colder around you" or "The air is getting colder around you".

Attacks
Skeletron Prime has four limbs which are all immune to the Poisoned and On Fire! debuffs:


 * Prime Cannon fires flashing bombs that do not destroy blocks, usually up into the air rather than directly at the player.
 * Prime Laser shoots Death Lasers similar to those of Retinazer and The Destroyer, and is always pointed at a player.
 * Prime Saw and the Prime Vice swipe around dealing hefty amounts of damage on contact.

Skeletron Prime will occasionally enter into a "Rage Mode," in which his attacks become more aggressive:


 * Skeletron's Head will grow spikes and start spinning towards the player slowly. Damage and defense is doubled.
 * Prime Cannon will aim at the player directly and fire rapidly.
 * Prime Laser will fire more frequently.
 * Prime Saw will begin homing directly towards the player's location.
 * Prime Vice becomes more aggressive and frequently lunges towards the player.

Prime himself is much more mobile than his predecessor, and will regularly move off-screen, which can make him difficult to hit reliably with ranged weapons.

Like Skeletron, if he is not dead by dawn he will begin to dish out instant kills and will take only 1 damage from attacks (2 for critical hits).

Tips

 * Standing on platforms far from blocks can mostly nullify the effects of the Prime Cannon, as its projectiles only detonate on blocks, while passing through platforms harmlessly.
 * Skeletron Prime can be the most profitable boss in the game, as the Souls of Fright can be crafted into Naughty Present to summon the Frost Moon, netting large amounts of money per 5 souls.
 * In multiplayer, the Prime Cannon and the Prime Laser will point at the player Skeletron Prime is attacking.
 * Skeletron Prime can be debuffed by the Golden Shower which can make destroying the limbs easier
 * Focus mostly on taking out his melee limbs, then his head.

Trivia

 * The boss Cortez, from "Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door" may have influenced Skeletron Prime, as Cortez's final form is a floating skull surrounded by four different levitating weapons, all of different attack powers and methods.
 * His name may have been inspired by Optimus Prime, a robotic character from the Transformers franchise.

Bugs
{{Bug| Rarely, once Skeletron Prime is defeated [on multiplayer] his head or any body part will appear and will not be seen by other players. {{Bug| Occasionally, when summoned with the Mechanical Skull, Skeletron Prime does not appear. This is confirmed to happen in Multiplayer and Singleplayer. This might happen if you summon him too close to a house.}} {{Bug| Occasionally, Skeletron Prime's head disappears randomly, ending the fight. Additionally when this bug occurs, some of his limbs will occasionally not disappear along with the head and will continue to fight for a short period.}} {{Bug| Sometimes in multiplayer, when Skeletron Prime is summoned, he will suddenly die and give drops.}} {{Bug| If you summon Skeletron Prime on a Floating Island, and teleport to a spawn point underneath the island, it will cause his limbs to disappear, and only have his head remaining to fight. A similar glitch can happen while fighting The Twins.}} {{Bug| Occasionally Skeletron Prime will float down and despawn randomly, or after the player teleports, or after one of his arms is defeated. It will then be considered morning in the game no matter what time of night it was when it happened. This happens in console and PC versions. This may be caused due to a desynchronization in time between client and server.}} {{Bug| Bombs fired by the Prime Cannon may destroy player-placed Living Wood, Living Wood Walls, and Leaves.}} {{Bug| Occasionally, Skeletron Prime does not spawn when the text announcing his awakening appears.}} {{Bug| Rarely, the message "You feel the air getting colder around you" will appear at 7:30 in the morning. If you summon the Twins, Skeletron Prime will summon with just two limbs.}} {{Bug| Occasionally, as of 1.2.3.1 Skeletron Prime instantly kills you (happens in both singleplayer and multiplayer).}} {{Bug| Sometimes, when you defeat Skeletron Prime he does not drop any Souls of Fright, mostly happening on multiplayer.}} {{Bug| Sometimes, when you use a mechanical skull in Space and teleport back to the surface using a Magic Mirror, Skeletron Prime will flee underground ending the battle.}} {{Bug|{{mobile icon}} In multiplayer, if summoned by someone other than the host (Sometimes the host himself/herself), the host's game crashes. (Only on Kindle fire) }} {{Bug|{{mobile icon}} If any of Skeletron Prime's arms or his head goes off the map it will be despawn/destroyed and you might lose Skeletron Prime's drops.}} {{Bug| Very rarely, his hands may be cloned: 2 Cannons, 2 Saws, 1 Vice, 1 Laser. (tested in multiplayer)}} {{Bug| If you follow Skeletron Prime to the top then and out of the world then he will despawn.}} {{Bug| {{console icon}} When Skeletron Prime has 1,000 hp left he will flee underground.}} {{Bug| {{console icon}} Sometimes Skeletron Prime will die randomly, but will not drop anything.}} {{Bug|If Skeletron Prime is summoned and the player goes through a hellevator quickly, when the player reaches hell, Skeletron Prime may come with only his saw and vice, or sometimes only his saw}} {{Bug|{{mobile icon}} iOS sometimes when you try to attack Skeletron Prime with the megashark it will consume your ammo and will not do any damage, and when you switch to another weapon, your screen will freeze and will turn black. This results to terraria crashing.