Guide:Skeletron strategies

Skeletron can be a tough fight, especially for those who haven't already beaten him. He's big, tough, hard to dodge, and can seriously ruin your evening many times over. Like any other daunting task in Terraria, defeating him is largely about smart preparation.

Weapon Selection
When choosing one strategy over another, the biggest factor in your decision is likely to be weapon constraints. For Skeletron, ranged attacks are far more effective than a melee attacks with very few exceptions. The first time a player fights Skelly they are unlikely to have many high-end pieces of melee equipment so ranged attacks are more often used.

Ranged Weapons
Skeletron's high defenses mean that most of the mid- to low-tier weapons aren't worth the time or money, so shurikens are pretty much out. The best way to go is combine high to moderate damage with a fast rate of fire: The Flamarang and Thorn Chakrum are both reasonably easy to get by this point, and either the Demon Bow or Molten Fury will do the job admirably. Guns at this point in the game don't have enough damage or rate of fire to be as useful, with the exceptions of the Minishark and those noted below. The Minishark is great, as is the Star Cannon, but both of these are extremely expensive to use (the Star Cannon would require about 100 stars to do the job and the Minishark would need about 1,000 rounds). A bow with lots of arrows is comparatively much easier to get your hands on. As with all kinds of ammunition, the difference between weak and cheap ammo and hard-to-find high-damage ammo is a matter of personal preference.

Melee Weapons
The non-ranged and semi-ranged weapons have some use, but generally don't stack up to the ranged family. Flails are excellent for damage and can consistently dish it out, but the Sunfury is somewhat difficult to obtain and the Ball 'O Hurt is at the low end of the damage scale. The Fiery Greatsword does high-end damage and has excellent range for a melee weapon but is so slow to swing that most other weapons will outstrip it in the long run.

Other
One slightly different approach is to use a tool with auto-swing, i.e. The Breaker or the War Axe of the Night, both of which are relatively easy to get materials for with lower-end gear. Neither has as much damage over time compared to the options above, but these weapons will keep swinging as the mouse button is held down, allowing you to concentrate on dodging. Using a Space Gun frees you from the constraints of ammo and gives you decent damage but will require a lot of mana potions or Meteor Armor to last the fight.

Dungeon Weapons
Also to consider are these weapons not mentioned above: All of these weapons are as good or better than the other weapons in their respective categories but are found only in the dungeon, and thus cannot be obtained without either defeating Skeletron, trading with other players, or making a "suicide" run into the dungeon during the Skeletron fight and raiding chests on the fly.
 * Muramasa
 * Handgun and Phoenix Blaster
 * Blue Moon
 * Aqua Scepter

Arena
The arena doesn't matter as much as it does in the other boss fights, but it can still be important. A large, flat surface with enough room to maneuver is key. Wood platforms may be used with decent effect, but keep in mind that they take time to drop through when dodging and too many platforms can interfere with attacks depending on the weapon/ammo used. A fairly straightforward and common practice is to simply flatten out the roof of the dungeon and fight Skelly there. Keep in mind that the fight must occur at night, so you'll have to be comfortable dealing with Zombies and Demon Eyes (and possibly Eaters if you're near any corruption) or build a platform inaccessible to them. A ceiling is mostly unnecessary and tends to get in the way of many attacks.

Boomerang/Chakrum users, on the other hand, may prefer to fight Skeletron in the dungeon entryway to provide a ceiling for missed shots to return faster. Bow users can benefit from having a lot of open space to collect fallen arrows as they go. Melee users will want more platforms to aid mobility.

Armor
The more armor you have, the better. You should obviously use the best armor available to you at the time, but if the best you have is Silver Armor or lower then you should seriously consider holding off and continuing the fight later, with better defenses. Shadow Armor or better is highly preferred. And, as always, having more HP is always a good thing. If your armor is far ahead of your weapons then you can sacrifice killing power in favor of survivability.

Avoiding Attacks
Skeletron attacks by either hitting you with his hands or spinning his head at you. Both attacks seem to come equally frequently unless one or both of the hands has already been killed.

The hands are difficult to dodge and will mostly come in from the sides. Both hands or one hand will attack at random, but just before this they will draw away from you in a kind of "wind-up" motion, then strike toward you and continue for a good distance onward. If you learn to read this attack it can be avoided more easily. Keep in mind that only the hands that will damage you; Skelly's arms take up a lot of space and can be distracting, but they won't block your bullets or hurt you. Avoiding the attack is simply a matter of jumping at the right time: jumping too late won't give you enough time to dodge the hands and jumping too soon will let the hands adjust to your new position and hit you anyway. Wait and dodge the hands only after they've started their strike.

The head attack is much slower, but Skeletron's massive noggin does more damage per hit and takes up a lot of space, especially when it's spinning. This makes the head somewhat difficult to dodge without the aid of Rocket Boots or another jumping aid, or platforms. (The upside is that this is a great time for boomerang users to rack up a ton of easy hits in a hurry, by staying just in front of the head and attacking like mad.)

General Tips

 * The hands are probably your biggest source of worry and have lower HP, but they have much higher defenses than the head and are not necessary to victory, as if the head dies the hands die with it. If your weapon does low damage at a fast rate then it's probably faster to ignore the hands and concentrate your fire on the head.
 * It should go without saying, but since the fight must be finished in one night it's always preferable to summon Skeletron immediately after sundown.
 * The lower your damage per second, the longer the fight will last. This also means that you're likely to need more potions and ammo.
 * No matter what your weapon choice, always have a backup handy. The zombies and Demon eyes that you're going to run into during the fight might not be worth wasting ammo on, so have a decent sword on standby.

Specific Strategies
Specific weapon/armor/arena combinations go here.