Guide:Skeletron strategies

Skeletron is a boss guarding the Dungeon, and defeating it is necessary if you want to access the loot within. It's big, tough, hard to dodge, and can seriously ruin your evening many times over. Like any other daunting task in Terraria, defeating it is largely about smart preparation. The following are some hints, tips, and strategies to help you do so.

Terrain preparation


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. 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 Skeletron there. A ceiling is mostly unnecessary and tends to get in the way of many attacks, however if you are planning to use a Bow. If you are not using ranged weapons, however, you should make a layer of platforms in the dungeon's ceiling to use the roof of the dungeon as a battleground.

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

Weapons
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 melee attacks (with a few exceptions). The first time a player fights Skeletron they are unlikely to have many high-end pieces of melee equipment so ranged attacks are more often used. Remember, you're fighting the toughest enemy in the game, short of Hardmode, the Wall of Flesh, and the Dungeon Guardian.

Ranged weapons
Skeletron's high defenses mean that most of the mid- to low-tier weapons aren't worth the danger nor time or money for players with higher level gear. If you wish to use a bow, have at least the Demon Bow/Tendon Bow and use either Frostburn Arrows or unholy arrows. Spiky Balls work great when spread around the Dungeon entrance. Shuriken/Throwing Knives work well against Skeletron's head when it is spinning, but their low damage make them less useful against Skeletron's hands or Skeletron's head when it isn't spinning. With Fossil Armor, Bone Throwing Knives can be very powerful.

The best way to go is combine high to moderate damage with a fast rate of fire:
 * If you wish to conserve ammo, the Flamarang and Thorn Chakram are both reasonably easy to get by this point.
 * The Minishark is great, as is the Star Cannon, but both of these are expensive to use: the Star Cannon requires about 100 stars to do the job. It is also advised that you should use Spike Balls to take out the Skeletron's hands, as Skeletron mostly drags them across the ground while it is moving.
 * A bow and some decent arrows are comparatively much easier to get your hands on. A high-damage bow will be doing most of the work for you in such a case, so the difference between weak-but-cheap ammo and rare-but-high-damage ammo is a matter of personal preference. Either the Demon Bow (Tendon Bow if you have crimson) Molten Fury or Sharanga (if on console) will do the job admirably.
 * Using a Space Gun or Demon Scythe frees you from the constraints of ammo and deals decent damage, but you will need a lot of mana potions (or Meteor armor in case of the Space Gun) to last the fight.
 * Staffs can also be very effective such as the Ruby and Diamond Staff, requiring very little mana, while dealing significant damage.
 * The Crimson Rod is also a very effective method of damaging Skeletron, even allowing it to be used in combination with other weapons. If carefully placed, the cloud created by the rod can cause 100 damage per second. However it will only be available in a Crimson world.
 * Molotov Cocktails can be used to devastating effect on Skeletron. About 50 are all that are needed to defeat the boss.
 * Beenade or Sticky Grenade can be useful for the fight. But be careful when using Sticky Grenades, because if you miss, the grenades can do high damage to you if you get close.
 * If you have fossil armor, Bone Throwing Knife and Bone Javelin are very effective, even in expert mode. Use the knives for the most part, and the javelins when the head spins.
 * The Bee's Knees, Bee Gun and Beenade are very effective during the fight, especially with the Hive Pack (Expert Mode only). This makes doing damage mostly automatic.

Melee weapons
The non-ranged and semi-ranged weapons have some use, but generally don't stack up to the ranged family.
 * Flails are reasonable weapons as well, however only the Ball O' Hurt and The Meatball can be obtained at this point. Alternately a Harpoon can be used. Alternatively, in 1.3 and up, Yoyos can be used instead. Yoyos are extremely powerful against Skeletron, as they can be directed easily to the target and held there for rapid repeated damage. Eliminating the hands first can be done very rapidly with a yoyo as the hands tend to push them around, making additional contact with the weapon.
 * 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. The Phaseblade and Blade of Grass are also a fairly good weapon against it. Many swords above 20 damage and at or above fast speed are useful as well.
 * A Boomerang works well but is more effective when throwing past the head and on the way back the boomerang hitting twice.
 * Provided that you can avoid Skeletron well, Spears such as The Rotted Fork will work. Spears are especially effective once he loses his hands.

Accessories
Rocket Boots, Cloud in a Bottle, Sandstorm in a Bottle, and Shiny Red Balloon are excellent choices for your first fight, as they'll give you vertical mobility. Hermes Boots and/or Anklet of the Wind are also a good choice, giving you more horizontal maneuverability. If you still have free slots Feral Claws for melee users or Band of Regeneration are great choices too.

Potions

 * Of course a sufficient supply of Healing Potions (rather than Lesser Healing Potions) will help you survive longer. If you're going to use magic weapons Mana Potions are needed as well.
 * Ironskin Potions and Regeneration Potions will make the job easier for any player and are highly recommended. Two potions will last from sundown to dawn, provided the player stays alive the entire time.
 * The Swiftness Potion will help you evade Skeletron.
 * If you're using melee weapons and aren't concerned with being hit Ale may help you as well.
 * The Bowl of Soup/Cooked Marshmallow/Pumpkin Pie will help you, no matter what strategy you are going to use.
 * An Archery Potion is a good last resort if you are running out of time in the night.

Avoiding attacks
Skeletron attacks by either hitting you with its hands or spinning its head at you. Both attacks seem to come equally frequently unless one or both of the hands has already been destroyed.
 * 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 and the head will damage you; Skeletron'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's attack is much slower, but it does more damage 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 or harpoon users to rack up a ton of easy hits in a hurry, by staying just in front of the head and attacking like mad. A good idea is to grapple the ceiling while Skeletron is spinning. If you are playing Multiplayer, it will likely attack the other player.
 * You can walk as fast as the spinning head (with a full set of shadow armor), so don't worry about speed when fighting the skull.
 * When in expert mode, the spinning attack is much faster and requires more speed/maneuverability to avoid. The time needed for fast-running boots to accelerate is often too long, making the Shield of Cthulhu essential for a ground-based battle.
 * In expert mode, Skeletron gains an attack where he fires out a ring of cursed skulls around him. They can be destroyed but this is not necessary as they will despawn once they fly off the screen. Rocket Boots/Spectre Boots are highly recommended for this fight as expert mode Skeletron can inflict lots of damage with his spinning head attack and can also inflict the slow status. Once the hands have been taken care of, a good strategy to avoid the cursed skulls is to follow the predicted path of the skulls with flight accessories (usually a circle around the Skeletron head). If you don't have any method of flight, Gravitation Potions are a very viable alternative, since you fall faster than Skeletron moves. 3 will last the night, however 2 should be enough. Just always keep an eye on the time left for the debuff - you don't want to be stuck on the ground during a spinning attack. If you use this option, a Lucky Horseshoe (or anything that prevents fall damage) is mandatory, since fall damages can make you lose the fight. A grappling hook or a cloud in a bottle work too, but you'll need good timing to avoid fall damages.Please note that Skeletron will despawn if you get too far, which quickly arrives if you don't pay attention and go too high then go back to the ground (since he is slower than you when falling, he will despawn rather than follow you), so stay close to the dungeon (even then avoiding his attacks is not much of a problem). Also try to kill the hands first, as this narrows your possibility of becoming slowed and taking damage from Skeletron's swipes. For expert mode Skeletron, try to take a ranged weapon which excels at single-target damage, like the Minishark does well with a stack or two of Meteor Shot, or a yoyo such as the Code 1. Taking a piercing weapon is useful too. A good bow like a Demon Bow may work too, combined with an Archery Potion it would allow you to make good damages to him, compensating the lower rate of fire.
 * An alternative to high-maneuverability armor or accessories which can even work against Expert Mode Sksletron is to craft a Minecart for the extra speed and build a large, diamond-shaped Minecart Track, such as one having in the middle on each side three Minecart Tracks with a Bumper on the outer end, and the inner end connects using a switch track to two diagonal tracks, with both connected and the preferred direction up on one side and down on the other, and with a total width of roughly 100-120 blocks. After the Skeletron battle begins, mount the Minecart and accelerate to maximum Minecart speed. While collisions can occasionally occur, they should be uncommon enough that healing will not be a problem. Using attacks at range is highly preferred, though unlike a Hoik system, a Minecart might not move fast enough to allow a boomerang to do all of the work as in some Dungeon Guardian strategies. If using pre-Hardmode weapons, the Molten Fury with Frostburn Arrows is highly recommended.
 * If using the Minecart strategy and for whatever reason the battle lasts until dawn, the Dungeon Guardian A.I. will actually cause the Skeletron head to follow you at such a slow and steady pace that it should never catch up. In such a case, however, you will take fatal damage from contact and do 1 damage on every landed attack or 2 from criticals, causing fast attacks at ranged to become essential (such as the Space Gun with the full set of Meteor armor and having a set of accessories with critical chance modifiers becomes far more than damage, defense, or mobility.

General tips

 * The hands are probably your biggest problems and have lower HP than the head, but it is not necessary to destroy them, since if the head dies, the hands also perish.
 * The easiest way to last the fight is to go for the hands first: once they're gone, Skeletron will have nothing to do but spin its head at you and is much easier to dodge. (This also provides the benefit of negating its defense, leaving it open to ranged weaponry.) Even taking out just one hand makes the fight go much easier.
 * In expert mode, the skull will begin shooting homing projectiles similar to the Book of Skulls once the hands have been destroyed.
 * It's always preferable to summon Skeletron immediately after sundown since the fight must be finished in one night.
 * If you are using a weapon with ammo, always have a backup sword or boomerang handy. The Zombies and Demon Eyes that you will encounter during the fight may not be worth wasting ammo on.
 * If you specifically desire to use the Minishark for the Skeletron fight, defeating the Eye of Cthulhu or the Eater of Worlds a couple of times to sell the Demonite Ore and Shadow Scales is a great way to get the necessary gold.
 * If you can find a Water Bolt on a "shelf" around the entrance, it can be used very effectively inside the initial large room, due to the fact that it can bounce off of walls multiple times and deal decent damage.
 * Skeletron's hands won't drop loot when destroyed, but when its head is destroyed, the lump sum of loot will be dropped.
 * If you have lots of Shurikens, Throwing Knives or Spiky Balls, and a Star Cannon, you can throw the throwables at Skeletron's head until it has low health, then use the Star Cannon to rapidly shoot at Skeletron until it's dead.

Farming
Skeletron is much easier to beat once you've got access to dungeon equipment. Any Hardmode gear makes the fight a cakewalk. If you must defeat it on a new world, all of the above strategies can still apply: It's simply easier the next time around. You can also summon Skeletron by killing the Clothier after you obtained the Clothier Voodoo Doll. Because the Clothier will simply respawn the next day, this is an easy way to obtain the rare items or get some additional money.