Guide:Skeletron Prime strategies

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

Skeletron Prime is the Hardmode version of Skeletron. He is part of the trio of Mechanical bosses, alongside with The Destroyer and The Twins. His high health, defense, damage, and multiple limbs will take a lot of punishment, and his limbs have the added effect of blocking non-piercing shots aimed at his head.

Spawning Conditions
Skeletron Prime can be spawned by fulfilling any of these conditions: It must then be defeated before all the involved players die.
 * Smash a /. It will then have a 10% chance of appearing when night falls. Note that this condition is shared with the rest of the trio, and thus the result isn't guaranteed if they have yet to be defeated, and will only work if Skeletron Prime has yet to be defeated;
 * Use a.

The Fight
Skeletron Prime is a flying boss that consists of five parts: If you take out his Head, you kill the boss.
 * Prime Saw, a melee arm, with 9000 health.
 * Prime Vice, a melee arm, with 9000 health.
 * Prime Laser, a ranged arm that fires lasers, with 6000 health.
 * Prime Cannon, a ranged arm that fires grenades, with 7000 health.
 * Skeletron Prime, the head, with 28000 health.

Each limb has its own unique attack pattern, listed below. Although killing the limbs is not necessary, they can block the head (especially Prime Saw and Prime Vice), and destroying them can make the fight much easier. It's suggested that you should spend half the night attacking its limbs, then spend the other half of the night attacking the head.

Prime Saw
Prime Saw is one of the two melee limbs Skeletron Prime has. It lunges at the player, dealing a lot of damage if its attack connects. However, compared to the other limbs, the Saw is not as agressive, making it a small priority.

While it may have the potential to hit very hard, its predictable pattern combined with its more passive behavior makes it a small threat compared to the other limbs.

Prime Vice
Prime Vice is one of the two Skeletron Prime's melee limbs. Compared to the Saw, it does less damage, but it's more aggressive.. It lunges at the player, attacking many times before retracting.

Although it's pattern can be somewhat predictable, it's behavior makes it a very dangerous limb capable of dealing a ton of damage if the player isn't careful.

Prime Laser
Prime Laser is one of Skeletron Prime's ranged arms. It will consistently remain above the player, firing lasers at a moderate rate. Its shots do a lot of damage, as it is Prime's strongest limb in Expert mode, and still a threat in Normal mode. The laser starts shooting a lot faster when Prime enters his "enraged" state, making it an even bigger problem.

Its highly damaging, fast and accurate shots make it arguably Prime's most dangerous limb. Because of this, it should be targeted before any of the others.

Prime Cannon
Prime Cannon is the second of Prime's ranged limbs. It shoots bombs that don't destroy tiles. However, the bombs lack contact damage, and they ignore platforms. This means that if the player fights in an arena, the Cannon will very rarely do any damage, since the bombs only explode should they land on a solid block.

This, combined with the fact that the bombs are by far Prime's weakest attack, makes the Cannon significantly less threatening than any of the other limbs, meaning that most of the time it's simply not worth attacking and the player should instead focus the firepower on the other arms or Skeletron Prime itself.

Skeletron Prime
Skeletron Prime is the head, which must be destroyed to win. Skeletron Prime will try to float above the player at all times. He'll close in to do his spinning attack, which doubles his attack and defense and empowers his other limbs, making them attack more frequently. Once he finishes spinning, he'll retreat again.

Like Skeletron, if the head is not destroyed by morning, it will be locked in its spinning attack, gain a speed increase, and its attack and defense will increase to near-unbeatable levels. In this state, a single hit will kill the player, while the head will only take one damage per hit, and two damage per critical hit.

Attacking the head is a lot easier once some of its limbs are down, mainly the Vice and the Laser. Focusing only on the head still works should the player wish to end the fight as soon as possible, but usually it's reccomended to focus on some of the arms first.

Terrain preparation
As with all bosses, an arena made out of Wooden Platforms greatly increases your mobility, and it will also shut down the Prime Cannon. You will want 10-15 rows of Platforms, each around 50 or so blocks long. The platforms should be suspended off the ground to prevent the Prime Cannon's grenades from ever detonating. A solid ceiling should be avoided since Skeletron Prime will often retreat a fair distance when not using his spinning attack.

Armor

 * Adamantite, Palladium, Orichalcum or Titanium armor s are all great choices.
 * If you already defeated a Mechanical boss, Hallowed armor becomes a great choice.

Weapons
For melee users:
 * The Hel-Fire or the Amarok with the Yoyo Bag are both very strong choices.
 * The Ice Sickle (the Death Sickle can also be used if one mechanical boss has been defeated) fires a spinning scythe projectile that will pierce Skeletron Prime and can be acquired from mobs in the Underground Snow biome.
 * The Flying Knife is quite hard to acquire (being a rare drop from Hallowed Mimics) but it does not require to be in close quarters for full damage.
 * Once you've acquired Hallowed Bars, the Light Discs with their high range can be very helpful.
 * Also, if you manage to acquire them, Bananarangs are a very effective weapon, due to their high damage and speed.
 * The Shadowflame Knife is also an excellent choice.

For ranged users:
 * The Adamantite or Titanium Repeater, or if another mechanical boss has already been defeated, the Hallowed Repeater can be easily obtained. Combine them with Holy or Ichor arrows for high damage rates.
 * The Onyx Blaster is a very powerful shotgun made even stronger with Crystal or Ichor bullets.
 * The Clockwork Assault Rifle is a burst-fire weapon with high speed which can be complemented by Crystal Bullets or Ichor Bullets.
 * The Daedalus Stormbow is extremely powerful - especially when combined with Ichor Arrow, Hellfire Arrows or Holy Arrows - but are quite hard to acquire, being a rare drop from Hallowed Mimics. However it is very easy to farm the Daedalus Stormbow and is worth the time.
 * If you have defeated The Destroyer, you should definitely consider the Megashark due to its insane speed and respectable damage.

For Magic users:
 * You can use the Crystal Serpent which functions similarly to Crystal Bullets and deals high damage.
 * The Sky Fracture is a very strong choice with its massive critical strike chance of 24% and its high damage should all 3 of its projectiles hit.
 * The Meteor Staff is extremely powerful and easy to craft, provided you have some leftover Meteor bars from Pre-Hardmode.
 * The Golden Shower deals little damage but inflicts the Ichor debuff even when it is switched away, allowing your other weapons to deal even more damage.
 * 20-30 Greater Mana Potions are suggested depending on your mana usage (To combat the Mana Sickness debuff, have some Star Statues placed a regular intervals linked up to Three Second Timers. Whether they are on the ground or on a platform shouldn't matter unless the terrain is full of hills. Flatten the area around the statues to make mana regeneration easier.

For Summoners:
 * You can use the Optic Staff to summon miniature versions of The Twins.
 * The is very useful for defeating the laser and cannon, as they don't move much and allow the spiders to cling for longer.
 * There's also Pirates from the Pirate Staff, but those lack the ability to fly.
 * The Queen Spider Staff is a great choice if you tend to remain in one vicinity the entire battle.
 * As Adamantite and Titanium armors don't have helmets that boost Summon damage, you can brave the Spider Nests for Spider armor which is designed exclusively for summoners. Alternatively, farm the Desert biome until you have enough Forbidden Fragments to make Forbidden armor which allows you to use the Sand tornado ability, which can do extra damage to Skeletron Prime, allowing you to finish him off quicker.

Accessories

 * Accessories that increase your mobility such as the Spectre Boots or Wings or the Jetpack bought from the Steampunker are pretty much a must.
 * Warrior, Ranger, Sorcerer or Summoner Emblems can increase the damage output significantly.
 * The expert mode exclusive Shield of Cthulhu can greatly increase your mobility.
 * The Frog leg makes all wings significantly faster, which helps when dodging its attacks.
 * The also expert mode exclusive Worm Scarf can greatly reduce damage taken. The Frozen Turtle Shell from the Ice biome is an alternative if the player is in a Crimson World.

Potions

 * Bring along 10-15 Healing Potions of your choice (Greater is recommended).
 * You can also use Horn o' plenty if you have beaten Turkor the Ungrateful.
 * For buff potions, the classic trio of the Swiftness Potion, the Ironskin Potion and the Regeneration Potion will do you a world of good.
 * Endurance Potions will complement the defense boost of the Ironskin Potion.
 * Rangers with Bows should bring along an Archery Potion or two.
 * Mages should use Mana Regeneration Potions and Magic Power Potions.
 * Damage increasing potions like the Rage Potion and the Wrath Potion are good for everybody.
 * The Lifeforce potion will greatly increase survivability.
 * A Summoning Potion will help with extra damage, even non-summoners can benefit from having a summon from something like the.

Tips

 * When using Summon weapons, it is recommended to use the targeting function to focus one arm at a time and reduce the threat Skeletron Prime poses. Simply right-click near one of the weapons to target it and your minions will prioritize that arm.