Old Man


 * Spawns on the first night of the first day.

The Old Man is an NPC found outside every dungeon. He guards the dungeons, and a dungeon cannot be fully explored until he is gone. When spoken to at day, he does nothing. When spoken to at night, he will turn into the Skeletron boss.

If you decide to go into a dungeon without fighting him, a group of Skeletron Heads will spawn and attack you.

If you decide to go into a dungeon without fighting him during the day, a single Skeletron Head will spawn and hit you for 9999 damage. This makes it impossible to continue in the dungeon during daytime. Tunnelling into the dungeon from underground will have the same result.

The Old Man is not immortal and can be killed if trapped in a pool of lava. The Old Man takes 1 damage per second from the lava, and after his 250 HP is depleted he is dead. Although the Old Man can be killed, his death does not eliminate the Skeletron Heads inside the dungeon. Additionally, the Old Man does not respawn until the next night, leaving no means of killing the Skeletron Heads or exploring the dungeon without facing a swift, inevitable death.