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“The King of the undead himself. He sometimes feels lonely (could be due to his non flattering features) and will summon friends to join him in the battle even after death. Tough guys have feelings too!”

The Skeleton King is a Champion card that is unlocked from the Executioner's Kitchen (Arena 16). It spawns an area-damage, ground-targeting, melee, ground troop with high hitpoints and moderate damage. Being a Champion card, he will stay out of the player's card cycle while he is deployed, and only return once he is defeated. The Skeleton King's ability spawns Skeletons in a radius around him. While the Skeleton King is on the field, any troops which die will be turned into “souls” which are collected by him. The number of souls that the Skeleton King collects determines the number of Skeletons that the ability will spawn. The Skeleton King appears as a Skeleton wearing a menacingly large dark chestplate, a kilt, and a team-colored belt along with a club, cape, sandals, and a crown. A Skeleton King card costs 4 Elixir to deploy, and his ability costs an additional 2 Elixir to activate.

Ability: Soul Summoning[]

“Collect souls of the fallen and bring them back from the dead!”
Ability-Skeleton King

The Skeleton King has a special ability, accessible from the rightmost side of the screen just above the player's card slots in battle. After a 1-second delay, the Skeleton King activates his “Soul Summoning”, stopping in place momentarily before summoning a varied amount of Skeletons in a 4-tile radius around himself. The Skeletons spawn 1 at a time at random positions in the circle every 0.25 seconds. The number of Skeletons spawned is based on how many troops die (either from the player or the opponent) while he is deployed. It continues, even if the Skeleton King dies.

When a troop is vanquished while the Skeleton King is in the Arena, the Skeleton King gains a “soul”, which spawns an additional Skeleton when his ability is used. With no souls, the Skeleton King will spawn 6 Skeletons, but with a maximum of 10 souls, he can summon 16 Skeletons. The amount of souls the Skeleton King has can be seen in a blue bar above his hitpoint bar. The ability goes on a 20 second cooldown after the duration ends. The Soul Summoning ability costs 2 Elixir to activate.

The Skeletons he summons have a bluish tint and behave identically to cloned Skeletons, which means you can't clone them further with said card, and they only have 1 hitpoint. Cloned troops do not count as souls to him when they are defeated, and neither do the Skeletons summoned from the ability.

It is also important to note that cards that make “sub-troops” (e.g., Elixir Golem, Battle Ram) do not count as a soul to it, but only the final forms of the troop, with Goblin Giant as an exception. Buildings also do not count as souls when vanquished, making Cannon Cart the only troop that cannot count as a soul. “Kamikaze cards” such as the Heal Spirit or the Wall Breakers however do count as souls when they kill themselves.

Strategy[]

For Battle Decks with this card, click here

  • For the purposes of determining Elixir trades, the Skeleton King and his activated Ability count as 6 Elixir, as the player must play the 4 Elixir Skeleton King and then spend a further 2 Elixir on his Ability.
  • Since friendly troops will count as a soul to him, you can place a swarm such as a Skeleton Army while he is around and punish whenever the army gets countered with a small spell. This works well in swarm-heavy decks.
  • To counter, simply place a small spell to defeat the Skeletons, and place a ranged or air troop to counter the Skeleton King. A decently tough splash card such as Valkyrie can also be used.
  • A good way of countering the Skeleton King's activated ability is by using a combination of a cheap splash and single-target unit, such as a Firecracker combined with a Knight or Mega Minion. Any combination of units up to 6 Elixir or less will achieve this for a neutral or positive trade.
  • He has a suspiciously large hit box, and can block the Hog Rider more easily than other tanks.
  • He also has a suspiciously high mass, and he can even push large troops such as a Golem. You can even use this to your advantage by using him with ranged win conditions like the Royal Giant to push him away from buildings.
  • He and his Skeletons are weak to air troops. Beware of anti-air spells and support troops that may be paired with the Skeleton King.
  • The Skeleton King is an excellent defensive card, owing to his splash damage, good HP, and ability to get stronger when opposing units fall. Place him behind other friendly units on defense (preferably a swarm), then cast Soul Summoning once those units are defeated to summon a second defensive layer out of nowhere. This is especially strong if the enemy's units lock on to the Skeleton King, as he will naturally tank for his summoned Skeletons and any other defending units the player has down.
  • Bowler or Valkyrie is an excellent counter to the Skeleton King, as their relatively high health allow them to tank the Skeleton King as his attack damage is rather low. Their large splash damage radius takes out the spawning Skeletons while damaging the Skeleton King and is a positive Elixir trade either way.
  • The Mother Witch can take out his Skeletons easily, distracting him with a flow of Cursed Hogs, allowing you to gather Elixir for a better counter card. Beware, the Mother Witch will also make them a cloned Cursed Hog with 1 Hitpoint.
  • The Skeleton King pairs really well with the Graveyard, as after the opponent defeats the Graveyard, you can summon another "graveyard" by activating his ability for 2 Elixir.
    • The Skeleton King can tank for the Graveyard, allow the Skeletons to quickly deal massive damage to the Crown Tower.
    • The Graveyard could also be tanking for the Skeleton King, the Skeletons will be eliminated faster, and the Skeleton King will summon more Skeletons and tank for them.
    • On the contrary, Skeleton King is also great against the Graveyard, as he can summon a full flock of 16 Skeletons as a threatening counter push.
  • The Skeleton King can fully counter a P.E.K.K.A. or Mini P.E.K.K.A. with the ability active, as the Skeletons will constantly distract the slow-hitting troops and be chipped down by your Crown Tower with the Skeleton King, regardless of soul amount.
  • The Skeleton King can also fully counter a Mega Knight up to 1 Level higher if the Skeleton King is placed near the center so both Towers can chip the Mega Knight. The Skeleton King has high enough health to tank the jump attack from the Mega Knight, and his regular attacks.
  • Do not use the ability, unless you have something tanking for the leftover Skeletons from the ability in the lane they are going to go in, otherwise it is a waste of 2 Elixir.

Statistics

Skeleton King Attributes

Cost
Elixir
Hit Speed
Damage Speed
Speed
Speed
Deploy Time
Deploy Time
Range
Range
Splash Radius
Radius
Target
Targets
Count
Troop Count
Transport
Transport
Type
Type
Rarity
Rarity
4 1.6 sec Medium (60) 1 sec Melee: Medium (1.2) 1.3 Ground x1 Ground Troop Champion

Soul Summoning Attributes

Cost
Elixir
Skeleton Count
Count
Skeleton Hitpoints
Hitpoint
Ability Cooldown
Time
2 6-16 1 20 sec

Skeleton Attributes

Hit Speed
Damage Speed
Speed
Speed
Range
Range
Target
Targets
Transport
Transport
1 sec Fast (90) Melee: Short (0.5) Ground Ground

Card Statistics

Level
Level
Skeleton King Hitpoints
Hitpoint
Skeleton King Damage
Damage
Skeleton King Damage per second
DPS
Skeleton Damage
Damage
Skeleton Damage per second
DPS
11 2,298 204 127 81 81
12 2,523 224 140 89 89
13 2,774 247 154 98 98
14 3,044 271 169 108 108
15 3,340 297 185 119 119

Card Mastery

Type Level/Tier Objective Reward
Damage Dealer
Damage Dealer
1 Deal a total of 215,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings 1 Skeleton King card
150 XP
2 Deal a total of 650,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings 10,000 Gold
150 XP
3 Deal a total of 1,080,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings 150 Gem
150 XP
Spawner
Spawner
1 Spawn a total of 1450 Troops 15,000 Gold
175 XP
2 Spawn a total of 4,200 Troops 300 Gem
175 XP
3 Spawn a total of 7,350 Troops 25,000 Gold
175 XP

History[]

2021

  • The Skeleton King card was released on 27/10/2021, in the Champions Update.
  • On 4/11/2021, a maintenance break, increased his damage by 14%, area radius to 1.3 tiles (from 1 tile), and gave him knockback immunity.

2022

  • On 30/3/2022, the Miner Update, fixed an issue where cloning Skeleton King during the Soul Summoning animation would cancel it. It also fixed a stats rounding issue with the Skeleton King's summoned Skeletons.
  • On 7/6/2022, a Balance Update, decreased the Skeletons spawned by Soul Summoning to 18 (from 20).
  • On 2/8/2022, a Balance Update, decreased the Skeletons spawned by Soul Summoning to 16 (from 18).
  • On 26/10/2022, the 2022 Quarter 3 Update, moved the Arena to unlock the Skeleton King from Training Camp to Executioner's Kitchen. This also made it so that players at any King Level could unlock the Skeleton King, as opposed to only Level 14. There was also an unannounced change to the Skeleton King, a decrease to his collision radius to 1 tile (from 1.2 tiles).

2023

2024

  • On 17/6/2024, a Balance Update, decreased the Skeleton King's hitpoints by 0.08% and his damage by 0.48%.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • The Skeleton King is 1 of 15 cards associated with Skeletons, with the others being Bomber, Skeleton Dragons, Skeleton Barrel, Tombstone, Bomb Tower, Guards, Skeleton Army, Witch, Balloon, Giant Skeleton, Wall Breakers, Super Witch, Graveyard, and of course, Skeletons.
  • The Skeleton King is one of the first Champion cards to be added to the game, alongside the Golden Knight and the Archer Queen.
  • The Skeleton King, along with the Golden Knight, Mighty Miner, and the Terry, are the cheapest Champion cards, costing 4 Elixir.
    • Along with the Archer Queen, Little Prince, and the Monk he also has the most expensive combination of Champion and ability, costing 6 Elixir.
  • In the Korean, Arabic, and Vietnamese language settings of the game, the Skeleton King's name translates to "Skull King", "King of Skeletons", and "White Bone King" respectively.
  • He gets more bluish the more souls he collects.
  • The Skeleton King is the only Champion card not to be organic.
  • In his card image, his top tooth is missing on the left side, but in his card render, his top tooth is missing on the right side. This is because the image used in his card image is flipped 180°.
  • The Skeleton King has the same walking sound as the Giant Skeleton.
  • He shares a name with one of Barbarian King's skins from Clash of Clans. They both summon troops for their ability, but the Skeleton King summons Skeletons instead of Barbarians, doesn't have fixed summoning amounts and additionally does not have additional effects tied to it.
  • The Skeleton King is unavailable in multiple special game modes. More specifically:
  • On 28 April 2022, according to a tweet by the Clash Royale official Twitter, the number of Skeleton King's ability activations was 134,193,784.
  • The Skeleton King is the subject of certain cosmetics in the game. More specifically:
    • The Skeleton King is the subject of 2 Emotes.
    • The Skeleton King is the subject of a Tower Skin.
  • By using Mirror on a Clone and using it on a Skeleton King, it is actually possible to get a Level 16 Skeleton King.
    • A cloned Skeleton King does not fall from the sky when deployed.
  • On 3/1/2024, the Skeleton King was supposed to receive an attack time interval decrease to 1.5 seconds (from 1.6 seconds), but this change was pulled back last minute.
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