“Three fast, very weak melee fighters. Surround your enemies with this pile of bones!”
The Skeletons card is unlocked from the Bone Pit (Arena 2). It spawns three single-target, melee Skeletons with very low hitpoints and damage. A Skeletons card costs 1 Elixir to deploy. They are the same as those spawned by the Witch, Tombstone, Skeleton Barrel, Skeleton Army, and the Graveyard.
Strategy
- The Skeletons are most effectively used to distract and/or swarm slow-targeting and/or single-target, medium to high-hitpoint units, such as Giants and Princes.
- Although they are a great soft counter against single target troops, players usually back up these troops with an area damage troop or spell like the Valkyrie or Zap, so be careful.
- Despite this, the Skeletons will not be able to defeat most threats by themselves, unless the enemy troops are already distracted or have very low health left.
- The Skeletons can be used to counter a lone Princess. If played just after the Princess fires, the Skeletons will eliminate her quickly. Be careful, as if they are deployed with bad timing, the Princess will easily eliminate the Skeletons with one hit. The Princess player may also quickly react with a spell on the Skeletons, allowing her to continue firing at the tower, so be prepared to follow up if necessary.
- Skeletons can be used to distract Sparky, but be careful, as she is almost always supported with area damage cards and also deals area damage herself. This can be remedied by deploying the Skeletons directly on top of her, which surrounds her. However, an adept Sparky player may pre-emptively Zap on top of their own Sparky as it crosses the bridge. Players relying on Skeletons to surround and counter her in this situation this will suffer major damage to their Princess Tower.
- They can be used as kamikaze troops, providing an effective distraction while another card is played or the Crown Tower destroys them.
- If the opponent places an Inferno Tower to counter a tank, Skeletons can stall the Inferno Tower for a short time, giving the defender time to place another card to counter it or reset its damage ramp-up.
- For just 1 Elixir, the Skeletons card can cycle the player's deck quickly and add a significant damage boost to an attack. Better yet, not many players are willing to do anything to a pack of Skeletons, so they will have to address the combo before the Skeletons themselves.
- The Skeletons are easily eliminated by an opposing troop, building, or Crown Tower, especially area damage cards, so it is recommended to use them only for defending against and/or distracting opposing troops. However, they can be a small boost to a push if they're well protected and away from splash defense.
- Skeletons can be used along with certain other cards like Knight or Mini P.E.K.K.A. to easily counter high damage single-targeting troops like Elite Barbarians and Prince. Use the Skeletons to pull them into the center while absorbing some of the damage then place down Knight or Mini P.E.K.K.A. to finish them off. This can then assist in a counter-attack.
- If the player thinks their opponent will try and send a Goblin Barrel far behind their Princess Tower, they can try and activate their King's Tower. The Skeletons should be split behind the player's King's Tower a few tiles before the barrel's shadow crosses the river. One Skeleton should go in the lane of the barrel while the two go in the other lane. If the opponent does send the barrel to the back of the player's Princess Tower, a Goblin will defeat the Skeleton and head towards the King's Tower afterwards as opposed to the Princess Tower. Even if the opponent doesn't send the barrel behind the tower, the player will have sufficient Elixir to counter the regular placement.
- Against an offensive Mortar on the centre of the bridge, meet the Mortar vertically and play the Skeletons on the first tile in front of the King's Tower slightly before the Mortar's deploy timer is three fourths of the way finished. The Mortar will fire its shell at the Skeletons just as they are deployed, and the area damage effect will clip the King's Tower, activating it.
- Skeletons can fully counter a Bandit. Before the Bandit is about to dash, place the Skeletons on the third tile vertically from the King's Tower and the third tile horizontally from the Princess Tower. The front Skeleton should appear to be slightly more forward than the Princess Tower. If executed correctly, the Bandit will be in range of both Princess Towers after her dash, resulted in her being whittled down quickly and getting no hits on the player's tower.
- Skeletons can be used as a cheap way to kite air troops placed at the center of the arena. Split the Skeletons so that one goes into the lane the air troops is staggered towards, and two go into the other lane. The single Skeleton will tank an attack and buy time for the two Skeletons in the other lane to distance themselves from the air unit, allowing them to live longer. However, this will not work against the Flying Machine, as its sight range is equal to its attack range, meaning that if an enemy walks out of its attack range, it won't try to follow them.
- Placing Skeletons and then placing down a single grounded unit on the same tile right afterwards will cause them to spread further apart from each other while deploying, allowing them to be targeted individually by certain area damage attackers like the Baby Dragon, therefore making them more effective at stalling these units.
- This tactic is most effective if the grounded unit is a ranged attacker, as it will not continue to collide with the Skeletons upon deployment and will not be susceptible to area damage damage until after all of them are defeated.
- This tactic is ineffective against cards with a large enough area damage radius, such as the Mega Knight and his jump attack.
History
- Skeletons was released with Clash Royale's soft launch on 4/1/16.
- On 19/2/16, the Balance Update increased the Skeletons' hitpoints and damage by 11%.
- On 18/5/16, a Balance Update increased the Skeletons' hitpoints and damage by 5%.
- On 21/6/16, a Balance Update decreased the number of Skeletons spawned to 3 (from 4).
- This also changed the numeral "Four" to "Three" in the description and replaced "swarm" with "surround" due to the lower number of Skeletons.
- The balance changes to the Skeleton Army (in the Tournaments Update) tell us that the 4th Skeleton from this card moved to the Skeleton Army.
- However, the Skeleton Army only has 15 skeletons and not 21 as of the 1/10/18 Balance Update.
- On 13/2/17, a Balance Update increased the number of Skeletons spawned to 4 (from 3). This also changed the numeral "Three" to "Four" in the description.
- On 12/6/17, a Balance Update decreased the number of Skeletons spawned to 3 (from 4). This changed the numeral "Four" to "Three" in the description.
Trivia
- The Skeletons are one of the 13 cards associated with Skeletons, including the Bomber, Skeleton Army, Witch, Tombstone, Bomb Tower, Giant Skeleton, Balloon, Guards, Skeleton Barrel, Graveyard, Wall Breakers, and Skeleton Dragons.
- The Skeletons, the Ice Spirit and the Heal Spirit are the only cards in the game that cost 1 Elixir, currently making them the cheapest cards in the game.
- Skeletons are tied with Bats as the weakest units in Clash Royale, with only 98 hitpoints and damage per hit at level 13, and 32 hitpoints and damage per hit at level 1. However, unlike the Bats, they only cost 1 Elixir.
- Skeletons deal the same damage as their health. Therefore, if 2 Skeletons of the same level duel, then they would defeat each other in one hit. This property is also shared by the Bats.
- They and the Barbarians are the only troops that can be spawned by a troop, a spell, and a building.
- The Skeletons are the subject of several Emotes.
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