This article is part of a directory: Terraria Guide - Weapons, Items, Tips, Tricks, Bosses & More
Table of contents

Skeletron Prime is one of the three Hardmode mechanical bosses the player will need to defeat to move on in Terraria. He is also a great source of Soul of Fright and Hallowed Bars and players should consider farming him for those supplies.

RELATED: 10 Things You Should Do Immediately When Starting Terraria

For players looking to bring down Skeletron Prime there are a number of tips and strategies that can help. As with any boss the fight comes down to how well the player is prepared, what gear they have, and understanding how this boss ticks.

15 How To Summon

Terraria Skeletron Prime Full Limbs

Skeletron Prime can be summoned in one of two ways:

  • Appears when a Demon or Crimson Alter is destroyed.
  • Using a Mechanical Skull at Night

Whenever a player destroys a Demon or Crimson Alter there is a 10% chance it will summon Skeletron Prime. Because of this many players will aim for summoning Skeletron Prime manually and save themselves the headache of tracking down Alters. Not to mention that doing so may spawn a Destroyer or the Twins instead.

A Mechanical Skull can be crafted with the following ingredients:

  • 30 Bone
  • 5 Iron Bars
  • 3 Soul of Light
  • 3 Soul of Night

14 Fighting Tactics

Terraria Skeletron Prime Limbs

Players will have to contend with five components to Skeletron Prime:

  • Prime Saw
  • Prime Vice
  • Prime Laser
  • Prime Cannon
  • Prime Head

Only the head needs to be destroyed to win the fight but knowing how to contend with and defeat the other parts may be useful. There are some other parts the player should consider destroying before focusing their attention on the Prime Head.

13 Prime Saw

Terraria Prime Saw

Prime Saw is the Skeletron Prime’s arm. It will lunge at the player dealing incredible damage. Fortunately it’s not as aggressive as the other arm and has an obvious tell. Players can dodge this relatively easily. It’s recommended to simply avoid this arm rather than try and destroy it.

12 Prime Vice

Terraria Prime Vice

Prime Vice deals less damage than the other arm but is far more aggressive. It will attempt to strike multiple times with each lunge. Players may have a hard time dodging this arm even though its attacks are obvious. Players having a hard time surviving or striking the Head may consider destroying this limb. This is especially true on Expert Mode where Prime Vice becomes particularly dangerous.

11 Prime Laser

Terraria Prime Laser

Prime Laser is one of the limbs that hovers above the player firing every now and then. It’s one of the more dangerous limbs in terms of damage and its fire rate increases if Skeletron Prime is enraged. Fortunately it has the lowest health of all limbs at six thousand health. Players should strongly consider eliminating this limb first to make the fight easier and allow more shots to get through.

10 Prime Cannon

Terraria Prime Cannon

Prime Cannon is the final limb of Skeletron Prime. It fires bombs that can be stopped by solid blocks. With the right arena this limb is of minimal or zero concern to the player. Players can largely ignore this limb and have no need to destroy it.

RELATED: Terraria: How To Find (& Defeat) The Wall Of Flesh

This does become more of a problem on the secret map seed For the worthy. Here bombs will destroy the environment. In this case players should place their priority on destroying the Prime Cannon as quickly as possible or risk losing their arena.

9 Prime Head

Terraria Prime Head

This is the primary target in order to defeat Skeletron Prime. Players should be directing most of their attention to destroying it, though the other limbs can block attacks and cause problems. It will float above the player occasionally spinning to increase attack and defense. If not destroyed by morning the head will enter an infinite spin ramping its damage and defense to nearly unbeatable levels.

This is especially important to consider when destroying a Crimson or Demon Alter. Players should be careful to destroy these in the early parts of the night. Otherwise they risk summoning a Skeletron Prime during the day which will be practically invulnerable and can one hit kill the player.

8 General Strategies

Terraria Skeletron Prime Boss Fight

Generally speaking the player should focus on taking out the Prime Laser and perhaps prime Vice before focusing entirely on the Prime Head. This minimizes how dangerous the boss is and enables more of the player’s shots to connect with the Prime Head.

While the Skeletron Prime is immune to most debuffs he is vulnerable to Frostburn and Ichor. Players should strongly consider items or weapons that provide these debuffs to end the fight faster. Anything with projectiles that home, spread, or pierce will also help.

Compared to most boss fights this one is fairly straight forward. Dodge the limbs, avoid the bombs, destroy the Prime Laser, and focus all attention on the Prime Head.

7 Preparing The Battlefield

Terraria Skeletron Prime Fight

An arena is strongly recommended as having a few platforms nullifies the Prime Cannons attacks. It also provides the player with mobility to dodge limbs. A standard arena with proper lighting and boosts is all that’s needed.

  • Heart Lanterns (Light & Health Regeneration)
  • Stars In Bottles (Light & Mana Regeneration)
  • Garden Gnomes (Damage Reduction & Increase Luck-based Damage)
  • Sunflowers (Happy! Buff & Decrease Enemy Spawn Rate)

It’s important to never venture below the bottom platform to avoid the bombs that end up on the ground. The arena should not have a solid ceiling as Skeletron Prime will simply fall back to a different position forcing the player to leave. Some players have found success with a pockmarked ceiling, but it’s best to leave it open and only fall below when bombs are flying.

6 Helpful Boosts

Terraria Boosts

The usual buffs that players should be implementing in every boss are just as important here:

  • Sharpening Station (Sharpened Buff)
  • Ammo Box (Ammo Box Buff)
  • Crystal Ball (Clairvoyance Buff)
  • Bewitching Table (Bewitched Buff)
  • Slice of Cake (Sugar Rush Buff)

5 Potions

Terraria Food Market

As usual players should have the staple potions for this fight:

  • Regeneration Potion (Health Regeneration)
  • Endurance Potion (Damage Reduction Of 10%)
  • Lifeforce Potion (Increase Max Life By 20%)
  • Ironskin Potion (Increase Defense By 8)
  • Mana Regeneration Potion
  • Swiftness Potion (Greater Speed)

RELATED: Terraria: How To Summon (& Defeat) The Eye Of Cthulhu

There really aren’t any particular potions that will make this fight easier like some other boss fights. Generally speaking damage mitigation and healing is the most useful if the player is using an arena.

4 Armor

Terraria Armor

Armor will be based on the player’s preferred playstyle and fighting strategies. That being said the player should have access to a number of sets that benefit just about every playstyle. Here are some sets players should strongly consider.

  • Adamantite Armor – Solid stat increase all around.
  • Titanium Armor – Also a good choice with nice stat buffs.
  • Orichalcum Armor – Boosts Critical strike chance and allows striking multiple targets.
  • Palladium Armor – Sacrifices stat boost for Rapid Healing.
  • Spider Armor – Best choice for Summoners.

3 Weapons

Terraria Weapons

The best weapons are based on the player’s preferred playstyle. Regardless players will want weapons that deal high damage and have piercing potential to damage both limbs and the Head. Anything that utilizes Ichor or Frostburn will also be helpful.

Bow

Bows are a great choice against Skeletron Prime as they often have piercing capabilities or can be utilized with Holy or Ichor arrows for added damage. Here are some solid choices for bow users.

  • Adamantite Repeater
  • Titanium Repeater
  • Hallowed Repeater – If player has killed another Mechanical Boss
  • Daedalus Stormbow
  • Phantom Phoenix – Less damage than Daedalus Stormbow but provides better accuracy.

Guns

Guns share many advantages bows have in that they offer piercing and can fight at range. All guns should utilize Crystal Bullets as they work especially well on Skeletron Prime. Here are the guns players should consider using.

  • Onyx Blaster
  • Clockwork Assault Rifle
  • Megashark – If player has defeated The Destroyer

Magic

Magic users have to be a little more tactical in this fight than other classes. While they have access to magic with helpful effects like Ichor or Frostburn, they typically deal less damage. The right path is using a combination of weapons in battle. Here are the ones Magic users should consider.

  • Crystal Serpent – Best choice all around as it functions similar to Crystal Bullets.
  • Sky Fracture
  • Meteor Staff – Easier to obtain
  • Golden Ichor – Good opening weapon to inflict Ichor before switching to something else.
  • Flower of Frost – Inflicts Frostburn
  • Rainbow Rod – Less damage but projectiles have homing and piercing.

Melee

Melee builds have powerful weapons that often deal piercing and work really well against Skeletron Prime. The catch is that they have to fight close which can sometimes put them in range of the Primme Cannon. Here are some weapons to help mitigate this problem and bring the boss down quickly.

  • Hel-Fire/Amarok/Yelets – All powerful Yo-Yos to offer ranged attacks.
  • Shadowflame Knife – Launches projectiles that ricochet around.
  • Ice Sickle – Spinning projectiles.
  • Light Discs – After defeating The Destroyer.

Summoner

Summoners surprisingly have a number of powerful options for this fight. Piercing and certain summons can be tricky so Summoners should focus on high damage for the most part. Here’s a few weapon choices players should look into.

  • Sanguine Staff – Great tracking and damage make it the best choice all around.
  • Blade Staff – Fast attack speed.
  • Spider Staff – Spiders can hang onto unmoving limbs to damage them.
  • Queen Spider Staff – Great for farming if player has high resistance and healing.

2 Handy Accessories

Terraria Cobalt Shield

Typically accessories that offer defense and health regeneration are ideal for this battle. The player will spend most of their time using the platforms to avoid Prime Cannon bombs. While avoiding limbs is ideal it isn’t always possible, especially if Skeletron Prime is spinning. Here are some helpful Accessories to increase the player’s odds.

  • Emblem – Great for increasing damage.
  • Charm of Myths – Increase health regeneration and reduce potion cooldown.
  • Cobalt Shield – Immunity to knockback.

1 Final Thoughts

Terraria Skeletron Prime Fighting Arena

It cannot be stressed enough that the Arena negates one of Skeletron Prime’s attacks entirely. Because of this players should seriously consider summoning him intentionally with Mechanical Skulls. Once he’s defeated he will not appear when an Alter is destroyed so he will not be summoned accidentally.

It’s also common for players to get sidetracked attacking the limbs and find the fight become impossible when morning comes. Aside from the Prime Laser all other limbs are optional. Piercing is very important to ensure damage is steadily being applied to the Head throughout the fight while dealing with the limbs.

Next: 15 Games To Play If You Like Terraria