Witch/Skeleton

For Skeletons spawned by Skeleton Spells, see Skeleton Spell/Skeleton.

For Skeletons spawned by Drop Ships in the Builder Base, see Drop Ship/Skeleton.

For Skeletons that appear in the Clan Capital, see Skeleton/Clan Capital.

"This undead creature poses little threat by itself. But it never fights alone, since the Witch can summon an endless horde of Skeletons against your enemy!"

Skeleton

Summary

Skeletons are sub-troops spawned by the Witch. They are similar to Barbarians in attack damage, but have lower health and move faster.
Skeletons have no preferred target when attacking; they will simply attack the closest building. However, once they become aware of enemy Clan Castle troops, Heroes, or Skeleton Trap skeletons (either by being attacked themselves or by being near another friendly troop under attack), they will leave their previously targeted building and instead engage the enemy troops. Once all of the nearby enemy troops are defeated, the Skeletons will proceed to attack the nearest structure.
They can be a good tank for single damage defense buildings in large numbers, but are vulnerable to splash damage.
Skeletons are considered to take up 1 housing space for the purpose of determining its interactions with the Spring Trap, Tornado Trap and Clone Spell.
Skeletons are unable to trigger Traps, nor can they cause the Clan Castle to activate and deploy its troops (if any). However, they can be harmed by traps if another troop triggers them. Skeletons are able to trigger Hidden Teslas even though they are undetectable by traps.

Strategy

Offensive

Try to avoid splash damaging defenses (like Wizard Towers and Mortars) and other multi-targeting defenses (like Inferno Towers set to multi-target) to keep your Skeletons alive.
Skeletons can act as a "bone shield" to Witches, protecting them from other defenses.
- However, due to having a melee range, they can enter the Mortar's or Scattershot's blind spot, rendering the Witches vulnerable to those defenses.

Defensive

Witches in your Clan Castle spawns Skeletons to assist in defense. In large numbers (spawned by multiple Witches), Skeletons can prove to be overwhelming to attackers.
Single-target defenses like Cannons can be overwhelmed by Skeletons (especially if the single-target defense cannot one-shot the Skeleton), which means splash-damaging defenses like the Mortar, the Wizard Tower and the Bomb Tower are your defense's best chance of eliminating hordes of these sub-troops. Have Mortars and Wizard Towers as high-leveled as possible; they can be able to one-shot Skeletons and this leaves the Witch vulnerable to the defenses. Inferno Towers set to multi-target mode are also good at eliminating a few Skeletons at a time and can also target the Witch.
Skeletons cannot target air troops, so an army of Minions or a Dragon inside the Clan Castle can easily clear them.
While they cannot activate traps, they are still affected from them. Bombs and Giant Bombs can wipe out an army of Skeletons, provided that another troop activates them. Bomb Towers' damage on destruction is equally capable in wiping out Skeletons, and can also activate against Skeletons without needing another troop to do so.

History

The Skeletons were added in the July 29, 2013 update.
The December 16 2015 maintenance break reduced the Skeleton's HP.
The March 21, 2016 "Bowler" update reduced the Skeleton's HP and made it so that Skeletons no longer trigger traps.
The June 11, 2018 "Town Hall 12" update made it so that Witch at all levels now spawn 4 Skeletons at a time (max summoned skeletons unchanged).

Gallery

Trivia

Like the Lava Pup, the Skeleton's stats or appearance do not change when the Witch is upgraded.
You can have a maximum of 644 Skeletons fighting for you on the battlefield at any one time. Of these, 392 Skeletons come from 28 maximum-level Witches (25 from fully upgraded Army Camps and 3 from a level 8 Clan Castle) that spawn 14 Skeletons each, and the other 252 come from 14 max-level Skeleton Spells (11 from your spell storage and the other 3 donated into the same Clan Castle), that spawn 18 Skeletons each.
- If you consider the time period when the temporary Skeleton Barrel troop was available, this number is increased to 1,293 Skeletons, from 60 Skeleton Barrels in a Town Hall 13 army (spawning 15 Skeletons each, for a total of 900), three maxed Clan Castle Witches (14 each, for a total of 42), three maxed Clone Spells to clone 18 more Skeleton Barrels (for 270 more Skeletons) and nine more Skeletons in the remaining cloning capacity, and 4 maxed Skeleton Spells (which spawn 18 each, for a total of 72).
When you have a Witch in your Clan Castle, and it creates Skeletons during a defense, the Skeletons that were made do not go back into the Clan Castle.
The Skeleton appears to be identical to the Skeletons that are spawned via the Skeleton Trap when set to ground mode.
- Unlike the Skeleton Trap's Skeletons, they do not have a skull next to their health bar, but instead have the player’s respective clan‘s badge, like all other Clan Castle reinforcements.

Comparisons

The Skeleton is the only sub-troop to have more than one parent troop, the Witch, the Drop Ship and the temporary Skeleton Barrel.
As one of the six sub-troops (the others being the Golemite, Lava Pup, Yetimite, Big Boy and Ice Pup), it cannot be trained, placed or donated directly via the Clan Castle (although the parent Troops can).
The Skeleton is one of the 13 units to appear in a Scenery, the others being the Barbarian, Goblin, Balloon, Hog Rider, Barbarian King, P.E.K.K.A, Baby Dragon, Archer Queen, Grand Warden, Dragon Rider, Cannon Cart, and the Party Wizard. In its case, it appears in Pirate Scenery and the 9th Clashiversary Scenery.
The Skeleton is one of the two sub-troops that is summoned rather than spawned upon a certain health reached (the other being the Big Boy) by its parent troop, and one of the two sub-troops that is not a smaller version of its parent troop.
The Skeleton is one of the three permanent troops you cannot level up, the other ones being the Lava Pups and Bats.
The Skeleton is the only sub-troop that can be spawned by a troop, a spell and a trap,

Preferred Target	Attack Type	Movement Speed	Attack Speed	Range
None	Melee (Ground Only)	24	1s	0.4 tiles

Level	Damage per Second	Damage per Attack	Hitpoints
1	25	25	30

Home Village Army
Elixir Troops	Barbarian • Archer • Giant • Goblin • Wall Breaker • Balloon • Wizard • Healer • Dragon • P.E.K.K.A • Baby Dragon • Miner • Electro Dragon • Yeti (Yetimite) • Dragon Rider
Dark Elixir Troops	Minion • Hog Rider • Valkyrie • Golem (Golemite) • Witch (Skeleton) • Lava Hound (Lava Pup) • Bowler • Ice Golem • Headhunter
Super Troops	Super Barbarian • Super Archer • Super Giant • Sneaky Goblin • Super Wall Breaker • Rocket Balloon • Super Wizard • Super Dragon • Inferno Dragon • Super Minion • Super Valkyrie • Super Witch (Big Boy) • Ice Hound (Ice Pup) • Super Bowler
Heroes	Barbarian King • Archer Queen • Grand Warden • Royal Champion
Elixir Spells	Lightning Spell • Healing Spell • Rage Spell • Jump Spell • Freeze Spell • Clone Spell • Invisibility Spell
Dark Spells	Poison Spell • Earthquake Spell • Haste Spell • Skeleton Spell (Skeleton) • Bat Spell (Bat)
Siege Machines	Wall Wrecker • Battle Blimp • Stone Slammer • Siege Barracks • Log Launcher • Flame Flinger
Pets	L.A.S.S.I • Electro Owl • Mighty Yak • Unicorn

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