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“It's a Skeleton party in the sky, until all the balloons pop... then it's a Skeleton party on the ground!”

The Skeleton Barrel is a Common card that is unlocked from the Jungle Arena (Arena 9). It spawns a fast, single-target, building-targeting, melee, air troop with moderate hitpoints. Once it reaches a building or it is destroyed, the barrel drops, dealing area damage, inflicting knockback, and spawning seven Skeletons in a circle. It is a spiked black barrel with a white skull printed on the front tied to three team-colored balloons. A Skeleton Barrel card costs 3 Elixir to deploy.

Strategy[]

For Battle Decks with this card, click here

  • The Log, Zap, Barbarian Barrel, and the Giant Snowball are the best spells to counter the Skeletons from the Skeleton Barrel since its death damage does not deal too much damage, and these cheap spells can easily destroy all of the Skeletons for a positive Elixir Trade. The player must account for the 0.5 second animation where neither the Barrel nor the Skeletons are considered as entities; if the spell is cast during this phase it will not affect the Skeletons. Since small spells are a cheap and efficient way to clean up the Skeletons, one should consider running cards to bait these spells such as Goblin Gang, Bats, or Skeletons to stretch the opponent's counters thin.
  • Arrows also works against the Skeleton Barrel, but it is only a neutral Elixir trade compared to the 2-Elixir spells.
  • Clone is especially very effective with the Skeleton Barrel due to the clone's displacement away from the original making it very difficult or impossible to hit the Skeletons that spawn from both with only one spell. It will also push the original Skeleton Barrel slightly to the front, allowing it to connect to the Crown Tower earlier, as well as bypass certain building placements.
  • If the player does not have spells available, area damage troops can negate most of the damage down by the spawned Skeletons. In particular, Magic Archer, Executioner, Wizard and Bowler are effective at cleaning up most, if not all of the Skeletons in one or two attacks. Although it is usually a negative Elixir trade, the troops can be used in a counterattack.
    • A Magic Archer can pierce almost all the Skeletons from the Skeleton Barrel with a very precise timing. Deploy him behind your King's Tower in the same lane when the barrel's shadow is 5 tiles from the Crown Tower. If timed correctly, his arrow will hit the Skeletons as they are clumped up, leaving only one alive at most (which is easily defeated by the Crown Tower).
  • Minions can easily prevent it from connecting to the Crown Tower, minimizing the damage that the spawned Skeletons will do afterwards. Place them directly on the Skeleton Barrel's path to further lessen the chances of connecting.
  • During the 0.5 second animation time, the Skeleton Barrel can still be displaced by Tornado. This quirk means that the opponent/defender can pull a Skeleton Barrel close enough to their King's Tower to activate it. However, a few Skeletons will still aggro onto the Crown Tower and take up to a tenth of its health.
  • The Electro Spirit is a very good counter to the Skeleton Barrel, as it will chain onto all 7 Skeletons, providing a +2 Elixir trade. Note that the Spirit will not prevent Death Damage, and be careful with timing, as if you place it too early, the Spirit will target the Skeleton Barrel and not the Skeletons. It is also recommended to drop the Electro Spirit away from the Death Damage, to prevent it from being stunned from the knockback of the Skeleton Barrel. Fire Spirit can easily counter Skeleton Barrel if placed at the right time and right placement for a positive Elixir trade of 2.
  • Similar to the Goblin Barrel, the Skeletons will only spawn when the Skeleton Barrel falls to the ground and splits open. However, unlike the Goblin Barrel, the Skeleton Barrel deals area damage when the Skeletons spawn. This damage is enough to one-shot any unit with as much or less health than Spear Goblins, which prevents the opponent from preemptively deploying these types of troops at the barrel's landing point.
    • The Skeleton Barrel synergizes well with the Goblin Barrel. When used together simultaneously, it can be very difficult or even impossible for the opponent to hit the spawned units with one spell, and may possibly force them to use another spell or to counter one of the two cards inefficiently. The Skeleton Barrel can also tank a few shots for the spawned Goblins.
  • A Skeleton Barrel should almost never be ignored, as it would bring an equally levelled, fully healthy Crown Tower down below half of its hitpoints for only 3 Elixir.
  • An excellent synergy is with Ice Spirit and Zap. The Skeleton Barrel's death damage combined with an Ice Spirit will take out Goblins and Minions and with Zap, it will take out Archers and Dart Goblins. If the opponent is caught off-guard, this can inflict heavy damage to their Crown Towers. This well-synchronized combination can help protect cards such as the Hog Rider and the Lava Hound.
  • The Skeleton Barrel excels at distracting the Inferno Tower and the Inferno Dragon for a tank since the Skeleton Barrel targets buildings and drops several Skeletons which they cannot deal with independently. This can force out a card that the opponent doesn't want to play, such as a Valkyrie or Zap. However, be sure to time the tank placement; the tank may be targeted by the Inferno in the 0.5 seconds that the Skeletons do not exist, making it a less effective counter. Against the Inferno Dragon, it will also knock it back, for some extra retargeting.
  • The Skeleton Barrel has excellent synergy with Miner where the Skeleton Barrel initially tanks the Tower hits for Miner while it chips the Tower, and after the Skeleton Barrel dies, the Tower will lock onto the Miner in the 0.5 seconds that neither the barrel nor Skeletons exist (which is when the barrel is falling). Other cheap tanks such as Ice Golem and Knight can tank for the Skeletons like the Miner, however, chip damage is not as guaranteed. It can also apply pressure because the two troops are attacking the Tower from the front and the back.
  • One push is to deploy the Skeleton Barrel and Mirror it. When it reaches the Crown Tower, use Clone the Skeletons and then use Rage them. The push could be prevented using splash damage cards.
  • The Skeleton Barrel works very well with a Balloon as the Skeleton Barrel can quickly push the Balloon towards a Crown Tower thanks to its melee range and Fast move speed. To do this, tap the Balloon while hovering the Skeleton Barrel, and then tap twice quickly to deploy them. The Balloon will spawn in front of the Skeleton Barrel and immediately begin rushing the Tower. If the opponent uses knockback spells on the combo, they won't have those spells to address the Skeletons spawned by the Skeleton Barrel.
    • If the Balloon is not in hand, but is next in the card queue, you can deploy the Skeleton Barrel further back and then drop the Balloon in front of it as it approaches the bridge.
    • This is less effective when the combo is done at the edges of the Arena, as the Skeleton Barrel will move past the Balloon after pushing it halfway.
    • To counter this push, the opponent should draw the Balloon and the Skeleton Barrel away with a defensive building (eg. Tesla) and use their spells on the Skeletons when they spawn over the defensive building, allowing for a clean defense.
    • A Rocket can counter this push for a positive Elixir trade of 2. However, the Rocket's slow travel speed, coupled with the fast speed of this push, could potentially mean that it would miss either or both airborne units, so it should be used with caution.
      • Lightning is a safer counter to this push. The Lightning would severely cripple the Balloon and pop the Skeleton Barrel, allowing at most the Balloon's death damage to hit the Tower. Fireball could be a good soft counter too.
    • If the player has another sufficient anti-air card for the Balloon, the Bomb Tower can be used to specifically take out the Skeleton Barrel thanks to its high health, area damage, and ground-only targeting.
    • They can also work separately. Due to sharing similar counters, the Skeleton Barrel can be used as a bait for counters so that the Balloon can be placed afterwards in the other lane without being threatened. However, a building or Tornado can easily bring them back together.
  • The Cannon or Tombstone are the most Elixir-efficient building counters to the Skeleton Barrel, neutralizing the Skeleton Barrel for an equal Elixir trade with the help of a Crown Tower. Bomb Tower or Furnace can also work well, but would result in a negative Elixir trade if the Skeleton Barrel is the only card countered. However, the former will often stay alive to defend a few other troops and the latter's Fire Spirits can chip the Tower.
  • A risky play is to start the match with a Skeleton Barrel at the bridge. The opponent might not react in time to it and the spawned Skeletons will deal a lot of damage to the Crown Tower. Even if they react quick enough, it will still allow the user to scout the opponent's deck.
  • A smart but dangerous play is to play Electro Giant with it, as the Electro Giant will tank and can take out swarms while the Skeleton Barrel will reach the Tower and take it down quickly.
  • A Skeleton Barrel pairs well with Freeze when the opponent attempts to counter the Skeleton Barrel with a splash damage troop, such as the Wizard or Valkyrie, as you can freeze the troop and the Tower when the Skeleton Barrel pops, which will let the Skeletons do a lot of damage to the Tower and to the troop they deployed.

Statistics

Skeleton Barrel Attributes

Cost
Elixir
Speed
Speed
Range
Range
Deploy Time
Deploy Time
Target
Targets
Transport
Transport
Type
Type
Rarity
Rarity
3 Fast (90) Melee: Short (0.35) 1 sec Buildings Air Troop Common

Skeleton Container Attributes

Death Damage Splash Radius
Radius
Deploy Time
Deploy Time
Target
Targets
2 0.6 sec Air & Ground

Skeleton Attributes

Hit Speed
Damage Speed
Speed
Speed
Range
Range
Deploy Time
Deploy Time
Target
Targets
Count
Troop Count
Transport
Transport
1 sec Fast (90) Melee: Short (0.5) 0.5 sec Ground x7 Ground

Card Statistics

Level
Level
Skeleton Barrel Hitpoints
Hitpoint
Skeleton Barrel Death Damage
Death Damage
Skeleton Hitpoints
Hitpoint
Skeleton Damage
Damage
Skeleton Damage per second
DPS
1 208 52 32 32 32
2 228 57 35 35 35
3 251 62 38 38 38
4 276 69 42 42 42
5 303 75 46 46 46
6 332 83 51 51 51
7 366 91 56 56 56
8 401 100 61 61 61
9 440 110 67 67 67
10 484 121 74 74 74
11 532 133 81 81 81
12 584 146 89 89 89
13 642 160 98 98 98
14 705 176 108 108 108
15 773 193 119 119 119

Card Mastery

Type Level/Tier Objective Rewards
Damage Dealer
Damage Dealer
1 Deal a total of 75,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings 200 Skeleton Barrel cards
25 XP
2 Deal a total of 220,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings 2,000 Gold
25 XP
3 Deal a total of 370,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings 150 Gem
25 XP
Tower Tapper
Tower Tapper
1 Hit enemy Crown Towers a total of 1,400 times 3,000 Gold
100 XP
2 Hit enemy Crown towers a total of 4,000 times 200 Common Wild Card
100 XP
3 Hit enemy Crown towers a total of 7,000 times 5,000 Gold
100 XP

History[]

2017

  • The Skeleton Barrel was playable in the Mirror Challenge on 17/10/2017, before its release date, as an unintended glitch. Supercell fixed this glitch with a maintenance break.
  • On 31/10/2017, the Skeleton Barrel became obtainable by achieving 9 wins in the Halloween Draft Challenge.
  • From 11/11/2017 through 14/11/2017, the Shop had a special offer where Arena 6+ players could buy up to 6 Giant Chests at the normal price that guarantee at least 40% of the Chest's contents to be Skeleton Barrel.
  • The Skeleton Barrel card was generally released on 17/11/2017.
  • On 23/11/2017, a maintenance break, temporarily removed the Skeleton Barrel from the Touchdown mode due to a bug where scoring a touchdown did not clear flying barrels from the Arena, which break into Skeletons to score another touchdown while the opponent is unable to defend against it.
  • On 12/12/2017, the Electrifying Update, allowed the Skeleton Barrel to deal Death Damage.

2018

  • On 12/1/2018, the Skeleton Barrel was added back to the Touchdown mode, the glitch presumably fixed.
  • On 12/2/2018, a Balance Update, decreased the Skeleton Barrel's Skeletons spawned upon death to 6 (from 8).
  • On 25/4/2018, the Clan Wars Update, increased the Skeleton Barrel's Skeletons spawned upon death to 7 (from 6).
  • On 5/11/2018, a Balance Update, increased the Skeleton Barrel's death damage by 62%.

2019

2020

  • On 7/4/2020, a Balance Update, decreased its the Skeleton Barrel's hitpoints by 15%, but also increased its speed to 90 (from 60), now classified as Fast.
  • On 10/9/2020, an Optional Update, made it so that a cloned Skeleton Barrel would now function correctly.
  • On 9/12/2020, a Balance Update, decreased the Skeleton Barrel's hitpoints by 19%.

2021

  • On 7/6/2021, the Summer 2021 Update, moved the Arena to unlock the Skeleton Barrel from Builder's Workshop to Spooky Town.
  • On 27/10/2021, the Champions Update, increased the Level cap of all cards to 14 (from 13).

2022

  • On 26/10/2022, the 2022 Quarter 3 Update, moved the Arena to unlock the Skeleton Barrel from Spooky Town to Jungle Arena.

2023

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

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