Skeleton
| Skeleton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Monster |
| Location | The Mines |
| Floors | 71-79 |
| HP | 140 |
| Damage | 10 |
| Defence | 1 |
| Speed | 2 |
| XP | 8 |
The Skeleton guards the icy castle at the bottom of the frozen Mines, the short stretch of corridors and stonework that leads into the lava floors. It comes at the farmer to hit by collision like most monsters, but it also throws bones from a distance, and those bones pass straight through the rock that would stop anything else. That gives it reach no other monster at that depth has. Fifty skeletons of any kind complete the Adventurer's Guild bounty and Gil pays it with the Skeleton Mask. The bones they leave behind feed a Bone Mill, which turns them into fertiliser, and one in twenty five drops the Bone Sword outright.
Behaviour
A Skeleton has two attacks and the fight is about denying the second one. Up close it does damage by walking into the farmer, which is ordinary enough. At range it throws a bone, and the throw ignores walls and ore, so standing behind cover does nothing.
The counter is pressure. Hitting a Skeleton as soon as it is in reach interrupts the throw, because taking damage cancels the animation, so a farmer who keeps closing never faces the ranged attack at all. A Skeleton that is given room will use it.
Thrown bones can be dealt with two ways. Stepping out of the line works, and so does swinging at the bone itself: any weapon that deals damage destroys one in the air. That second option is the useful one in a corridor where there is nowhere to step.
The castle floors are narrow, which cuts both ways. There is less space to dodge in, but a corridor also means fewer angles for bones to arrive from, and a Skeleton pinned in a doorway cannot back off to throw.
Location
Skeletons hold the last stretch of the frozen Mines, the castle floors in the seventies that sit between the ice and the lava. The look of that section is deliberate: stone walls and corridors instead of open cave, with Dust Sprites, Frost Bats, Frost Jellies and Ghosts still around from the floors above.
Those floors are also where the Adventurer's Guild opens up its better stock. Reaching the middle of the seventies is what puts the Bone Sword on Marlon's shelf, so a farmer who has met Skeletons at all can buy the weapon they drop.
Riding the elevator to a floor in the seventies, clearing it and travelling back to the mine entrance resets the layout, which makes the bounty a matter of repeated short trips rather than one long descent. Skeletons die quickly for monsters at that depth, so fifty is among the gentler bounties on Gil's list.
Drops
Bone Fragments come off half of all Skeletons and often several at once, which makes a castle floor the cheapest bone supply in the game. Five fragments in a Bone Mill come out as Quality Fertiliser, Speed-Gro, Deluxe Speed-Gro or Tree Fertiliser, so a mine run turns straight into a season of soil work. Ten fragments satisfy one option of the Adventurer's Bundle in the Boiler Room, and fragments craft the Skull Brazier and the Dark Sign. The Island Trader on Ginger Island takes two for a Taro Tuber and thirty for the Banana Pudding recipe.
The Bone Sword drops on about one kill in twenty five. It is a reasonable blade for a farmer still working through the frozen floors, and finding one saves the several thousand gold Marlon charges for the same weapon. The chest on floor ninety can hold one as well, if remixed mine rewards were chosen when the save was started.
The Prehistoric Scapula is the rare prize. It is a Museum artefact, and donating it together with the Prehistoric Skull and the Skeletal Hand earns a piece of the Sloth Skeleton display for the farmhouse. It can also go into a Bone Mill like any other bone, so a farmer who already owns the Museum copy need not keep it.
A Diamond or a Prismatic Shard appears on the longest odds.
Items this monster can drop when it is defeated, with the chance of each.
| Item | Image | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Bone Fragment | 
|
50% |
| Bone Fragment |
|
40% |
| Bone Fragment |
|
20% |
| Bone Sword | 
|
4% |
| Prehistoric Scapula | 
|
0.5% |
| Diamond | 
|
0.05% |
| Prismatic Shard | 
|
0.05% |
Notes
The Skeleton Mask that Gil hands over has no combat bonus; the description simply notes that its red eyes glow. Marlon sells a second once the first has been claimed.
Skeleton Mages and the dangerous sort of Skeleton count towards the same fifty, which matters for anyone who switched the Shrine of Challenge on and would rather not switch it off again.
Monster Musk doubles how many monsters wait on a floor, and Skeletons are a good target for it: they are quick to kill, their bones stack, and the castle floors are small enough that a doubled population still fits in a corridor.
All Monsters
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
| Name | Image | Location | HP | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armored Bug | 
|
Skull Cavern | 1 | 8 |
| Armored Bug (dangerous) | 
|
Skull Cavern | 250 | 20-27 |
| Bats | 
|
The Mines & Skull Cavern | 24, 36, 80, 300,; 268, 277 | 06, 07, 15, 30, 13, 14 |
| Blue Squid | 
|
The Dangerous Mines | 310 | 18 |
| Bug | 
|
The Mines | 1 | 8 |
| Bug (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 250 | 15-16 |
| Carbon Ghost | 
|
Skull Cavern; The Dangerous Mines | 190 | 25 |
| Cave Fly | 
|
The Mines | 22 | 6 |
| Cave Fly (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 266 | 13-15 |
| Duggy | 
|
The Mines | 40 | 6 |
| Duggy (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 280 | 8 |
| Dust Sprite | 
|
The Mines | 40 | 6 |
| Dust Sprite (dangerous) | 
|
The Mines | 280 | 13-15 |
| Dwarvish Sentry | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 300 | 18 |
| False Magma Cap | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 290 | 15 |
| Ghost | 
|
The Mines | 96 | 10 |
| Grub | 
|
The Mines | 20 | 4 |
| Grub (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 265 | 12-13 |
| Haunted Skull | 
|
Quarry Mine; The Mines random dungeon floors | 160 | 15 |
| Haunted Skull (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 310 | 19-26 |
| Hot Head | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 215 | 18 |
| Iridium Crab | 
|
Skull Cavern | 240 | 15 |
| Iridium Golem | 
|
Wilderness Farm | 430 | 15 |
| Lava Crab | 
|
The Mines | 120 | 15 |
| Lava Crab (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 340 | 19-26 |
| Lava Lurk | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 220 | 15 |
| Magma Duggy | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 380 | 16 |
| Magma Sparker | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 310 | 15 |
| Magma Sprite | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 220 | 15 |
| Metal Head | 
|
The Mines | 40 | 15 |
| Metal Head (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 280 | 19-26 |
| Mummy | 
|
Skull Cavern | 260 | 30 |
| Mummy (dangerous) | 
|
Skull Cavern | 445 | 38-55 |
| Mutant Fly | 
|
Mutant Bug Lair, Skull Cavern | 66 | 12 |
| Mutant Grub | 
|
Mutant Bug Lair | 100 | 12 |
| Pepper Rex | 
|
Skull Cavern | 300 | 15 |
| Putrid Ghost | 
|
The Dangerous Mines | 500 | 25 |
| Rock Crab | 
|
The Mines | 30 | 5 |
| Rock Crab (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 272 | 13 |
| Royal Serpent | 
|
Skull Cavern | 150 + (50 × tail segments) | 32-48 |
| Serpent | 
|
Skull Cavern | 150 | 23 |
| Shadow Brute | 
|
The Mines | 160 | 18 |
| Shadow Brute (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 370 | 22-32 |
| Shadow Shaman | 
|
The Mines | 80 | 17 |
| Shadow Shaman (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 310 | 21-30 |
| Shadow Sniper | 
|
The Mines | 300 | 18 |
| Skeleton | 
|
The Mines | 140 | 10 |
| Skeleton (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines, Quarry Mine | 655 | 16-18 |
| Skeleton Mage | 
|
Dangerous Mines, Quarry Mine | 355 | 20-25 |
| Slimes | 
|
The Mines, Skull Cavern, Quarry Mine, Secret Woods, Tiger Slime Grove, and Volcano Dungeon | Varies | Varies |
| Spider | 
|
The Mines (Shrine ON) | 200 | 15 |
| Squid Kid | 
|
The Mines | 1 | 18 |
| Squid Kid (dangerous) | 
|
The Dangerous Mines; Skull Cavern | 250 | 22-32 |
| Stick Bug | 
|
The Dangerous Mines | 700 | 20 |
| Stone Golem | 
|
The Mines | 45 | 5 |
| Stone Golem (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 283 | 13 |
| Truffle Crab | 
|
The Farm | 30 | 5 |
| Wilderness Golem | 
|
The Farm | 30 | 5 |