Skeleton Mage
| Skeleton Mage | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Monster |
| Location | Dangerous Mines, Quarry Mine |
| Floors | 71-79 |
| HP | 355 |
| Damage | 20-25 |
| Defence | 2 |
| Speed | 2 |
| XP | 8 |
The Skeleton Mage is the spellcaster of the castle floors, and the only monster in the Mines that can freeze a farmer in place. It casts two things from a distance: a white bolt that travels in a straight line and simply hurts, and a blue one that trembles as it flies and leaves the farmer paralysed for a couple of seconds. Two seconds is nothing until a dangerous Skeleton is walking into range, at which point it is the whole fight. Mages also close in to deal contact damage like their plain cousins, so the fight happens at both ranges at once. They count towards the fifty skeletons Gil pays for with the Skeleton Mask, and they are among the handful of monsters that can be found in the Quarry Mine on any ordinary day.
Behaviour
Watch the hands. A Skeleton Mage raises its arms just before it casts, and that is the only warning either spell gives. The window is enough to step out of the line, because both spells travel straight and neither follows the farmer.
The two spells call for different responses. The white bolt is plain damage and can be eaten if the trade is worth it. The blue one is the dangerous cast, because it brings the Frozen debuff: speed drops to almost nothing for about two seconds, which is long enough for anything nearby to close the distance and start hitting. Being frozen in an empty corridor is a nuisance; being frozen next to a Skeleton is a trip home.
The working pattern is dodge, close, hit, withdraw. Step out of the line as the hands go up, cover the ground while the spell is in flight, land a few swings, and back out before the arms rise again. Standing still and trading is a losing exchange because the mage can cast from further away than a sword can reach.
If the freeze does land, the advice is to keep swinging rather than to try to move. Movement is what the debuff takes away; the weapon still works, and a swing is what keeps anything else from closing while it lasts.
A Basilisk Paw removes the freeze from the fight entirely, which reduces a Skeleton Mage to a slow archer.
Location
Skeleton Mages hold the castle floors of the Mines, the stretch in the seventies where the ice gives way to stone corridors, and they appear there while the mine is in its dangerous state. That state begins with Mr. Qi's Danger In The Deep order from the board in Qi's Walnut Room, and is afterwards switched on and off at the Shrine of Challenge on the bottom floor, with each change arriving the next morning.
The Quarry Mine is the other home, and it needs no order at all. Its one long floor splits, and behind the boulders on the side path stand Skeleton Mages and dangerous Skeletons, with Coal in the rock around them. Getting through takes the right pickaxe. Because the Quarry Mine resets at the end of the day rather than when the farmer leaves, it works as a single reliable stop each morning rather than a floor to farm in a loop.
Haunted Skulls and Copper and Iron Slimes fill out the rest of the Quarry Mine, and the Grim Reaper statue at the far end of the main path holds the Golden Scythe.
Drops
Bone Fragments come off half of all Skeleton Mages and frequently in stacks, which makes a mage worth killing even when it is not in the way. Five fragments in a Bone Mill come out as Quality Fertiliser, Speed-Gro, Deluxe Speed-Gro or Tree Fertiliser, which is the cheapest fertiliser pipeline on the farm. A handful of fragments also builds a Skull Brazier for light or a Dark Sign for the yard, ten of them answer one option of the Boiler Room's Adventurer's Bundle, and on Ginger Island the Island Trader swaps two for a Taro Tuber and thirty for the Banana Pudding recipe.
The Bone Sword drops on about one kill in twenty five. By the time Skeleton Mages are being met it is rarely an upgrade, but Marlon sells the same blade for several thousand gold, so a dropped one is worth the inventory slot.
The Prehistoric Scapula is the rare one and belongs in the Museum. Donated together with the Prehistoric Skull and the Skeletal Hand it earns a piece of the Sloth Skeleton for the farmhouse, and spares can be milled into fertiliser like any other bone.
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 ends the skeleton bounty is cosmetic, so the fifty kills are chased for the reward list and the Protector of the Valley achievement. Marlon sells a spare afterwards.
Because mages, ordinary Skeletons and dangerous Skeletons all count towards the same fifty, the Quarry Mine is the easiest place to make steady progress without touching the Shrine of Challenge at all.
Monster Musk doubles how many monsters wait on a floor. With Skeleton Mages that means more spells crossing the room at once, and two freezes landing back to back is how a comfortable floor turns dangerous.
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 |