PC How to beat skeletron? (Expert)

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can beat skeletron? My current stuff:
Spectre Boots, Horseshoe balloon, Cthulu Shield, Worm scarf, and band of regen.
For a mount, I can use either honeyed goggles or slimey saddle.
For armor, I have 3 sets:
Molten,
Fossil,
or meteor.
For weapons, I have minishark, fiery greatsword, molten fury (bow), bee gun, and lots of bone knives.
For healing, I have lots of bottle honey.
I have an arena, it is an arena made of 6 rows of platforms, however one of the platforms extends quite far in case I need to rush.

Can anyone help me beat him?
 
I haven't beat him yet, but I would highly reccomend buffs. Ironskin, Regeneration, Endurance, and Swiftness should all be helpful to you.
 
Didn't beat it as well. A high damage weapon is recommended, because the Expert Mode Skeletron has much more defense making weapons like the Minishark not very useful.
 
What you want is an arena, a lot of mobility, and a weapon which you can use from a distance, preferrably one which pierces. And defense would be nice aswell. I did it using Molten Armour, a Space Gun, the Boomstick, the Starfury and a Crimson Rod (Equipment: Lightning Boots, Lava Waders, Blue Horseshoe Balloon, Nature's Gift, Shield of Cthulu, Ruby Hook), but I'm sure with some effort and practice you can do it with Meteorite Armour and a Space Gun alone.

The trick is that, with losing a hand, Skeletron's armour decreases. With both hands alive he's pretty much a Dungeon Guardian (seen from Early Game standpoint, Starfury's star still hits for 20dmg), but with both gone you can reliably inflict 30 damage with weapons like the Boomstick.

Once Skeletron loses a hand, he'll start shooting skulls. With one hand gone, they seem to fly in a spiral pattern, homing towards you. With both hands gone, the homing effect is stronger, and so is the curve. Watch out for these and keep your distance to Skeletron at all times. He won't shoot them while spinning.

His spin is incredibly fast at times. Dodging him with Hook and Shield of Cthulu is recommended, as he'll hit you for 55 damage even when you have 30 defense.

For an arena, few layers of platforms should be enough. The larger the arena the easier the fight will get (Citation needed).

Minishark can work if you can aim for the hands. I prefer a mix between Starfury, Boomstick and Space Gun to attack, as I won't waste a lot of ammo and can change my playstyle according to where Skeletron is and when he's going to spin.

I originally wanted to get the Bee Gun to fight him, but can't provide any information on how effective it is, since I haven't beaten the Queen yet. With the accessory which the Queen Bee drops, and due to the fact the Bees home in on their target, it might be useful.

That's about all the strategy I gathered about this boss. Good luck!
 
Food buff. Archery, Hunter, Ironskin, Night Owl, Life Regen, Shine, Swiftness, Thorns. I simply made one platform like 90 long, and just used that going back and forth to dodge. When his head hits you it freaking HURTS.
 
@Enjl, what armor were you using? Also, I have gravitation potions, do you think those would be useful?
As previously stated. I used Molten Armour. Gravitation Potions might work for the fist phase, but will just disorient you as soon as you killed one of his hands. I recommend Featherfall, as you can hold down to fall at regular speed and hold up to evade his attacks from below, while charging away with your Shield of Cthulu.
 
What I did was I made pumpkin pie cause of the 45mins, I used mana regeneration, iron skin, and heath regen potion. Then I had full molten armor and mostly used the molten fury bow and when I killed the two hands I used my water bolt book I'd say cause when you defeat the hands it loses its defense ALOT of defense. Oh and I also made a really long platform to run on. I believe for the healing and equipment I used Worm Scarf, Cthulu Shield, Lucky Horseshoe, regen band and the gel thingy forgot what that was called but for the healing I used a campfire, heart lantern, and healing potion. So ya, I think the only thing you need is food for well fed thats the only thing I needed.
 
My best advice for Skeletron is to build the proper arena first. What I found worked best for me was starting with your standard highway. Fluff it up with, say, 2 layers of wooden platforms as high as you can reach for about 75-100 blocks. From there, build a small section of roof about as high as you can reach from whatever is going to be your top platform.

The only real important thing so far is that roof. That roof will be your life-line when he starts launching homing skulls. I would recommend building a staircase both directions at least as tall as the player right in the middle of the roof so when you run around the roof to avoid him, if he starts shooting again you won't take what'll be an easy shot for him.

With that, if you want to make things really easy, build a staircase of platforms on the side away from the dungeon entrance going up. Go up half a screen, build that platform out a small bit in case you need it, then continue the staircase up going back towards the dungeon. This is to help you make a big circle around Skeletron as he spins and rushes you, so you don't have to rely quite so much on proper timing of a second jump.

As for gear, the shield of cthulu has never failed me, barring that first boss fight ever with it equipped, heh. The main thing about Skeletron, though, is that the only real way to get away from him once he's on you is to move vertically; jump or fall. Don't ever try to dash and don't even bother running because you won't work up enough speed for it to matter before he kills you. Jump or fall. But with this simple arena, he should never even get the chance to hit you with his skull.

Definitely use the molten set for the armor. It's expert mode so armor is far more important.

You need boots and a double-jump item for obvious reasons. A grav potion can be good but watch the fall damage and don't get yourself trapped under the roof while trying to escape with it.

The shark tooth necklace is only good if you use really fast-firing weapons. The best thing to do is get the bee's knees from queen bee and pair it with the hive pack, also from her. This weapon finishes expert pre-hardmode and lasts a little way into expert hardmode.

Of course in expert mode always make use of buff potions. Ironskin, regen, endurance, wrath/other (depending on what you got), archery for the bee's knees, and of course swiftness isn't a bad way to go as well and of course eat some food because it's expert mode (pumpkin farms are really easy, quick, and cheap to make too, but bass are more than plentiful). Stock up on honeyfin as well!

The last accessory is up to you, if you have the worm scarf use it, though the goal here is to not get hit ;)

My advice for fighting any boss for the first time is to first learn to survive, then learn to damage while surviving.
 
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I suck at twitch games, but I still beat Skeletron in Expert.

Weapon - Bees Knees, potions - the usual suspects. Accessories defensive, plus minions if you like.

The trick - build railcart loop with bouncy buffers at the end - Reason being Skeletron moves fast, but the cart can move faster - biggest risk is leaving him behind and the coward might depspawn ;-)
 
My personal strategy: Beat the Wall of Flesh first with Unreal Molten Fury/Jester Arrows and Swiftness/Ironskin/Regeneration/Well Fed/Archery buffs and Hermes Boots

Proceed to beat Skeletron with Adamantite gear
 
This is the most effective by far for me: Molten fury, Frostburn arrows, Crimtane armor (or molten for extra defense), Regeneration, Archery, Ironskin, Swiftness and Endurance potions. I didn't have time to set up an arena but i still managed to kill him!
 
If you have the bee gun, you probably have a hive pack and beenades. Put on the hive pack and start vomiting bees, switching to nades when you run out of mana. Of course, you are going to want buffs; in normal you can get away without buffs, but in expert you need them. Endurance, regen (health always, mana if using bee gun) Swiftness, Iron skin and anything that buffs damage is what you need.
 
1. When i was about to summon Skeletron, i got a message "An evil presence is watching you..." and i was forced to fight the eye before skeletron.
2. I've ignored all the tips about the arena, and i've still beated him with:
Mining Helmet / Ancient Shadow Armor / Ebonwood Greaves as my armor and Enchanted Sword as my weapon. I've also used the Ebonwood Bow (or something like that) with Unholy Arrows.
Also used a yoyo from time to time.
But, that was on normal mode.
 
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