Skeleton Army

Skeleton Army is a 3-Elixir Epic troop that swarms the battlefield with 15 individually weak Skeletons the moment it's deployed. Each Skeleton hits fast and moves fast, so the whole mob can close distance and start attacking almost immediately, but every Skeleton dies in one hit from almost anything, making the card a glass cannon that lives or dies on how it's matched up. Used well, it either overwhelms a lone melee or single-target troop by surrounding it, or punishes a big push by chipping a tank down while the tank's support gets bogged down fighting skeletons one at a time. Its one real weakness is area damage: any splash spell or splash troop dropped on top of the pile can wipe out most or all of it for a big Elixir profit against you, so timing and placement matter more with this card than with almost any other swarm.

• Skeleton Army is a 3 Elixir Epic troop, unlocked in Arena 6 (P.E.K.K.A.'s Playhouse), that deploys a swarm of 15 Skeletons in a scattered formation around the deploy point rather than as a single unit.

• At tournament standard (level 11) each Skeleton has 81 hitpoints and deals 81 damage per hit, attacking every 1.1 seconds for roughly 73 damage per second, with a fast first strike (0.5 sec) and short melee range.

• Skeleton Army first became available on 4 January 2016 as part of Clash Royale's limited regional soft-launch (iOS only, in a handful of countries including Canada, Australia, and the Nordics) — the game's full worldwide release didn't happen until 2 March 2016.

• Skeleton Army is extremely vulnerable to area/splash damage — spells like Zap, The Log, Arrows, Fireball, and Poison, or splash troops like Valkyrie and Bomber, can wipe out most or all of the 15 Skeletons in one hit for a big Elixir trade in the defender's favor.

• Despite its splash weakness, Skeleton Army is a strong answer to slower, high-HP single-target melee troops that lack splash damage — such as Mini P.E.K.K.A., P.E.K.K.A., Prince, and Lumberjack — when the whole swarm is dropped directly on top of the target so it gets surrounded and taken down before it can hit back effectively.

• Skeleton Army's Skeletons attack noticeably slower than they used to — an official balance update in October 2025 slowed each Skeleton's hit speed from once every 1.0 seconds to once every 1.1 seconds (a 10% slowdown), part of a broader effort to keep basic Skeletons as a distraction card rather than a damage dealer.

• EvolutionThe Evolved Skeleton Army adds General Gerry, a tougher Skeleton with his own small shield who attacks faster (every 1 second instead of 1.1) and from a longer reach than the rest of the swarm, and it takes 2 battles (cycles) of using the card to charge the Evolution.

• Evolutionwhen one of the Evolved Skeleton Army's regular Skeletons dies, it leaves behind an invulnerable shadow that can't be targeted or killed by troops or towers (only spells can remove it) — but every shadow dies instantly the moment General Gerry himself is defeated, so focusing him down is the real way to clear the swarm.