Skeleton King

Skeleton King is a 4-Elixir Champion troop first unlocked in Arena 16 (Executioner's Kitchen). He's a tanky melee attacker whose hits splash slightly, so he can tag more than one nearby enemy at once, and he requires King Level 14 to unlock in the first place. His Soul Summoning ability (2 Elixir) draws on souls collected from any troop that dies on the battlefield while he's deployed, letting him burst out a wave of 6 to 16 fast, one-hit-kill Skeletons around himself — the more souls banked, the bigger the wave. Since a mid-2026 Supercell rework, that ability can only be triggered once per battle instead of recharging on a cooldown, so players now have to pick the moment to use it carefully rather than reusing it repeatedly.

• Skeleton King is a Champion-rarity, 4-Elixir ground troop unlocked in Arena 16, Executioner's Kitchen, and requires reaching King Level 14 to add to a deck.

• Skeleton King debuted on 27 October 2021 as one of the first three Champion-rarity cards ever added to Clash Royale, alongside Archer Queen and Golden Knight, when the Champion rarity itself was introduced.

• At level 11 (tournament standard), Skeleton King has 2,298 hitpoints and swings for 204 damage every 1.6 seconds (about 127 damage per second), with an unusually fast first hit that lands after only 0.3 seconds instead of waiting a full attack cycle.

• His Soul Summoning ability costs 2 Elixir and taps a pool of 'souls' collected from any troop — his own or the opponent's — that dies anywhere on the battlefield while he's alive; with zero souls banked he spawns 6 Skeletons, scaling up to 16 Skeletons at 10 or more souls, trickling in one at a time over roughly a second.

• Each summoned Skeleton has only 1 hitpoint (dies to any hit, including Zap-tier spells) but hits fast — dealing 81 damage per hit every 1.1 seconds, about 73 damage per second, at Fast movement speed — making the wave good for chip damage and swarming light targets rather than surviving return fire.

• As of Supercell's mid-2026 Champion/Hero ability rework, Soul Summoning can only be activated once per battle rather than recharging on a cooldown for repeated use — Skeleton King is one of the Champions affected, since only Boss Bandit kept a reusable ability.

• An October 2025 balance update shrank the radius Soul Summoning spawns its Skeletons in, from 4 tiles down to 3.5, making it a bit easier for opponents to get clear of the wave before it can surround them.

• Skeleton King's regular attack has a small splash radius, so a single swing can catch more than one nearby enemy at once — useful for grinding down cheap swarm units like Skeleton Army or Goblin Gang while he's parked on defense.