Clash Royale Giant Skeleton Strategy Guide

Clash Royale Giant Skeleton Strategy Guide by RotomGuy

As a tank, Giant Skeleton is by far the most underused out of the lot. I swear, even Lava Hound sees more usage than our fuzzy hatted friend. But the Giant Skeleton can be an extremely punishing troop if used correctly, thanks to his ability to drop a bomb when he dies! So simple, yet so effective.

Now, it is of course necessary to give a sufficient sp00k warning for this post. If you are easily frightened, faint of heart or prone to intense spookage, read no further.

Giant Skeleton: A Not So Giant Introduction

The Giant Skeleton’s mechanic of dropping an explosive bomb upon dying isn’t actually unique to him. Balloons drop bombs upon death and the Giant’s explosion is basically the same thing. However, these are only extras for these cards. The Giant Skeleton is built around his death damage and as such, most of this guide will be talking about said death damage.

At Tournament Levels (4), the Giant Skeleton has 2660 Hitpoints allowing for him to take a nice amount of punishment. However, a not so positive side of this card is the damage he deals per second, being a rather poor 88. For a demonstration to show how bad this is, the Giant Skeleton cannot kill Tournament Level Goblins in one hit.

But do you know what can kill Tournament Level Goblins in one hit? His 957 points of death damage. This can kill troops like Ice Wizard, Barbarians, and leaves the Baby Dragon and Miner with enough HP to be killed by the tower. Basically, it’s a lot of damage. Utilizing this death damage is the most important part of the Giant Skeleton so that’s what i’ll be explaining today.

Strong Bones, Strong Defensive Unit

Most of the tanks, when used defensively, are used as a damage soak while smaller troops pick the attackers off. The Giant Skeleton is used as both. The Giant Skeleton has the lowest HP out of all the tanks at equivalent levels for his cost, so his damage soaking abilities are not as good as the others’. Buuut, this is almost a good thing, since we want the Giant Skeleton to die. Again.

A reactive Giant Skeleton’s bomb can decimate a push, destroying basically every supportive unit in the game and putting a real dent in mini-tanks. However, this all working on the assumption that the bomb actually does hit the troops. Here I will explain how to play the Giant Skeleton against various common pushes in a way that deals the most devastation.

Giant + Support Troop

The Giant, being the rude lump of fat that he is, ignores the Giant Skeleton and pushes straight past him to the tower. This can sometimes ruin the Giant Skeleton’s death damage as he has been pushed either too close to the tower for the bomb to affect anythingbut the Giant or he could have been pushed to the side leaving some troops unaffected.

As such, the way to stop this push is to put the Giant Skeleton between the Giant and support troops. You’ll want to do this when the Giant is in a position where to reach his destination, he won’t have to walk outside of the bomb’s range. This will unfortunately allow the Giant to deal some damage to the tower so extra support like Spear Goblins may be helpful to take him down quicker.

Royal Giant + Support

This push is easier to target with the Giant Skeleton as the Royal Giant and supportive ranged troops fire from roughly the same distance. The best way to play here is by putting the Giant Skeleton on top the Royal Giant, as to push him back slightly so that he has to walk back to his old position, saving some Tower HP.

Prince + Support

This can be a particularly tough one to stop since the Prince outspeeds the bomb and putting troops down to stop the Prince from escaping stops the ranged support from walking directly to their death. The best way to play Giant Skeleton is in front when everyone is bunched together, so that the Prince has to walk across the diameter of the bomb’s explosion area.

Sometimes the opponent will play poorly and allow the troops to be bunched together after crossing the bridge, but more often or not, they’ll be a good ways apart by the time they’re all on your side. As such, using a cheap troop on top of the ranged support can bring the Prince back up.

Those were how to play against certain specific pushes, but this game has a lot of variety ^{we just don’t see much of it} and pushes can come in all forms. So here are some general defensive tips for the Giant Skeleton.

Extra Troops ONLY when everyone is in bomb range.

Sometimes if you messed up and some troops fell in front of the Giant Skeleton, you’ll want to place a distraction troop by the bomb to draw them back. However, Ranged Troops stop if troops are in their range and while you’ll draw that one extra troop back to their death, all the Ranged support will avoid the bomb.

Pushing away from towers

If a troop has locked onto your tower, then it may seem like it’s too late. I mean, the Giant Skeleton won’t blow up if he isn’t being attacked. However, if you put the Giant Skeleton on the tile directly next to the tower on the path, then he can push back troops which are locked on from the front. Now that they’re out of range, they’ll start attacking the Giant Skeleton, or in the case of tower troops only, have to walk around before continuing to attack.

Pull a Push and then Blow It Up

For some extra Elixir, you can place a distraction troop in the middle to pull front lines and then put the Giant Skeleton near the bridge. The purpose of this is stop pushes that are particularly spread out. The time the front lines spent walking to the middle will have allowed the back lines to be on your side for a good blowing… up.

It’s a Trap!

The Giant Skeleton can be used for defense, offense, and… as a distraction! You see, thanks to the death damage, a lot of players really do not want the Giant Skeleton to reach their tower. As such, they’ll use at least some of their Elixir to stop the Giant Skeleton. This is great, since you can run another push down the other lane. Balloon? Hog? RG? Mini PEKKA? There are lots of options.

After doing this once however, smarter players will catch on and not overcompensate as much. It is a good idea to bring extra spells so that you can dispatch of weaker troops, since they will be trying to defend two lanes. Elixir Collector is a helpful card for this kind of playstyle.

Doot Doot, that’s the Offensive Giant Skeleton coming to blow you up.

Giant Skeleton joins the PEKKA and Mini PEKKA for biggest distraction radius in the game. It is very, very easy to bring the Giant Skeleton away from the tower. He can be completely stopped by Skeletons and Goblins. He requires support. Here I will list possible supportive troops and how to play them.

Fire Spirits

I love these guys so much, I wrote a whole separate post about them! And for good reason. Fire Spirits behind a Giant Skeleton can eliminate this guy’s main problem, swarm units. Spear Goblins are very often used for kiting. One of the Fire Spirits can take all 3 out. And plus, they deal some extra death damage once they reach the tower too! It’s all around lots of dying.

Valkyrie

The Giant Skeleton’s health is enough to be tank, but it’s not as good as the other tanks. So giving him a bit of a buffer along with 360 degrees of strong damage for swarm troops with the Valkyrie works very nicely. Putting Giant Skeleton at the back and putting a Valkyrie in front of him just before reaching the bridge lets her tank Tower shots and lets her kill poorly placed Goblins.

Dark Prince

The Dark Prince is nice for two reasons, his splash damage and his charging ability. This charge allows him to reach distraction troops quicker than the Giant Skeleton can and will let the GS get back on track. Plus, he can push the Giant Skeleton to his destination quicker thanks to his speed. Plus, he has a shield which is nice I guess.

Guards

High damage units like the PEKKA can put an end to the Giant Skeleton relatively quickly. Luckily, Guards can help put an end to the PEKKA relatively quickly. Plus, they are decent for tanking a few tower shots.

Bomber

For maximum spookage, add even more exploding skeletons to the mix. The Bomber is a cheap ranged troop with high AoE damage to remove pesky swarm troops.

Witch

The Witch is a good helpful support unit because her skeletons are shields and offensive support too. The Giant Skeleton cannot take out units alone, but with help, they can pull through. Except against Valkyries.

And there is my write-up for the Giant Skeleton! His lack of usage can be explained by people choosing between tanks, seeing his low HP, and being deterred. However, the Giant Skeleton isn’t just a tank. He’s a death bomber. And i’m just now noticing that I seem to have a preference toward troops that kill themselves. I’ll probably talk about the X-Bow next! Ba dum tiss.