Skeleton is a secret character that is only playable by transforming into him as Melting mid-run. He cannot be unlocked and cannot be started as on runs outside of NTT. Skeleton has garnered the reputation of being the most difficult character as he has multiple negative passives that may take important mutation slots to only partially offset, and the process of simply becoming Skeleton and reaching max level is an extreme challenge for itself.

This page will focus on Skeleton's tech, as well as strategies after reaching level ultra. There is a separate guide for the Unstoppable achievement, though it is also recommended to be familiar with how his abilities work here.

Skeleton's build centers around his ability blood gamble. This lets him shoot his weapon without consuming ammo, but risks taking damage. Upon reaching ultra he can reduce weapon reloads through blood gambling, putting his weapons output at very high DPS at low ammo cost despite moving around the level slowly. This makes him a sort of glass cannon character.

This page will (eventually) go in-depth with any Skeleton meta strategies as it will strongly differ from normal meta, as multiple of the best runs feature different builds. Skeleton is an obscure challenge character who is mostly played for the achievement, but has gotten some attention from the meta community over the years due to the challenge any run with him poses.

	Skeleton
	Unlock	Cannot be Unlocked
	B-Skin	No B-Skin
	Weapon	Rusty Revolver (NTT Only)
	Active	Blood Gamble
	Passive	Less HP, Speed, and Accuracy

Transformation Tech

• Melting needs to take a lethal amount of damage in a Necromancer's circle to become Skeleton.
• This is commonly done on 6-1 L0, though some meta runs will do it on 5-1 L1.
• Not a frame perfect trick or anything, as long as Melting dies while standing in the purple circle he will become Skeleton, though it easy to miss the window and requires some timing.
• Skeleton will be given a brief invincible phase to not immediately die upon transformation, but ends fairly quickly.
• Starts at 1/4 HP with 0 mutations at level 1, meaning he must level back up in order to gain mutations. There are minor differences on what sets Skeletons sees.
• On Non-Beta, Melting sees sets 1-8 by default and Skeleton will see sets 1-8 as well.
• However if Melting visits Jungle during the run it will advance the set by one, so Skeleton will start on set 2 instead and end on set 9. Taking patience on Melting does not effect Skeleton's starting set.
• On Beta, Melting sees sets 0-7 by default and Skeleton will see sets 0-7 as well.
• Jungle is a fixed set on betas so visiting Jungle 1 will be seeded regardless of Melting or Skeleton, and taking Last Wish again will always progress to the Jungle 2 set.
• Patience is also a fixed set but will always show the same mutations even if taken again as Skeleton. Normally, taking Patience will never effect Skeleton's sets.
• However if taking Patience right before skeleturning, the first set Skeleton will see will be the Patience set, and then sets 0-6 normally.
• This is not an extra mutation set, but rather bugged set ordering. If Skeleton takes Patience again it will grant him another mutation from that same set.
• Starting on 'Set 0' or 'Set 1' is the exact same thing in a vanilla run, it only matters on Daily and Weekly challenges for set manipulation.
• Crowns are similarly kept through transformation, however Crown of Destiny has layered tech of its own.
• On Non-Beta, Crown of Destiny will not grant an extra mutation at all.
• This is fixed on the Betas(2021 openbeta forwards).
• Melting will see sets 0-7 normally, and a special fixed Destiny mutation upon taking the crown.
• Skeleton will not see the Destiny set at all, but rather would normally see sets 0-8 for his 9 mutations.
• Similar to above, if Melting takes Patience right before skeleturning then Skeleton would see the Patience set first, then sets 0-7 instead.
• Weapons and ammo levels are retained through the transformation.
• Any active mutation effect will be lost after the transformation, and must be taken again to re-enable their effects.
• There are a few exceptions to this rule, though.
• Scarier Face and Open Mind applies upon level generation, meaning that Skeleton can benefit from them within that specific level only.
• Back Muscle does not immediately remove extra ammo, only when ammo pickups are interacted with will the ammo levels adjust back to normal. Little effect during a real run.
• On Non-Beta only, any tiles not used up with Hammerhead by Melting upon transforming will transfer to Skeleton. He can use these throughout any following level freely, but the number of tiles will never renew without retaking the mutation.

Abilities

• Active
• Skeleton can use blood gamble, which will let him shoot a weapon without using ammo no matter what. Normal reload time still applies.
• On 2021 beta forwards, rads will also not be consumed when gambling an ultra weapon.
• Ammoless melee cannot be blood gambled. This includes Ultra Shovel regardless of version.
• There is a chance that blood gamble will damage Skeleton for 1 HP, and the chance that he is damaged is based on the amount of ammo that the weapon uses.
• The chance of being damaged is proportional to how much ammo is gained for that ammo type from an ammo pickup.
• That means that the odds of being damaged is X/32 for bullets, X/8 for shells, X/7 for bolts, X/6 for explosives and X/10 for energy. X being the amount of ammo that weapon consumes if fired normally.
• Some weapons are guaranteed to damage Skeleton, though he'll only ever take 1 damage at a time.
• Passive
• Skeleton does not have any positive passives, but rather only downsides.
• Starts with 4 max HP, which is more than base Melting but still half that of normal mutants.
• Normal mutants speed is set to 4, Skeleton's speed only starts at 3, which significantly hinders traversal through levels.
• Extra Feet puts his speed to 3.5, which is still slower than base character speed.
• Normal mutants accuracy is set to 1 as the default, where Skeleton's accuracy is set to 1.5, which makes his accuracy worsened by one and a half times.
• Taking Eagle Eyes increases accuracy to 0.45 on Skeleton, where normal mutants get increased to 0.3.
• Thronebutt: Better Odds
• Any time blood gamble would damage Skeleton, there is a 1 in 3 chance that he will not be damaged.
• This includes weapons that are guaranteed to damage Skeleton otherwise such as Super Plasma Cannon.
• Ultra A: Redemption
• Skeleton will become Melting again and be set to 2 max HP. He will be given 8 sets of mutations to pick from, and then can pick from his usual ultras - Brain Capacity and Detachment.
• What mutation sets Melting see will be dependent on version.
• On Non-Beta, Melting will see sets 2-9 skipping set 1.
• Upon taking Melting's ultras on this version specifically, if he takes Detachment and picks his 3 mutations the game will let him pick ultras a second time. This is patched in the betas.
• Taking Detachment twice does nothing, Melting's HP will not get cut a second time nor will he get extra mutations.
• Taking Brain Capacity after taking Detachment lets Melting run both of his ultras, the only vanilla way a character can run two ultras at once.
• On the Betas, Melting will get an entirely new set of mutations. If Skeleton stops on set 7, then Redemption starts on Set 9 going up to Set 16.
• Melting can become Skeleton yet again and start the entire process all over, though Skeleton will not see new unique mutation sets - he'll simply start back at the beginning.
• (Terminology for sets is used for set ordering, link daily page later).
• Crown of Death does not take max HP away specifically when taking Redemption, but does give max HP back when swapping crowns out. This lets Melting get up to 7 max HP.
• Ultra B: Damnation
• Using blood gamble will now reduce that weapon's reload time for 80% of its shot, letting Skeleton fire or gamble it again sooner.
• While this can stack with Stress or Trigger Fingers, it also allows for Skeleton to run heavy hitting weapons without those mutations.
• Other Perks:
• Skeleton can be played as on NTT and actually has a B-Skin unique to there as well. His starting weapon is the Rusty Revolver.
• The unlock condition of Skeleton B-Skin is to shoot Gun Gun as Skeleton, if not unlocked by default.
• Occasionally Skeleton's B-Skin art can be seen on the area progress bar on weekly challenges, but only A-Skin Skeleton is ever playable within vanilla.
• Skeleton can technically unlock golden weapons and crowns, but this does not effect anything. Skeleton can only view his stats in beta versions of the game.
• Crown of Destiny
• On Non-Beta, skeleturning will not grant Skeleton an extra mutation, but will receive the downside of the crown.
• This is fixed on the Betas, meaning the crown does work. So, if running Crown of Destiny the entire run:
• Melting will see his Destiny set first, then will see sets 0-7 normally.
• Skeleton will not see the Destiny set at all, but rather would normally see sets 0-8.
• If Melting takes patience and then becomes Skeleton before seeing the set, Skeleton leveling up will instead give the patience set first, and then see sets 0-7 instead.
• It should be noted this is NOT an extra mutation set, but rather just changes the order Skeleton can see sets. Taking patience again will simply grant the 2nd slot from that set.
• Patience mechanic also works without Crown of Destiny, just so long as it is on any Beta version.

Loop Guide

The Unstoppable guide has strategies for skeleturning and general strategies around early Skeleton gameplay and should also be read. This loop guide will continue with other strategies unrelated to Unstoppable and post-ultra gameplay.

Melting can either choose to turn into Skeleton on 6-1 which is better for Unstoppable or 5-1 L1 which is better for meta.

If Melting takes Last Wish and enters 5-1 L1 and then skeleturns, Skeleton can then enter Jungle for an extra mutation. This means he can get a set of 9 mutations in a run, which will be vital for later loops considering how many drawbacks he has as a character. Technically with Crown of Destiny on betas he can also achieve 10 mutations, however this would require insanely good RNG and is only practical if running the grillskills mod.

Starting mid-loop as Skeleton will be significantly more difficult. Elite IDPD can spawn in any levels and the following levels have very aggressive enemy behaviors. Melting should bring weapons that are viable on an unleveled Skeleton, have good mutation sets to start with and optionally avoid vaults so Skeleton can open them later as a quick escape in dangerous levels. Strong Spirit, Rhino Skin and Bloodlust are all going to be very high priority for the early sets.

Skeleton will generally see the same mutations that Melting did, though there can be small variations. There is a separate guide to understand their mutation logic here. (link later) Outside of a daily/weekly challenge, the Jungle set seen as Skeleton is essentially random on the beta versions.

Similar to the Unstoppable guide, Melting should focus on bringing weapons that are strategically helpful. Weapons with low fire rate aren't going to cut it for loop Jungle/5-3/Labs because of the volume of enemies while underleveled. Decent picks could be Auto Crossbow, Auto Flame Shotgun or Gatling Slugger. Double Energy (Energy Sword + Plasma Cannon) is always a good build, but may require good early mutations as well. So long as a weapon has a decent firerate and good damage it should help Skeleton get through Jungle and 5-3 L1, but Labs may be more demanding with any AoE otherwise as it is easy to get overwhelmed. On the betas Skeleton can comfortably use Ultra Crossbow given early Bloodlust, as even while leveling up getting free shots will be consistent. A ubow drop should not be easily passed up as it fits well into meta and makes Skeleton much safer to play.

Skeleton will struggle quite a lot because of his negative passives. Similar to Melting, lower max HP will put Skeleton at constant risk of death as some damage sources can oneshot him that would not kill another normal character at full health. For this reason, Rhino Skin is high priority. His slower speed makes avoiding danger and pushing enemies much more difficult as well, so Extra Feet can be viewed as closer to middle priority. Lower accuracy only makes a few weapons unviable, and Eagle Eyes does not grant a perfect fix, meaning that in most situations this mutation can be omitted.

In other words mutations that are high priority are Rhino Skin, Strong Spirit and Bloodlust for immediate survivability. Long Arms or Bolt Marrow depending on what sort of primary weapon will be ran. Scarier Face, Laser Brain, Extra Feet, Plutonium Hunger, Trigger Fingers, Stress, Thronebutt, or other heals(Paw/Stomach) are all viable options and a set should be built around the end goal of a run.

When it comes to ultras, Redemption is an ultra that in practice is only ever used to exploit Crown of Death for extra max HP, the bug that grants Melting both of his ultras on specific versions, or on dailies/weeklies to scout further sets. In a normal run it doesn't really have any practical usage besides no longer being Skeleton.

A run continuing as Skeleton would need to take Damnation. This ultra will significantly boost blood gamble to one of the best actives in the game. Giving an 80% reduction of fire rate means that almost any weapon can be shot again pretty much instantly. The only weapon with a really high reload time is Super Plasma Cannon, whose reload speed with Damnation is near the same speed as a normal Nuke Launcher. This can be stacked with Trigger Fingers for additional benefit, however. While this comes at a cost of Skeleton's HP who already has a lower amount to begin with, this can easily be offset with Bloodlust which will be Skeleton's greatest asset.

Skeleton can blood gamble any high reload weapon saving on ammo, and if enough enemies are in an area then Bloodlust should immediately get him up to full. With the right weapon Skeleton can potentially spam click his weapon to have his damage output surpass his damage intake, essentially becoming a sort of glass cannon. All the while this goes on Skeleton can be collecting ammo pickups, so if he gets low on health he can go back to firing weapons as normal.

On beta versions of the game, ultra weapons do not consume rads upon being blood gambled and thus can be used freely. An ideal combination for Skeleton's endgame would be Ultra Crossbow and Super Plasma Cannon, as he can fire them repeatedly and both allows for ease of access to any nearby walls to hide from any number of enemies. Bloodlust and Thronebutt both can make it so Skeleton stays at higher health while consistently firing off free shots.

A good Skeleton set is built around letting him use blood gamble consistently all the while saving on ammo, and to give him options to deal with any enemies that may get into his personal space due to his lowered defensive capabilities. The best examples of this would be a melee primary and a strong secondary to repeatedly spam, or melee being swapped out for the Ultra Crossbow if on the betas.

Meta Guide

Coming soon to a Wasteland near you!