Tips on dealing with Skeleton firing squads. What are some of yours?

  • BearInADress
    Master

    My crew & I are all-too-familiar with fighting skeletons. We know the ins-and-outs of dealing with nearly everything they can throw at us... Except for the larger groups where every Skeleton has a firearm. Golds that do this are by FAR the worst. 9 times out of 10, you're dead before you can even get within bucket range, let alone use it, pull out your own firearm, and attack. Not to mention their infinite ammo vs your 5 shots per player (10 if you have the foresight to bring 2 guns, and the luck to not encounter Overgrowns)

    The only methods we've found that work are:

    • Kiting them around a corner where we've set up a gunpowder barrel
    • Kiting them to the nearest ammo crate & pick 'em off one at a time (Usually the ship. Or we'll use the cannons, if we have a surplus of cannonballs & the ship is anchored far enough away).
    • One person suicides into the middle to draw their attention so the others can get close enough to sword lunge & spam attack. (Or bucket/blunderbuss combo on Golds)

    Even with these methods, it still takes us multiple tries and/or way too much time. So how do your crew deal with these nuisances?

  • Login To Reply
    12
    Posts
    7.6k
    Views
  • Hello Elle
    Rogue

    For golds, if you can get them walking through water, they're extremely slow. Using the flintlock pistol usually gives you a range advantage (you can shoot them, but they won't shoot back) and when they're rusting only take two shots. Overgrowns are tough, my first option would be to use the ship's cannons, but be prepared to use plenty of cannonballs.

  • MacDoland
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    Same as you matey, I'm not aware of another method. Break LOS then try to lunge em when they are bunched. Unless with keg or cannon.

  • wP Avenger
    Marauder
    Insider

    Sword dash like a madman and hope you hit them all

  • SunkNath
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    Hey there,

    TBH when coming across them in beta I found if they were close enough, firing the cannons at them (Which you have already stated :D ). Apart from that, I can't think of any other way :/
    It does make it fun though :)

  • Im Axis Rahl
    Marauder
    Insider

    Try to line em up. They can and will shoot each other, making things easier for you.

  • Soulless Rager
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @im-axis-rahl said in Tips on dealing with Skeleton firing squads. What are some of yours?:

    Try to line em up. They can and will shoot each other, making things easier for you.

    This.

    Often times the way to avoid the most damage is to kite all the enemies and let the one up in front get close enough that it blocks all the other skeletons shots.

  • McGuffinat0r

    Lately, when soloing, I've been positioning my sloop so I can fire a cannon where each wave spawns, and then sniping them from the ships ammo box if they're too risky for the cutlass.
    Takes a while and requires getting all the cannonballs you come across, but it's low risk and easy to solo.

  • Venthren
    Rogue

    With the golds, I like to kite them into an explosive barrel and hit the laugh taunt and they go to Davey jones' locker. As for the ones with leaves on them, I find the sword is most effective at taking care of them as from what I have seen they are weak to it and deal less damage than the other skelly variants. If you also want an easy time with the gold skellies, when they are rusted, a blunderbuss shot followed by a pistol shot is enough to take them out. All you have to do is kite in-between reloads and you are golden. For the shadow skeletons, day time fighting is a must as the lantern stun animation doesn't stop their firing. (stops melee though weirdly enough) Other then that though just treat them as you would normal skellies. Also I have noticed, sometimes skellies will have higher hp depending on the rank of mission you are on for souls/skull fort, as most skellies are easily disposed of with ease.

  • BearInADress
    Master

    One shot from a blunderbus on a rusted Gold will bring down anything but a Captain. Just gotta make sure to shoot within melee range.

    And yeah, Overgrowns are weak vs swords, resistant to bullets. Opposite of Golds.

    Shades don't have to be dealt with during the day, unless you're solo. I find that even with 2 people, having one of them run around sporadically with their lantern raised is enough to throw off the AI enough to keep it from being overwhelming.

    That tip about lining them up seems to help. Since they rarely ever spawn in a neat uniform line, it takes quite a bit of situational awareness to pull off effectively. Knowing where skellies are positioned, who's going to fire next, etc.

    I'm not sure the voyage rank is what makes the skeletons spawn with more HP, I think it's just player level. I still get mixes of 3-hit and 5-hit skeletons on low lvl voyages, and even when I have no active voyage (like stopping at an island to pick up a shiny on the beach). 5-hitters are appearing more & more frequently, regardless.

    All-in-all tho, good stuff so far.

  • Jacob Cross17

    “Either sniping them from afar, or rushing them with a blade, it with either finish them off, or bounce them back, but delaying them from pulling the trigger, eitherway, just don’t miss, or you’ll be in a world of hurtin mates...”

  • GRIZLEDORF
    Marauder

    eye of reach

Login To Reply
12
Posts
7.6k
Views
7 out of 12