[Intro] Mmm...it's a orange juice
What's up, everyone? This is OJ. The skeleton barrel spawns 8 skeletons the barrel itself has
636 health. This is the same as one barbarian. When it touches your tower it pops and spawns 8 skeletons these skeletons will deal
exactly
1407 damage to tower when ignored
The skeleton barrel will always deal this amount of damage to all towers. As soon as the barrel pops or connects to a tower
It'll spawn in a circle formation
Countering the skeleton barrel requires a slightly different timing compared to zapping a lava hound or goblin barrel
Let's check that again. Look how as soon as the barrel drops, there's a slight timer before the skeletons are deployed
Whereas if you look at a goblin barrel the frame after that barrel pops goblins will spawn
immediately
If you look at a lava hound, as it dies the next frame spawns 6 pups all clumped up into a single cluster.
So if you look at the skeleton barrel,
there's a very slight movement where neither the barrel nor the skeleton exist because of this 0.5
second deploy timer so unlike a goblin barrel you can't zap the skeleton barrel as soon as it pops. the deploy timer
will mess you up, and you'll take 1,400 damage on your tower
You've got to change your muscle memory to account for that 0.5
seconds, so hold off on the zap slightly longer than you would a goblin barrel, and you'll be just dandy.
Tornado can counter the skeleton barrel, too!
But because of their 0.5 second spawn timer
Casting the tornado before the balloon pops will result in the skeletons surviving
And they will wreck your tower. If you time it correctly you can avoid most of that damage,
but two skeletons will still hit the tower knocking off
137 damage. So is tornado worth using? Maybe, if you're desperate and you don't have the proper counters,
but is it worth activating the king tower? It's going to deal 500 damage if you're brave.
The valkyrie is a pretty decent counter to the skeleton barrel, but if you plant her a bit too late,
she won't be able to kill all the skeletons, and the ones that spawn in the outer edge will clip your princess tower.
You want to deploy the Valkyrie half a second earlier so that her spin destroys all the skeletons
right as they spawn in that clumped up cluster.
Unlike the lava hound, the deploy timer protects the skeleton barrel a bit better from the
executioner's axe and a lot better from fire spirits.
The last hit on the fire Spirit will not splash onto the skeleton
If you save the fire spirits for just the skeletons, you can avoid one hit from the skeletons
Stabby stab stabs (stab goblins) do a pretty decent job of preventing most of the damage dealt to the skeletons,
they'll only let the tower (sic.) get two hits on your princess tower
If you want to gain in an elixir lead and you can afford 200 damage on your tower,
skeletons are decent at stopping that barrel. They'll get about four shots on your tower.
But skarmy does an excellent job at shutting down the skeleton barrel for a neutral elixir trade
And now you have a full army of skeletons to counter push
Goblin, gang can counter the skeleton barrel, too.
But if you place them a bit too early that deploy timer is going to mess you up and they'll land a couple of
hits on your tower. You
want to need to plant them slightly later. They'll completely stop the skeleton barrel. This is a bit more precise timing, but it's still doable.
Offensively the skeleton barrel pairs well with units behind it like a hog.
It's kind of like an ice golem you want the barrel to tank for you.
It won't kite ground units so it's not exactly an ice golem replacement. Just like an ice golem,
it pairs very well with the graveyard. it can tank seven hits from a princess tower and once it connects
It'll spawn a cluster of them skeletons. With its 0.5
Second deploy time it makes it very awkward because your opponent now has to wait longer before using log or zapp
Since the skeleton barrel itself kind of behaves like a tank throwing a goblin barrel can be quite effective
especially if they don't have the log in rotation. This is not going to stop an inferno tower
though. Once it kills a skeleton barrel, it'll switch onto the golem since the skeletons deploy 0.5 seconds after
Using an ice golem to stop the skeleton barrel is as effective as using the Golem to stop a graveyard.
It's okay. The primary difference is that the graveyard costs 5 so you can afford to commit more against the graveyard.
Using a knight is like using an ice golem. The way it spawns with that circle formation those skeletons are gonna connect to your tower
on the edge. A tank won't completely shut down a skeleton barrel once it connects on your tower
Unlike a knight or ice golem, barbarians can actually take out all of the skeletons
There are just enough of them to cover the corners.
Minions and bats are decent at countering the skeletons that pop from the barrel, but since 8 skeletons spawn in a circle
instantaneously, it'll pop on your tower and it'll get a few hits off
What you'll need to do to shut down this barrel is to deploy the bats
earlier to take out the barrel itself, so those eight skeletons never get a chance to pop on top of your tower.
Same thing with archers.
You'll want to deploy them right as the barrel starts floating across the bridge.
This buys the archers and your princess time to snipe them skellys
Since the skeletons spawn in a circle ground splash units like a bomber are not very effective at stopping the barrel.
Using the musketeer to snipe the barrel from the other Lane won't be effective.
She'll waddle off because those skeletons that spawned on the right side are none of her business.
You'll need to plant her inside the lane to keep her interested enough in the skeletons not
exactly the greatest counter, she ends up taking damage to. An
Ice Wizard works much better than a musketeer ever could since he one-shots the skeletons, and he's a little bit cheaper,
they won't have any chance to deal any damage to him or the tower
Princess won't be very good at stopping the barrel. She just attacks way too slow.
You can use the executioner to take out the barrel followed by the skeletons that spawn, but planting him in this position
means he'll be taking more damage than he actually needs to.
Utilizing the perfect angle to place him around this area takes out the barrel
he'll splash onto all the skeletons that pop on the ground in one nice swoop
With the mega minion it can actually stop the barrel since it blocks its pathing and it can take it down fast.
giving your tower ample time to select those Skelly's. A
baby dragon can stop the skeleton barrel just as well as a mega minion. His attack speed is kinda slow
but he will finish the job.
A witch can completely stop the skeleton barrel. I found one of the better positions to be closer to the back of the tower
Just because it's better to let the barrel connect and give her time to spawn skeletons.
Same thing with the night witch if you plant her a bit too forward
She won't have enough time to spawn enough bats to take out all those skeletons. Planting her a bit behind
Gives her enough time so that she'll be able to completely stop those skeletons from the barrel.
As for an electro wizard, this one is a no-brainer.
Don't even bother using him to take out the skeleton barrel. Just wait until the skeletons are deployed and zap them.
The skeleton barrel has the same pathing as a regular balloon does so you can pull it with anything like a cannon, with an added
bonus that the cannon actually helps take out those skeletons
Just like the balloon, when it's deployed
right at the edge of the map it will not get pulled by buildings placed four tiles from the river and two tiles from the
princess tower.
You'll need to plant the building four tiles from the river and one tile from the princess tower to pull that skeleton barrel. It is
just barely enough to stop the skeletons.
Because of its spawn mechanic it's super fun to capitalize on its mechanics to clone a skeleton barrel
It's sort of like cloning a lava hound, your opponent needs to pop a balloon before zapping those skeletons.
It's pretty interesting how the barrel has changed since it now spawns in a circle formation. If you looked at leaked footage from when it
was accidentally in the mirror mode challenge, the
skeletons spawn in random clusters so we'll never be sure if leaked footage will be real mechanics
or even real stats until after that card is officially released in the game.
Thanks for watching. Stay tuned for more raspy OJ!
Captions by: Trainer Cheddar
And Andy
[Leaked Footage from the Skeleton Barrel in the Mirror Mode Challenge]
*Outro*