Necromancer is the penultimate boss of Castle Crashers and one of the 31 Playable Characters. His magical attacks are Non-Elemental and his starting weapon is the Evil Sword.
Necromancer's specialties include advanced juggling and combo locking.
Involvement[]
The Necromancer first appears flying above the lava river in Lava world alongside the Evil Wizard, possibly on their way to resurrect the Cyclops. Taking notice of the player, the Necromancer stops and raises a small army of Skeletons to keep them occupied before flying away. After arriving at the Cyclops grave site, the Necromancer uses his dark magic to revive him and turn him into the Undead Cyclops. Much later in the game, the Necromancer, once again accompanied by the Evil Wizard, is seen in the Marsh level. He uses his dark magic to revive more skeletons, but this time, the Evil Wizard turns half of them beefy. The Necromancer's final appearance is in his own sublevel, Necromancer's room. He resurrects a whole army made up of various kinds of enemies to fight for him, but is unable to defeat the player.
Defeat[]
Upon defeat, he will fly up into the air out of sight. Shortly after, he will drop his weapon, the Evil Sword. The player can then exit the room to destroy another large purple crystal, and be able to progress to the final boss: the Evil Wizard in the Final Battle level.
Strategy (Necromancer fight)[]
Remember to keep some Health Potions handy as this is the hardest boss fight in the game, due to its sheer number of enemies.
Necromancer flies out of the player's attack range at the beginning and revives two waves of dead warriors that must be defeated before engaging him in battle.
Animal Orbs to use[]
- Piggy: After slaying an enemy, they will drop exactly one fruit item. Piggy increases the health gain from the item by 2x. This makes Piggy the best pet by far for surviving the fight.
- Snoot (Remastered): Snoot gives you +4 Strength. Combine this with weapons such as the NG Golden Sword or Man Catcher, and you have the potential for a very quick Necromancer fight. A high risk high reward option.
- Burly Bear (Remastered): Burly Bear gives the player +3 Strength and +1 Defense. A more conservative version of Snoot, Burly may be the better choice for players who don't want to go all out on offense.
Enemy Waves[]
This is the easier of the two waves of enemies as there are 5 lightweights, 1 heavyweight, and 1 mediumweight. The lightweights will be the easiest to dispose of so It's a good Idea to target them first. Basic juggling skills are all you need to survive this fight.
Make sure to get a running start before the second wave begins.
- Wave 2
This is the harder of the two waves by far due to the fact that there's 4 lightweights, 2 mediumweights, 2 heavyweights, and 3 Beefy enemies. Skilled juggling is required to beat this wave for most players. It can be time consuming, but learning how to juggle well will pay huge dividends in the future.
Defeating the enemies in an optimal order will make beating this wave much easier, although the optimal order is debated:
Alien
Saracen
Lightweights/Middleweights
Beefy Bear
Beefy Barbarian
Royal Guard and Conehead
Beefy Brute
Beefy Brute can not be juggled, so once he's the only one left, kill him by spamming arrows/Magic or put the Brute in a Beefy AI Manipulation exploit and use a modified input. Avoid hitting the beefy enemies before getting ready to kill them, as this will make them flinch and give them the ability to grab the player out of the air.
Necromancer[]
Once engaging Necromancer in battle, his main attack will consist of hitting the player with his sword up close, or creating a wave of magic to hit them from a distance. He will occasionally launch a skeleton at the player. In addition to these attacks, he will frequently use the "perfect block" technique. This allows a player to knock the opponent backwards and deal 1 damage by timing their block perfectly.
The fastest and easiest way to kill the Necromancer is to intercept him as he's flying down from the ceiling and begin a lightweight juggle. Provided the player doesn't mess up the combo, he will be unable to retaliate before dying.
If the player misses the timing for the juggle, the second easiest way to kill him is to throw him upwards and use / or / to juggle him depending on the force of the uppercut.
Magic[]
Splash Attack
"Skeletal Hands"Element: Non-Elemental
Max Hits: 1 per upgrade level (max 8)
Damage/Hit: Base Magic Damage x 0.5
Use / to perform. The titular skeletal hands pop out of the ground in front of the player, doing 1 hit. Each upgrade adds an extra hand segment, up to 8 segments. It is worth nothing that the visual effects for the Splash Attack stay out much longer than the actual hitboxes do.
This Splash Attack is very useful for starting juggles on non-heavyweight enemies. The startup for the Splash Attack is very quick, and the duration of the entire Splash Attack is average, so most of the time, there is ample time to catch up to the hit enemy to start a juggle.
One final note is that when the Splash Attack is spammed, every hit stacks on top of each other. This doesn't affect anything other than allowing the Fishmen to be stunlocked by the Splash Attack when positioned correctly.
Magic Projectile
"Kamikaze Skeleton"Element: Non-Elemental
Damage: Base Magic Damage
Use / to perform. Sends a Skeleton running across the screen in a straight line. Explodes on contact with enemies or with the edge of the screen.
The fastest Magic Projectile in the game.
Air Projectile
"Kamikaze Skeleton"Element: Non-Elemental
Damage: Base Magic Damage
Use , / , to perform. Sends a Skeleton running across the screen in a straight line. Explodes on contact with enemies or with the edge of the screen. When this move is used in the air as an Air Projectile, unlike most Air Projectiles, the "Kamikaze Skeleton" Air Projectile continues to go through the air for a bit and then run rather than ending as soon as it comes in contact with the ground.
In Necromancer's case, the Air Projectile moves slower horizontally than the Magic Projectile.
An advanced use of Juggling, named Spellweaving, can use this Air Projectile for flashy techniques.
Elemental Infusion
"Armor Pierce"Element: Non-Elemental
Damage: Base Magic Damage^2 + Base Melee Damage^2
Use / to perform. This attack pierces armor, and it deals two times normal damage. That means it deals as much damage to a Barbarian or Thief on Normal Mode as it does to a Stove Face or Brute on Insane Mode.
Magic Jump
"Skeletal Jump"Element: Non-Elemental
Damage: Base Magic Damage
Use / to perform. Jumps using an exploding skeleton, which damages overlapping foes.
Strategy (Character)[]
Overview[]
Necromancer's "Skeletal Hands" Splash Attack is a decent setup option for Juggling. It is not to be considered boss slayer material. Necromancer's "Kamikaze Skeleton" Air Projectile is best known for being the only Air Projectile to keep on going, even when impacting with the ground. The Magic Projectile and Air Projectile also moves very fast. Due to his otherwise average Splash Attack having such an unconventional purpose, he is arguably one of the harder characters to learn.
Castle Crashers[]
At the most extreme, the player would not need to commit to Magic in order to utilize Necromancer's bare bones "Skeletal Hands" Splash Attack. The Splash Attack sets up juggles fine with only one segment. As such, late game, Necromancer does not gain much development. The primary advantage of upgrading magic is gain the "Kamikaze Skeleton" attack as a solid air option. Recommended to use a Strength heavy weapon or a Magic heavy weapon that does not reduce Strength. Animal Orb selection does make a bit of difference. The top 5 Animal Orbs in Snoot, Burly Bear, Hawkster, Piggy, and BiPolar Bear will suffice.
Arena[]
Necromancer is an underrated character in Arena. The "Skeletal Hands" Splash Attack can help lead to a mediumweight juggle. This makes Necromancer very powerful for starting combos from the neutral game.
Blue Knight[]
Once Blue Knight has you in a reset, you're done. Be sure to move around a lot to counter act his tools. Difficult match-up.
Iceskimo[]
Difficult match-up.
Saracen[]
Restrict Saracen's options, to several 50/50s. but counter with a Shield bash. Watch out for his Magic Projectile because it is unblockable.
Brute/Snakey[]
Splash Attack comes out quickly. Difficult match-up.
Fire Demon[]
Splash Attack comes out quickly. Difficult match-up.
Skeleton/Cult Minion[]
Splash Attack comes out quickly.
Fencer/Industrialist[]
Splash Attack comes out quickly.
Ninja[]
Splash Attack comes out quickly.
Pink Knight[]
Splash Attack has long range and comes out quickly. Air Projectile and Magic Projectile can Critical Strike and can be converted to a reset.
Orange Knight[]
Splash Attack has long range.
Conehead/Royal Guard[]
Magic Projectile and Air Projectile have the ability to reset, so watch out for them.
Bear[]
Restrict Bear's options to several 50/50s. but counter with a Shield bash.
Gray Knight[]
Magic Projectile and Air Projectile have the ability to reset, so watch out for them.
Alien[]
Punish on whiff.
Blacksmith[]
His Air Projectile is the same as his Splash Attack, which could lead to a confirm.
Green Knight[]
Punish on whiff.
Barbarian[]
Punish on whiff.
Thief/Stove Face/Peasant/Civilian/Open-Faced Gray Knight[]
Punish on whiff.
Red Knight[]
Punish on whiff.
Hatty Hattington[]
Punish on whiff.
King[]
Doesn't have an offensive Splash Attack, punish on whiff.
Killer Beekeeper[]
Punish on whiff.Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- During the battle against the Necromancer, he has a shadow on the wall while flying. When he begins to revive the dead, his shadow won't change, and will continue to move as if he is still flying in idle.
- Necromancer resurrects two bosses and nearly every unlockable character by the time he can be directly engaged in combat.
- Even though the NPC Necromancer can fly, he will retract his wings when engaging the player in battle. As a playable character, he does not have wings.
- Even though the Evil Sword doesn't Critical Strike by a player wielding it, the Necromancer can hit the player with a Critical Strike that can do up to 999 damage on Insane Mode.
- If the Necromancer somehow manages to die before the resurrected enemies do, through cheating, the Simple Sight (Instrumental) music ends and the Creepy Frog track begins to play. If any resurrected enemies remain, the screen will still be locked onto the fight until the enemies die.[1]
- Despite always seemingly wielding the Evil Sword, the Necromancer can wield the Evil Sword, Black Morning Star, or Skeletor Mace internally. It simply always looks like the Evil Sword.
- This means that the Necromancer only has a chance to have the capability to crit (if wielding the Black Morning Star internally) and the chance to land a crit on hit is 4%.
- The Necromancer's appearance holds a close resemblance to the Conehead as their armor is similar in design.