Necromancer is the penultimate boss of Castle Crashers and one of the 31 Playable Characters. Their magical attacks are Non-Elemental and their starting weapon is the Evil Sword.
Information[]
Visual Description[]
The Necromancer has glowing red eyes and dark gray armor. They wear a helmet that has vertical breaths that extend to the bottom of the visor, visible battle damage including a couple of scratches on the portrait, and horns.
Castle Crashers[]
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 their 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. They use necromantic magic to revive more enemies, but this time, the Evil Wizard turns half of them beefy. The Necromancer's final appearance is in their own sub-level, Necromancer's Room, where they resurrect a whole army made up of various kinds of enemies to fight for him.
Upon defeat, the Necromancer will fly up into the air out of sight. Shortly after, they will drop their 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 The Necromancer is a difficult fight 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 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 the player +4 Strength. Combine this with weapons such as the NG Golden Sword or Man Catcher for 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[]
Wave 1[]
This is the easier of the two waves of enemies as there are 5 lightweights, 1 mediumweight and 1 heavyweight. The lightweights will be the easiest to dispose of, so it's a good idea to target them first. Basic juggling skills are useful for surviving this fight.
Make sure to get a running start before the second wave begins.
Wave 2[]
- Saracen
- Royal Guard
- Alien
- Bear (Beefy)
- Snakey
- Fire Demon
- Iceskimo
- Barbarian (Beefy)
- Brute (Beefy)
- Conehead
- Fencer
This is the harder of the two waves by far due to the fact that there are 4 lightweights, 2 mediumweights, 2 heavyweights, and 3 Beefy enemies. Skilled juggling is required to beat this wave for most players, especially on Insane Mode. 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 the wave much easier, although the optimal order is debated:
Alien → Saracen → Lightweights/Middleweights → Beefy Bear → Beefy Barbarian → Royal Guard and Conehead → Beefy Brute
The Beefy Brute cannot be juggled, so once the Beefy Brute is the only one left, kill them by spamming arrows/Magic, or put the Brute in a Beefy AI Manipulation exploit and use a modified input. If a bomb-throwing enemy is left alive with the Brute, it's also possible to bait the bomb thrower into damaging the Brute with their bombs.
Avoid hitting the beefy enemies before getting ready to kill them, as this will flinch them and give them the ability to grab the player out of the air.
Necromancer[]
Once engaging Necromancer in battle, their main attack will consist of hitting the player with their sword up close, or creating a wave of magic to hit them from a distance. The Necromancer will occasionally launch a skeleton at the player. In addition to these attacks, they 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 them as they’re flying down from the ceiling and begin a lightweight juggle. Provided the player doesn't mess up the combo, they will be unable to retaliate before dying.
If the player misses the timing for the juggle, the second easiest way to kill the Necromancer is to throw them upwards and use 
/ 
or / to juggle, 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 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. 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
Max Hits: 1
Damage/Hit: 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.
This Air Projectile can be used in spellweaving for flashy techniques.
Elemental Infusion
"Armor Pierce"Element: Non-Elemental
Damage: Base Magic Damage x 2 + Base Melee Damage x 2
Use / / 
to perform. This attack pierces armor, and it deals two times normal damage.
Magic Jump
"Skeletal Jump"Element: Non-Elemental
Damage: Base Magic Damage
Use // to perform. Jumps using an exploding skeleton, dealing damage to overlapping foes.
Strategy (Character)[]
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 after hitting the ground. The Magic Projectile and Air Projectile also boast a high speed. Due to their otherwise average Splash Attack having such an unconventional purpose, they are arguably one of the harder characters to learn.
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.
Gallery[]
Gameplay[]
Miscellaneous[]
![The Vessel of Darkness[1], a mug made in the Necromancer's likeness.](/wiki/File:NecromancerTikiMug.png "NecromancerTikiMug.png (1.79 MB)")
![Skeleton Battle Tee, a T-shirt design by David Ochs which shows 4 knights battling the Necromancer's skeletal minions.[2]](/wiki/File:August_11th_2009_skeleton_battle_tee.jpg "August 11th 2009 skeleton battle tee.jpg (847 KB)")
Trivia[]
- It has been confirmed that the Necromancer does not die at the end of their battle.[3]
- During the battle against the Necromancer, they have a shadow on the wall while flying. When they begin to revive the dead, their shadow won't change, and will continue to move as if still flying in idle.
- Even though the NPC Necromancer can fly, they will retract their wings when engaging the player in battle. As a playable character, they do 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.[4]
- 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%.