Skull Ghost
The Skull Ghost is a foe that was introduced in Epic Battle Fantasy. It appears mostly around desolate wasteland areas, such as Volcano Peak (in Epic Battle Fantasy 3) or the final graveyard-themed stages of the first game.
Appearance
The Skull Ghost is a strange undead creature that combines aspects of corporeal skeletons and ethereal spirits; combined with its magical prowess, it may be a type of lich. Its head is a large grey skull with crooked teeth, no lower jaw, and a number of jagged spikes protruding from the top. Its body is a similar shade of grey, with a short "tail" instead of legs and the impression of ribs on the "skin" of its chest, giving it a somewhat emaciated appearance. It has bony claws for hands and a pair of small, black-feathered wings; these appendages float around its body, "attached" only by an invisible force. A dark red cloak with a tattered hem is tied around its neck.
Overview
Skull Ghosts are late-game foes that can strike players with their bony extremities, but they prefer to cast dangerous spells to damage and debilitate the party. Although their magic of choice differs significantly between games, they're typically proficient at inflicting Poison and Death, being notable as some of the few foes capable of casting Grim Reaper for an attempt to instantly kill the target; on the other hand, their ability to hit multiple players at a time is limited to nonexistent. Dark attacks are ineffective at best, but Fire and Holy will deal substantial damage to them.
Epic Battle Fantasy
The Skull Ghost is the last regular enemy the player encounters in the game, with two waves of them being fought between the Mecha and Zombie Roku. The first wave has two Skull Ghosts, and the second wave has three; the latter have slightly less HP and Attack than the former.
The Skull Ghost can strike a player with its head or claw for physical damage, Dispel both players' buffs, or cast Toxic for moderate damage and a few stacks of Poison on Matt or Natalie. It was also supposed to be able to use Grim Reaper, which did pitiful damage two-thirds of the time and instantly killed the target otherwise, but a coding error prevented it from doing so. This was corrected in the Epic Battle Fantasy Collection, but the skill itself was altered to be a basic physical attack (albeit stronger than any of its other moves).
While they're nowhere near as dangerous as the Mecha preceding them, Skull Ghosts are quite effective at softening up the party ahead of the final boss; depending on how the battle plays out, the player may have to spend multiple turns using Antidotes or Purify to ward off the Poison they inflict. However, Skull Ghosts have a natural weakness to Fire and especially Holy attacks, and so can be taken down fairly easily if the player makes use of Seiken and Judgement - the former being particularly effective if Matt is equipped with Heaven's Gate. On the other hand, their high Screamer resistance is negligible; it's fairly weak to begin with, and their resistance won't affect its Magic Defence debuff, allowing Matt to set up even more damage from Natalie's Fireball and Judgment attacks.
Epic Battle Fantasy 3
The Skull Ghost is a late-game enemy with a variety of dangerous attacks and annoying abilities. Contrary to its Bestiary description, it uses both physical and magical attacks, albeit with most of them appearing to be cast as spells. It has Dark, Fire, Ice, and Poison attacks, each with a threatening secondary effect; it can obliterate both of the target's defenses at once, afflict them with ludicrously strong Poison, Freeze them solid, or even drive them Berserk and potentially ruin the player's strategy. It even has two separate sources of Instant Death, although Ice Spike has a very low infliction chance and Grim Reaper is very inaccurate. More interestingly (and frustratingly), the Skull Ghost has complete immunity to physical damage, rendering Matt nearly impotent against it (although he can still use attack items or try inflicting Doom or Instant Death with the Life Shaver); on the other hand, Natalie and Lance still have plenty of ways to harm it.
On Epic difficulty, Skull Ghosts enter battle with Poison status, which their elemental absorption turns into a makeshift Regen that can't be removed. They also get a massive Accuracy increase for Grim Reaper, making Death resistance even more advisable when facing them.
Inflicting Syphon or Berserk prevents the Skull Ghost from using any of its regular attacks, forcing it to slash at players with its claws for non-elemental physical damage. This is one of its weakest moves, but it still has a high chance to Doom the victim; fortunately, its 3-turn timer gives players ample time to cure it, and it makes them much more predictable than they would otherwise be.
The Skull Ghost absorbs Poison and Dark while being weak to Holy and Fire. The latter is slightly more effective than the former (especially since both Natalie and Lance have natural Fire skills), but the prevalence of Fire-resistant foes in Volcano Peak can make Fireball or even Flame Shot preferable to Firestorm or Bullet Hell. It has above-average Evade, but it also lacks any status or debuff resistances.
Bullet Heaven
Skull Ghosts appear as an enemy in Bullet Heaven; they're seen in the last five levels, which take place in a volcanic wasteland. During gameplay, Skull Ghosts slowly float down the screen and constantly shoot streams of fireballs at the player; they also release a ring of fireballs every few seconds that spreads out.
Statistics
Epic Battle Fantasy
| Skull Ghost | EBF |
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| Wave | 
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| 21 | 40000 [45000] |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| 22 | 33000 [40000] |
0.8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Resistances | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| -50% | -50% | - | - | - | -80% | -100% | 70% | - | |||||
In EBF, foe stats are specifically set per wave, thus two foes of the same type may have different stats (resistances will still be the same). See EBF Foe Waves for a list of all foe waves.
Stats in brackets (below/right from actual) are for its pre-EBF Collection update version.
Epic Battle Fantasy 3
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Skull Ghost | Undead Being | EBF3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Only casts spells. IMMUNE TO PHYSICAL DAMAGE. | |||
| Statistics | ||||||||||
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| Base Statistics |
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Exp | AP | Gold |
| 200 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4.3 | 33 | 8 | 40 | |
| Elemental Resistance |
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| -80% | - | - | - | - | - | 200% | 200% | -70% | - | |
| Status Resistance |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Debuff Resistance |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Item Drop Rate | |||||||
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| Icon | 
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- | - | - | - |
| Name | Jaw Bone | Curly Horn | Solid Spike | - | - | - | - |
| Chance | 100% | 60% | 40% | - | - | - | - |
The Skull Ghost is completely immune to any source of physical damage, any physical attack that hits it will deal 0 damage instead. However, that doesn't prevent status effects nor stat debuffs from being inflicted.
On Epic difficulty, enters the battle with 3x Poison, effectively regenerating each turn.
Attacks and Abilities
Epic Battle Fantasy
| Attack List | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack | Target | Power | R.Power | Type | Status Effect | RdF | ||||
| Head Bash | Single | 1800 | -- |
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-- | -- | -- | 10% | |
| Slash | Single | 2200 | -- | 
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-- | -- | -- | 10% | |
| Dispel | All | -- | -- | -- | -- | 100% | -- |
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-- | |
| Toxic | Single | 800 | -- | 
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100% | 2x |
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10% | |
| Grim Reaper | Single | 2500 | -- |
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-- | -- | -- | 10% | |
Epic Battle Fantasy 3
| Attack List | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack | Target | Power | Type | Element | Status Effect | Acc | Crit | RdF | ||
| Slash | Single | 20 |
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---- | 50% | 3x |
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100% | 10% | 10% |
Notes: Is used only while under the effect of  Berserk or/and Syphon.
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| Grim Reaper | Single | 5 |
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100%
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100% | -- |
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50% | 10% | 10% |
| Notes: On Epic difficulty, accuracy is increased to 110%. | ||||||||||
| Dark Flare | Single | 50/2 |
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100%
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100% | 50% 50% |
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130% | 10% | 10% |
| Notes: The first hit only debuffs Defence, the second hit only debuffs Magic Defence. | ||||||||||
| Poison Cloud | Single | 20 |
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100%
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100% | 10x |
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110% | 10% | 10% |
| Hellfire | Single | 55 |
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100%
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50% | 1x |
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110% | 10% | 10% |
| Ice Spike | Single | 40 |
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60%
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10% | -- |
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95% | 20% | 10% |
| Deep Freeze | Single | 45 |
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100%
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60% | -- | 
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100% | 10% | 10% |
Battle Logic
The following describes general logic of the enemy and attack patterns, with chances of each attack to be used. Conditions are listed from highest to lowest priority unless specified otherwise.
Epic Battle Fantasy
- Anything → Head Bash (3/18), Slash (3/18), Toxic (4/18), Grim Reaper (4/18), Dispel (4/18).
Prior to the EBF Collection update, due to improper coding the Skull Ghost couldn't use Grim Reaper, and its usage chance was taken up by Dispel instead.
Epic Battle Fantasy 3
- Berserked or/and Syphoned → Slash;
- Otherwise → Grim Reaper (1/6), Dark Flare (1/6), Poison Cloud (1/6), Hellfire (1/6), Ice Spike (1/6), Deep Freeze (1/6).
Trivia
- Skull Ghosts share a number of similarities with Wraiths, both in design and attacks. Given that Skull Ghosts do not appear in Epic Battle Fantasy 4, it could be that Wraiths may have been intended as a replacement for them.
- While all of the Skull Ghost's potential drops are fittingly bone-themed, the Jaw Bone and Curly Horn don't really line up with its physical appearance; it lacks an apparent lower jaw, and none of its horns are particularly curly.