When I first entered the Skull Cavern, I was just checking it out, seeing what it was like. NO! Don't do that! You don't go down there just to check it out. You must be fully prepared at all times! Immediately the weird purple fog started and I got swarmed by serpents. I barely made it out of there ALIVE.

Well, that happened two days ago, so I can't say for certain that I am a master at slaying serpents, but I can tell you how to beat them. And now, the guide.

Serpents often make a weird noise before they fly at you, so you can use that sound so that you know when you're about to be attacked. Sometimes they don't, so also make sure to check the corners of the screen for sudden blurs of green.

Anyways, their movement patterns are more like the flying bugs from Level 10-30 of the Mines than the bats that are generally fought elsewhere, so they are a lot more fluid when they move. At least they don't make that PTSD-inducing buzzing sound...

They also deal quite a bit of damage, and can be literal hell if you are being attacked by multiple serpents at once. Make sure to eat a lot if you get hit by one. But alas, on to the actual fighting part!

You can swing your sword relatively early into their attack and still hit (don't swing too late, especially with a slower sword like the Obsidian Edge, or else they'll manage to bite you), so try to do that as much as possibly. Luckily, they are relatively weak in terms of their health, and can be one-shot with any strong sword like the Lava Katana. Obviously the Galaxy Sword is the best sword for fighting them, but if you don't have it yet you don't have to worry too much.

I don't really know about slingshots and how well they might work, in my personal experience it's easier to just hit them with a sword, but if you're far enough away from the serpent maybe you could give it a shot.

Basically, though, a solitary serpent is easy to defeat if you follow these steps. Multiple serpents, on the other hand, can get a little brutal...

If the screen gets purple and foggy/glowy or whatever, you're pretty much screwed if you try to fight the serpents. Bat and bug swarms in the Mines are relatively easy to overcome, but serpent swarms are basically suicide if you think you can beat them all. I say, if you're near the ladder, run to it and leave, if you need to keep going down, always keep a staircase with you, and if its kinda late and you're low on health, a Warp Totem (I'd recommend the Farm one because, well, it takes you to your farm) works great as a last resort.

Anyways, that was a pretty short guide, I hope it helped at least a little. It doesn't have too much information, I'd say read more professional guides or look at the wiki, but yeah. Thanks for reading!