Mimic enemy line

The Dark Dawn design of the Mimic

The Mimic is a special enemy with many visually identical variants that may be individually battled at several different points in each game in the Golden Sun series. Unlike a typical enemy line where the monsters are randomly encountered and battled while exploring environments, every Mimic in the games can be seen in environments and may be optionally interacted with in order to start a boss battle with them. Drawing straight from a Dungeons & Dragons tradition, Mimics always take the form of unopened treasure chests, and players that open every treasure chest by second nature will be surprised when these particular chests suddenly reveal themselves to be monsters and automatically engage them in battles.

Mimics are always fairly tough individual enemies compared to the enemies that are randomly encountered when exploring an area, but are never anywhere near as threatening or durable as a boss battle. The various differently-leveled versions of the Mimic have similar sets of commands and elemental resistances, and are always guaranteed to drop some sort of valuable consumable item, including some items that permanently increase statistics. In Golden Sun: The Lost Age only, there is a second, similar line of "recurring one-shot" enemies named Mad Plants, though these are fewer in number and better hidden.

In the two Game Boy Advance installments, Mimics that have shown their true form resemble treasure chests with eyes on their fronts and have sprouted a crablike set of limbs, with six legs and a pair of purple pincers. In Dark Dawn, however, they now resemble demonic jack-in-the-boxes.

Each game's collection of Mimics is arranged in its own separate list:

• Mimic enemy line (Golden Sun)
• Mimic enemy line (The Lost Age)
• Mimic enemy line (Dark Dawn)