Ape enemy line

The Ape, Killer Ape, and Dirty Ape are enemies that are battled in Golden Sun and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. These monsters, resembling bipedal primates with hunched shoulders, are palette swaps of each other that have differing levels of power and defense and are fought in different locations in the games. They include one boss, the GBA version of the Killer Ape.

Ape
An Ape is a normal-sized level 15 variant with orange fur. In Golden Sun it is first battled in limited, scripted quantities throughout Mogall Forest, battled one at a time whenever you use Force on the (im)proper tree trunks. It is subsequently battled randomly in the southeast overworld region of Angara encompassing the exit to Mogall Forest, as well as inside Altin Peak.

An Ape, though battled one at a time, can be pretty damaging to a low-level party. However, once you are able to battle it at random in the overworld following Mogall Forest, it becomes a very interesting enemy to kill repeatedly; you get a guaranteed, powerful healing item every time you fell an Ape with a Mars Djinni, so in that portion of the game you can amass large quantities of vials in short amounts of time, which can make upcoming boss battles much easier. Even in Mogall Forest itself, if you specifically seek out all the Apes and get Vials off them, you have more restorative flexibility in the Killer Ape boss battle at the end of the forest. It should be noted that while it is just as weak to Mars as its two counterparts, its other resistances are not as high as those on its counterparts.

An Ape's statistics are as follows:

An Ape uses the following battle commands:

Killer Ape
The Killer Ape is a giant-sized level 18 variant with light blue fur, and is a boss in Golden Sun. It is a mandatory battle that automatically occurs at the bottom exit of the dungeon-style Mogall Forest location - as you approach a large empty tree stump, a smaller green ape is seen jumping out of it, essentially warning the player that now would be a good time to save. Then, as you try to pass the stump, the Killer Ape jumps out and begins the boss fight.

Since this boss has "only" 1000 HP (Saturos, an earlier boss, has 1200 HP), you could probably win with your typical battlefield conduct over a period of time. The most Djinn of specific elements you can have at this point are 3 Venus and 3 Jupiter Djinn, so you could summon Cybele and Procne once each in the battle (though the Killer Ape has a particularly high Jupiter resistance). However, the Killer Ape is most weak to Mars (and sharply so), so having Garet use Heat Wave or unleash the Mars Djinni Fever is a pretty good attack, and the 2-Mars Djinni summon Kirin does about as much damage as the other two summons.

The Killer Ape's statistics are as follows:

The Killer Ape uses the following battle commands:

Dirty Ape
A Dirty Ape is a normal-sized level 20 variant with violet fur. In Golden Sun it is first battled in Gondowan Cave, and subsequently battled throughout the overworld region of Gondowan that extends between Gondowan Passage and Lalivero.

The Dirty Ape is the toughest of the monsters in Gondowan Cave, but is not as strong comparatively to the monsters in the Gondowan overworld region, especially to the Brutal Troll. However, it has the highest Agility rating of any of those monsters. Note that it has less HP than the standard Ape from a long while back, so it's no longer a high-HP "target" enemy in your battles like the previous variants.

A Dirty Ape's statistics are as follows:

A Dirty Ape uses the following battle commands:

Ape
An Ape is a bright-tan-furred level 6 variant. It is randomly fought in Goma Highlands Road.

An Ape's statistics are as follows:

An Ape can use the following battle commands:

Killer Ape
A Killer Ape is a red-furred level 19 variant with an extra, small tuft of hair on its head. It is randomly fought in the Khiren Glacier just outside Te Rya Village.

A Killer Ape's statistics are as follows:

A Killer Ape can use the following battle commands:

Dirty Ape
A Dirty Ape is a dark-purple-furred level 27 variant with an extra, larger tuft of hair on its head. It is randomly fought on the dungeon Talon Peak.

A Dirty Ape's statistics are as follows:

A Dirty Ape can use the following battle commands: