- Not to be confused with Skeleton Monkey or Barrel Skeleton.
The Skeleton Ape is an enemy in the Castlevania series. It is a skeletal corpse of an ape that is controlled by magic. It hurls wooden barrels.
Description[]
The Skeleton Ape are the reanimated remains of a big primate, probably a gorilla. It walks around slowly, holding an exploding barrel over its head, and hurls it at the heroes when they are within range, then continues walking slowly barely attacking anymore.
Appearances[]
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood/Castlevania: Dracula X[]
Skeleton Apes are the very first enemies encountered in both games (not counting the encounter with Death in the prologue of Rondo of Blood) and a group of them are found in the first screen in both games. This variant only resorts to pace forward at an extremely low pace and perform an amply telegraphed swinging punch if close enough. They die in only one hit and their appearance is merely to get the player acquainted with the game's controls.
In Rondo of Blood, another batch of Skeleton Apes are found on the upper floors of the town of Aljiba, some of which come carrying barrels which they hurl at the hero once they have approached a certain distance. After performing this action, the Skeleton Ape will be left weaponless and behave exactly the same as those from the first screen. Since the barrel traces a medium height arc, it's advised to lure the Skeleton Ape into throwing it first, retreat a little until it touches the floor, destroy it or jump over it as it rolls through and then deal with the enemy itself; otherwise, a well placed thrown Axe can take care of both the Skeleton Ape and its barrel all at once. Other Skeleton Apes will attempt to ambush the hero by breaking out from the windows in the background as they pass through. Exclusive to this game, the Skeleton Ape can also perform a rear elbow smash if approached from behind (an attack it lacks in Dracula X, probably to save some memory due to the more limited capabilities of the Super Nintendo, as well as for the rarity of the conditions to trigger this attack).
In Dracula X, Skeleton Apes are not encountered again until the second stage, right after crossing the drawbridge, where both unarmed and barrel-carrying variants appear. After this, they aren't seen again for the rest of the game.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night[]
After the Skeleton Ape throws its barrel, it will wander forward slowly and use physical attacks if Alucard strays too close.
The aid of a Skeleton Ape is required to gain entrance to the Abandoned Pit to the Catacomb. After hitting the switch inside the room in front of the topmost part of the big waterfall located in the Underground Caverns, a Skeleton Ape will suddenly appear, hurl a barrel forward, and destroy the wooden bridge in there with it, followed by the message: "Something has appeared near to the wooden bridge". Backtracking will lead to the discovery of another Skeleton Ape that has just appeared in a prior room. The new enemy must then be lured into throwing its barrel onto the nearby bridge in order to destroy it. It is advisable to unequip any offensive familiars, which may otherwise kill the Skeleton Ape before he can destroy the bridge.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow[]
Gaining dominance over the Skeleton Ape's soul grants Soma Cruz the Power Throw ability. While this soul alone doesn't do anything, if the player uses it in conjunction with certain other souls, it will enhance Soma's throwing ability of that soul in one form or another, either by adding more damage, allowing to throw it faster, or throwing it at a larger distance.
If the player also equips the Puppet Master's soul, Substitute Puppet, the puppet will be thrown at a larger distance. Using this method is one of the alternative ways of reaching the other side of the flooded, spiked cavern in the Subterranean Hell.
Enemy Data[]
| Enemy Data: Skeleton Ape | |||||
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| Image | Name - Game Description |
Statistics | Items | Location | Notes |
  (RoB/DXC) |
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| ' | HP: 2 Exp: 100 |
1. Abandoned Village |
(Strategy) | ||
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| ' | HP: 1 |
1. Town, 2. Entrance |
(Strategy) | ||
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| ' | HP: 1 |
2. Entrance |
(Strategy) | ||
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| Animated ape skeleton. Hurls wooden barrels. | Weak: Holy Level: 10 HP: 10 Exp: 30 |
Drop: Banana, TNT |
Outer Wall, Underground Caverns |
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| ' | Level: 12 HP: 51 Exp: 39 |
Common Drop: $25 Rare Drop: Rock Leather |
Castle A: Skeleton Cave, Castle Treasury Castle B: Skeleton Cave, Luminous Cavern |
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| A skeletal corpse of an ape that is controlled by magic. | Strong: Piercing, Dark Weak: Bashing, Fire, Holy HP: 30 MP: 1 Exp: 48 Atk: 26 Timestop: Affected |
Soul: Power Throw (0.78%) |
The Lost Village, Garden of Madness, Condemned Tower |
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| ' | Outer Wall, Underground Caverns |
Videos: Bestiary, 1st | |||
Item Data[]
| Item Data: Skeleton Ape | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Name - Game Type - Users Description |
Attributes / Consume | Statistics / Sell | Found | Notes | |||
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| Creates pillar of flame [use] | Attrib: Fire |
ATT +60 |
Find: Throughout castle (all) Drop: Bomb Knight, Skeleton Ape |
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| Best when nearly rotten [use] | HP +7 |
Drop: Skeleton Ape, Venus Man Trap (Saturn-only) |
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| Gold + 25 |
Common Drop: Skeleton Blaze, Big Skeleton, Skeleton Flail, Skeleton Spear, Skeleton Ape, Big Balloon, Arabaki, Fleaman Armor Rare Drop: Skeleton, White Dragon, Bomber Armor, Balloon, Large Ghost |
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| Layered leather armor, hardened with wax. | DEF +20 |
Rare Drop: Skeleton Ape |
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| Throw a foe with incredible power. | Rarity: *** Drop: Skeleton Ape |
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Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Skeleton Ape is an homage to the video game character Donkey Kong, an anthropomorphic gorilla and main antagonist of the eponymous arcade game, Donkey Kong (Nintendo, 1981), and later a main protagonist of his own franchise, and a recurring guest character in many other productions. In the first stage of the aforementioned arcade game, Donkey Kong tries to prevent Jumpman (later renamed by his better known name, Mario) from scaling a construction site by hurling barrels from the topmost floor.