Apes

Apes

> ***"Four small apes. Can jump over wall. Only attack buildings."***
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Apes is a 5 Mana card. It spawns four very fast, building-targeting, melee apes with helmets. They have moderate hitpoints, have moderately low damage, and can jump over the river.

## Strategy

* Since the Apes are a swarm card, some methods for countering a Super Ape are less effective due to having to deal with more than one unit at a time. Area damage is the most effective way to quickly eliminate the Apes; large swarms and buildings are also still effective.
* The Apes are excellent rush units at the start of a game due to their fast movement speed and ability to jump over the river.
* Apes work very well in Three Gunners decks, as they can be evenly split when placed in the middle of the river, allowing the player to set up a deadly dual lane push.
* Due to their low individual damage, it is not recommended to split the Apes if they will not have any support with them, as they will deal much less damage overall due to each Ape tanking for less Apes and both of the opponent's Towers attacking simultaneously.
* Apes can also act as a Lightning rod for the Three Gunners since each of them have higher health than a Gunner.
* Bomb Tower is a hard counter to the Apes due to having high health, a lower Mana cost, having splash damage, and being able to distract the Apes. Earthquake will damage down the building considerably, but the Apes will still be fairly damaged before it dies.
* Flying Bomb will leave the Apes with a sliver of health while only getting minor damage on the Tower. While this is a positive Mana trade, the opponent may have other Flying Bomb vulnerable troops that are more difficult to counter with troops, such as the Helicopter, so try not to rely on it.
* Against area damage troops, it is usually more effective to split the Apes rather than placing them all in one lane. This reduces the amount of splash value the opponent gets from each attack, and can allow the swarm to get more damage across both Towers. This is less effective if the area damage troop is ranged.
* Even though they deal low damage, it is not wise to ignore them, as their health pool allows them to effectively tank for each other and deal extremely high damage to a Tower, if not completely destroy it.
* If your opponent happens to be low in Mana or you know that their cheap counter is out of rotation, you can rush a lane with Apes. Their high health and speed makes them hard to react to. However, be sure to have an area damage spell or a support troop ready, since swarms and high damage dealers can make short work of them.
* When a Tower is down, placing the Apes on the third tile from the pocket will allow them to deal the most overall damage to the remaining Tower. Placing them as far forward as possible will make them harder to react to, but they will deal less damage overall as they will be in range of the Viking's Tower while deploying.
* In an emergency, Apes can kite fast melee troops into the opposite lane, as long as the opposing troop is staggered towards the inner side of the bridge (such as when it is placed in the middle of the Arena). One should place them on the fourth tile away from the bridge, and on the third tile horizontally in the opposite lane. Fast moving air troops can help damage down the enemy troop safely while the Apes kite it.
* Apes can be an effective counter to a Mana Collector played in front of the Viking's Tower. Placing them in the middle will cause two to go in one lane, one to go to the other, and one to go to the Collector. This will get damage on both Towers and also deny the Collector of some of its Mana. This can also be an opportunity to get spell value on their Collector if they try to protect it with low health troops.
* Apes synergize well with the Heal Tiny. Heal Tiny has the same move speed as Apes, and due to the former being a bulky swarm, the healing of the Heal Tiny will restore more hitpoints overall. However, the combination is weak to spells like Arrows and the Heal Tiny can be easily lured by a mini tank such as an Explorer.
* Madness can be effective with the Apes, allowing the entire swarm's damage to exponentially increase.
* Rolling Steel will not counter the Apes on its own, but it can provide cheap and efficient support for the player's other defenders. It is cheap, only costing 2 Mana, and deals a decent amount of damage to them for its costs and pushes them back, buying the Tower time to defeat them.

## History

2023

* The Apes card was released with Boom Arena's game launch on 4/5/2023.
* On 6/30/2023, the health of the Apes got increased from 878 to 908. The card name was also changed from Ape to Apes.

## Trivia

* They're the Boom Arena equivalent to the Royal Hogs. Their hitpoints, damage and damage per second are between level 11 and level 12 of the equivalent.