Mountain Roc

The Mountain Roc, as seen while engaging Matthew's party in battle.

The Mountain Roc is a boss and a core plot point in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It is a mammoth bird that roosts at the top of Talon Peak. While it slumbers, its composition is stone-like, and it can only be awakened by using the Slap Psynergy on its red wattle. Its feathers have the qualities needed for Ivan to create paraglider-like devices named soarwings, and retrieving one of these feathers is the first objective of Matthew and his friends' journey in Dark Dawn. Also, magma energy within the bird's stomach naturally coalesces into jewel-like fragments called Magma Shards and, more rarely, a perfect jewel-like sphere called a Magma Orb. These fragments are usable as power sources to gain access into Belinsk Ruins, and the orb is the power source that is ultimately necessary for the Alchemy Dynamo within the ruins to be switched and unseal Eclipse Tower.

In Dark Dawn

The Mountain Roc is a level 27 enemy. It's statistics are as follows:

Name	HP	PP	Attack	Defense	Agility	Luck
Mountain Roc	3136	147	346	113	145	?
Elemental Resistances		Turns	Exp	Coins	Item Dropped	Drop Rate
175   100   72   25		1	12,852	140	n/a	n/a

In it's normal form, the Mountain Roc recovers 60 HP per turn; it recovers 150 HP per turn in Stone Molt form.

The Mountain Roc has two different sets of battle commands:

Normal Form commands

Command	Chance to use	Elem. Stats used with *	Description
Attack	2/8 (25%)	{{{command1usedwith}}}	Standard physical attack.
Tempest	1/8 (12.5%)	{{{command2usedwith}}}	Psynergy costing 27 PP that causes electrically charged tornadoes to cycle through the positions of the party of Adepts. Deals a Jupiter-aligned attack with a power rating of 160 and a range of 5. The Mountain Roc uses this with a Jupiter elemental power rating of 110.
Fire Breath	1/8 (12.5%)	{{{command3usedwith}}}	Enemy ability that generates a mass of fire at the party of Adepts. Deals a Mars-aligned attack with a power rating of 90 and a range of 3. The Mountain Roc uses this with a Mars elemental power rating of 95.
Nerve Shattering Shriek	1/8 (12.5%)	{{{command4usedwith}}}	Enemy ability that deals a Jupiter-aligned attack with a power rating of 70 and a range of 3, with a chance of lower the targets' Attack by 12.5%. The Mountain Roc uses this with a Jupiter elemental power rating of 110.
Seismic Stomp	1/8 (12.5%)	{{{command5usedwith}}}	Enemy ability that deals a Venus-aligned attack with a power rating of 180 and a range of 3. The Mountain Roc uses this with a Venus elemental power rating of 95.
Stone Molt	1/8 (12.5%)	{{{command6usedwith}}}	Enemy ability that changes the Mountain Roc to it's more powerful (but slower) Stone Molt form. This form can be cancelled out by casting the Slap Psynergy.
Upward Blast	1/8 (12.5%)	{{{command7usedwith}}}	Enemy ability that damages a single target with a Jupiter-aligned attack equal to a normal physical attack with an additional 80 damage points. The Mountain Roc uses this with a Jupiter elemental power rating of 110.

Stone Molt Form commands

Command	Chance to use	Elem. Stats used with *	Description
Nerve Shattering Shriek	2/8 (25%)	{{{command1usedwith}}}	Enemy ability that deals a Jupiter-aligned attack with a power rating of 70 and a range of 3, with a chance of lower the targets' Attack by 12.5%. The Mountain Roc uses this with a Jupiter elemental power rating of 110.
Seismic Stomp	2/8 (25%)	{{{command2usedwith}}}	Enemy ability that deals a Venus-aligned attack with a power rating of 180 and a range of 3. The Mountain Roc uses this with a Venus elemental power rating of 95.
Upward Blast	2/8 (25%)	{{{command3usedwith}}}	Enemy ability that damages a single target with a Jupiter-aligned attack equal to a normal physical attack with an additional 80 damage points. The Mountain Roc uses this with a Jupiter elemental power rating of 110.
Potent Cure	1/8 (12.5%)	{{{command4usedwith}}}	Psynergy that restores roughly 300 HP to the user.
Stone Spire	1/8 (12.5%)	{{{command5usedwith}}}	Psynergy costing 22 PP that causes a group of large stalactites to fall down from above onto the party of Adepts and shatter. Deals a Venus-aligned attack with a power rating of 160 and a range of 3. The Mountain Roc uses this with a Venus elemental power rating of 95.

When defeated, the party will finally gain one of the Roc's feathers and can enter the creature to obtain the Magma Orb and shards.

Strategy

The battle with the Mountain Roc is unique in that the Mountain Roc essentially has two forms, a standard form, and a second form accessed by its Stone Molt enemy skill. The Standard Form is comparatively weaker in terms of Attack and Defense, while having higher Agility alongside a large movepool. While in this form, the Mountain Roc will heal 60 HP per turn. The Stone Molt form (visually distinguished by a layer of stone covering portions of the Mountain Roc), has higher Attack, higher Defense, and a high HP regeneration of 150 HP per turn. While it has a smaller movepool, the reduced movepool consists of the Mountain Roc's most powerful abilities, making the Stone Molt form the more dangerous of the two. Luckily, the player can disable this form by casting the Slap Psynergy, which will return the Roc to its less powerful form. This does not limit the Roc from recasting Stone Molt in a future turn.

For this battle, a designated Healer is recommended due to the Mountain Roc's powerful offensive abilities. In addition, the player should have an Adept ready to cast Slap to revert any castings of Stone Molt. Karis is an excellent choice for this due to her higher speed, increased Jupiter Power, and general supporter role, allowing more offensive Adepts to continue attacking instead of wasting a turn.

The Mountain Roc is weak against Jupiter-based Attacks, possessing a low Resistance of 25. Should the player prefer to use summons, Thor is an excellent choice, being the strongest Jupiter-summon at this point. Should all available Djinn be collected, either Matthew or Tyrell can be placed in the Ninja class series, giving the player access to the useful Death Plunge. Matthew may be the better choice, due to his native Venus Psynergies matching poorly against the Mountain Roc as compared to Tyrell's Mars Psynergies. Another option is to take advantage of two Jupiter-based pure-element weapons, the Yew Bow and the Sylph Rapier. Both weapons are available immediately before the boss battle, and will allow for a fool-proof method of targeting the Roc's weakness. The Yew Bow in particular has good damage-multiplying unleashes, and thus can be excellent in the hands of Amiti, as he possesses higher Attack than Karis.

History and Story

The Mountain Roc is considered to be divine by the beastmen of Morgal, with its image appearing on many beastmen structures, particularly in the city of Belinsk. Sometime before Dark Dawn, the Warriors of Vale traveled in search of it, with the assistance of Morgal's king. The Warriors of Vale were eventually able to get one of the Mountain Roc's feathers. The feather was used in the creation of the Soarwing, an invention of Ivan's that allowed an Adept to fly. One of these Soarwings was given to Isaac and Garet. However, when Garet's son, Tyrell, breaks the soarwing, a new feather was needed for the repairs. Thus, Isaac and Garet send Tyrell, along with Isaac's son Matthew and Ivan's daughter Karis on a quest for a new feather.

After a series of events, the party was able to reach Morgal, but realized that they had no information about the Roc. By this time, the group had met with Amiti, a Mercury Adept who was the prince of Ayuthay, who had joined their party. Amiti had encountered the Roc as a child, describing it as a mammoth bird so large that it blocked out the sun. Later on, the party of Adepts were able to speak with Tret and Laurel, who give them vital information on the Mountain Roc. The Mountain Roc was then in a deep sleep, and could only be woken by means of the Slap Psynergy, a psynergy unique to beastmen. Additionally, the Roc produced a power source for the ruins in Belinsk, which would be needed for the group's secondary goal, to rescue Eoleo and Hou Ju, two prisoners of the beastmen. Before leaving, the Adepts were warned that the ruins hid a dangerous legacy, the Alchemy Dynamo, and were ordered not to start it.

The group eventually makes their way to Talon Peak, where the Mountain Roc roosts. Along the way, they gain the Slap Glove from Ryu Kou, prince of Sana and brother to Hou Ju. The party makes its way to the Mountain Roc and succeeds in getting a feather. However, Blados and Chalis, two Tuaparang commanders, set the Mountain Roc on them, for reasons they do not fully explain. However, they encourage the group to kill the Mountain Roc, and gain the Magma Orb that the Roc produced. Matthew's party is able to defeat the Roc, but Ryu Kou takes the Magma Orb for himself. Eventually, the Mountain Roc's Magma Orb is used to awaken the Alchemy Dynamo, which starts the Grave Eclipse. After this point, the Mountain Roc plays little role in the plot.