Core

Core (コア Core) is a Mars Djinni found in Golden Sun:  The Lost Age.

Core is the seventh Mars Djinni in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. The separate Djinn list viewable with the Select button from the status screen lists Core and all other Mars Djinn introduced in The Lost Age before the seven Mars Djinn from the  original Golden Sun, most likely because all the Djinn from the original game can be gotten all at once late in The Lost Age. However, the original Djinn are   ordered before all of the Djinn introduced in The Lost Age in the Djinn inventory screen while they are allocated to characters. By this order, Core is the fourteenth Mars Djinni in the GBA series, rather than the seventh.

Basic description

 * "Strike through an enemy's Defense."

When Set, Core increases its Adept's base HP by 8, base Attack by 4, and base Defense by.

When Core is unleashed in battle, the user deals a Mars-based attack equal in power to the user's normal physical attack with an additional 40 damage points added to the result. There is a chance that when the attack hits, only 50% of the target's current Defense rating is applied, which would sharply increase Core's damage.

Visually, Core's unleash animation resembles the user summoning the glowing white image of a Mars Djinni that surrounds itself in a rotating 3d sphere of flame, and it thrusts itself through the enemy's position.

Damage calculation
Elemental physical attacks such as Core use the damage dealt by the attacker's standard physical attack as the base damage to be later modified. The total amount of damage dealt by a normal physical attack is ordinarily half the difference between the attacker's Attack statistic and the target's Defense statistic, as this equation shows:


 * ''base damage = (Attacker's Attack - Target's Defense) / 2

In Core's case, though, even before this there is a chance that the target's Defense rating will be halved for the damage calculations. Core's attack then takes this base damage value and uses it in the following equation:


 * ''final damage = (base damage + 40) * (1 + (Attacker's Mars Power - Target's Mars Resistance) / 400)

To word this in prose, Core takes the base damage of the user's normal physical attack, adds 40 to it, and then this result is modified by how much higher or lower the user's Mars Power is than the target's Mars Resistance. The difference between the user's Mars Power and the target's Mars Resistance is divided by 400, then 1 is added to this, resulting in what can be called the "elemental damage multiplier". This number is what Core's damage is multiplied by.

For example, if an Adept with an Attack rating of 300 and a Mars Power of 150 unleashes Core on a monster with a defense of 120 and a Mars Resistance of 100:


 * damage = ((Attack - Defense) / 2 + 40) * (1 + (Power - Resistance) / 400)
 * damage = ((300 - 120 OR 60) / 2 + 40) * (1 + (150 - 100) / 400)
 * damage = ( / 2 + 40) * (1 +  / 400
 * damage = ( + 40) * (1 + )
 * damage =  *
 * damage = 146 OR 180

Therefore, if Core were to be unleashed under these circumstances it would deal 146 or 180 points of damage depending on whether the enemy's Defense is halved or not.

Location
Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Core is a Djinni that is randomly encountered in a specific area of the overworld that otherwise appears to be pointless scenery. Thus, it is very often missed by players playing the game the first time without any outside information. The battle with Core may ensue in place of a random battle in the pictured area in the center of the continent of Atteka, geographically west of Contigo and south of Jupiter Lighthouse but only reachable by docking on the west beach. It then must be defeated to be acquired. See here for enemy statistics.

Analysis
General: Core is pretty good as an attacking Djinni, for it has an okay but not overly-impressive set damage bonus of 40. Its desirable trait is that it has a chance to ignore half the enemy's defense and therefore increase the damage it deals. This sharply increase damages on endgame enemies that have high defense ratings to work with, but Core can't be relied on to achieve this extra boost when it is used. In Dark Dawn, the only attack Djinni that has a chance to ignore half the target's Defense is the Venus Djinni Pewter, though its damage bonus is a x1.5 multiplier.

By game
Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Core obsoletes both the beginning Mars Djinni Cannon, which has 40 set bonus damage and no side effect, and the previous game's Mars Djinni Torch that Isaac's party may bring with them when they join Felix's party late in the game, which is identical save for only sporting 30 set bonus damage. Core also has more opportunity to prove itself useful to the party than Torch in the first game because there is much more gameplay remaining when Core is first found. Core may be found as soon as the Great Western Sea is entered, meaning that it can be present for both the boss battles with Moapa and at the top of Jupiter Lighthouse. This is not to mention everything that follows the reunion. Among the limited selection of viable offensive Mars Djinn, Core distinguishes itself as a somewhat chance-based Djinni that can deal occasionally sharp amounts of damage, though one must consider the Mars Djinni Fury, which has 70 set bonus damage.

Name Origin
Core's name most likely refers to the Earth's core, which is easily the hottest place on (or in this case "in") Earth.