Yamata Ruins

The Yamata Ruins (ヤマタイ遺跡, Yamatai Ruins) are a dungeon location visited in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. The Ruins are located on the island nation of Nihan, directly beneath the city of Yamata. Exploring it and gaining its treasure will allow the player to access the Apollo Sanctum.

Walkthrough
The first time you need to go to Yamata City to recruit Himi into the party, after she has joined you need to enter Yamata Ruins and go to the room with the tomb. Triggering the cutscene will allow you to leave Yamata City. Afterwards, you can cast Move to shift the large boulder to the left, and a telltale set of swirling sparkles appears on the platform that is exposed. As with similar sparkles in the rest of the game, have Himi cast the Search Psynergy to permanently replace the sparkles with something else, in this case a glowing circle pattern which teleports you to the circle pattern it is joined to in the next room on the other side.

In this new room, two chests contain the Masamune and a Water of Life, and the next door leads to a large, sandy lobby with a glyph tablet. In the room at the northeast corner is a red glyph tablet that reads "THE CRIMSON GEM POINTS THE WAY TO THE ONE WHO SLEEPS BENEATH THE LAND." Until you have the Red Orb in your inventory, nothing else can happen in Yamata Ruins, so if you have not gotten it in Tonfon, return the way you came and leave Yamata City to resume your quest.

Main Visit
Once you have acquired the Red Orb important item, Yamata Ruins opens up as a dungeon, so reenter Yamata City and Yamata Ruins and progress back to where the red tablet is. When you read it this time, the sand level will automatically lower in this room and the rest of the dungeon. Climb down the ladder into Yamata Ruins B1. Go through the doors of each room until you get to a puzzle room with three separate Movable blocks that can be pushed into spaces so that the conduits between the two teleport circles can be connected. Move the center block into the left space, the right block into the middle space, and the left block into the right space, and then step on the lower teleport circle to appear at the upper circle. Reading this red tablet again lowers the dungeon's sand level. An optional puzzle appears in this room that can lead you to a chest, though; doing this is more convenient by exiting the room out to the left and re-entering so that a puzzle reset occurs, and now you can more easily move the center block into the right space and the left block into the middle space. Cast Search at the sparkles to reveal a teleport circle, and ride it to the chest to claim the Thunder Crown. Now return to the previous room, and ride its teleport circle and proceed along a linear path south through the dungeon.

You will go through a room with a yellow tablet that reads "THE TRUTH-SEEKER WHO FACES DARKNESS WILL BE REWARDED WITH MIGHT TO SPLIT THE EARTH." Go into the door to the left and continue through the doors of several rooms until you get to another sandy room with another puzzle involving movable blocks and teleport paths. Of the three blocks and two empty spaces here, move the left block into the right space, move the center block into the left space, and move the right block one space left so that there is a complete path between the nearby teleport circle and the one above. This takes you to a blue tablet, and reading this lowers the sand level of the dungeon a third time. A Venus Djinni appears at the southwest corner of the room, and this takes some work to reach; first, Search the teleport circle near the blue tablet into existence, then ride back down. Leave the room and reenter to perform a puzzle reset with the blocks, then move the right block right two spaces and the left block into the left space. Ride your teleport circle to the northeast part of the room, Search the other sparkles to make the northeast-most circle materialize, and you can now easily ride to the area with the Djinni. Defeat and add the Venus Djinni Hemlock to your collection.

Leave the room with the Djinni back into what is now a room with a large abyss and a set of hoppable platforms. To get a chest containing a Cookie, climb down the ladder and hop down twice, left four times, and up. To get to the doorway at the northwest corner of this room, position yourself just left above the ladder and cast Grip on the grip spire, then hop left. Follow the linear route up the ladder to find yet another blue tablet, reading which will cause the sand level to lower a fourth and final time. Go back down and retrace all of your steps in a southeastern direction until you get back to the room with the yellow tablet from earlier, and enter the door underneath that. Now in an area with a giant, humanoid structure lying down on its back, ride a teleport circle onto its belly and move up, and a brief scene will cause your Red Orb and Blue Orb to unlock and place the Yellow Orb into your inventory. This is the important treasure at the end of the dungeon that is one of the keys required to reach the endgame.

There is a sometimes-missed secret portion of the dungeon that can now be accessed. When you ride the teleport circle back off the statue, another teleport circle has materialized immediately below that, which takes you back to the earlier part of the dungeon lobby just past where the chests that contained the Masamune are. But you actually want to go back through the door past the circle to return to the room with the yellow tablet. Now that you have the Yellow Orb, reading the yellow tablet will lower the sand level an extra time, exposing a ladder that leads you down into Yamata Ruins B2. In the sandy, ruins-filled room here, go up the small stairs to the right, hop left four times, use Grip on the spire at the northwest corner of the room, and hop right to get to the sparkles, and Searching this makes a chest appear that contains the Gaia Blade artifact weapon (which is more powerful in Dark Dawn than in previous games). Now the dungeon is fully complete, so it is best to use Retreat to get back to Yamata City quickly.

Collectibles
Venus Djinni Hemlock

Thunder Crown Cookie Gaia Blade Masamune Water of Life

Background and Story
The Yamata Ruins are a set of underground ruins completed in the ancient past. One major feature of the ruins are its sand-related puzzles, which hide pathways into the ruins. These pathways can be revealed by utilizing the Red and Blue Orbs at specified points. At its heart, a large stone figure holds the Yellow Orb, which can only be obtained by using the Red and Blue Orbs in unison.

In modern times, the entrance to the ruins is located under the city of Yamata, and are visited soon after Matthew's party of Adepts recruits the Venus Adept Himi for their party. At the request of Susa, Himi's father, Himi and Matthew travel to Uzume's grave to allow Himi to pay her respects. Uzume's spirit reacts to Himi's presence, and reveals Himi's role in the party of Adepts, while also hinting of the existence of the ruins and how they may be entered. After using Move on a large rock, Matthew discovers the entrance with the assistance of Himi's Search Psynergy. At this time, however, the group is unable to explore the ruins completely because they lack the Red Orb which would allow them to progress further.

During their later travels, the party is given the Red Orb by Unan, emperor of Sana. Immediately after, Himi has a vision that confirms the purpose of the Ruins: they house the Yellow Orb, which can only be attained after gaining both the Blue and Red Orbs. Matthew's party returns to Yamata, and begins exploring the ruins, eventually finding the Yellow Orb hidden within the eye of a large stone figure at the ruins' heart.