Boreas

"The god of the north wind."

Boreas (ボレアス, Boreas) is a Summon of the Mercury element. The Boreas summon is one of sixteen summons that is automatically granted to the player as soon as the required Djinn are assembled. The trailer for Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, broadcast at E3 2010, revealed Boreas to be one of the game's summons. Its identity was confirmed in a later Amazon.com trailer for the North American release.

Basic Characteristics

For a successful summoning of Boreas, the player must have four Mercury Djinn on standby. When used, Boreas has a base Mercury power of 240 and also does additional damage equivalent to 12% of the enemy’s maximum HP. After a successful summoning, the Mercury Power of the summoner will rise by 100 points

When Boreas is summoned in Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age, it resembles a giant mechanical entity. Boreas initially appears embedded into an icy mountain top before breaking free from the ice covering him. A mound of snowy ice falls on top of its back, which it appears to grind up into large fragments of ice like a gigantic ice shaver, and sprays the opposing party with the freezing fragments, engulfing them in deep frost such they appear as a giant ice block. Boreas then fires a giant spoon at the ice block, shattering it and heavily damaging the frozen foes trapped inside.

Boreas's appearance in Dark Dawn

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the Boreas summon sequence is altered. Boreas now resembles a locomotive, with its front part resembling that of a horse. It barrels through a snowy mountain trail, and it slams down its two enormous mechanical "hooves" onto the ground in front of it to project a massive wave of cold energy that reaches the enemy group.

Analysis

Out of the automatically acquired summons, Boreas is the strongest Mercury-aligned summon. Though there are stronger Mercury-based summons, these summons must be specifically acquired while exploring the world. Because of this, Boreas is one of the most commonly used summons, Mercury-based or otherwise. It is twice as powerful as Neptune and four times as powerful as Nereid and uses only 2 times the amount of Djinn on standby as Nereid does. Boreas is especially useful due to the fact that the the end-game bosses of Golden Sun, are weak against Mercury. In The Lost Age, several major bosses are weak against Mercury, making Boreas a potent ally. In Dark Dawn, however, there are fewer Mercury-weak bosses, meaning that Boreas will see fewer uses. In The Lost Age and Dark Dawn, Boreas becomes outclassed by Azul, the strongest Mercury summon in the game. However, Boreas is still a straightforward offense, and will still see use.

Cultural references

Origin: Greece

Boreas in Greek mythology was one of the four chief Anemoi (the Greek wind spirits, also the name of a tribe in Golden Sun). Boreas was the north wind and the bringer of cold winter air. He was known to be very strong with a violent temper to match. He was also frequently depicted as an old man with wings and a beard whilst holding a conch shell and wearing a billowing cloak.

Extended Gallery

• 

  Boreas separated sprite

• 

  Boreas full sequence

• 

  The spoon fired by Boreas