Quartz


 * This Djinni appears as an enemy that can be battled.

Quartz (マイカ Mica) is a Venus Djinni found throughout the Golden Sun series.

Quartz is the third Venus Djinni in the original Golden Sun, and can also be acquired in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Although it is not the party's third Venus Djinni in The Lost Age, Quartz is still ordered as the third Venus Djinni when equipped to characters. Because it is not available until after most other Venus Djinn can be found, however, the separate Djinn list viewable with the Select button from the status screen lists Quartz and all other Venus Djinn from Golden Sun after all of the Djinn introduced in The Lost Age. According to this order, Quartz is the fourteenth Venus Djinni in The Lost Age rather than the third, but this order has no influence elsewhere in the game.

In Dark Dawn, Quartz appears as one of the "extra Djinn" in the Djinn Guide because of its temporary appearance in the earliest stage of the game.

Basic description
When Set, Quartz increases its Adept's base HP by 10, base PP by 3, and base Agility by 3.

When Quartz is unleashed in battle, the selected Downed Adept has a 60% chance to be revived, and their HP restored to 50% of their maximum HP.

In Golden Sun and The Lost Age, Quartz's unleash animation visually resembles the user summoning a glowing, transparent image of a Venus Djinni that hovers above the party briefly, then the same visual as the Revive Psynergy - several glowing yellow images of feathers float down to the target's position, and then the target is engulfed in a vertical beam of yellow energy briefly. In Dark Dawn, when the user summons the 3D model of Quartz, the field and background turns black, and while there are no glowing feathers that fall down above, the vertical beam looks very similar as to the GBA games, though this time the beam shoots straight down from above very quickly.

Locations
Golden Sun: Quartz is located late in Mogall Forest. In a screen you enter down from the top end, to the right of the screen is a rock right below a horizontal log - position yourself above the log and use Move to move the rock down one space into the circular indenture in the ground, then push the log down. Push a second horizontal log down, push the vertical log from the right to left, and go down and left to reach the Djinni. It must be battled to be acquired. See here for statistics.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Players can transfer data from Golden Sun to The Lost Age, but even if they don't, Quartz will be among the Djinn Isaac's party has with them when they join forces with Felix's party late in the game.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Quartz is one of the five Djinn that Isaac and Garet keep to themselves and exclusively use while in Tanglewood, meaning that the player can only see Quartz being used while exploring Tanglewood, the Abandoned Mine beyond that, and the Tangle Bloom boss fight at the end. After this, Quartz and the other Djinn are not seen for the rest of the game.

Analysis
General: Quartz is the least useful reviving effect in any of the games it appears in because there is only a 60% chance that a revive can occur, and even when a revive occurs it is only to 50% of the maximum HP meter. Other Djinn have both much higher chances to work and restore much higher percentages of HP, as well as the Revive Psynergy and the Water of Life item, which have a 100% chance to revive to 100% HP.

By game
Golden Sun: Early in Golden Sun, Quartz can be potentially very useful as a means to try to get a downed Adept alive again if you don't have/want to use a Water of Life, even though that item is guaranteed to work and restores the Adept to 100% HP. Once the Revive Psynergy starts becoming available to Adepts at level 19, however, this Djinni's battle effect becomes immediately obsoleted, because Revive has the exact same properties of the Water of Life - guaranteed chance to revive at 100% HP, and may be used both outside and inside battle, for "only" 15 PP. Revive is a staple that is pretty much always used over not just Quartz, but its later superior counterpart, the Mercury Djinni Dew (which revives to 80% HP at an 80% chance).

Golden Sun: The Lost Age: When Isaac's party joins Felix's party along with their returning Djinn, Quartz's ability (and Dew's, for that matter) is all the more inferior as an in-battle reviving option because in addition to Revive being used as often as ever, there are other Djinn with better reviving effects, like the Mars Djinni Tinder that guarantees revival to 100% health, and the Mercury Djinni Balm which has a 60% chance to revive all downed Adepts in the currently battling party to 60% maximum HP each.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Quartz is Set on Isaac at the earliest stage of the game, and the computer-controlled Isaac will use Quartz if either Matthew or Karis are downed at any point - though there is a good chance that Quartz will fail on the Adept it is intended on. This is directly inferior to Spark, the Mars Djinni that is temporarily loaned to Matthew and Karis during the same opening segment, because Spark heals 10% more HP and has an additional 10% accuracy. Perhaps the "downside" to Spark here is that you would have to use up one of your two controllable Adepts' turns for it, and Spark can't be used if it's the Adept that it is set on that is Downed. Even granting that the earliest stage of the game grants two separate inaccurate reviving Djinn, neither of these are necessary effects because the boss encounter with the Tangle Bloom at the end is impossible to lose. In the main game, the Jupiter Djinni Jolt is this Djinni's identical equivalent.

Name Origin
Quartz is a type of crystal commonly found in the Earth's crust. Mica is a silicate mineral with a layered structure, often found as minute scales in granite and other rocks, or as crystals.