Gondowan Cliffs

The Gondowan Cliffs (ゴンドワナ大陸を結ぶ崖, Gondwana Continent Connecting Cliff) are a series of ridges and rocky outcrops rising out of the small channel of sea at the narrowest point between the continents of Gondowan and Indra, and distorting their coastlines at that point. East of the Cliffs lies the Indran town of Madra, while to the west is the village of Naribwe in Eastern Gondowan.

The Cliffs were formed when events at the end of Golden Sun caused a large earthquake and tidal wave, which pushed the continent of Indra southwards and wedged it in between Gondowan and Osenia. The Cliffs can be quite treacherous to navigate, and contain many monsters. Never the less, the Cliffs allow for land travel between the two continents, and allowed the violent warriors of the Kibombo tribe to raid Madra and steal the Black Orb that controlled Piers' Lemurian Ship.

There is also a hidden cave revealed by the use of Whirlwind where one can encounter warriors from Kibombo right after they raid Madra and view a scene.

Not only is this location the means by which the party crosses between Indra and Gondowan on foot, but this location can also be entered from the sea by sailing into it from the ocean above it. The Cliffs act as the gateway for the Lemurian Ship to sail between the Great Eastern Sea and Great Western Sea, but is functionally a closed gate for much of The Lost Age, because of a large rocky spire that blocks the ship's passage through the watery part of the area. The only way to get through Gondowan Cliffs on an oceanic level is much later in the game, when you are to use the Grind Psynergy found in Lemuria on the spire to remove it and continue the game in the Great Western Sea.

Walkthrough
The location as an on-foot dungeon can be entered as soon as Dehkan Plateau is cleared and the party is in the lower portion of Indra. At first, a small encounter-free portion of it can be explored; follow the path to a bush against a wall, and clear the bush away with the Whirlwind Psynergy to uncover a small cave. A brief cutscene with four Kibombo warrior tribesman NPCs occurs in here, and doing this will influence a little bit of text in a cutscene later in the game. Normally this has no gameplay impact, but it can be used to activate a useful glitch at any point in the game. The Gondowan Cliffs are only fully explorable later in the game after having defeated Briggs in Osenia, but with the glitch, they can be bypassed much earlier.

From Indra to Gondowan
When you arrive at Gondowan Cliffs so as to cross through into lower Gondowan, use the Scoop Psynergy previously earned in Osenia on the tile the dog is facing to uncover a water spout that is used to elevate yourself upward to where you can hop left onto the elevated portion of cliff. Slide down the cliff slide, hop left once, climb the visible ivy to the lower left, and take the left path of the "U"-shaped fork. Climb your way to where there are three cliff slides to choose from; slide down the center slide, then follow the resulting narrow path northwest to where there is a thick tree stump. Facing it from the right, cast the Move Psynergy and move it left so that it falls into the ocean water below. Go back down and slide down the cliff slide, then climb down the ivy to step onto a large hopping maze. Hop left, left, left, up, up, left, up, left, left, down, down, left, up, up, up, right, right, right, right, up, up across the submerged stump, and left to climb up ivy back onto solid land.

From the end of the hopping puzzle, follow the path up, climb up the ivy, go down the greenish path to the right, then hop left across the gap you just crossed through. Your path branches between the ivy below the pair of trees and the path above them; go up the path above them to be linearly lead to a chest containing a Sleep Bomb, then go back and climb down the ivy. Follow that subsequent path to where there is a rope tied to provide a path west across the continental divide. (Incidentally, if you are exploring Gondowan Cliffs after having received the Scoop Psynergy but did not defeat Briggs yet, there will not be a rope here, but instead a pair of rarely-encountered Kibombo tribesman NPCs, preventing your passage into lower Gondowan).

Before walking left across the rope, climb up the ivy above it and follow the path east, and ignore the next ivy you pass by as you go a fair distance south to where there is a Mars Djinni standing idle. Save your game, then battle it to earn the Mars Djinni Kindle. Then climb up the ivy to the right of Kindle, then go right and climb down two more sets of ivy, but do not climb down the two remaining sets of ivy beyond that that lead back to the start of the area; go straight down beyond a pair of trees to find a rare item named the Laughing Fungus. Then retrace your steps all the way back to the rope, and the remaining, winding path to the western exit of the area is linear.

Return trip from Gondowan to Indra
A little later in the game, after having solved the dungeons in lower Gondowan and recruited Piers into the party, reenter Gondowan Cliffs from the west side, and follow the linear back across the tightrope. Climb up the ivy to the right of the tightrope and follow the same path you took to Kindle earlier, but this time, use Piers' Frost Psynergy on the lone puddle along the way to turn it into an ice pillar, then go back up and climb up the ivy directly above the ice pillar, and follow the elevated path back down so that you can hop left across the ice pillar. Slide down the cliff slide to land on a small area, and go down to the bottom end of it, where the extremely valuable Healing Fungus item (redeemable for a Mars Djinni back in Madra) lies in plain sight for collecting. Go back up and slide down the second cliff slide, then go down and slide down a third cliff slide.

Go right, climb an ivy, and use Lash on the coiled rope to tie it to a post to the up right, and climb up the rope. From there, climb down another ivy, and slide down a cliff slide right below it. Hop right, and now you are on your way back to the eastern exit of Gondowan Cliffs, where you would reemerge back onto Indra.

With the Retreat Glitch
There is an alternate method to get through the cliffs earlier than normal. At any point when the cliffs can be accessed, it is possible to use the Retreat glitch in the side room in combination with a save and reset in order to be warped outside of the game's boundaries to an area below the left part of the map. Felix is initially off the screen when this happens, but it is possible to move down and right to make him reappear on the screen. From here, Felix must walk up the river, through the rocks on one side of the stone that must be removed with Grind, and across the walls at the top of the screen, all of which is possible with the glitch in effect. After reaching a short vertical wall near the top of the screen, Felix must walk up, off the screen, and then alternate between moving diagonally up-left and up-right. When the screen begins to shake, Felix must go back to walking straight up, then walk diagonally in alternating directions again when the shaking stops. Eventually, the screen should flash red, causing damage, and shortly afterwards Felix should be transported to the world map on one of the two entrances at random, as long as the game has been hard reset recently to clear the RNG; otherwise, the transport may not happen at all. It may be possible to manipulate the RNG somehow to ensure being transported to the Gondowan side; if so, it is not fully understood.

This glitch can be used to reach Kibombo and meet Piers immediately after completing Dehkan Plateau, making it possible to view a normally inaccessible conversation if he is met in Kibombo before being met in Madra. However, it is not possible to keep Piers in the party if this is done; the player will not have the Scoop Gem, and therefore be unable to enter the Gabomba Statue. Instead, they will have to leave the area and leave Piers behind. It is not possible to return through Gondowan Cliffs if this is done, as Kraden will stop the player and tell them to return to help Piers, but the Retreat glitch can be used in Kibombo Mountains to return to the overworld near Madra. But once the Scoop Gem has been obtained in Yampi Desert, this glitch can be used to bypass the Kibombo warriors in Gondowan Cliffs and progress through the rest of the game normally, without playing through the rest of Yampi Desert, visiting Alhafra the first time, or even battling Briggs. It must be noted, however, that if this glitch is used, the powerful enemies that normally appear in the cliffs will appear, so the player must either be capable of fighting them or make sure to avoid getting stuck in any battles. This can be a problem at low levels, but repeated saving and RNG manipulation can help.

It should be noted that if Piers has been met in Kibombo and the player returns to Indra, then attempts to access Gondowan Cliffs again from either side before retrieving the Black Crystal or without completing the cutscenes following it, the cutscene with Kraden will occur. From the Indra side of the cliffs, the cutscene will be slower and happen incorrectly because the positions of the characters are wrong, but the player will still appear on the Gondowan side of the cliffs afterwards.

A video of the glitch being performed can be seen here, and a video of the cutscene glitch can be seen here.

Enemies
Enemy Formations
 * Group 1: Flash Ant x1-2


 * Group 2: Wyvern Chick x1


 * Group 3: Wyvern Chick x1, Flash Ant x1


 * Group 4: Wolfkin Cub x1


 * Group 5: Wolfkin Cub x1, Wyvern Chick x1


 * Group 6: Wild Gorilla x1-2


 * Group 7: Wild Gorilla x1, Wolfkin Cub x1

Collectibles
Kindle: Below a Frostable puddle later on. Must be battled to be earned.

Healing Fungus: In visible view later on in the area, but can only be acquired once Piers is in your party so you can cast Frost on a Frostable puddle and then hop across it and slide down a nearby cliff slide. Give this to an old couple in Madra to earn a Mars Djinni.

Laughing Fungus: In visible view on one cliff outcropping, reached by climbing up vines near the Mars Djinni and following the general route behind it. Only practical gameplay use is to sell it for 525 coins.

Sleep Bomb: Found in a treasure chest somewhat close to the watery divide.

Trivia

 * This area, along with the Kibombo Mountains, has several Frost puddles that are unnecessary for the player to use. These are likely here so that Piers could plausibly traverse the area on his own.
 * Despite being portrayed as the same area, accessing Gondowan Cliffs by land loads a different map than the one accessed when entering Gondowan Cliffs by sea. This is only noticeable if you gain access to the ship before defeating Briggs through use of a cheat device or glitches. In this case, the rope required to traverse Gondowan Cliffs will not be visible if the Cliffs are accessed by land, but will be there if you access the Cliffs by sea.
 * When encountering the four Kibombo behind the bush early in the game, it is possible to avoid triggering the brief cutscene where they react to having been found out by hugging the right slanted wall as you approach the campfire. It becomes possible to talk to them and then trigger the cutscene on your way back down.
 * Once you have met Piers in the village of Kibombo, you are allowed to temporarily leave him behind and exit Kibombo before playing through and finishing the Gabomba Statue dungeon. However, the game will rather arbitrarily lock you within Gondowan until you complete the Gabomba Statue with Piers; if you reenter Gondowan Cliffs from the west (or even from the east by using a hacking device), a short cutscene will play where Kraden asks where Felix is going and points out that they should recover Piers' black orb. Jenna and Sheba will agree with Kraden, Kraden will declare that "the majority wins", and Felix will automatically walk back out west into the overworld. This cutscene is a potential issue for players who might have decided they had good reason to go back east into the cliffs and beyond before playing through the Gabomba Statue, such as picking up the previously missed Mars Djinni Kindle.