Pewter

Pewter (アイロニ Irony) is a Venus Djinni found in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Pewter is one of very few Djinn in the series to have lines of spoken dialogue.

As a Djinni
Pewter is the tenth Venus Djinni in Dark Dawn.

Basic description
When Set, Pewter increases its Adept's base HP by 10 and base Psynergy Points by 3.

When Pewter is unleashed in battle, the user deals a Venus-based attack equal in power to the user's normal physical attack, and the result is multiplied by 1.5. There is then a chance that when the attack hits, only 50% of the target's current Defense rating is applied, which would sharply increase Pewter's damage.

In Dark Dawn, Pewter's unleash animation is almost identical to that of Flint - the user leaps through the air to perform a physical attack, and while in midair the motion is turned to slow-motion while orange energy orbs gather into the user's weapon. The user strikes the target at the same time the 3D model of Pewter appears behind the user briefly, and for around two thirds of a second the ground underneath and behind the target glows a fiery yellow/orange. The more fiery nature of this last effect is the only difference with Flint.

Location
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Pewter is one of the few Djinn in the game that are acquired by the party no matter what and that are not part of a new party member's collection of Djinn. It first appears in a cutscene in the Dream Tree in Kolima Village after using the Hermes' Water in there. Then, later in Kolima Forest up north, Pewter will have you follow it down the right directions to get to the end of the forest, and at the end of the forest is a long and highly story-relevant cutscene that Pewter and other characters take part in. At the end of it, Pewter automatically adds itself to your Djinn collection, and the story proceeds north of Kolima Forest.

Analysis
General: Pewter is a one-of-a-kind blend of useful offensive traits on an attacking Djinni - it has a solid damage multiplier of x1.5, and its side effect is a chance to ignore half of the target's Defense rating while carrying the attack out. Djinn like Torch can be useful in their own right for having that side effect while offering a base attack with a modest set damage bonus of 30, but the damage multiplier that Pewter packs makes it particularly interesting for a high-attack warrior-style Adept to consider. While the more familiar Flint is a more straightforward offense with a damage multiplier of x1.6, Pewter should probably be viewed as a more preferable version of Flint (interestingly enough, their similar attack animations in Dark Dawn seem to support this idea). As both the user's attack ratings and enemies' defense ratings climb over the course of the game, the ignored portion of the enemy's defense rating caused by Pewter's side effect will be more tangible, making the burst of damage Pewter can score to be all the sharper.

By game
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Pewter is the only attacking Djinni in the main game to have the side effect of sometimes ignoring half of the target's Defense. Having a solid damage multiplier on top of this makes Pewter a highly useful attacking Djinni, at least on an Adept with a high Attack rating. Later in the game, the Venus Djinni Chain offers incredible damage-stacking power that applies regardless of what kind of Adept is unleashing it, but in this case one would be encouraged to have it on an Adept that is not ordinarily used for straight physical strikes. Thus, when considering an attacking Venus Djinni for a high-attack warrior Adept to use, the only true competition Pewter will face is from Geode obtained shortly after Chain. Geode has a straight and extremely strong x1.9 damage multiplier, which, practically speaking, most likely obsoletes the damage Pewter does even when Pewter does ignore enemy defense. Even by the endgame, though, Pewter is an attacking Djinni to consider simply because it can validly be considered almost as good as the great Geode. As an example of how this can be useful, a Venus Adept that has unleashed Geode can unleash another strong attack in a subsequent turn by unleashing Pewter next.

As a character
Unlike most Djinn, Pewter is given a speaking role and is treated like an actual character rather than just another collectible. Flint and Echo are the only other Djinn that share this distinction, and Pewter can be said to have more of an actual story role than either of its two peers ever have. While good-hearted and willing to help, Pewter is perhaps the sassiest character in the Golden Sun series, prone to talking back and putting down other characters' perceived character traits with inventive names like "fishbrain". Those he serves find him irritating and ill-mannered at times, whether it's the party or his original master, Laurel.

Story
Pewter is a Venus Djinni that the guardian of Kolima Forest, Laurel, has adopted as an emissary. Occasionally, Pewter's manners causes Laurel to regret this.

Matthew's traveling party of Adepts are in Kolima Village hoping to meet with the wise Tret that lives in Kolima Forest to the north, but the forest has become impassable due in part to an illness incurred by one of the trees comprising the village, the Dream Tree. They were given Hermes' Water in order to cure this, and inside the trunk of the Dream Tree it works - what was purple about the tree is now brown the way it should, and a wooden face on the wall of the trunk representing the identity of the Dream Tree changes into a healthy expression. Pewter climbs out of the face to commend them for saving the Dream Tree, and after some awkwardness between him and the Adepts over his lack of manners, he brings them Laurel's gratitude for saving the Dream Tree and invitation into Kolima Forest. Pewter leaves ahead of the Adepts.

Matthew travels north to Kolima Forest, and Pewter is content to guide the Adepts through its twists and turns to its end, where the Adepts find themselves brought before Tret and Laurel, the Waelda guardians of the forest that have great knowledge about worldly matters. Pewter stands by as many important matters are discussed between the others. Eventually, once Matthew is able to leave and proceed with his quest, Pewter goes to him to say that he impressed Laurel, and says that Laurel said something about Pewter "getting some experience in the field". In other words, Pewter is joining the Adepts on the rest of their journey, and he seems pleased to be able to do so.

Name Origin
Pewter is an alloy which consists of huge amounts of lead and lesser amounts of copper, antimony and bismuth. It was mainly used during the Bronze Age. Irony comes from Iron and the ironic humor of this Djinn.

Trivia
Pewter is one of only three Djinn, along with Flint and Echo, to talk, and is the only Djinn that talks that isn't the player's first Djinn. Incidentally, each of these three Djinn are attacking Venus Djinn with damage multipliers of either 50% or 60%, and have no other effect on the battle than dealing damage (Pewter may randomly ignore half of the target's Defense, but that simply increases the damage of that attack).