Meld


 * "Launch a powerful team strike."



Location
Meld is found in Islet Cave, in the immediately accessible portion of it as opposed to the later portion accessible only with the Teleport Psynergy at the end of the game. Getting to the optional dungeon to begin with is complex in and of itself, making Meld essentially the "main reward" for first reaching Islet Cave. In the right watery room with rolling logs, after you roll right, simply go down to the horizontal log below and roll it up to Meld's position at the top of the area. It must be battled.

As an opponent
Statistically, Meld has 710 HP, 65 PP, 221 Attack, 65 Defense, 187 Agility, and 22 Luck. Like all other Venus Djinn that are fought, in terms of resistance, it has a Venus Resistance rating of 193, Mercury and Mars Resistance ratings of 100 each, and a Jupiter Resistance rating of 25, and in regards to its abilities it uses its available Venus-based attacks with a Venus power rating of 125.

Meld can use the following battle commands:
 * Nettle: Used 53 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy Spell that generates a large mass of thorny spiked vines at the position of the party, dealing a Venus-based attack with a power rating of 140 and a range of 3. It costs the user 23 PP.
 * Wild Growth: Used 47 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that causes a large amount of thorny vines to erupt from the ground and though the party, dealing a Venus-based attack with a power rating of 110 and a range of 5. It consumes 19 of the user's PP.
 * Mother Gaia: Used 41 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that causes the ground beneath the enemy to open up and engulf the party in a wider reverse shower of Venus energy and medium-sized boulders, dealing a Venus-based attack with a power rating of 100 and a range of 5. This ability consumes 17 of its user's PP.
 * Clay Spire: Used 35 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that causes three thick stalactites to fall out of the sky and shatter onto the party, dealing a Venus-based attack with a power rating of 85 and a range of 3. This ability consumes 13 of its user's PP.
 * Quake Sphere: Used 29 out of 256 yimes, this is a Psynergy spell that prompts three rectangular sections of ground underneath the party to jolt upward and retract into the ground quickly thrice in succession, bouncing each Adept three times, dealing a Veus-based attack with a power rating of 65 and a range of 7. This ability consumes 15 of its user's PP.
 * Attack: Used 28 out of 256 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack, but for this monster it is counted as a Venus-based attack rather than a non-elemental attack.
 * Flee: Used 23 out of 256 times, this enemy has the ability to attempt to Flee the battle, thereby ending the battle if successful without rewarding you with the associated EXP, Coins, and the Djinni itself.

When defeated, Meld yields 729 EXP and 531 Coins, and the Meld Djinni is added to your party's Djinn collection. If you fell it with an offensive Jupiter Djinni like Wheeze, its rewards increase to 947 EXP and 690 Coins.

Very easy to destroy in one turn with summons like Thor.

Description
When Set, it increases base HP by 9, base Agility by 4, and base Luck by 1.

Meld's battle effect is unique: Visually, it appears as the user and one of the other currently active party members attacking a target together. The Adept that is chosen to be the "second attacker" alongside the user is the Adept with the highest Attack rating other than the user. The damage calculation is based mostly on the "second attacker"; it is the second attacker's attack that is used as the base for the damage, and it is the second attacker's Venus power rating that is applied for elemental resistance calculations. However, during the attack the second attacker's Attack rating is treated as though it has additonal attack rating equal to 25% of the user's own attack rating (meaning that 25% of the Meld user's own attack rating is the only contribution to the attack that Meld actually causes).

If the user is the only currently alive Adept of the party members and uses Meld, the user will merely strike by itself and deal a Venus-based attack equal in power to the user's normal physical attack increased by 25%.

Ability analysis
While it uses a formula that is certainly different than the norm, Meld is ultimately an under-performing gimmick, since there is only a 25% damage rate increase involved; Echo and Geode are automatically better than Meld because of straight +60% and +90% damage multipliers coming off the user's own attack rating respectively, which in almost all cases is better than 25% from even the strongest ally's attack. There are rare, situational cases where it could possibly have merit: If the user of Meld is a mage-style Adept with low Attack and there is a partner warrior-style Adept with very high Attack in comparison, and it would be worth having the turn play out as though the warrior Adept attacks twice in a turn while the mage Adept does nothing, using Meld is the means to achieve this temporary substitution.

Name Origin
Meld's name likely refers to the fact that two characters "meld" their attacks into a single strike. Also, Meld may share the same origin as Mold's name.