Dehkan Plateau

The Dehkan Plateau is a large area of raised land in central Indra. South of Daila and north of Madra, it must be traversed if one wishes to travel between the two towns. The Dehkan Plateau is journed through by Felix and company in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, while on their way to the bottom half of Indra to reach the town of Madra. The Dehkan Plateau is of extremely high altitude and is also semi-arid, with only a few plants growing there; the rough, hole-ridden landscape results from an earthquake that transpires there in response to the Tidal wave at the game's start. The Plateau is the only one of it's kind in either game, in contrast to the many Caves, the two Forests, and the three Deserts. It shares this quality with Taopo Swamp.

The Plateau contains puzzles requiring the use of Pound, Lash, and Move, and a Mars Djinni. The Pound Cube is also obtained here.

The name Dehkan Plateau is a play on the real-world Deccan Plateau, a large plateau in the center of India that separates the northern and southern areas.

Walkthrough
Upon entering Dehkan Plateau, go up to the cracked ground, and step on the weak sections of cracked ground until you fall through into the cave room below. Here, there are two exits: The exit leading down leads to a chest containing the Full Metal Vest, a very tough piece of defensive equipment for whichever Adept you decide to equip it on. Go back up into the cave and climb up the stairs back outside, and go right into the next screen.

The gray pillars seen here in the second screen collapse upon hopping onto them twice, as you will see when you get the immediately visible chest containing an Elixir and try to go back. Hop right across the two lower pillars, then follow the path down and right until you find another set of cracked ground and open holes. The idea is to bypass these without falling down into any holes; however, falling through the half-open hole at the top is recommended because you will land in a part of the cave below where you can get a chest containing a Mint. Slide down and exit the cave room off its bottom right end, come back outside, push the earth pillar one space left, and return to the series of cracked floor tiles. To bypass it, position yourself left of the open square-shaped hole to the lower right and hop right over it, and go up to proceed into the next screen above.

In the third screen, hop left over the gray pillar onto the elevated portion of ground, and from there, hop onto the pillar to the upper left of that, hop up, then hop right onto the pillar blocking the way to the now-visible chest, hop back left, and hop right again so that the pillar crumbles. The chest contains your first artifact weapon, Themis' Axe, which is a massive Venus-aligned improvement over any other weapon Felix could be holding, and can only be equipped by Felix. Now go back down and return to the previous screen and immediately return to this screen to perform a puzzle reset. Hop left twice again, then this time hop down onto the pillars below and hop left several times to get to the left elevated portion of ground. Go up, hop twice right on gray pillars, hop up, and hop left twice, and the path leads you to the next screen off to the right.

In the fourth screen, when you get to another series of cracked ground tiles, fall down any of them, and let the path you're linearly led along take you back outside to where a Mars Djinni notices you, flees across more cracked ground, and falls down a hole. Fall into a hole after it, and another linear path eventually leads you off to the right end of the screen, chasing after the Mars Djinni (there is an earth pillar here that may be pushed two spaces left to fall into a circular indentation on the ground).

In the fifth screen with a wooden bridge and a scenic background, chase the Mars Djinni across the bridge, and you'll see it use a Psynergy named Pound to remove a type of pillar blocking its way while it flees from you. Its trail causes the only cracked tile you could have crossed here in your pursuit to weaken so that you will fall down into a small cave, so now you have to walk all the way back left through the bridge, and this time, climb down to where there are two earth pillars with leafy, climbable vines growing on them. Push the lower pillar two spaces right and climb up it, and if you have the Lash Psynergy from the Kandorean Temple, cast Lash on the coiled rope to gain access to a chest containing a Nut. Then push the upper pillar two spaces left, and climb down it, and now you can easily access the right end of the screen so you can continue through the area in pursuit of the Mars Djinni.

In the sixth screen, the Mars Djinni will flee from you again, using the brittle gray pillars to help its escape and prevent you from following it with the same pillars. So climb down, push the ivy-pillar two spaces right, climb up it, and hop right twice and hop left once to get back onto the ground. Go up and down in a clockwise U-turn to get to the ivy-pillar to the right, move that two spaces left, climb up that, and hop left once to make that gray pillar crumble. Climb up to the earth pillar, push it up once and left four times, then climb down and use the Move Psynergy to move it left one space so that it can be hopped across, then climb back up again and hop left across it to access the downstairs entrance. Follow the caves to a room with many cracked floors and the Mars Djinni in plain sight. Do not attempt to step in front of it; it will just Pound you away. So instead, starting from the upper-leftmost cracked floor tile that does not collapse by stepping on it just once, move three spaces right, two spaces down, and two spaces right to reach the room's lower right exit.

Follow the linear path back outside to a point where there is an open hole and two nearly-open holes in the ground, and step on the nearly-open hole to the right to fall through it; You will fall right on top of the Mars Djinni in the cave below, and a cube-like object will fly away and become collectible while the Djinni flees downstairs. From your immediate position, walk up so you can collect the Pound Cube that bestows the Pound Psynergy, then walk down across the cracked tile to the lower right so you can follow the Djinni downstairs. This room with two different types of pillars visible is the last room you need to chase the Djinni to, but do not blindly chase after it to the right; instead, climb down the ivy and cast the Pound Psynergy to flatten the pillar to the left, so that when you then corner the Djinni, it cannot escape, and you must battle it to earn your first Mars Djinni, Cannon. This is the last puzzle of Dehkan Plateau, so now just follow the linear path beyond that through several screens until you're back outside, and leave Dehkan Plateau through the exit on the bottom to emerge into the overworld.

Collectibles
Cannon: Chased through the entire plateau, Cannon is only fought and earned in a cave where you use Pound on a pillar it would jump across to try to escape from you.

Elixir: In the chest coming into the second screen. Full Metal Vest: In the chest visible in the first screen. Mint: In a chest reached by dropping into a cave late in the second screen. Nut: In a chest in the screen with the wood bridge, reached by using Lash. Pound Cube: In a later area, falling down a specific pit outside will drop you onto the Mars Djinni you've been chasing, making it drop this item onto the ground. Themis' Axe: In a chest in the third screen reached by jumping on a certain collapsing pillar twice.