Data transfer



The Password function in the Golden Sun games is a way to transfer data from the first game to the second, which is done either by inputting a text password or by connecting two GBAs together with a Game Link Cable. Data from the first game can only come out of a Completed Data file. When a Completed data file is present in the first game's file select, then at the main screen, holding the R shoulder button and left on the D-pad simultaneously while pressing Start will cause the main menu to reappear with a new option, "Send", which provides you with a Clear Data file's data in password form or opens the game up for direct data transfer via Game Link Cable into The Lost Age.

Password Grades
There are three grades of passwords: bronze, silver, and gold.

Bronze
The Bronze password transfers the characters' names, levels, Djinn collection, utility Psynergy items such as the Orb of Force, and the status of certain events so as to add and influence events in The Lost Age, such as Feizhi giving Felix the Golden Ring if Isaac rescued Hsu in the previous game. You would be just fine with this password only.

Silver
The Silver password transfers all of the above plus the exact stats of the original characters, so that stat boosts from items like Power Bread are not lost. Useful if the player would like to get a head start on maxing out all stats/levels for Isaac's party, particularily if the transfered stats have been amassed through level-grinding in the first game.

Gold
The Gold password transfers all of the above plus the total amount of coins Isaac's party has amassed at the end of Golden Sun and every item in the four characters' inventories. The Gold password is obscenely long, weighing in at 260 characters. Because most of the equipment from Golden Sun will be quickly outclassed by the equipment to be found towards the end of TLA, it is rather futile to spend the 20-30 minutes inputting the password with the risk of making an error.

Link Cable
Alternatively, data used in the Game Link cable method is even better than the Gold level password; it transfers all of the above and has all Djinn and equipment actually equipped onto the characters properly (as in, the way they were exactly at the end of Golden Sun). However, the Gold level password will unequip every item from the characters, while the Game Link cable method doesn't. As this is useful for removing cursed items, the Gold level password is occasionally used instead.

In the interest of collecting all available items from both games into The Lost Age, the Gold Password and the Game Link Cable methods are the only ways to go, but even if one uses careful planning based on previous experience with the two games to fill up the GS1 characters' limited inventories with equipment not bought as artifacts or found as rare drops in The Lost Age, it won't be possible to carry every individual piece of weapon and armor. Note that there is no "special reward" for amassing every single item in the Lost Age cart.