Islet Cave

The Islet Cave is a very famous location among Golden Sun: The Lost Age players, due to the impressive amount of experience points that is possible to gain in its depths.

Access and Walkthrough
Access to the Islet Cave is gained by trading objects with animals, which can be found on little islands all over Weyard. To communicate with them, the only means is to use the Mind Read Psynergy. Here is the list of trades :


 * Go to the East Tundaria Islet (located east of the Tundaria continent, obviously) and "talk" with the penguin. Solve the little puzzle in order to save his fiancée and he will reward you with a Pretty Stone.
 * Give the stone to the bird on the South East Angara Islet (located northwest of Lemuria, east of Champa). It will give you a Red Handkerchief.
 * Give the handkerchief to the cow on the North Osenia Islet (located southwest of Lemuria, north of Alhafra). The Sand Psynergy is necessary to reach it, so you won't be able to complete this miniquest before completing Gaia Rock. The cow will give you some of its Milk.
 * Give the milk to the dog on the West Indra Islet (located between Gondowan and Indra). It will give you a Li'l Turtle.
 * Finally, go to the Sea of Time Islet, southeast of Lemuria, and give the smaller turtle to the larger turtle (yes). It will thank you by taking you (and your entire party, incidentally) to its hideout, the Islet Cave.

The Islet Cave, when you will first be able to enter it, will offer the main interest of containing the Venus Djinni Meld, as well as a pair of Turtle Boots, which is of limited use.

Once you gain the Teleport Psynergy in the Mars Lighthouse, you will be able to use it at the entrance of the cave to have access to the "true" Islet Cave. It consists in a series of five corridors and a room. Within this area, you will find the following goodies :


 * Sentinel awaits the party in the last room. Once defeated, you will gain the Catastrophe Summon Tablet.
 * In the second corridor, using the Tremor Psynergy on the shaking statue on the left will reveal the Mercury Djinni Serac.
 * You can battle Cruel Dragons in this area. If you are lucky, they will yield you one of the powerful Tisiphone Edges (fell it with a Mars Djinni for maximum effectiveness).
 * It is also the place where you will encounter Wonder Birds. They are the non-unique monsters that yields the greatest amount of experience points in the game : more than 8000 each, more than 11000 if you fell them with a Mercury Djinni. Because of that, the Islet Cave is the dedicated place where players who have completed the game level up their characters.

Collectibles
In the "earlier" portion of Islet Cave, these three collectibles are found:

Rusty Staff: In the chest at the upper left of the "main water hall" with the teleport pads, accessed by riding a rolling log from right to left. Take it to the blacksmith in Yallam and he will reforge it into the Dracomace staff artifact. Turtle Boots: In the chest to your left as soon as you enter the "main water hall" with the teleport pads. This is mainly meant for collection and selling for money, since it is far outclassed by a far superior (but still iffy) item called Safety Boots found much earlier in the game.

Meld: A Venus Djinni reached by rolling a log across the water in the vertical "water-hallway" to the right. It must be fought to be acquired.

Whereas the long series of linear halls beyond the Teleport pads holds these treasures:

Catastrophe: This Summon tablet lies at the final room of the dungeon, guarded by the optional boss Sentinel. Essentially, the dungeon's "main" goal and reward, following one of the main optional "superboss" battles of the game.

Serac: This Mercury Djinni is hiding in the shaking statue up on one of the pillars in one of the screens. To make it fall and make the Djinni able to be battled to be collected, cast Tremor near the statue. Precise positioning, and thus several repeated attempts to Tremor the statue off, may be required.