Trial Road

Trial Road is a dungeon-style location connected to Shaman Village. In The Lost Age, Felix's party and the town leader Moapa compete in a dungeon race similar to Colosso in Golden Sun. It is laid out as two parallel dungeon paths, with different puzzles in them, and unlike Colosso you can choose which one to race on while Moapa races on the other. At the mountainous peak of Trial Road, the boss battle with Moapa and two Knights would ensue. Afterwards, after gaining the Hover and Lift Psynergies, a secret area near the peak houses a Jupiter Djinni.

Description
Before entering Trial Road, Moapa will test the party to see if they are worthy of the ascent. The player will recognise the large pink stone from Air's Rock. Sheba will cast Whirlwind on it to clear the way. This act will surprise Moapa, who was not expecting the hero to be a girl, much to Sheba's anger.

Regardless, once this is done, Moapa will explain the rules, which are quite simple, Trial Road is a series of puzzle-filled rooms which the play must race to complete. If the player arrives first, then progress to the next door will require the player to temporarily surrender one piece of equipment to progress. If the player arrives second, then two items must be surrendered. The same holds true for Moapa, and he will be weaker in the final battle if the player finishes rooms faster than he does. The player can choose from one of two routes, each with different puzzles. Whichever they player chooses, Moapa and crew will take the other.

As a note, the player is not stripped of items before entering the race, as they were during Colosso, so it is likely the player will already have some healing items, as well as having access to all Adepts and thus any healing Psynergy they normally would have. Therefore there is more value in fast completion than in obtaining items, so this description will focus on a fast completion, rather than one that allows access to all the items. If the player so desires, Trial Road can be repeatedly entered, and hence any skipped items can be gathered at a leisurely pace after the dungeon is completed.

Room 1
The first room on the left route consists of a sand-waterfall, like those found in Yampi Desert or Ankohl Ruins. The fastest way to complete this room is to cast Sand and climb the waterfall, step off to the right and cast whirlwind. Climb up to access the exit.



Room 2
The second room on the left route is a log-rolling challenge. It is fairly simple, the player will have to push the horizontal log up. Then, cast Move on the pillar and push it up one space. Push the horizontal log up one space, and both vertical logs to the left. Push the horizontal log down, and the pillar one space right and up. Then push the top vertical log right, into the water. The player can now jump across and climb the vines to the next room, or they can push the horizontal log back up, then the remaining vertical log right to access the chest, which contains a Vial.



Room 3
The third room has several pillars to push. Cast whirlwind on the rightmost vine-covered pillar and push it all the way up. climb the vine, hop across and climb the second vine to reach the exit. The other vine-covered pillar can be whirlwind-ed and pushed to reach the Vial, although it may be faster to push the other three pillars and jump across and climb up and down instead, if the chest is the objective.



Room 4
The fourth room can simply be completed by pushing the pillar in between the rock-surrounded geysers. Jump over the geysers and across to reach the exit. Alternatively, casting Scoop on the left or right indents will also provide a shortcut (the middle one is a dead-end). Either way, the Potion on the right can be accessed by climbing back down the vines before reaching the end of the racing section of Trial Road.

Room 1
The first room contains pillar-jumping puzzle. Cast Pound on both Poundable pillars, and push a pillar onto both of the spots now vacated. Pushing the third pillar into the middle will allow access to a Vial. Either way, climb the vine on the right and jump across to reach the exit.



Room 2
In the second room, simply push the leftmost pillar all the way up, climb the vine and jump across to the exit. It is not worth the time penalty to get the Vial.



Room 3
The third room is a Burst-puzzle. Firstly, the chest is easily accessed, simply climb and get it. It contains a Nut. Then, either burst or jump on the pillar twice (probably faster to jump on them, given Burst's long animation), and climb the vine behind it. The left one will only lead to a Potion, while the right will lead both to a Vial and the exit.



Room 4
The fourth room contains a Frost-related puzzle. To reach the chest, melt the right ice pillar by pushing the burning torch next to it, then away again, allowing you to jump over and collect the Vial. Otherwise, Move both pillars toward you, melt the left ice pillar and jump over, refreezing it with Frost once you are done. Climb up and jump over to reach the final exit.

Summit
Climb the vines next to the exit and jump across into the colored circle to complete the race portion of this dungeon by triggering the boss battle with Moapa. However, later in the game, once Jupiter Lighthouse has been completed, a second area can be accessed. Using Hover on the purple tiles next to the left exit will allow the player to float across to a new stairwell. Once inside, Lift the boulder and proceed down the pathway to an area with multiple springs. Here, casting cyclone on a patch of grass to the left will cause a battle with a Mad Plant, but more importantly, the Jupiter Djinni Gasp can be found here. The chest contains an Elixir. Also of note is that unlike the rest of Trial Road, this area does have random encounters.

Enemies
Note: The defense ratings for Moapa and the Knights vary depending on how well players do in Trial Road; the more times a player beats Moapa to the blue chests, the more the enemies' defenses drop.

Glitches
There is one noteworthy glitch in regard to the Trial Road test. When the test begins, if the player goes into their inventory and drops items and equipment, and later quits the same test by stepping on the arrow tile and choosing "Yes," the dropped items will appear in the shop's Artifacts list (if they are classified as such).

This is one of the best glitches to exploit, since the 'dropped' items will be returned to the player's possession after quitting the test. The player can restart the test and continually drop items, creating unlimited copies that can later be purchased. Thus multiple copies of unique items can be bought, such as the Class-changing items, artifact weapons/armor/accessories like Cloud Brand, Rusty items that have or have not been reforged, and the Golden Boots - assuming they're equipped, since non-equipped items of those types will temporarily disappear while playing Trial Road to prevent cheating with the chests - Lucky Medals, Psy Crystals, Waters of Life, and Forgeable items. The glitch cannot be used to duplicate stat-boosting items such as Power Bread because those always disappear from the party's inventory while in Trial Road.

This glitch becomes unavailable once Trial Road is completed, meaning that the best end-game items cannot be duplicated.

Trivia

 * Gale can be used instead of Whirlwind to clear the route to Trial Road. This has no impact on the following cutscene.