Shade

Shade is a Mercury Djinni found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

Shade is the fourth Mercury Djinni in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. The separate Djinn list viewable with the Select button from the status screen lists Shade and all other Mercury Djinn introduced in The Lost Age before the seven Mercury Djinn from the original Golden Sun, most likely because all the Djinn from the original game can be gotten all at once late in The Lost Age. However, the original Djinn are ordered before all of the Djinn introduced in The Lost Age in the Djinn inventory screen while they are allocated to characters. By this order, Shade is the eleventh Mercury Djinni in the GBA series, rather than the fourth.

Basic description

 * "Create a watery shield."

When Set, Shade increases base HP by 9, base Defense by 3, and base Luck by 2.

When Shade is unleashed in battle, the user produces an effect that reduces all damage the entire party would take for the rest of the current turn by 60%. This effect has the "strikes first" property, meaning it will be the first performed action in a given turn regardless of the agility rating of the user and any other combatant in battle.

In The Lost Age, Shade's unleash animation visually resembles the user summoning a glowing, transparent image of a Mercury Djinni that briefly hovers above the party, as each Adept affected by the effect has a swirling array of white-blue energy orbs gather into them, and a square wall image briefly flashes at each Adept's position to indicate that damage the Adept will take is blocked.

Location
Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Shade is a Djinni that is automatically handed to you as you play through the game, being present on Piers as soon as he joins your party in the town of Kibombo somewhat early on in The Lost Age. Shade is one of three Djinn in The Lost Age - the others being Echo and another Mercury Djinni in Piers' possession, Spring - that is impossible not to obtain.

Analysis
General: Shade is one of several Djinn that cuts total damage the party takes this turn by a large amount, and does so with increased priority, which makes it a powerful defensive measure. Shade, a Djinni that lowers all damage taken down to two-fifths, is all the more useful than a Djinni that lowers all damage taken down to one half like Granite, and while it won't be as useful once a Djinni that lowers damage down to one tenth is found, like Flash, it is still a powerful and useful effect well worth using up the Adept's turn on.

By game
Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Shade is extremely useful from the moment it is collected all the way until late in the game, because of a very reliable damage-reduction effect. It is typically used in boss encounters, and can give your party a much needed cushion against enemy damage while other Adepts of your party focus on healing dangerously low-health party members. Much later in the game, when Isaac's party joins Felix's, they bring with them the Mars Djinni Flash from the previous game, and this is a much stronger version of the same effect that makes all Adepts take only 10% of the damage they would have taken. Even then, Shade is not necessarily considered "obsoleted to uselessness", as both Djinn can be used and alternated between - and Shade is still superior to Granite, which Isaac's party can also bring with them.

Name Origin
A spring is a small release of water from the Earth.