Passaj Mountain Climb

The Passaj Mountain Climb is a dungeon-style location in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, located northeast of Harapa. It must be passed through each time the player needs to go to or come out from the settlement of Passaj, which is at the top of the mountain peak that the Mountain Climb leads up to.

Description
The name specifically refers to the location in lower-central Angara that must be climbed up to reach the mountain town of Passaj at its top. The location is a source of the mineral Zol, which is mined by the people of Passaj. Passaj's miners take advantage of Zol's wind-related properties to float Zol up the mountain on naturally occurring updrafts.

The Mountain Climb also forms an integral part of Passaj's defenses. The citizens of Passaj have used the advantage their heights give them in fending off multiple attacks from the expansionist country of Kaocho. However, a recent attack resulted in one of the ladder's being cut, limiting the ability to scale the peak.

After awakening the Alchemy Forge upon the first visit to Passaj, a Zol-based elevator will be activated, allowing for quick travel up and down the Mountain. According to Baghi in Passaj, the elevator had never before been activated in his lifetime.

First Visit
When you first enter the Mountain Climb on the overworld map, the starting screen immediately gives you a fork in the road. The right fork into a small cave leads to a room that does not have anything useful for you yet, but once the Mountain Climb is complete this will be the site of an elevator shortcut that links straight to Passaj above, allowing you to go to and exit Passaj much more quickly. The left fork, therefore, is the one you need to take in order to proceed through the dungeon proper. Follow the winding, linear path up, pushing the earth pillar to the right so that it falls and you can hop across it, until you pass by an NPC and reach the northwest corner of the screen. Cast Whirlwind on the Wind Blossom and hop across it from left to right, then continue into the cave entrance at the top of the screen.

You are forced to ignore the chest the first time you go through the first screen, but you can immediately come back out of the cave to fetch it because the earth pillar you moved resets itself. Go back down and slide down the two cliff slides to the left and to the south of the NPC, and claim the Leather Boots from the chest - this should be the first boots item in the game. Cast Growth on the nearby plant to climb back up, then return to the cave at the top by hopping across the Wind Blossom.

Inside the cave, you can push the floating cubes of Zol into the windy abyss to see how the wind carries the cubes off-screen, indicating how wind interacts with these cubes for the sake of puzzles. Proceed into the cave room north of that, where holes in the cave walls constantly spout whirlwinds that prevent you from going right until you push the earth pillar right in front of a whirlwind hole. Cross the whirlwind hole to the right of that with a little bit of timing, push the Zol cube out of the way so that it falls into the non-windy abyss (showing you that a Zol cube floats straight across any pit or abyss and only falls once it makes contact with a wall or object), then go upstairs.

On Passaj Mountain Climb 3F, an area with several NPCs, your ultimate destination is the northeast exit that is northeast of a Venus Djinni, but like before a whirlwind-spouting hole prevents you from using the easy path to get there. Go west to a lone Zol Cube and cast the Whirlwind Psynergy on it, making it hover in the air temporarily so you can climb the two ladders and hop left across it - just like with Wind Blossoms - and then follow the linear path down to the area's southwest exit, then to the exit of the small room after that.

In the next room of note, push the Zol cube right, then climb up two ladders to a small elevated area where two whirlwind spouts will have to be crossed without them carrying you back down to the bottom. You want to slide down the rightmost cliff slide just above where the Zol cube now rests, so that you can push it down, then push it right so that it stops at an enclosed whirlwind spout that automatically levitates it near a chest. Follow the path to the room's east exit, hop across the Zol cube to get the powerful and useful Blow Mace weapon artifact out of the chest, and go through the exit to return to the eastern half of the large area above. Proceed until you get to the Djinni, and be careful not to let the whirlwind spout carry you down while going over toward it (because you will have to go all the way through the other two rooms below again to return here). Battle it and obtain the Venus Djinni Bark, then climb up the two ladders and go upstairs.

Back outdoors, follow and climb your way through the winding path until you get through the top exit of the screen. The cliff slide at the northeast corner you pass along the way will lead you to the cave entrance underneath the bridge, but there is no point in doing so at this time, so ignore it and go to the large screen north of this. The Mars Djinni you pass by along the way when going through this screen cannot be gotten until a fair time later into the game. Pass through the gates up north to enter Passaj.

Subsequent visits
Once you are done with the lengthy procession of cutscenes in Passaj, including having turned on the Alchemy Forge, and are allowed to explore the town at your leisure, you can access the elevator room that lies just underneath the town by going through the downstairs at the lower right of the town south of the weapon and armor shop. Stand on the large Zol cube to be transported down into the previously empty elevator room at the base of the Passaj Mountain Climb, allowing you to quickly access the world map and continue on your journey.

The elevator essentially allows you to choose never to make the time-consuming journey through Passaj Mountain Climb again whenever you need to go to Passaj from the world map and vice versa. When you need to return to Passaj with Amiti and the Sol Mask in your possession, enter the Passaj Mountain Climb and go into the elevator room at the end of the right fork, and the elevator quickly brings you back up to Passaj. Subsequent cutscenes with the Sol Mask transform Passaj into a fortress, and this allows you to get the Mars Djinni at the screen just before Passaj. Go onto the newly raised wall at the bottom end of Passaj and go down the elevated southwest exit left of the main gate, and back in the last large screen of Passaj Mountain Climb, follow the linear path from northwest to southeast to deposit yourself just right of the Mars Djinni. The Mars Djinni Brand does not even need to be battled. Return to Passaj by climbing the ladder at the southeast corner of the map screen, Growth the plant north of that, and walk on the fortress wall to return to Passaj via the right of the three entrances at the north end of the screen.

Once the game tasks you to go back out into the world and go to Harapa, use the elevator again. Once you have obtained the Cold Snap Psynergy from Harapa Ruins and need to go back to Passaj, use the elevator yet again. Note that now that you have Cold Snap, you can finally obtain the treasure in the cave under the bridge that was bypassed earlier. Exit out of Passaj's main gate and proceed down to the screen that has that bridge and cave, and slide down the northeast cliff slide and the cliff slide below that. Make use of the hoppable platforms and wall-ladders to reach the cave. Move the giant Zol cube in front of you up, left, and up so that it gets inserted into a wall and powers the left half of the double doors. Then cast Cold Snap on the lone puddle to turn it into an ice pillar, then go to the Zol cube at the lower left and push it up, left, down, and left. Now remove the ice pillar by casting Fireball on it, then push the Zol cube up so that it gets inserted into a wall and powers the right half of the double doors. Enter the double doors and claim the Flora summon tablet. Return to Passaj by casting the Retreat Psynergy.

The Passaj Mountain Climb, like the rest of the locations in the Ei-Jei region, become no longer accessible for a large part of the game once you make the decision to depart Passaj for the Clouds of Passaj. Much later in the game, when you have the Sailing Ship and can revisit Ei-Jei, you can once again come to Passaj Mountain Climb and either take the elevator to Passaj or work your way up the long way - mote that unlike many other points in the game where points of no return cause you to permanently miss collectibles, all of the aforementioned treasures can be gotten now if you missed them before. While there would seem to be no point in going through the dungeon portion of Passaj Mountain Climb again, note that the bestiary has changed, and this area is the only area in the game where the Cerebus monster can be encountered, noteworthy for being the monster that can randomly drop the Berserker Claw.

Collectibles
Leather Boots: found in a chest near the entrance. Blow Mace: found in a chest in the interior portion of Passaj Mountain Climb. Bark: found in the interior portion of Passaj Mountain Climb, near the upper exit. Flora: found in a cave near the upper portion of the Mountain. Requires Cold Snap to access.