Gasp

Gasp is a Jupiter Djinni found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

Gasp is the ninth Jupiter Djinni in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. The separate Djinn list viewable with the Select button from the status screen lists Gasp and all other Jupiter Djinn introduced in The Lost Age before the seven Jupiter 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, Gasp is the sixteenth Jupiter Djinni in the GBA series, rather than the ninth.

Basic description

 * "Call the Grim Reaper on your foes."

When Set, Gasp increases its Adept's base HP by 12 and base Psynergy Points by 5.

When Gasp is unleashed in battle, each enemy has a chance to be inflicted with a Death Curse, a status condition that instantly downs the target once the target has executed seven actions. Like with the Curse Psynergy, enemies that take multiple actions per turn will have their seven-turn countdown timers go by much faster, and if an enemy already afflicted with Death Curse has a Death Curse-causing effect such as the Curse Psynergy or this Djinni successfully affect them again, the countdown will be forwarded one measure.

Visually, Gasp's unleash animation resembles the user summoning the transparent purple image of a Jupiter Djinni above the enemy party. Then, a mass of glowing purple clouds in the shape of monstrous faces slowly float from the bottom of the screen under the enemy party, and hold for a moment before disappearing. This does not look any different whether one or more enemies are afflicted.

Location
Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Gasp is located in the hidden area beyond the "goal line" screen of Trial Road. It is only accessible after Isaac's party joins Felix's late in The Lost Age because it requires both the Hover Psynergy earned upon completing the Trial Road contest and the Lift Psynergy Isaac's party brings with them. At the exterior screen of Trial Road where the battle with Moapa and the two Knights took place, cast Hover on the glowing purple Hover tile, then cast Lift on the boulder blocking the way to a secret area with lots of grass clumps and Gasp present. Along with looting the other aspects of the area, go to either the top or the bottom of the lower left lake so that the Djinni is opposite yourself, cast Reveal to show a platform in the center of the lake, and hop onto the platform to get Gasp pushed off to the side so that it can be engaged in battle to be earned.

As an opponent
Statistically, Gasp has 870 HP, 81 PP, 276 Attack, 84 Defense, 239 Agility, and 27 Luck. Like all other Jupiter Djinn that are fought, in terms of resistance, it has a Jupiter Resistance rating of 193, Mercury and Mars Resistance ratings of 100 each, and a Venus Resistance rating of 25, and in regards to its abilities it uses its available Jupiter-based attacks with a Jupiter power rating of 125.

Whorl can use the following battle commands:
 * Spark Plasma: Used 53 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that strikes the party repeatedly with a barrage of purplish-white lightning bolts, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 180 and a range of 7. It consumes 37 of the user’s PP.
 * Tempest: Used 47 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that causes four large, electrically charged tornadoes to cycle through the positions of the party of Adepts, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 160 and a range of 5. This consumes 27 of its user's PP.
 * Destruct Ray: Used 41 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that causes an array of thick purple lightning bolts to thoroughly assault the party, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 150 and a range of 3. This ability consumes 21 of its user's PP.
 * Sonic Slash: Used 35 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that shoots out a large purple air swath at each Adept, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 120 and a range of 3. This ability consumes 20 of its user's PP.
 * Blue Bolt: Used 29 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that causes two thick purple lightning bolts to strike at the party, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 90 and a range of 3. This ability consumes 14 of its user's PP.
 * Attack: Used 28 out of 256 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack, but for this monster it is counted as a Jupiter-based attack rather than a non-elemental attack.
 * Flee: Used 23 out of 256 times, this enemy has the ability to attempt to Flee the battle, thereby ending the battle if successful without rewarding you with the associated EXP, Coins, and the Djinni itself.

When defeated, Gasp yields 1000 EXP and 660 Coins, and the Gasp Djinni is added to your party's Djinn collection. If you fell it with an offensive Venus Djinni like Geode, its rewards increase to 1300 EXP and 858 Coins.

Incidentally, Gasp's battle abilities are exactly the same as Whorl's at Jupiter Lighthouse, and its statistics and rewards are practically identical but very slightly larger. Whorl is fought and found by the party before Isaac's party joins to make the party double in size, whereas Gasp is fought starting right after that. Since you now have two Venus Adepts with which to deal enhanced damage to Gasp with, Gasp really, really should not be an issue to earn in battle.

Analysis
General: The Death Curse status condition is rarely relevant to normal play, whether it is used by you or used against you. Battles with random monsters typically go by much faster than the seven enemy actions Curse requires the targeted enemy to take, and while it is possible to have multiple Adepts be in classes with the Curse Psynergy and have them all cast Curse on the same enemy to force the countdown timer along, it takes less effort than that to rout an enemy formation with straightforward attacking. Bosses would theoretically be ideal to use Death Curse against because not only do the battles against them last long, but the fact they typically execute two actions per turns would make the countdown go by twice. But unfortunately, bosses are typically immune to Curse and other status conditions due to having high luck values. Thus, while Gasp is conceptually a direct improvement over Curse in that it attempts to afflict all enemies with Death Curse instead of one, it is still a novelty that ultimately won't yield results preferable to more straightforward battling approaches. In Dark Dawn, Gasp's identical equivalent is the Venus Djinni Hemlock.

By game
Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Bosses in this game have inherently higher luck ratings than the previous one, meaning that while it is possible to successfully inflict Death Curse on bosses as late as Tempest Lizard in the previous game, there are essentially no worthwhile enemies to try to inflict Death Curse on in this game. Gasp is therefore basically worthless as a battle effect in this game, even though the four Ball minions of the Star Magician optional boss battle can be afflicted with Death Curse all at once. It is still far preferable to destroy the balls with traditional attacks, and you would probably want to keep the Thunder Balls alive to limit the threat value of the other three varities.

Name Origin
A gasp is a quick, deep breath into the lungs.