Salt

Salt (ソルト Salt) is a Venus Djinni found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.

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

In Dark Dawn, Salt appears as one of the "extra Djinn" in the Djinn Guide because of its temporary appearance in the earliest stage of the game.

Basic description
When Set, Salt increases its Adept's base HP by 9, base PP by 5, and base Luck by 1.

When Salt is unleashed in battle, all status ailments on each currently active party member that is not Downed are removed. This includes the conditions that would disappear at the end of each battle, including Stun, Delusion, Sleep, Psynergy Seals, and Death Curse, and permanent conditions that would have to be removed manually, including Poison, Venom, and Haunt.

In The Lost Age, Salt's unleash animation visually resembles a transparent orange image of a Venus Djinni hovering above the party as a clump of glitter is slowly sprinkled over each affected Adept, the glitter taking on the color more or less of the background behind it at first. In Dark Dawn, the 3D model of Salt is summoned above the party, which then floats around as loosely scattered glitter occasionally flashes across the full party while each Adept getting cured is surrounded within a green, pillar-like beam of light.

Locations
Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Salt is located in the town of Contigo, very near the bottom entrance. It is located just to the right of the entrance, in the exact center of a large patch of grass. Despite how easy it is to get when one knows it's there, players playing without any outside information very often miss this Djinni because the first instinct with grass groups like this is to use Cyclone to blow them away. As a matter of fact, Salt is automatically acquired by casting Scoop in the one bare spot in the center of the grass. Unlike other items specifically buried in the ground and findable with Scoop, however, the Reveal Psynergy will not even indicate Salt's presence in the ground with a telltale glowing spot.

Golden Sun: Dark  Dawn: Salt is one of the five Djinn that Isaac and Garet keep to themselves and exclusively use while in Tanglewood, meaning that the player can only see Salt being used while exploring Tanglewood, the Abandoned Mine beyond that, and the Tangle Bloom boss fight at the end. After this, Salt and the other Djinn are not seen for the rest of the game.

Analysis
General: The effect of curing all status ailments, let alone on all currently active Adepts in the battle, is exclusive to Djinn like Salt. In one maneuver, it removes from across the entire battling party all occurrences of the status conditions that the Elixir item and Restore Psynergy remove off a single targeted ally (Sleep, Stun, Delusion, Psynergy Seal, and Death Curse), the damaging status conditions that the Antidote item and Cure Poison Psynergy remove off a single targeted ally (Poison and Venom), and the Haunt status condition that can otherwise only be removed either by the afflicted ally being Downed or by paying at a Sanctum. This makes Djinn like Salt conceptually invaluable, though there seem to be few real combat situations where such a healing effect can truly be worth it - temporary status conditions are not extremely dangerous because battles go by fast anyway and they remove themselves once the battle is over, and when anyone is poisoned during a battle, it is typical to win the battle quickly, and then use Cure Poison on each poisoned Adept in the field. The Haunt condition does not even apply itself much to be of real worry in general as well. Effects like Salt are most useful in particular boss encounters when various status conditions are spread around a lot, particularly if you are setting up for a Venus summon in that battle.

By game
Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Salt can be found as soon as the Great Western Sea is reached, meaning it can be present both as a Venus Djinni to keep set for the sake of classes and as an option to remove Status Conditions for up to Jupiter Lighthouse. In this instance, the only real use Salt has is to cure the Stun status condition that Agatio can cause with his Stun Muscle attack. When Isaac's party joins Felix's party along with their returning Djinn (granted that Password data transfer is in effect), they bring with them an identical equivalent in the Mercury Djinni Tonic. The two are equally usable for whenever a particularly widespread status condition situation transpires, though in a way they are limited because those sorts of situations do not occur often; the only real beneficial use for them in this game is when multiple Adepts are afflicted with Haunt and Death Curse in the fights against the final boss and Dullahan.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Salt's appearance in Isaac's possession at the beginning of the game is trivial at best, because there is no threat from the status conditions of enemies or the Tangle Bloom boss encounter from the end, with or without a status condition-healing effect. The computer-controlled Isaac will immediately use it as soon as any status condition is inflicted on even one party member, such as Delusion. This puts a Djinni on Standby for a summon like Cybele or Judgment, which will make the Tangle Bloom fight pass by quickly. Identical equivalents to this Djinni in the main game are the Mercury Djinni Dewdrop and the Venus Djinni Clover.

Name Origin
Salt is a mineral in the earth. It is perhaps best known for adding flavor to food, but it has also been historically used to disinfect wounds, explaining the Djinni's healing abilities.