Flint

Flint (ソロ Solo) is a Venus Djinni found throughout the Golden Sun series. Flint is notable for, among other things, being the very first Djinni introduced in the series, and one of very few to actually have lines of spoken dialogue.

As a Djinni
Flint is the first Venus Djinni - and the first Djinni overall - in both the original Golden Sun and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Flint is also acquired in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and although it is not the party's first Djinni, Flint is still ordered as the first Venus Djinni when equipped to characters. Because it is not available until after most other Venus Djinn can be found, however, the separate Djinn list viewable with the Select button from the status screen lists Flint and all other Venus Djinn from Golden Sun after all of the Djinn introduced in The Lost Age. According to this order, Flint is the twelfth Venus Djinni in The Lost Age rather than the first, but this order has no influence elsewhere in the game.

Basic description
When Set, Flint increases its Adept's base HP by 8, base PP by 4, and base Attack by 3.

When Flint is unleashed in battle, the user strikes the target with an elemental physical attack 60% stronger than a normal physical attack performed by the user. Being a Venus-based attack, Flint's battle effect is also affected by the user's Venus Power and the target's Venus Resistance.

Visually, Flint's unleash animation is fairly simple. In Golden Sun and The Lost Age, the user leaps forward and strikes the target, similar to a normal attack but with some yellow coloration to reflect that it is a Venus attack. As of Dark Dawn, the user still leaps through the air, but a 3D model of Flint hovers behind them and, when the user strikes the target, their weapon and the area of ground underneath and behind the target glows yellow.

Locations
Unlike most Djinn, Flint is a Djinni that is automatically acquired at certain points in the games, and is therefore guaranteed to be among the Djinn available to players in whichever games it appears in.

Golden Sun: Isaac and Garet stumble across Flint shortly after leaving Vale for their journey. Flint provides the two young Adepts with a tutorial on how to use Djinn before joining them on their quest. The game technically grants the player the option to refuse to let Flint accompany them, but no matter how many times Flint is refused it will be added to the Djinn collection regardless.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Players can transfer data from Golden Sun to The Lost Age, but even if they don't, Flint will be among the Djinn Isaac's party has with them when they join forces with Felix's party late in the game.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: While exploring the Tanglewood early in Dark Dawn, Isaac and Garet lend Matthew and Karis some of their Djinn. Flint once again provides the Adepts, and the player, with a tutorial on how to use Djinn. Flint is not one of the six Djinn that are temporarily loaned to Matthew and Karis; it is Set on the computer-controlled Isaac during this portion of the game. Flint is Isaac's only offensive Djinni, and if Isaac unleashes Flint, he deals around 300 points of damage. The next day, when Matthew, Karis, and Tyrell leave Goma Plateau and head out into the game's overworld for the first time, Flint is automatically added to the player's Djinn collection in a cutscene. Unlike in the first game, Dark Dawn does not provide any opportunity to try to turn Flint down.

Analysis
General: While not the best offensive Djinni in the series, Flint is still among the strongest Venus Djinn, due to the fact that it increases damage by a pretty strong multiplier rather than a fixed damage increase. This means that Flint becomes stronger as the party becomes stronger, as opposed to many weapon Unleashes, most Attack-dependent Psynergies (like Ragnarok and Planet Diver), and even other Djinn, all of which only offer fixed damage boosts and become comparatively less powerful over the course of a game.

Much like other Djinn, Flint's main weakness is that it can only be unleashed once before it must be Set again. Manually Setting a Djinni wastes a turn in combat, so a recommended strategy is to unleash Flint and several other Djinn, perform a Summon, then use other forms of combat until Flint re-Sets itself automatically. Of course, some players may wish to keep their Djinn Set to keep their party's classes and statistics optimized, in which case Flint likely won't be unleashed often and is barely any better or worse than any other Venus Djinni. There would, however, remain a minor consideration on which particular Adept Flint is to remain Set on, since it provides small boosts to Attack and PP. Warrior-style Venus Adepts like Matthew benefit from both when played in the mono-elemental Squire class series, and in his case he is the better choice over Himi for Flint to be Set on if she is played in her her Mage-style mono-Venus-elemental class. Flint would be particularly good as one of the Djinn in the physical-attack-oriented Brute class series, which has a very low PP rating.

By game
Golden Sun: Ignoring Gust's chance to deal double damage, Flint has the highest damage multiplier of any offensive Djinni in Golden Sun. Also, Flint is the only offensive Venus Djinni that uses a damage multiplier instead of a fixed damage increase. However, the other two offensive Venus Djinn, Sap and Bane, have secondary effects that may make them more valuable to a mid-leveled party (before anyone's Attack is high enough to make the multiplier noticeable). A higher-leveled party, however, will no doubt find Flint's raw damage quite valuable. To optimize the damage dealt with Flint, one should equip Isaac with the Gaia Blade and Warrior's Helm to increase both his Attack rating and Venus Power, and either maximize his Venus Power by Setting all seven of the game's Venus Djinn onto him, or put him in the Berserker class to give him a huge Attack boost.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Echo fills the same role as Flint throughout much of this game because it deals the same amount of enhanced damage in battle. Late in the game, when the party has doubled in size and both Flint and Echo are in the Djinn collection, the even stronger Venus Djinni Geode soon becomes available. Geode increases base damage by 90% (as opposed to Flint and Echo's 60%), nearly doubling the damage dealt by a normal attack. While this does discredit Flint and Echo, these two Djinn are still stronger than most offensive Djinn and may still see some use if Geode is in Standby or Recovery.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Much like Echo in The Lost Age, Flint starts out as a powerful and dependable form of enhanced attack, making it especially useful against the Dim Dragon and Dim Dragon Plus bosses that are encountered shortly after Flint joins the party. It will eventually be outclassed by stronger Djinn, namely the returning Geode and the new Venus Djinni Chain, which causes all non-fainted party members to strike the target in one action, potentially being even stronger than Geode. Flint may possibly see some use if Chain and Geode are in Standby or Recovery, but will not likely be a player's first choice for dealing Venus-based damage.

As a character
Unlike most Djinn, Flint is given a speaking role and, at least for a brief time, is treated like an actual character rather than just another collectible. In both Golden Sun and Dark Dawn, Flint has the role of providing players with a tutorial on how to use Djinn.

Flint appears to be more friendly and sociable than most other Djinn: In addition to having a speaking role, it actually takes the time to explain how Djinn work. This is supported by Flint's Djinn Guide entry in Dark Dawn, which says that "Flint talks a great deal, but is both knowledgeable and nice, so no one complains."

In the Japanese script of the first game, Flint talks in a casual masculine style, but in Dark Dawn, Flint speaks with a neutral polite style.

In Golden Sun — First encounter
Much like the other Djinn, Flint is released from Sol Sanctum when Mt. Aleph erupts early in the original Golden Sun. Unlike most of the other Djinn, though, Flint does not travel far from Mt. Aleph, instead wandering outside the main gate of Vale. Before too long, the lone Djinni encounters two young Adepts, Isaac and Garet, who left Vale to hunt down the criminals responsible for the eruption. Flint volunteers to assist the duo in their quest, explaining how Djinn can enhance an Adept's abilities.

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn — Lifelong friends
Thirty years pass between the end of The Lost Age and the beginning of Dark Dawn. During that time, many of the Djinn Isaac and Garet had met decided to part ways with their human companions. Some Djinn, however, chose to remain with their new friends. Among the Djinn that stayed with the Adepts was Flint.

During the intervening decades, both Isaac and Garet had children. One day, Garet's son, Tyrell, found himself stranded on the far side of the daunting Tanglewood. The two warriors, accompanied by Isaac's son Matthew and Ivan's daughter Karis, attempt to cross the Tanglewood and rescue Tyrell. Fearing for the children's safety, Isaac and Garet lend the young Adepts some of their Djinn. Isaac asks Flint to explain the many benefits of Djinn to the children just as it did to the adults at the start of their first quest, although he finds himself urging the Djinni to not waste time reminiscing.

The following day, Matthew, Karis, and Tyrell leave Isaac and Garet's cabin on a quest to acquire a key component to a device Tyrell broke during their brief adventure the night before. Although Isaac cannot see them off in person, he sends Flint to deliver a message to them, as well as to aid them in their journey. However, the young Adepts initially mistake Flint for a wild Djinni and try to capture it. After clearing up their confusion, Flint delivers Isaac's message: While passing though Patcher's Place nearby, they should visit the Psynergy Training Grounds, then make their way to Carver's Camp to meet the elderly scholar Kraden.

Name Origin
Flint is a type of stone normally used to make arrowheads and other weapons. Flint is also a way to make fire by striking it against Steel.

Flint's Japanese name, Solo, may refer to the fact that he strikes once; this is opposed to the first Djinni in the second game.

Trivia

 * The only other Djinn that have been seen speaking so far are Echo, who provides the Djinn tutorial in The Lost Age, and Pewter, a Djinni that acts as Laurel's emissary in Dark Dawn. All of these Djinn, including Flint, are automatically acquired during a cutscene, after which they stop speaking. Also, they all happen to be Venus Djinn.
 * Flint and Echo have more similarities than the ones stated above: Both are the first Djinni acquired in whatever game they provide the tutorial in, both execute a Venus-based attack 60% stronger than the user's normal physical attack, and both increase their Adepts' PP and Attack statistics by the same amount. In fact, aside from the HP boost (eight for Flint, nine for Echo), these two Djinn are effectively identical.
 * Prior to Dark Dawn, all Djinn of the same element shared the same design. Djinn were later given individualized appearances, but Flint retains the original Venus Djinni design as its own appearance.