Moloch (Djinni)

For the Moloch summon, see Moloch.

This Djinni can be obtained via a glitch when transferring Djinn between party members.

Moloch is a Jupiter Djinni found in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.

Because it is a glitch, Moloch does not have an enumeration in the Djinn Guide; going by ID within the game's files (and so including other glitch Djinn), it is the thirty-first and last Jupiter Djinni and the last Djinni overall. The glitch to acquire it can be performed as soon as Flint joins the party outside of the Lookout Cabin, making it theoretically the first Jupiter Djinni accessible in Dark Dawn. It is the only known glitch Djinni that is accessible without a hacking device.

Basic description
When Set, Moloch increases its Adept's base HP by 70, PP by 1, Attack by 2, Defense by 30, Agility by 92 and Luck by 1.

Unlike all other Djinn in the series, Moloch cannot be used as a Djinni in battle. If placed into Standby prior to a battle commencing, Moloch can be used as part of any summon except for the Jupiter summon. If Moloch is used to summon Jupiter, the game will crash.

Moloch shares the same basic model as the Venus Djinni Vine but has the Jupiter color palette applied to the model, leading to its distinctive look and red eyes.

How to Obtain
To obtain Moloch, the player must have a space to use the 'Give' action to give a Djinni to an Adept. Consequently, Moloch cannot be obtained if the player has already obtained all 72 Djinn. Creating Moloch also requires the player permanently to lose one of the other Djinni that the player has collected - the player can choose which Djinni is lost.

The method to obtain Moloch is as follows:


 * Enter the Djinn menu.
 * Select any Djinni that is in the right most position of an Adept's djinn list and can be given to another Adept.
 * Attempt to give that Djinni to the other Adept. This should bring up the confirmation menu.
 * Press the A button to confirm that you will give the Djinni to the Adept and immediately press the stylus against the screen.
 * If this was successful, Moloch should be attached to the stylus.
 * Move the stylus over the Djinni that will be deleted; the 'Trade' option should appear.
 * Trade Moloch with the Djinni to be deleted. Upon confirmation, Moloch will be gained to the party.

Moloch's icon may not be immediately visible upon doing this method - exiting and entering the menu will display Moloch's icon correctly.

This method can be repeated as many times as the player wishes, i.e. it is possible for a player to have multiple Molochs.

A video demonstrating how to do this can be found here.

Glitch Effects
For the most part, Moloch can be obtained and used without any negative consequences to the player. There are some things that the player should be aware of when using Moloch:


 * If Moloch is used to summon Jupiter, the game will crash, as the summon attempts to load the Djinni's 3D model and Moloch does not have one. Moloch can be used as part of any other summon without consequence.
 * A phantom Moloch can appear in the Djinn menu from time to time. It will only appear on Adepts that currently have Moloch on them. This phantom will manifest as an 'extra' Djinni at the end of their Djinn list. If a Djinni is given to a Adept with a phantom Moloch then there is a high probability that the Djinn being given will be permanently lost. To avoid this, simply move Moloch to another Adept before giving a Djinni to the original Adept. Moloch can be swapped back onto the original Adept after this with no negative effect.
 * The acquisition of a Djinni is never impacted by Moloch.
 * Once Swift is obtained, Moloch's icon may become Swift's icon and vice versa. If there is ever confusion, the list of Djinn displayed on the top screen of the DS will always show the correct Djinn distribution, including which Djinni is Swift and which is Moloch.
 * Regardless of the order in which Djinn are placed on standby, Moloch appears always to have the lowest priority to be used in a summon; inversely, it will always be used first by Sveta's Beastform.

If multiple Molochs are obtained, they abide by the following rules:


 * Moloch can only count once towards a summon. For instance, if four Molochs are on standby and they are the only Djinn on standby then the player will only have access to the Jupiter summon and not the Thor summon.
 * If Moloch is used as part of a summon, all Molochs that were on standby will be placed into recovery.
 * It is possible for one Moloch to be standby and another Moloch be set. The set Moloch will not be placed into recovery if the standby Moloch is used as a part of a summon.
 * If, after a battle, there are Moloch(s) in recovery and at least one Moloch that is set, turning the set Moloch into standby and back will refresh the Moloch(s) in recovery into standby mode.
 * If multiple Molochs are present on Sveta when using Beastform, each Moloch is treated as a separate djinn. For instance, if Sveta has 6 Djinn total and three of them are Moloch, then Beastform will last for 6 turns.
 * If at least two Molochs are placed on an Adept, it is only possible to Set / Standby the first Moloch on the Adept's Djinn list. This is despite the fact that visually it appears that all Molochs are Set / Standby simultaneously. To Standby other Molochs on an Adept the player can swap other Molochs to the front of the Djinn list or to another Adept and this will allow it to be Set / Standby.

Analysis
General: Moloch's immense stat bonuses give players a strong incentive to use this Djinni, despite the fact that Moloch cannot be used in battle (and consequently can only be used in at most one summon per battle). Moloch's HP bonus of +70 is x5 the next highest (Flash, at +14 HP), its defense bonus of +30 is x10 the next highest (multiple Djinn, at +3 defense) and its agility bonus of +92 is over 18x the next highest (Gale, at +5 agility). The agility bonus is over twice as effective as the Wild Coat (+40 agility) from The Lost Age.

By game
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Moloch can be obtained as soon as the player as the player receives Flint and can otherwise be obtained any time prior to all 72 Djinn being collected. Moloch's stat bonuses can have considerable impact early on in the game. For instance, one Moloch set on Matthew makes him virtually unkillable even by the dangerous Stealthy Scouts. Moloch's agility bonus will generally ensure that any Adept who has Moloch set will act before any enemies.

Why This Glitch Works
Imagine that you want to trade Flint on Matthew with Chill on Karis. Normally, after confirmation of the trade, what happens is the Djinn are swapped and the cursor remains on Flint (who is now on Karis). If the stylus is immediately pressed on the screen after confirming the trade, the stylus will pick up whatever Djinni is in the position that Flint was in - and after the swap this means the stylus will grab Chill.

Now let's imagine a situation where Flint is the right most Djinn on Matthew and we are giving Flint to Karis from Matthew. When the stylus is pressed to the screen the game attempts to pick up the Djinni that has taken Flint's place in Matthew's Djinn list. But since Flint was at the end of the list there, is no Djinni to be picked up, so the stylus picks up whatever memory value is there and interprets that as a Djinni. Empty spaces in an Adept's Djinn list are indicated by 0xFF in memory. When pressing the stylus down the stylus, grabs the 0xFF memory value and turns it into the corresponding Djinni - which happens to be Moloch.

Name Origin
Moloch is the name of one of the game's Summons. All of the last 13 glitch Djinn borrow the names of Summons, and Moloch is the Summon that happens to occupy the last slot.