Sap

Sap (カルク Calc) is a Venus Djinni found in Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and makes a cameo appearance in  Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Numerically, it is the fifth of the Venus Djinn introduced in Golden Sun, while in Dark Dawn it is  not part of the game's official Venus Djinn list and is used only  temporarily during the game's beginning segments.

=In Golden Sun and The Lost Age= "Attack a foe and steal HP."

Location
Sap is present in the town of Vault, but the requirement to attain it is quite involved and easy to unknowingly make mistakes about. First, in the town area, climb and make your way all the way to the wooden watch tower at the north end of the town, and interact with the dangling bell next to the NPC; a hollow ringing noise will prompt Sap to hop out of its hiding place in the nearby tree to an elevated area next to a cave exit. Then, go to the cemetery where the dog is, cast Reveal, climb down the revealed ladder, and complete the Vault Cave optional dungeon. At the end of the dungeon, you will exit out into the open out of said cave exit, and Sap will be sitting nearby in the spot you hounded it to, ready to be collected. In other words, Sap is the "end reward" of the Vault Cave dungeon, but only if you remember to place it as the dungeon's end reward first.

As it is the fifth numbered Venus Djinni, if no Password data transfer is used, then when Isaac's party joins Felix's late in The Lost Age Sap will be one of the five Venus Djinn in their possession.

Description
When Set, it increases base HP by 10, base Attack by 3, and base Luck by 1.

When Sap's battle effect is used, the user strikes the target and siphons a glowing yellow energy out of it, dealing a Venus-based attack equal in power to the user's normal physical attack with an additional 50 damage points added to the result. Then the user's HP will be restored by an amount equal to 50% of the damage dealt to the target. If the target dies, the user's HP is restored by half of the target's health before the attack. This is similar to the TLA Venus Djinni, Steel, but the bonus damage of that Djinni is determined by a 1.3x damage multiplier.

Ability analysis
Since Flint from the beginning of Golden Sun is the one attack Venus Djinni an Adept would need for the sake of dealing optimized damage, Sap and its added damage would then only be used for the sake of its potential additional self-healing effect. It can be situationally useful for cases where your Adept would be helped out by a chance to be healed somewhat, but it is not a staple. The Venus Djinni Bane, for comparison's sake, has a little more added damage and the chance to inflict the extremely useful Venom condition.

In The Lost Age, when Isaac's party joins Felix's party along with their returning Djinn, Sap's ability makes it a variation on Steel, a Venus Djinni acquired relatively early in the game in the Gabomba Statue, at a point where the party in that game is at around the same level as when the first game's party can be when they first acquire Sap. Steel, in comparison to the Flint-like Echo, is less used even when it is first acquired because of the same relationship between them as between Sap and Flint above, and at the endgame their shared effect is unspectacular compared to certain other attack Djinn such as Geode. However, Steel may overpower Sap in the endgame because of its damage multiplier (their damage will become equal when the user's normal physical attack reaches 166 damage).

=In Dark Dawn= "Drain HP from a foe by nutrient absorption."

Sap is one of the Venus and Mars Djinn that are not part of the main collection of Djinn that the party can amass throughout the  game, but has an entry in the Djinn Guide because it is briefly  available in the early stages of the game prior to the start of the main  quest. Its Djinn Guide entry reads as follows:


 * "This spirit represents the lifeblood of trees and plants and is an old friend of Isaac's. Sap's attack absorbs vitality from foes."

Sap is one of the six Djinn that Isaac and Garet loan Matthew and Karis while in Tanglewood, meaning that the player may use  it while exploring Tanglewood, the Abandoned Mine beyond that, and  the Tangle Bloom boss fight at the end. After this, Sap and the other Djinn are permanently returned to Isaac and Garet for the rest of  the game. While in your possession, Sap increases base HP by 10, base Attack by 3, and base Luck by 1 when Set, and like in the old games, when it is used, the user deals a Venus-based attack equal in power to the user's normal physical attack with an additional 50 damage points added to the result. Then the user's HP will be restored by an amount equal to 50% of the damage dealt to the target. It visually appears as the user slowly leaping through the air at the target while the 3D model of Sap hovers right behind them, and when the user performs the strike, their weapon glows bright yellow. It is like the visual effect of Flint, but with a set of glowing blue spheres representing life energy appearing on impact and gathering into the user.

In the short time it is available at the start of the game, Sap is very powerful because it adds a straight 50 damage every time it is used, when the damage of normal physical attacks that Matthew and Karis use range between 10 and 30 otherwise. It can be used to make the Tangle Bloom fight pass by more quickly.

=Name Origin= Sap is a liquid substance, usually sticky, that is found in many trees. Take note that not all liquids within trees are considered sap. "Sap" is also a verb, meaning "to drain." Calc is a geological term referring to things of lime or calcium.