Mud


 * This Djinni appears as an enemy that can be battled.

Mud (マッド Mud) is a Venus Djinni found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

Mud is the fourth Venus Djinni in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. The separate Djinn list viewable with the Select button from the status screen lists Mud 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, Mud is the eleventh Venus Djinni in the GBA series, rather than the fourth.

Basic description

 * "Slow a foe with sticky mud."

When Set, Mud increases its Adept's base HP by 10, base Psynergy Points by 4, and base Agility by 3.

When Mud is unleashed in battle, all enemies' Agility ratings are lowered down to 50% of their normal values, the lowest value the Agility rating can be debuffed to.

In The Lost Age, Mud's unleash animation visually resembles the user in their casting pose while piles of orange mud are lobbed from their position to the positions of each enemy on the field.

Location
Golden Sun:  The Lost Age: Mud is located in the Gabomba Catacombs. To reach it, in the first grass-covered room you climb down into, go up so that you're in the semi-enclosed area between rocks below the mass of grass just to the left of the elevated area you climb down from. Cast Cyclone here and you will automatically be transported through a "cyclone ground portal" hidden within the leaves above, and you will be dropped into the floor below right next to Mud's position. Save, then battle Mud to earn it. See here for enemy statistics.

Analysis
General: Mud being an effect that halves all enemies' agility ratings can be thought of as equivalent to an effect that doubles the whole party's Agility ratings, which other Djinn can do. However, there is one additional benefit that halving enemy agility has: if an enemy has the Break Psynergy, they can't remove their own statistical drops the way they can remove a party's self-inflicted statistical buffs. This essentially lets the entire party move before a particular boss enemy, rather than only part of the party, while the other part of the party moves after the boss' action(s) the current turn. This can be situationally useful in letting an Adept with a group-healing effect use their healing before a boss can fell an Adept low on HP.

By game
Golden Sun: The  Lost Age: The Gabomba Catacombs can be explored - and Mud can be found - after receiving the Cyclone Chip from Madra but before entering the Lemurian Ship, meaning that Mud can be acquired as early as the Aqua Hydra boss fight. Following this, up until Isaac's party joins Felix's late in the game, the bosses Mud may be used to have act slower than your group are the Serpent, Avimander, Poseidon, Moapa, and Karst and Agatio. Afterwards, the Venus Djinni Vine's ability makes it a second Mud, and all the rest of the bosses of the game may be slowed with either Djinni.

Name Origin
Mud is the end result of water mixing with dirt. The name makes sense seeing as how mud (both the Djinni and the substance) can slow down your enemy.