Mountain Roc

The Mountain Roc is a boss and a core plot point in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It is a mammoth bird that roosts at the top of Talon Peak. While it slumbers, its composition is stone-like, and it can only be awakened by using the Slap Psynergy on its red wattle. Its feathers have the qualities needed for Ivan to create paraglider-like devices named soarwings, and retrieving one of these feathers is the first objective of Matthew and his friends' journey in Dark Dawn. Also, magma energy within the bird's stomach naturally coalesces into jewel-like fragments called Magma Shards and, more rarely, a perfect jewel-like sphere called a Magma Orb. These fragments are usable as power sources to gain access into Belinsk Ruins, and the orb is the power source that is ultimately necessary for the Alchemy Dynamo within the ruins to be switched and unseal Eclipse Tower.

In Dark Dawn
The Mountain Roc is a level 27 enemy. It's statistics are as follows:

In it's normal form, the Mountain Roc recovers 60 HP per turn; it recovers 150 HP per turn in Stone Molt form.

The Mountain Roc has two different sets of battle commands:


 * Normal Form commands


 * Stone Molt Form commands

When defeated, the party will finally gain one of the Roc's feathers and can enter the creature to obtain the Magma Orb and shards.

Strategy
The battle with the Mountain Roc is fairly straight-forward. However there are a few characteristics worth noting. The Mountain Roc essentially has two forms. The standard form is weaker offensively and defensively, but is faster. In this form, it has a wide variety of moves, meaning that the more dangerous moves are called upon more often. Additionally, the Mountain Roc will heal 60 HP per turn. Access to the second form is controlled by the Mountain Roc's Stone Molt ability. Stone Molt increases the rater of HP healing to 150 per turn, and also increases the Roc's Attack and Defense, while reducing speed. The Mountain Roc's movepool is smaller, but is limited to its more powerful moves, like Seismic Stomp and Upward Blast. However, the player can disable this form by casting the Slap Psynergy, which will return the Roc to its less powerful form. This does not limit the Roc from recasting Stone Molt in a future turn.

For this battle, a designated Healer is recommended due to the Mountain Roc's powerful offensive abilities. In addition, the player should have an Adept ready to cast Slap to disable any castings of Stone Molt. Karis is an excellent choice due to her higher speed, increased Jupiter Power, and general supporter role, allowing more offensive Adepts to continue attacking instead of wasting a turn.

The Mountain Roc is weak against Jupiter-based Attacks, possessing a low Resistance of 25. Should the player prefer to use summons, Thor is an excellent choice, being the strongest Jupiter-summon at this point. Should all available Djinn be collected, either Matthew or Tyrell can be placed in the Ninja class series, giving the player access to the useful Death Plunge. Matthew may be the better choice, due to his native Venus Psynergies matching poorly against the Mountain Roc as compared to Tyrell's Mars Psynergies. Another option is to take advantage of two Jupiter-based pure-element weapons, the Yew Bow and the Sylph Rapier. Both weapons are available immediately before the boss battle, and will allow for a fool-proof method of targeting the Roc's weakness. The Yew Bow in particular has good damage-multiplying unleashes, and thus can be excellent in the hands of Amiti, as he possesses higher Attack than Karis.

History and Story
The Mountain Roc is considered to be divine by the beastmen of Morgal, with its image appearing on many beastmen structures, particularly in the city of Belinsk. Sometime before Dark Dawn, the Warriors of Vale traveled in search of it, with the assistance of Morgal's king. The Warriors of Vale were eventually able to get one of the Mountain Roc's feathers. The feather was used in the creation of the Soarwing, an invention of Ivan's that allowed an Adept to fly. One of these Soarwings was given to Isaac and Garet. However, when Garet's son, Tyrell, breaks the soarwing, a new feather was needed for the repairs. Thus, Isaac and Garet send Tyrell, along with Isaac's son Matthew and Ivan's daughter Karis on a quest for a new feather.

After a series of events, the party was able to reach Morgal, but realized that they had no information about the Roc. By this time, the group had met with Amiti, a Mercury Adept who was the prince of Ayuthay, who had joined their party. Amiti had encountered the Roc as a child, describing it as a mammoth bird so large that it blocked out the sun. Later on, the party of Adepts were able to speak with Tret and Laurel, who give them vital information on the Mountain Roc. The Mountain Roc was then in a deep sleep, and could only be woken by means of the Slap Psynergy, a psynergy unique to beastmen. Additionally, the Roc produced a power source for the ruins in Belinsk, which would be needed for the group's secondary goal, to rescue Eoleo and Hou Ju, two prisoners of the beastmen. Before leaving, the Adepts were warned that the ruins hid a dangerous legacy, the Alchemy Dynamo, and were ordered not to start it.

The group eventually makes their way to Talon Peak, where the Mountain Roc roosts. Along the way, they gain the Slap Glove from Ryu Kou, prince of Sana and brother to Hou Ju. The party makes its way to the Mountain Roc and succeeds in getting a feather. However, Blados and Chalis, two Tuaparang commanders, set the Mountain Roc on them, for reasons they do not fully explain. However, they encourage the group to kill the Mountain Roc, and gain the Magma Orb that the Roc produced. Matthew's party is able to defeat the Roc, but Ryu Kou takes the Magma Orb for himself. Eventually, the Mountain Roc's Magma Orb is used to awaken the Alchemy Dynamo, which starts the Grave Eclipse. After this point, the Mountain Roc plays little role in the plot.