Flash

Flash is a Mars Djinni is a Mars Djinni found throughout the Golden Sun series.

Flash is the sixth Mars Djinni in the original Golden Sun, and can also be acquired in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Although it is not the party's sixth Mars Djinni in The Lost Age, Flash is still ordered as the sixth Mars Djinni when equipped to characters. Because it is not available until after most other Mars Djinn can be found, however, the separate Djinn list viewable with the Select button from the status screen lists Flash and all other Mars Djinn from Golden Sun after all of the Djinn introduced in The Lost Age. According to this order, Flash is the seventeenth Mars Djinni in The Lost Age rather than the sixth, but this order has no influence elsewhere in the game.

In Dark Dawn, Flash appears as one of the "extra Djinn" in the Djinn Guide because of its temporary appearance in the earliest stage of the game.

Basic description
When Set, Flash increases its Adept's base HP by 14, base Psynergy Points by 3, and base Defense by 2.

When Flash is unleashed in battle, the user produces an effect that reduces all damage the entire party would take for the rest of the current turn by 90%. This effect has the "strikes first" property, meaning it will be the first performed action in a given turn regardless of the agility rating of the user and any other combatant in battle.

In Golden Sun and The Lost Age, Flash's unleash animation visually resembles the user summoning a glowing, transparent image of a Mars Djinni that briefly hovers above the party, as each Adept affected by the effect has a swirling array of white-red energy orbs gather into them, and a square wall image briefly flashes at each Adept's position to indicate that damage the Adept will take is blocked. In Dark Dawn, the 3D model of Flash is summoned in a flash of fire, who floats above the party briefly as each party member is surrounded by a small amount of fire briefly, followed by a small, round yellow field that enters into each Adept from the legs up while yellow squares flash at each Adept's position.

Locations
Golden Sun: Flash is located in the second main screen of Suhalla Desert, in its general middle-left area. This means that you can reach it as soon as you reach the lower part of Angara by ship. Before you climb down a short wall onto the sandy ground below, where you would be chased by the huge tornado containing the Storm Lizard boss, cast Reveal to see a series of small black footsteps leading up to the left. Cast Reveal at where they would end to show that there is an otherwise invisible earth pillar against a wall that you can hop across to the left. Flash is in plain sight after that, and it must be defeated in battle to be acquired.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age: If players don't transfer data from Golden Sun to The Lost Age, Flash will not be among the Djinn Isaac's party has with them when they join forces with Felix's party late in the game. In this case, Flash may be found as the "make-up" Venus Djinni earlier in the interior of Magma Rock.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Flash is one of the five Djinn that Isaac and Garet keep to themselves and exclusively use while in Tanglewood, meaning that the player can only see Flash being used while exploring Tanglewood, the Abandoned Mine beyond that, and the Tangle Bloom boss fight at the end. After this, Flash and the other Djinn are not seen for the rest of the game.

As an opponent (Golden Sun)
Statistically, Flash has 592 HP, 52 PP, 253 Attack, 65 Defense, 151 Agility, and 17 Luck. Like all other Mars Djinn that are fought, in terms of resistance, it has a Mars Resistance rating of 193, Venus and Jupiter Resistance ratings of 100 each, and a Mercury Resistance rating of 25, and in regards to its abilities it uses its available Mars-based attacks with a Mars power rating of 125.

Flash can use the following battle commands:
 * Fireball: Used 53 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that projects a moderately large amount of fiery spheres that arc over and into the party's position, dealing a Mars-based attack with a power rating of 65 and a range of 5. This ability consumes 12 of its user's PP.
 * Nova: Used 47 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that causes a large explosion of fire to discharge at the party's position, dealing a Mars-based attack with a power rating of 70 and a range of 5. This ability consumes 13 of its user's PP.
 * Flare Storm: Used 41 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that causes three patches of fire stacked on top of each other to go through multiple Adepts and deal a Mars-based attack with a power rating of 80 and a range of 3. This ability consumes 12 of its user's PP.
 * Eruption: Used 35 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that causes two fiery pillars to explode at the party's position, dealing a Mars-based attack with a power rating of 90 and a range of 3. This ability consumes 14 of its user's PP.
 * Fiery Blast: Used 29 out of 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that creates a large lava-like explosion, dealing a Mars-based attack with a power rating of 110 and a range of 5. This ability consumes 19 of its user's PP; Flash's PP meter is sufficient for two usages at most.
 * Attack: Used 28 out of 256 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack, but for this monster it is counted as a Mars-based attack rather than a non-elemental attack.
 * Flee: Used 23 out of 256 times, this enemy has the ability to attempt to Flee the battle, thereby ending the battle if successful without rewarding you with the associated EXP, Coins, and the Djinni itself.

When defeated, Flash yields 460 EXP and 445 Coins, and the Flash Djinni is added to your party's Djinn collection. If you fell it with an offensive Mercury Djinni like Hail, its rewards increase to 598 EXP and 578 Coins.

Flash should be no problem to blow away with summon spells - and if it happens to flee the first turn it gets, an available exit to use to get Flash to reappear is literally right in front of you.

Analysis
General: Flash is one of several Djinn that cuts total damage the party takes this turn, but while other Djinn of this type cut it down by lower values such as 50%, Flash reduces all damage the party takes by 90%, practically nullifying all damage the party takes this turn, and with increased priority as well. This is far and away the best defensive effect in the games it appears in, even though once Flash is used it would have to be on Standby and therefore effort would have to be used to bring it back to Set mode so that it can be used in the same turn. This effect, most relevant in boss battles, highly justifies the turn it takes for one of your four Adepts to use it in a given turn, and is considered one of the best Djinn in the series.

Flash is widely considered a broken effect in Vs. play in the Game Boy Advance games, as it prevents the party from being damaged by the strongest of the opponent party's summons. Oftentimes, Flash is banned from usage in this environment. It is possible for the opponent party to nullify Flash with an in-game battle effect, though; the Ground and Petra Venus Djinn, which prevent a target from taking an action in a given turn, have a "strike first" property that can make them even faster than Flash as long as the user of Ground/Petra has a higher agility rating than the Flash user, so those can be used against a Flash-using Adept to leave the party open for a summoning barrage.

By game
Golden Sun: During a turn where all damage dealt against you is divided by 10, the party may safely heal itself without the risk of any low-health party members to be downed by a strong attack before your healer, such as Mia and her Wish Psynergy series, gets around to their action. Flash is the best Djinni in this game from when it is first found onward, but while it is relevant towards the game's remaining boss battles (Storm Lizard, Tempest Lizard, Deadbeard, and the final boss encounters), those are basically the only actual times in normal gameplay a player would want to use it anyway; random battles do not take anything special to go through.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age: When Isaac's party joins Felix's party along with their returning Djinn (granted that Password data transfer is in effect), Flash's ability makes it the directly superior counterpart to the Mercury Djinni Shade, which was automatically acquired at an early point in the game. It can still prove itself highly useful in all the boss battles that follow the reunion.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Flash's appearance in Garet's possession at the beginning of the game is trivial at best, because there is no threat from the attacks of enemies or the Tangle Bloom boss encounter from the end, with or without a single-turn near-invincibility effect. The only real use of it is that once Garet happens to use it, that will count as an extra Mars Djinni On Standby for a summon like Tiamat or Meteor, which will make the Tangle Bloom fight pass by quickly. In the main game, the Venus Djinn Chasm is an identical equivalent.

Name Origin
A flash is a burst of bright light occurring for a short period of time, possibly why this Djinn was given an ability that always goes first.