Magma Rock

Magma Rock (マグマロック, Magma Rock) is a dungeon in Golden Sun: The Lost Age that is played late in the game so that the party may acquire both the Blaze utility Psynergy and the Magma Ball item needed to reach the northernmost part of the overworld. It lies geographically in the center point of Gondowan, but is only accessible from the Great Western Sea by sailing up the thick river that cuts into the continent upward.

General
Magma Rock is the Elemental Mountain of Fire, which is reflected in its highly volcanic nature, and most of the puzzles are based around using the explosive Burst Psynergy on small Moai-head statues. The utility Psynergy found within, Blaze, is a Mars Psynergy learnable only by Jenna, and the Magma Ball item you can get within after getting Blaze is required to complete the game. Because the dungeon is blocked off at its entrance by a boulder that can only be passed by elevating it with the Lift Psynergy, this dungeon is only completable after Isaac's party has joined up with Felix's to form the final 8-person traveling party. Like the other "Rocks", you must climb to the top before you can fully explore the interior, and it takes a good while to complete the overall dungeon.

The easiest way to reach Magma Rock is to sail into the thick central river on the lower portion of the continent of Gondowan from the left ocean. When you are eventually blocked off at the top of the river by rocks in the water, disembark upward and walk up a short ways to reach the location. Just west of the location is a side location named Gondowan Settlement, where a few minor treasures and some context information about Magma Rock can be acquired. After completing the dungeon, bring the Magma Ball to the town of Loho to progress in the game.

Background and Story
Magma Rock is the Elemental Rock of Fire, just like Air's Rock, Aqua Rock, and Gaia Rock, and since Air's Rock in particular is stated to have stood on Weyard since the world's beginning, it can be assumed the same holds true for Magma Rock. The mountain is highly volcanic in nature, and loud explosions representing eruptions happening internally are routinely heard; these explosions regularly produce naturally-formed Magma Balls within the volcanic interior. Also, like the other Elemental Rocks, the mechanized construction of the interior, such as all the fire-spouting Moai-head statues adorning both its interior and exterior, suggests either mankind or some other intelligence constructed a temple-like complex within it in the ancient past. Geographically, the settlement of Kibombo is a relatively short distance southeast of the mountain, but a thick river divides the two areas; the townspeople of Kibombo view the mountain as the "rocky peaks at the belly of the continent", and their legends speak of it to be the hiding place of "great treasure". This drives the warriors of the town to routinely go north to the area around Magma Rock to look for treasure whenever the rains in mid-to-lower Gondowan stop each year, but they always come back empty handed. The previous Witch Doctor of Kibombo, Oeia, claimed that the magic the people and the leaders of Kibombo have is deeply tied to the belly of the continent; this can lead one to assume that both Oeia and his modern-day successor as Witch Doctor, Akafubu, are therefore Mars Adepts.

A small family living in their own estate geographically west of Magma Rock are apparently aware of the legends of treasure within the mountain, but caution passersby not to attempt to climb the mountain themselves, believing it to be "cursed" because "even the warriors who survive to make it back do so by the skin of their teeth" and therefore not worth the risk. Late in The Lost Age, Felix and Isaac's combined party of Adepts, whether they listen to the family or not, enter and successfully climb, explore, and solve the ancient mechanized riddles of the dungeon and loot it of all its treasures, during which they witness close-up one of the volcano's Magma Ball-spewing eruptions. After Jenna receives knowledge of the Psynergy ability to manipulate standing fire from an ancient tablet within the deepest chamber of the temple-like complex, the Adepts retrieve one of the left-over, intact Magma Balls for themselves, and bring it with them to the town of Loho, where they successfully use it on an ancient cannon. Acquiring both the cannon and the Magma Ball for their journey is what allows the Adepts to clear their way through the naturally-formed ice barriers that blockade the Northern Reaches off from the rest of the world.

Exterior
Upon entering the location, use the Lift Psynergy that Isaac's party came with to bypass the brown boulder. Enter what would appear to be the front entrance, and fight a Mimic inside for an Apple; you cannot progress any further in this room, because like the other Elemental Rock dungeons, the dungeon is played through by climbing its exterior portion and descending through its interior portion, so step back outside and climb up the wall-ladders surrounding the entrance. Go up the rightmost wall-ladder to where the small moai-head statue is, and cast the Burst Psynergy to make it shoot a bursting projectile at the brittle pillar it is pointed toward; using Burst on such statues to remove cracked obstacles is a core mechanic present throughout the dungeon, so it is recommended you make Burst one of your shoulder button shortcuts. Go to where the brittle pillar originally was and push the earth pillar left so you can climb up, and from there, slide down the cliff slide to the left. Here, a small moai statue, when Burst is cast on it, will flash for ten seconds before projecting the platform comprising the top part of its head upward briefly, and you are to climb up and hop onto the top of the head before that happens; once elevated up, hop left, and follow the linear path the below wall-ladder leads you to until you push an earth pillar right. Climb up to the next screen.

In the new screen, climb down the ladder to the far lower right to return to the previous screen and get a chest containing an Oil Drop. Return up, use Burst on the statue to remove a cracked pillar to the left, then cast the Growth Psynergy on the small plants nearby to create climbable vines (if you don't have Growth, simply exchange Venus and Mars Djinn between your Venus and Mars Adepts to put them in the Brute class series to get it temporarily, and switch the Djinn back afterward). Climb up the rightmost vine and let that path lead you to a cliff slide at the top of the screen; after sliding down it, cast Burst on the next moai statue you find to remove another cracked pillar, and slide down again. Cast Growth on the plant to your immediate left, and climb it to find another moai statue that elevates you up; use that to hop left to where there is an earth pillar, and pish it four spaces left onto the metal plate. Proceed left to the next screen.

Four cliff slides are present at the next screen. Slide down the second slide from the right to drop to a chest containing 383 coins, then go right to use the moai statue to elevate yourself back up to where you can climb to where the cliff slides are. Now slide down the second slide from the left to drop to where there is a coiled rope to use Lash on, and climb across the rope left to where there is another elevating Moai statue. After you cast burst on it, quickly slide down the cliff slide to the left, hop right once, and get onto the top of the flashing moai in time to progress upward. Go and climb your way to the right and push the earth pillar one space right. Now here, don't climb the wall ladder all the way up to the next screen; climb over and down to the other side of the earth pillar so you can climb the wall ladder to the right of that.

In the next screen, from the flat ground you can get onto, hop the gap and follow the path to where you can remotely move the upper left earth pillar one space right with the Move Psynergy. Return to where you just were and climb up. Now, hop left three times - two times onto cracked pillars and once onto the earth pillar, and hop right so that when that cracked pillar crumbles, you can now reach the small Moai statue below. Use Burst on that to remove a cracked pillar to the right, walk the tightrope to the left, slide down, and go right to where the branched wall ladder lets you climb to the area you just opened up. Move the earth pillar two spaces right, and exit right to the next screen.

In this next screen, immediately go up the small wall-ladder and follow its path right, and climb down two sets of wall-ladders to return to the screen below. Here, moving the earth pillar one space right onto the metal plate is a formality compared to what you get when you exit the screen out to the left: A chest containing a Salamander Tail, a strong forgeable material. Return right and up to the newest screen, and proceed to climb a large, branching wall ladder that has three pairs of moai statues shooting fireballs across portions of it; these fireballs will knock you back down to the base of the ladder, and it is necessary to time your climb to make it to the top and thus the next screen. However, each time you get hit by a fireball, that fireball disappears, making your next attempt safer.

Upon reaching the top screen of the exterior portion, go right, ignoring the ladder and slide leading back down along the way (since they only lead to a puzzle that returns you back up here), and climb up the right ladder. Follow the elevated path clockwise and climb down to a moai statue that, when you cast Burst on it, causes a large, fireball-shaped boulder to be consumed in a massive explosion that blows open a gaping hole in the wall. Climb back up and go down to where you can enter it, and now you begin the second, interior portion of Magma Rock.

Magma Rock Interior: Floor 1
You are linearly led through the first interior floor of Magma Rock until you get to a point in this floor's "main room" where a small moai statue pointing left towards a massive one can be reached by hopping left, and once you set the small statue going with Burst, the giant statue will fill the entire room up with molten lava (all floors in this dungeon are based on this feature). If you go down beyond that, if Isaac's party joined without all seven of the original game's Mars Djinn for whatever reason, one of the missing Mars Djinn will be available again here to collect. At any rate, with the lava level up, go back up, and now a white square platform will be floating around on the lava in a clockwise fashion; hop onto it and use it to get to the floor on the left. Follow the path to a fork leading left and down, and take the left fork. When you get to a second fork shortly afterward, go right to exit out back into the main lava-filled room.

From where you enter the main lava-filled room from the upper left, go immediately down through a door to get to a chest containing a Lucky Medal, and immediately return and go along the path southeast to where the lava dam is; step on the square switch to empty the lava out of the room. With the lava in the room now gone, go up and climb down the short wall ladder to get to where all the pillars are, and push the yellow-topped pillar four spaces up to align with the other six circular brick pillars. Then enter the tall black door just to your northeast, and you will be led to a stairwell going down, with a big blue stone just above it pointing down to it. This indicates that you've solved the floor and are now proceeding to play through the next floor below, and the exits of the following floors have the same blue-stone indicator as well.

Floor 2
In the next floor, climb down both short wall-ladders, then go straight down, underneath the tightrope, to get to a room below, and from there, go southwest to where there is a tall door leading up and a doorway below that leading down. The door leading down leads you to where you can fight and earn the Mars Djinni Fury, so do that first, while the door leading up leads you to where you are to push a yellow-topped pillar three spaces down to complete a hoppable path. Then, return to where you entered the floor from, and burst the small moai statue so that the giant statue fills the floor with lava. From here, go southeast clockwise, hop left and use the lava dam as a bridge to cross left without stepping on the floor switch that operates the dam, go left from there across a tightrope, and exit the room out of its lower-left doorway.

In the next room, use the floating white platform tile to reach a chest to the right containing a Mist Potion, then go south, hopping across the submerged yellow-tiled pillar you moved earlier, and exit to the hallway which had the Mars Djinni Fury. You see a white tile floating to the right, so quickly run to the right and keep pressing right at the edge of the floor so that when the tile passes by, you will hop onto it. Proceed right and up to the next room, where there are two brittle pillars to burst; for whatever reason, the game provides two ways to go about removing the upper left pillar, the more time-consuming way being to ride the left white platform tile to where a small moai statue pointing right is, using that to blow the pillar remotely, and riding the platform tile back to the main floor portion. With both pillars blown up, ride the right platform tile to get to the right portion of floor and follow it back up to this floor's main lava room, and empty the lava out of the room by stepping on the main floor switch. With that done, exit the room out of the lower-level door under the tightrope, climb up the wall-ladder you see to your immediate right as you go down, go right, climb down another wall ladder, and leave the floor through a staircase marked by a blue stone.

Floor 3
In this newest floor, go down the wall-ladder and let the path lead you through a U-turn up through a path on the left, go through a small door, hop left over a gap in the next big room, ignore the small door you immediately pass by, and reach a small moai statue that will make a massive statue fill the floor with lava. A series of white platform tiles will be floating in the large lava pool in the room in revolving fashions, so now position yourself a few steps southwest of the small door you skipped and hold left against the edge; you will end up hopping across all the revolving to the portion of floor on the left end of the room even if you hold left blindly. Go southwest through the large room's lower-left exit, and let the path lead you down past dangling chains off to the right to the room where stepping on a lava dam's button empties out all the lava from the floor. Return to the dangling chains and use the Whirlwind Psynergy to swing across like you did with the dangling vines in Gaia Rock. Climb down the wall-ladder and enter the tall door in between the elevated platforms you swung across.

Now on the lower level of this floor, in the room you come into, go right and climb up to get another Salamander Tail, then return left and go up through another tall door. Back in the floor's main room, push each of the yellow-topped pillars right into their respective holes in the ground, then go all the way right and up through another tall door to reach a chest containing a Golem Core, another powerful forgeable material. Go back down and exit the door shortly below your position, then at the room you come into, immediately push the yellow-topped pillar one space right and climb up the wall ladder to get back to the upper level of the floor.

Go into the small door to return to the main room, and fill up the floor with lava again. Now hop left across the revolving series of white platforms again, but this time on the second set of platforms from the left, press down to hop across the series of three submerged yellow-topped platforms you moved earlier. This leads you to a room where another rotating white platform lets you cross right (if you've followed instructions, you should already have opened the chest here that contained the Salamander Tail), so now go down beyond that. At the fork leading up and down, choose down, and another pair of moving platforms grant you passage east across the lava-filled hallway. Go through the door at the end of this room, and you will end up at the east side of a yellow-tipped platform which you are to move two spaces left. Go up the left entrance to lead yourself to the main lava room yet again, and this time enter the small door you ignored before to get to and step on a lava dam's button to empty out the floor's lava. Retrace your steps back to where you just pushed the yellow-topped pillar, and now you can reach and enter the stairwell marked by a blue stone.

Base Floor
You are now finally back at the room that you came across when you originally entered Magma Rock's "front entrance" at its base to fight the Mimic for the Apple (if you didn't fight the mimic before, do so now), so just push the yellow-topped pillar three spaces left to create a pathway to the remainder of the dungeon. Follow the new path through the door, and when you hop right, a volcanic eruption will spout flaming shrapnel all over the room - the game camera will focus on one particular object you must reach eventually. Hop counterclockwise across the platforms to get through the door at the center top of the room, and follow the path into the "heart" of Magma Rock, where a stone tablet reposes and reads "Wielder of Flame's strength, Lay your hands upon this stone. If th'art worthy, I will grant thee the power to Blaze with fire.". Through a brief cutscene with Jenna, she is empowered by the stone to permanently gain the Blaze Psynergy, the main reward of the Magma Rock dungeon.

Before you can leave the dungeon, hop across the series of platforms left, stand left of the solitary flame, and cast your new Blaze Psynergy on the flame to blow out fire to the right and start a flame on the unlit floor tile, which clears your way back outside. Hop and make your way back out of the heart and return to the room where the eruption occurred; make your way back to the lower-left-most flame and cast Blaze on it in a western direction to light up one of the two unlit floor tiles, and use that to light up the floor tile to the left of that. Go through the doorway that opens up, and you'll be lead back into the eruption room from the upper-left door, and can reach the glowing red rock. Interact with it, say yes when prompted, and you will get the Magma Ball, the other vitally important acquisition from Magma Rock. With this done, Magma Rock is complete, so now just leave Magma Rock out of its base entrance.

Enemies
Enemy Formations
 * Group 1: Raging Rock x1-3


 * Group 2: Wise Gryphon x1, Raging Rock x0-2


 * Group 3: Lich x1, Wise Gryphon x0-1


 * Group 4: Little Death x1, Lich x0-2


 * Group 5: Phoenix x1, Little Death x0-1, Lich x0-1


 * Group 6: Phoenix x1-2


 * Group 7: Lesser Demon x1-2, Little Death x0-1


 * Group 8: Grand Chimera x1-2

Collectibles
These can be found in the dungeon's exterior portion:

383 Coins: In a chest at the lower part of the lower of the two left screens. Oil Drop: In a chest in the top-right-most corner of the first main screen, reached only by climbing down from the screen above. Salamander Tail: In a chest in the top-right corner of the lower of the two "left" screens, reached from the screen to the right of that.

These can be found in the dungeon's interior portion, and are divided by their three main floors. These can be found in the first floor from the top:

A Mars Djinni may be found here at the lava gate, depending on whether Isaac's party has joined Felix with less than all 7 of the first game's Mars Djinn in his party's inventory. This will be one of the missing Mars Djinn from the first game making a reappearance for the party in The Lost Age to collect.

Lucky Medal: In a chest in the first floor's general southwest area.

In the second floor from the top:

Fury: A Mars Djinni that is found at the left end of the "bottom hall" of this floor. It can only be reached while the lava level is lowered.

Mist Potion: In a chest in a room that, when filled with lava, has a single platform floating across it in a circle, which is how this chest would be reached.

In the third floor from the top, which is one floor above the "ground-level floor":

Golem Core: In a chest in the top-right room, reachable only while the lava level is lowered (since it would be submerged in lava otherwise). Salamander Tail: In a chest in a room more-to-the-center that, when filled with lava, has a single platform floating across it in a circle, which is how this chest can be reached. However, when the lava is down, it can also be reached by climbing up a ladder.

Finally, at the default "ground-level floor" which one can technically enter from the exterior's "main entrance", but which can only be properly explored by entering from the interior floor above:

Blaze: This Psynergy spell is the "ultimate goal" of this dungeon the same way the other Elemental Rock dungeons have had Psynergy spells at the end of them as mandatory rewards. Investigate the stone tablet and Jenna learns this Psynergy through a cutscene.

Magma Ball: In the volcanic room where a "cutscene" shows a burning red rock bring spouted out onto one of the platforms, investigate the rock, choose that you want to retrieve it and you get this item, which is required to progress following Magma Rock.

Trivia

 * Magma Rock is likely based off of the volcanic Virunga Mountains of the Congo, a western branch of the East African Rift Valley.
 * An environmental glitch exists in the interior portion of Magma Rock: On one of the floors, while the lava is emptied out of that floor, there is a small Moai statue you normally would cast Burst on from the right so that it would shoot a small fireball that would trigger the huge Moai head to the left of it to fill lava into the room. If instead you climb down the nearby ladder and position yourself against the wall below the small Moai head's elevated position, and cast Burst upwards, the Moai head will respond the usual way (which it shouldn't from this position), and lava will be filled in the portion of the room that you are currently located in. Now, you will appear to "walk on lava". Technically you're stuck now, unless you make your way to a downstairs exit that is normally "submerged" while the lava level is raised like this, where you can climb downstairs into the next floor below which is no more filled with lava than how that room would normally be the first time you enter it in normal play.