User:HungryPaperweight/HP's sketchbook

Welcome to my sketchbook. Most people call this kind of thing a sandbox, but I wanted to come up with an at least slightly original name. Anyways, I probably won't use this much anymore, but you never know. Feel free to look, and if you spot any mistakes (like typos or incorrect info), feel free to fix them (just let me know what you're doing).

=Flint (GBA-DD merge)=

Flint (ソロ Solo) is a Venus Djinni found throughout the Golden Sun series. Flint is notable for, among other things, being the very first Djinni introduced in the series, and one of very few to actually have lines of spoken dialogue.

=As a Djinni= Each game organizes its Djinn into an official order. This order varies from one game to the next, but generally speaking it indicates what order the Djinn can be collected in. Flint is the first Venus Djinni - and the first Djinni overall - in both the original Golden Sun and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. As far as coding is concerned, Flint is still the first Venus Djinni in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, but the in-game list places Flint and the other Djinn from the first game after the new Djinn in The Lost Age, pushing Flint back to number twelve.

Basic description
When Set, Flint increases its Adept's base HP by 8, base PP by 4, and base Attack by 3.

When Flint is unleashed in battle, the user strikes the target with an elemental physical attack 60% stronger than a normal physical attack performed by the user. Being a Venus-based attack, Flint's battle effect is also affected by the user's Venus Power and the target's Venus Resistance.

Visually, Flint's unleash animation is fairly simple. In Golden Sun and The Lost Age, the user leaps forward and strikes the target, similar to a normal attack but with some yellow coloration to reflect that it is a Venus attack. As of Dark Dawn, the user still leaps through the air, but a 3D model of Flint hovers behind them and, when the user strikes the target, their weapon and the area of ground underneath and behind the target glows yellow.

Damage calculation
Elemental physical attacks such as Flint use the damage dealt by the attacker's standard physical attack as the base damage to be later modified. The total amount of damage dealt by a normal physical attack is half the difference between the attacker's Attack statistic and the target's Defense statistic, as this equation shows:


 * ''base damage = (Attacker's Attack - Target's Defense) / 2

Flint's attack then takes this base damage value and uses it in the following equation:


 * ''final damage = (base damage * 1.6) * (1 + (Attacker's Venus Power - Target's Venus Resistance) / 400)

To word this in prose, Flint takes the base damage of the user's normal physical attack, multiplies it by 1.6, and then this result is modified by how much higher or lower the user's Venus Power is than the target's Venus Resistance. The difference between the user's Venus Power and the target's Venus Resistance is divided by 400, then 1 is added to this, resulting in what can be called the "elemental damage multiplier". This number is what Flint's damage is multiplied by.

For example, if an Adept with an Attack rating of 300 and a Venus Power of 150 unleashes Flint on a monster with a defense of 100 and a Venus Resistance of 50:


 * damage = ((Attack - Defense) / 2 * 1.6) * (1 + (Power - Resistance) / 400)
 * damage = ((300 - 100) / 2 * 1.6) * (1 + (150 - 50) / 400)
 * damage = ( / 2 * 1.6) * (1 + / 400
 * damage = ( * 1.6) * (1 + )
 * damage = *
 * damage = 200

Therefore, if Flint were to be unleashed under these circumstances it would deal 200 points of damage.

Locations
Unlike most Djinn, Flint is a Djinni that is automatically acquired at certain points in the games, and is therefore guaranteed to be among the Djinn available to players in whichever games it appears in.

Golden Sun: Isaac and Garet stumble across Flint shortly after leaving Vale for their journey. Flint provides the two young Adepts with a tutorial on how to use Djinn before joining them on their quest. The game technically grants the player the option to refuse to let Flint accompany them, but no matter how many times Flint is refused it will be added to the Djinn collection regardless.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Players can transfer data from Golden Sun to The Lost Age, but even if they don't, Flint will be among the Djinn Isaac's party has with them when they join forces with Felix's party late in the game.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: While exploring the Tanglewood early in Dark Dawn, Isaac and Garet lend Matthew and Karis some of their Djinn. Flint once again provides the Adepts, and the player, with a tutorial on how to use Djinn. Flint is not one of the six Djinn that are temporarily loaned to Matthew and Karis; it is Set on the computer-controlled Isaac during this portion of the game. Flint is Isaac's only offensive Djinni, and if Isaac unleashes Flint, he deals around 300 points of damage. The next day, when Matthew, Karis, and Tyrell leave Goma Plateau and head out into the game's overworld for the first time, Flint is automatically added to your Djinn collection in a cutscene. Unlike in the first game, Dark Dawn does not provide any opportunity to try to turn Flint down.

Analysis
General: While not the best offensive Djinni in the series, Flint is still among the strongest Venus Djinn, due to the fact that it increases damage by a pretty strong multiplier rather than a fixed damage increase. This means that Flint becomes stronger as the party becomes stronger, as opposed to many weapon Unleashes, most Attack-dependent Psynergies (like Ragnarok and Planet Diver), and even other Djinn, all of which only offer fixed damage boosts and become comparatively less powerful over the course of a game.

Much like other Djinn, Flint's main weakness is that it can only be unleashed once before it must be Set again. Manually Setting a Djinni wastes a turn in combat, so a recommended strategy is to unleash Flint and several other Djinn, perform a Summon, then use other forms of combat until Flint re-Sets itself automatically. Of course, some players may wish to keep their Djinn Set to keep their party's classes and statistics optimized, in which case Flint likely won't be unleashed often and is no better or worse than any other Venus Djinni.

By game
Golden Sun: Ignoring Gust's chance to deal double damage, Flint has the highest damage multiplier of any offensive Djinni in Golden Sun. Also, Flint is the only offensive Venus Djinni that uses a damage multiplier instead of a fixed damage increase. However, the other two offensive Venus Djinn, Sap and Bane, have secondary effects that may make them more valuable to a mid-leveled party (before anyone's Attack is high enough to make the multiplier noticeable). A higher-leveled party, however, will no doubt find Flint's raw damage quite valuable. To optimize the damage dealt with Flint, one should equip Isaac with the Gaia Blade and Warrior's Helm to increase both his Attack rating and Venus Power, and either maximize his Venus Power by Setting all seven of the game's Venus Djinn onto him, or put him in the Berserker class to give him a huge Attack boost.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Echo fills the same role as Flint throughout much of this game because it deals the same amount of enhanced damage in battle. Late in the game, when the party has doubled in size and both Flint and Echo are in the Djinn collection, the even stronger Venus Djinni Geode soon becomes available. Geode increases base damage by 90% (as opposed to Flint and Echo's 60%), nearly doubling the damage dealt by a normal attack. While this does discredit Flint and Echo, these two Djinn are still stronger than most offensive Djinn and may still see some use if Geode is in Standby or Recovery.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Much like Echo in The Lost Age, Flint starts out as a powerful and dependable form of enhanced attack, making it especially useful against the Dim Dragon and Dim Dragon Plus bosses that are encountered shortly after Flint joins the party. It will eventually be outclassed by stronger Djinn, namely the returning Geode and the new Venus Djinni Chain, which causes all non-fainted party members to strike the target in one action, potentially being even stronger than Geode. Flint may possibly see some use if Chain and Geode are in Standby or Recovery, but will not likely be a player's first choice for dealing Venus-based damage.

=As a character= Unlike most Djinn, Flint is given a speaking role and, at least for a brief time, is treated like an actual character rather than just another collectible. In both Golden Sun and Dark Dawn, Flint has the role of providing players with a tutorial on how to use Djinn.

Personality
Flint appears to be more friendly and sociable than most other Djinn; In addition to having a speaking role, it actually takes the time to explain how Djinn work. This is supported by Flint's Djinn Guide entry in Dark Dawn, which says that "Flint talks a great deal, but is both knowledgeable and nice, so no one complains."

Golden Sun - First encounter
Much like the other Djinn, Flint is released from Sol Sanctum when Mt. Aleph erupts early in the original Golden Sun. Unlike most of the other Djinn, though, Flint does not travel far from Mt. Aleph, instead wandering outside the main gate of Vale. Before too long, the lone Djinni encounters two young Adepts, Isaac and Garet, who left Vale to hunt down the criminals responsible for the eruption. Flint volunteers to assist the duo in their quest, explaining how Djinn can enhance an Adept's abilities.

Dark Dawn - Lifelong friends
Thirty years pass between the end of The Lost Age and the beginning of Dark Dawn. During that time, many of the Djinn Isaac and Garet had met decided to part ways with their human companions. Some Djinn, however, chose to remain with their new friends. Among the Djinn that stayed with the Adepts was Flint.

During the intervening decades, both Isaac and Garet had children. One day, Garet's son, Tyrell, found himself stranded on the far side of the daunting Tanglewood. The two warriors, accompanied by Isaac's son Matthew and Ivan's daughter Karis, attempt to cross the Tanglewood and rescue Tyrell. Fearing for the childrens' safety, Isaac and Garet lend the young Adepts some of their Djinn. Isaac asks Flint to explain the many benefits of Djinn to the children just as it did to the adults at the start of their first quest, although he finds himself urging the Djinni to not waste time reminiscing.

The following day, Matthew, Karis, and Tyrell leave Isaac and Garet's cabin on a quest to acquire a key component to a device Tyrell broke during their brief adventure the night before. Although Isaac cannot see them off in person, he sends Flint to deliver a message to them, as well as to aid them in their journey. However, the young Adepts initially mistake Flint for a wild Djinni and try to capture it. After clearing up their confusion, Flint delivers Isaac's message: While passing though Patcher's Place nearby, they should visit the Psynergy Training Grounds, then make their way to Carver's Camp to meet the elderly scholar Kraden.

=Name Origin= Flint is a type of stone normally used to make arrowheads and other weapons. Flint is also a way to make fire by striking it against Steel.

Flint's Japanese name, Solo, may refer to the fact that he strikes once; this is opposed to the first Djinni in the second game.

=Trivia=
 * The only other Djinn that have been seen speaking so far are Echo, who provides the Djinn tutorial in The Lost Age, and Pewter, a Djinni that acts as Laurel's emmisary in Dark Dawn. All of these Djinn, including Flint, are automatically acquired during a cutscene, after which they stop speaking. Also, they all happen to be Venus Djinn.
 * Prior to Dark Dawn, all Djinn of the same element shared the same design. Djinn were later given individualized appearances, but Flint retains the original design as its own appearance.

=Bestiaries= This is just a place for me to work on bestiaries. For those two or three of you out there who actually care: I look for the monsters myself the old-fashioned way (one random encounter at a time), then I check GameFAQs to see if I missed any. Some people might check GameFAQs first, but several times I've found monsters in areas GameFAQs say they don't appear, and if I check an FAQ first I might stop looking early once I've found all those monsters, meaning I might miss some.

Colosso

 * Main article: Colosso

(East?) Alhafra

 * Main article: Alhafra

=Shop= And this is an area for me to experiment with shop templates.

=Templates= I'm not too good at creating templates from scratch, but I can usually copy-and-paste (and modify) what I need. Here's a few ideas I have for new templates, and I'm mostly putting them here to make sure they work.

Color references

 * Note: Red, Green, Blue

<!--I might return to this some day, but for now, it's just distracting... =A little help, please!= I had this idea a while back for a new article. It started as just some random idea, but before long I realized that it could actually turn out to be one of my best ideas yet.

Here's the plan: Animals. An article that goes into detail about real-life animals as they appear in the Golden Sun series. I've already made some progress on it, but events in the real world have ground my progress down to a halt. Plus, my inability to access the internet whenever I want doesn't help any.

This is where I need help. I'm going to post all the progress I've made so far below, and then you guys can pick up where I left off. I wouldn't be suprised if Erik takes it upon himself to finish the job, but everyone is free to add ideas. In fact, I encourage people (even you, Erik) to edit what I've done, that way we can compare ideas (you can use the talk page too, of course, especially since some of my notes may only make sense to me). Oh yeah, the "animals vs. monsters" section could do with a makeover, and I have been considering removing the "mythical animals" section.

Well, here we go:

-

Animals in the Golden Sun games aren't much different from animals in real life. A wide variety of animal species familiar in the real world can be found throughout Weyard. These animals range from domestic pets such as cats and dogs to more wild and free animals such as dolphins and turtles. It is reasonable to assume that there are many more species in Weyard that have been taken directly from real life but simply haven’t been mentioned in-game yet.

Although there are many different types of animals, a far less substantial number of animals are encountered throughout the games when compared to the number of humans. It even appears that the number of animals in Weyard is decreasing. Evidence of this is given throughout Golden Sun: The Lost Age: ocean fish are becoming more and more scarce, forcing seafaring people like the Champans to look for other ways to survive; wildlife, particularly those hunted for their meat, appear to be vanishing from the area around Kibombo, and no doubt in other areas as well. These mysterious disappearances may be due largely (though not entirely) to the release of Psynergy Stones after the eruption of Mt. Aleph; it is confirmed by Laurel early in Golden Sun that the Psynergy Stones have turned many animals into monsters.

As far as the games are concerned in a technical area, animals are NPCs (non-player characters) about as much as the many humans populating Weyard. Players, however, will notice two general differences animals have from other NPCs: that their field sprites are much different and that they typically spout an onomotopoeiac word or phrase when you "talk" to them, such as "woof" for dogs or "meow" for cats. This is not surprising since animals cannot speak (or at least not in any language we humans can understand). Their very humanlike thoughts, however, can be clearly understood by an Adept casting the Mind Read Psynergy on them just as if Mind Read is used on normal humans. Animals often possess valuable information and/or insight that only creatures not bound to human society and ethics can properly observe; they can either give players advice or assistance with the games' quest or side quests, point out areas that may be of interest to the player, or supply information about the Golden Sun world in general (which is of little help in gameplay terms, but may be quite valuable to players who want to learn more about Weyard).

List of animal species
The following is a list of all animal species that either appear in or are mentioned throughout the Golden Sun series. This list does not include monsters that closely resemble animals.

Animals in italic text do not appear as NPCs.


 * Birds
 * Cat
 * Chicken
 * Cow
 * Crab
 * Dog
 * Dolphin
 * Fish
 * Penguin
 * Sheep
 * Silkworm
 * Turtle 	(remember Nereid)
 * Whale	(Neptune)

In Golden Sun

 * Vale
 * Vault
 * Xian
 * Tolbi (Spring)

In The Lost Age

 * Mikasalla
 * Gondowan Cliffs
 * Kibombo Mountains
 * E Tundaria Islet
 * SE Angara Islet (bird)
 * N Osenia Islet (cow)
 * West Indra Islet
 * Sea of Time Islet
 * Lemuria
 * Lemuria (Spring)

Animals with names

 * Pengus and Pengulina
 * Lonely George

Trading sequence animals

 * E Tundaria Islet
 * SE Angara Islet (bird)
 * N Osenia Islet (cow)
 * West Indra Islet
 * Sea of Time Islet

Animals and monsters
Despite Laurel's previously mentioned discovery, animals and monsters should not be grouped together, although there are some instances when the two overlap. In a general sense, monsters always appear in battle, and only a few have overworld sprites (most notably bosses). Animals, in contrast, only appear in overworld areas such as towns and dungeons (aside from a few that are only mentioned and never actually appear) and players can interact with them just like they would any other NPC.

There are some situations where the distinction between animals and monsters is blurred. A unique example are the green Apes of Mogall Forest, who have sprites but are never actually battled.

---

Many monsters closely resemble animals in appearance and often in name as well. Although it may be pure coincidence, these monsters are most likely either slightly mutated animals or simply animals who have been either very scared or driven mad by the raining Psynergy Stones. It is difficult to say whether these monsters can still be considered animals or if they are only monsters now. Some of these monsters, however, clearly cannot be considered animals any longer, such as the Punch Ant, Rat Soldier, and Lizard Fighter. The following is a list of monsters that might still be considered animals:


 * Ape
 * Calamar
 * Conch Shell	?
 * Devil Frog	?
 * Devil Scorpion	?
 * Dino
 * Dirge
 * Doodle Bug	?
 * Emu
 * Fighter Bee	?
 * Giant Bat
 * Kraken
 * Mole		?
 * Momonga	??
 * Rat
 * Ravager
 * Roc	??
 * Salamander	??
 * Seabird
 * Spider
 * Urchin Beast	?
 * Wild Gorilla
 * Wild Wolf
 * Winged Lizard	?

Animals from mythology
Although they do not exist in the real world, a number of mythological animals also appear in the Golden Sun games, usually as monsters:


 * Chimera---The Chimera monsters are another interesting example: although they do not directly resemble real animals, they are made up of body parts of various animals,. Their most notable features are their heads: goat, lion, and eagle. They also have the tail of a scorpion, their front legs are the talons of a bird, and their rear legs (return...and wings)
 * Dragons
 * Gargoyle	?
 * (Gryphon)
 * Harpy 	?
 * (Hydra)	?
 * (Kobold)	?
 * (Macetail)	?
 * Manticore
 * (Minotaurus)
 * Phoenix
 * (Siren)	?
 * (Troll)	?
 * (Wolfkin)	?
 * (Wyvern)	?

See also: Werewolf

[[Category: