Bane

Bane (バルブ Bulb) is a Venus Djinni found in Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

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

Basic description

 * "Attack with nature's venom."

When Set, Bane increases its Adept's base HP by 12 and base Attack by 4.

When Bane is unleashed in battle, the user deals a Venus-based attack equal in power to the user's normal physical attack with an additional 60 damage points added to the result. Then, there is a chance that the target will be inflicted with the Venom status condition, causing them to lose a lot of HP at the end of each turn.

In Golden Sun and The Lost Age, Bane's unleash animation visually resembles a normal physical attack that lets loose a glowing white-red mist cloud on impact.

Locations
Golden Sun: Bane is located in the sixth floor of the optional Crossbone Isle. The entire room is a puzzle maze that must be fully solved in order to both exit it and get the Djinni, with the idea being to hound it to the elevated portion at the lower right of the room and trap it with Halt like on Kite at Vale Cave. Refer here for the full walkthrough on Floor 6 of Crossbone Isle.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Players must transfer data from Golden Sun to The Lost Age in order for Bane to be acquired at all, because if they don't, Bane will not be among the Djinn Isaac's party has with them when they join forces with Felix's party late in the game, and the "make-up" Venus Djinni at the end of Treasure Isle will be the other missing Venus Djinni from the first game, Ground.

Analysis
General: Bane is a pretty good offense to take because of the chance to inflict the directly powerful Venom status condition. With Venom out of the equation, though, this is not an especially strong Djinni from a late-game perspective because it is found near the end of each game it appears in, and the 60 set bonus damage will be outclassed by Djinn like Flint that deal damage enhanced by a multiplier.

By game
Golden Sun: Bane is very valuable because of the powerful and practical Deadly Poison effect it can trigger, making it one of only two possible options the party has to apply Deadly Poison (the other being the Unleash effect of the Wicked Mace). What blunts its usefulness is that the endgame enemies it would have the greatest effect upon - Deadbeard, Saturos and Menardi, and the Fusion Dragon - are nearly immune to status effects being applied onto them, and random monsters typically die in very few rounds of battle before the venom has a chance to kick in and be useful. As for pure damage, Flint outperforms Bane in that area in an endgame party. However, that it has the highest added base damage in the first game makes it respectable even if its secondary effect does not kick in, perhaps as a substitute for Flint. Possibly the best chance for this Djinni to shine is when used against the mini-bosses of Crossbone Isle in the remaining floors, such as against the Cerebuses (the venom will do an astounding 440 or so damage at the end of each turn to a Cerebus). It also works effectively against the infinitely respawning Tempest Lizard of Suhalla Desert, as it is one of the few endgame bosses not completely immune to venom. This makes for a quick fight and high EXP.

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), Bane is essentially a slightly stronger Venus-element variation on the Jupiter Djinni Wheeze. Whenever the Venom effect kicks in, it deals heavy damage based on how much HP the enemy has, but the near-immunity of any boss-like enemy prevents that effect from happening from either of these Djinn.

Name Origin
Bane was a term used in the middle ages for poisonous plants, possibly why this Djinni is capable of poisoning its target. In addition, plants are associated with the Earth element, which makes sense for a Venus Djinni. Bane's Japanese name, Bulb, most likely refers to the bulb of a plant, a food storage organ located on the lower stem of some plants. Numerous bulbous plants are very poisonous, such as hyacinths and tulips, which relates back to the poisoning effect of this Djinni.