Alhafra

Alhafra, located at the northern coast of Osenia, must be visited both before and after the party acquires their own ship.

Alhafra (アラフラの町 Arafura Town) is a prominent settlement featured in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. It is a relatively developed town located at the northwestern coast of Osenia, just north of the northwestern exit from the dungeon-like Yampi Desert. Relatively early in The Lost Age, Alhafra becomes the only settlement in the western and central swath of Osenia that is mandatory to visit because of a plot-critical boss fight that must be cleared before the party can proceed west from Madra and toward Kibombo in southern Gondowan.

The sleazy Mayor of Alhafra had recently built a large sailing ship to faciliate his money-grubbing aspirations, but both the ship and the town were damaged by the tidal wave at the start of The Lost Age. The dread Champan pirates who had been pilfering from towns across the Eastern Sea had busted their leader, Briggs, out of Madra's prison and taken refuge in Alhafra by buying the ship with stolen Madran gold.

Felix's traveling party of Adepts, searching for a ship to use for their quest, pursue Briggs to Alhafra to forcefully secure his vow that he does not know the one named Piers, a sailor whom the Madrans have imprisoned back in their town as a scapegoat for their recent troubles. Felix achieves Briggs' incarceration in Alhafra's own prison – but because his party does not have the Psynergy needed to fix the sailing ship themselves, they return west to Madra to look for Piers and see about using his own ship.

Later in the game, the party must return to Alhafra and use their recently acquired Burst Psynergy to destroy the boulder pinning down the ship's broken mast. What happens next is very much to the chagrin of the mayor, but it is a required step for unlocking the service at the distant village of Champa that reforges the Trident of Ankohl out of three collectable prongs hidden in three separate dungeons accessible from the Eastern Sea.

In Golden Sun: The Lost Age

For all NPC gossip, see Side Scripts.

When the party has triggered the cutscene in Madra's prison that introduces the future party member Piers, the plot bids you seek his freedom by following the pirate Briggs into the coastal town of Alhafra and securing his vow that Piers is not one of his men. Once you have crossed from southern Indra east into northwestern Osenia through the "land bridge" Osenia Cliffs, if you follow the advice from the guards at Madra Drawbridge to keep to Osenia's northwest coast for the more "direct" in-universe method of reaching Alhafra, you will find a broken bridge that would have otherwise let you cross the river and walk directly east to Alhafra on the overworld. In-universe, Briggs destroyed this bridge to head off any efforts to pursue him; this leaves the large desert south of it, Yampi Desert, the only other route connecting to Alhafra's otherwise closed-off pocket of the continent.

In-game, the party must enter Yampi Desert through its southwest entrance and progress through it as a mainline dungeon-like location to eventually reach Alhafra's side of the river just north of the desert's northeast exit on the world map. The last main outdoor screen of Yampi Desert simultaneously connects to both this northeast exit and a separate, one-way southeast exit that deposits the party closer to the center of Osenia. (This puts the party just north of the smaller, central desert separated from Yampi Desert, wherein lies the very long Air's Rock dungeon that will have to be completed at some point for its Reveal Psynergy.)

The aforementioned bridge west of Alhafra will remain destroyed throughout much of The Lost Age, so the only way back out from Alhafra's enclosed pocket of the continent will be to head back through Yampi Desert. Whenever you want or need to depart Alhafra, you would ideally take the desert's above-mentioned southeast exit leading closer to Air's Rock to save time regaining access to the currently explorable western and central brunt of Osenia's landmass (the eastern third is cordoned off by a mountain range and can only be reached by ship later in the game). Note, however, that you will have to reenter Yampi Desert through its southwest exit and navigate its dungeon-like route northeast all over again when you next need to get back to Alhafra.

Initial visit

The party is free to complete other objectives across Osenia and then return to Alhafra to defeat Briggs on the sailing ship.

Starting from where you step into the town, heading either west or north along the dirt streets will trigger a cutscene where the Madran travelers encountered earlier in Yampi Desert, led by the Mayor and Elder of Madra, come up behind you and walk to the manor of the Mayor of Alhafra at the northwest hill. (The elderly local they ask for directions will lead them through whichever road Felix did not use to trigger the cutscene.) The female NPC blocking the bridge to the southeast inn will step aside, letting you both use the town's Inn service and trigger an optional cutscene with a certain NPC in the second floor. One of the game's six Apples can be found by examining the water-filled jar at the lower-left corner of the large upstairs bedroom.

The mayor's manor at the northwest corner of town is currently blocked off by guards, and a male NPC standing guard just southwest of the building, west past a line of multi-colored trees, is blocking off an entrance to Alhafran Cave – an optional cave that connects to the backside of the cave-like prison that lies underneath the west circle of gravestones. If you have Reveal from Air's Rock, you can expose a hidden chest in the center of the gravestones, which contains a Psy Crystal.

The weapon and armor vendors around the north end of town introduce the Broad Sword, Hunter's Sword, Heavy Mace, Leather Armor, Leather Gloves, Open Helm, and Travel Robe as common gear pieces that can be purchased. Alhafra is one of only two settlements in the game that sell Leather Boots as common pieces, the other being Madra. The item shop is also the first to stock Elixirs and Sacred Feathers. It should be noted that, while these stores are presented as the next "tier" of shops in terms of expense and strength, the village of Mikasalla in southwestern Osenia (which can be visited before first entering Yampi Desert) sells a few items that are much stronger and more expensive.

One of Briggs' Sea Fighters is standing partially concealed among the trees in the southwest part of town; whether you walk on the road just east of him or talk to him from behind (even if you try to Mind Read him), he will remark to himself in a brief cutscene that he must warn Briggs about the newly arrived mayor from Madra and head off. Regardless, when you take the main screen's northeast exit to Alhafra's harbor (officially named Eastern Alhafra) and walk onto the large sailing ship, a cutscene will have several more Sea Fighters remarking on all the damage dealt to it by the tidal wave from the start of the story.

Enter the ship's cabin through the door and go downstairs. The moment you step close enough to the meeting room being used by Briggs and one of his Sea Fighters, a cutscene will transpire that will force you into a boss battle with the duo, and Briggs can summon up to three other Sea Fighters throughout the battle using three Signal Whistles. This boss battle is uncharacteristically difficult if fought as soon as it is available; the player is incentivized to leave Alhafra and complete other activities in Osenia for experience and improved power and survivability before coming back to defeat Briggs and advance the plot. Namely, you can complete Air's Rock for the experience and gear artifacts, visit Garoh southeast of Air's Rock to receive the Jupiter Djinni Ether, use Scoop to reach both the Mars Djinni Spark in Mikasalla and the Megaera summon tablet in the cave southwest of Air's Rock's desert, and fight the Mercury Djinni Sour as a random overworld battle southwest of that cave.

Post-boss fight

Whether or not you needed to leave Alhafra temporarily to improve your fighting capabilities, defeating Briggs will initiate a long cutscene that will update all the gossip of the villagers in town, as well as lock up Briggs and his Sea Fighters in the west prison. There are no other immediately mandatory steps to take in Alhafra, so you will eventually need to head back south through Yampi Desert and return to Madra in southern Indra.

The clutter on the broken mast can be cleared away after defeating Briggs, but the later Burst Psynergy is needed to finish the job.

With the Sea Fighters no longer crowding the ship's deck, you can clear away the various objects cluttering and pinning down the ship's broken mast and sail for the sake of not having to do so when you eventually return to Alhafra later in the game. These chores will require the Lash Psynergy granted by the Lash Pebble that can be earned in Kandorean Temple near the start of the game – a dungeon that is possible to put off until the point in the game when the party must travel north through the Kibombo Mountains in southern Gondowan. There is no in-game reward for completing the following steps sooner rather than later:

• Cast Move on the white stone blocking the brown log currently resting on the broken mast's lower-left yard, and shift the stone downward so that you can hop onto the yard above the stone. Push the stone south along the length of the yard until it drops into the ocean water below. Then, by pushing against the brown log's left edge from the top, roll the log south off the yard so that it falls onto the water and becomes a platform.
• Push the other white stone resting on the lower-right yard all the way down so that it disappears into the ocean underneath. Cast Move to shift the standing crate on the lower sail south so that it falls into the ocean and becomes its own platform.
• Climb down the rope hanging from the edge of the lower-left yard to drop onto the floating brown log, and hop east across the crate you dropped from the sail to reach the dirty yellow area nestled among the grassy cliffs at the southeast part of the screen. Cast Move on the other tall crate from south of it to remotely shift it one tile left, then climb all the way back onto the ship's deck.
• Walk downward east along the slanted mast and walk north along its upper-right yard, then hop onto and climb the taut rope fastened between the northern pair of yardarms to walk onto the upper-left yard. This lets you hop west to the upper bow of the ship, behind the green crate and barrel right of the cabin on deck. Cast Lash on the coiled rope and climb the resulting rope onto the northeast cliffs.
• Climb down the ivy east of the broken mast and remotely cast Pound on the stake that has another rope from the mast tightly wrapped around it to make the rope disappear and turn the stake into a platform you can hop south from. Approach the southeast standing crate from the north and Move it one space further left, which lets you push it left into the water.

While this will create a series of hoppable platforms leading to the large, cracked boulder pinning down the top of the mast, you will not be able to do anything to it without the Burst Psynergy acquired later in the game. The first time you walk up to the boulder and then step back onto the wooden plank, Jenna will briefly comment that there is nothing more to be done. The rest of your party will share similar sentiments when you move to step off the ship via its west boarding plank.

Downstairs inside the ship, south of the meeting room, you can Move a standing crate one tile right to expose an opening into a storage room, where the Large Bread can be seen sitting atop a precariously placed crate that seems out of reach. If you had collected the Tremor Bit from the Madra Catacombs underneath Madra, you can cast it at the crate from its left to make the bread fall to the ground. Then, at the canoes near the northeast beach back in the main town screen, give the bread to the hungry child and answer "yes" to his question whether you "like adventures" (if you say no, you can talk to him again to say "yes"). This causes his father, the man in front of the northwest entrance into Alhafran Cave, to allow you to go past him (again, so long as you answer his question with "yes").

The limited portion of Alhafran Cave you can explore at the moment allows you to use Lash on a coiled rope to reach three chests containing the following treasures: 123 coins, a Lucky Medal, and the Ixion Mail, a fairly strong armor for "warrior-style" Adepts like Felix and the upcoming Piers. (This armor will likely be weaker than what you will be wearing if you wait until the next mandatory revisit to Alhafra to start exploring the cave.) For the time being, an earth pillar at the north end of the cave prevents you from climbing down a blue ladder to explore the remainder of the cave and reach three more chests.

The village's updated post-boss state enables several cutscenes. You can watch a cutscene between Briggs, his wife Chaucha, and his toddler son Eoleo at the prison, after which the latter two will move into the ship's cabin. You can now enter and explore the Mayor of Alhafra's manor (where the Mayor and Elder of Madra are currently staying as guests), and while the Mayor of Alhafra will give a fairly long speech on what he plans to do with the ship, whether you say "yes" or "no" to his business proposal has no bearing on the gameplay. Finally, you can watch a family inside one of the destroyed houses at the northeastern beach area find 5 gold coins in a jar. The water just underneath this house will have dried up since the boss battle, letting you examine the jar between both destroyed houses for one of the game's limited Lucky Medals.

Subsequent visit

Once the party has gained the means to sail across the Eastern Sea, it becomes much easier to revisit Alhafra by mooring the Lemurian Ship on the beach west of it. During your exploration across this lengthy and non-linear arc of the game, you must complete the earlier dungeon Aqua Rock at the east end of the world to earn the Parch Psynergy for Piers. Then, you must use Parch (and Reveal) to explore Tundaria Tower at the south end of the world, find the Burst Brooch, and use its Burst Psynergy to find one of the three prongs to the Trident of Ankohl.

Using Burst to free the broken mast leads to a somewhat farcical outcome for Alhafra and its mayor.

As soon as Burst is part of the party's Psynergy repertoire, you can revisit Alhafra and cast it on the boulder pinning the mast of the sailing ship. Follow along with a procession of cutscenes that begins as you attempt to leave the screen and head back toward the town; during this, you will be deposited back at the mayor's manor and will have to follow the linear trail back to the harbor, since the villagers will form a blockade preventing you from leaving. After you watch Briggs and Chaucha make off with the ship and sail back north to Champa, Alhafra will update its populace's spoken and mentally expressed gossip for a final time. (Oddly, this update will simultaneously cause the bridge west of Alhafra in the overworld to be rebuilt, despite there being virtually no use for it at this stage.)

For plot reasons that will come as absolutely no surprise to the player, the guards outside the mayor's manor will no longer allow your party inside. However, the man who guarded the entrance to Alhafran Cave will no longer block it, whether or not you had given the Large Bread to his son previously, and three more treasure chests can additionally be looted: 777 coins, a Potion, and a Psy Crystal. At the bottom end of the cave, you can exit into the other side of Briggs' now-empty cell in the prison, and you can find one of the game's five Power Breads in the lower-right of the two jars.

If you had applied any level of password-based data transfer from the first Golden Sun, specifically from a Clear Data Save File in which Isaac's party defeated Deadbeard at the end of Crossbone Isle, an optional cutscene will now take place in the upper floor of the inn. Two pirates will talk about Isaac's amazing feat and regard him as their leader, and they will head out to search for him. This cutscene has no bearing on gameplay whatsoever.

The significance of initiating Briggs' departure on the sailing ship by casting Burst on the boulder pinning its mast is that the village of Champa, far north at the south coast of Angara, will update into its second version. It will become possible to fight and defeat the Avimander boss and, in so doing, unlock Obaba's plot-critical service where you can give her the prongs from Tundaria Tower, Shrine of the Sea God, and Ankohl Ruins so that she may reforge the Trident of Ankohl. This will allow the party to defeat the otherwise invincible boss at the end of the Sea of Time and reach Lemuria, concluding the Eastern Sea arc of the game.

Vendors

The town's Inn service is provided in the southeast building of the main screen, for a fee of 7 coins per party member. This makes it cost 21 coins when first visited with a party of three, then 28 coins once the party has recruited its fourth member, and finally 56 coins late in the game.

Weapon Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Heavy Mace	Mace	500	Attack +26
Hunter's Sword	Light Blade	520	Attack +28
Battle Axe	Axe	280	Attack +24
Broad Sword	Long Sword	1000	Attack +40
Long Sword	Long Sword	200	Attack +14

Armor Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Circlet	Circlet	120	Defense +6
Leather Armlet	Bracelet	180	Defense +7
Leather Armor	Armor	240	Defense +12
Leather Boots	Boot	270	Defense +6
Leather Cap	Hat	30	Defense +3
Leather Gloves	Gloves	220	Defense +10
Open Helm	Helm	180	Defense +9
Travel Robe	Robe	200	Defense +10
Travel Vest	Clothing	50	Defense +7
Wooden Shield	Shield	40	Defense +6

Item Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Antidote	Consumable Item	20	Cures Poison and Venom from one Adept
Elixir	Consumable Item	30	Cures Sleep, Stun, and Delusion from one Adept
Herb	Consumable Item	10	Restores 50 HP to one Adept
Sacred Feather	Consumable Item	70	Temporary lowers monster encounter rate

Collectibles

• Apple: Found in the water-filled jar in the lower-left corner of the large second-floor bedroom in the inn.
• Psy Crystal: Found in a chest that lies hidden in the ring of gravestones around the west end of the town, exposed only by casting Reveal earned from Air's Rock.
• 32 Coins: Found in the upper of the pair of crates just outside the manor's manor, northeast behind its standing tower-like extension.
• Elixir: Found in the lower-right barrel in the upper residence of the long building just right of the statue in the center of town.
• Sleep Bomb: Found in a jar just to the right of the cliff-like door leading into the west prison, south of the ring of gravestones.
• Smoke Bomb: Found in the upper-left jar on the wooden pier left of the sailing ship, above four differently colored crates arranged in a square.

The following items become available after defeating Briggs on the sailing ship:

• Large Bread: Seen in the storage room at the south end of the interior of the sailing ship that can be entered by casting Move on a tall crate to shift it right to expose a doorway. Cast the Tremor Psynergy found in Madra Catacombs to make the bread fall off the crate and land where you can pick it up. (Giving this to the hungry child around the eastern beach area of the main town screen gives you early access into Alhafran Cave, letting you open three chests containing 123 coins, a Lucky Medal, and the Ixion Mail.)
• Lucky Medal: Found in a jar sandwiched between two destroyed houses around the beach-like area in the northeast part of the main town screen. The puddle of water blocking off the jar will have dried up after the boss fight.
• 7 Coins: Found in the barrel at the bottom floor of the three-story tower-like extension of the mayor's manor, just underneath a water-filled jar. Once you have triggered the cutscene at the harbor where the ship sails away from Alhafra, the manor can no longer be entered, meaning these coins can be missed.

After finishing the cutscenes that trigger after you blow up the boulder pinning the ship's mast with the Burst Psynergy, Alhafran Cave becomes permanently available in a fully explorable state, regardless of whether or not you had given the Large Bread to the child to partially explore it on a previous visit to the town. You can additionally find 777 coins, a Potion, and a Psy Crystal in chests inside the cave, and the following item in Alhafra's prison can now be reached by means of traversing the cave:

• Power Bread: Found in the lower-right of the two jars in the jail cell, which can be entered from behind by taking Alhafran Cave's south exit.

History

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Alhafra is a seafaring town on the northern coast of Osenia, relying upon the sea for its food supply. It is a particularly prosperous town of considerable size, though it suffered extensive damage as a result of the tidal wave. Prior to the tidal wave there had been contact between Alhafra and Madra, a town just a short boat ride away. Since the tidal wave moved Indra south, it is now only possible to access Madra by the newly formed land bridge. In terms of culture, Alhafra was considerably advanced compared to the rest of the region having just recently developed sailing ships. The only other known town to develop any form of sailing ship is Champa, which uses much smaller ships. Despite all its size and advances though, Alhafra's mayor has a reputation for being extremely greedy.

Felix and Alex's separate searches for a ship lead them both to Alhafra, though its only ship has been damaged by the tidal wave and bought up by the pirate Briggs.

Following the tidal wave that struck Indra and Osenia, Briggs and his pirate crew from Champa fled from Indra and sought a boat in Alhafra. They also destroyed the bridge to Alhafra to slow the party from Madra down. The tidal wave, however, had left Alhafra with only the newly built sailboat, and that had suffered damage. The pirates bought the boat and even paid for the mast to be repaired, though it later became clear that the mast was weighted down with too much debris. Thus by the time the mayor of Madra arrived in Alhafra to capture Briggs, he and his crew were still stuck there. However, the mayor of Alhafra was very stubborn in accepting the accusations of Briggs, who had paid good money for the boat.

Meanwhile Felix's party had arrived in Alhafra in search of their own boat of their own and, being aware that only Briggs can prove the innocence of Piers, a water adept being held in Madra, they confront Briggs. When he refuses in cooperating, Felix is forced to battle Briggs and his crew. After being defeated and confessing to both mayors, Briggs suggests that, since he had bought the boat with Madran gold, he would give the boat to Madra and he attests to Piers' innocence before allowing himself to be locked up until the boat is repaired.

While most of the Madran party returned to assure Piers' release from Madra's prison, the mayor and the elder stayed behind to oversee the repairs on the boat. However, Alhafra's greedy mayor refuses to repair the boat despite the fact that Briggs had already paid for the repairs and the pair were forced to return to Madra without the boat. The boat remained unrepaired for quite some time until Felix returned to finish clearing the debris off the mast. Alhafra's mayor begins repairs immediately but is clearly not planning on turning the boat over. His plans amount to nothing, however, as Briggs escapes the prison and uses the now repaired ship to return to Champa

Trivia

• For many players, Alex's appearance in the upper floor of the inn is the first time the party will have crossed paths with him since the incident that separated them at Idejima in the prologue of The Lost Age. However, the brief cutscene with him is written as though the player had triggered a much harder-to-find meeting with Alex in Daila, which establishes his relationship with the party much more thoroughly. In the likely event the player missed that event, this encounter with Alex will not be adjusted to reflect that this is the party's "first meeting since Idejima", causing a narrative disconnect.
  • This disconnect will be exacerbated if the party does not happen to go upstairs in the inn before defeating Briggs, but does check upstairs to find Alex there afterward. His very brief remarks about the party's noble deeds will be all the player has to go on before Alex initiates a less amicable meeting with the party at Champa that cannot be avoided.
• It is possible to deliberately soft-lock your progress through the game's main campaign after clearing away the boulder pinning the mast of the sailing ship using Burst. Following cutscenes inside the mayor's manor, you will temporarily regain control of your party but be forced to take a linear path back to the port at Eastern Alhafra because the village's NPCs will be carefully lined up to temporarily block your way back into the town's main square. If you save during this brief interlude, then reload the file using the "sanctum trick" (holding the L shoulder button and Start while loading the game), you will spawn in the town's sanctum outside this makeshift blockade of NPCs. If you save again, you will render the game impossible to complete by normal methods because you cannot physically pass back through the line of NPCs to revisit the dock where the important cutscene with the sailing ship leaving the harbor takes place. Unless you use a walk-through-walls cheat code with an external device to get back there, this prevents you from reforging the Trident at Champa, and thus prevents you from reaching Lemuria in the Sea of Time.
• During the brief interlude when the party has to head to the harbor to see the ship leaving, the NPC guarding Alhafran Cave will be blocking the way to it (regardless of whether you had given the Large Bread to his son previously) and will have his own original lines of gossip mentioning casually that Alhafra hasn't seen Felix around recently. This suggests that Briggs is currently hiding in Alhafran Cave, waiting for an opportunity to bust out and make a break for the ship; this is corroborated by how, after the ship is stolen, the NPC will be agitated about Briggs having suddenly come out of the entrance behind him and disappeared into the forest (apparently referring to the mass of trees just south of the manor). However, by the time Felix enters the port screen, Briggs has already gotten ahead of him and stolen the ship, which does not appear physically possible. One would have to presume that, while Felix is walking east toward and past the beach area with the destroyed houses, Briggs and his men are exiting the cave and traversing the beach north of the stalls and destroyed houses with incredible velocity.
• Following the departure of the sailing ship, a duo of swashbucklers will appear in the second floor of Alhafra's inn if the current game file was enhanced with data from the first Golden Sun in which Isaac's party defeated Deadbeard in the optional Crossbone Isle dungeon. The pirates will discuss this occurrence and decide that Isaac should by rights be considered the leader of pirates everywhere, and they will walk past Felix's party to begin searching for Isaac. Because this cutscene can be triggered at any point prior to the end of the game, Isaac's party may already have joined Felix's; however, the cutscene will not change to account for that, and the pirates will walk past the expanded party without realizing that they are walking past their new "leader".

Cultural references

Alhafra is named after the Arafura Sea, a body of water between Australia, Indonesia, and New Guinea. The name is from either the native Moluccas term haraforas, meaning "children of the mountains," or the corrupted Portuguese word Alfours, meaning "free men"; either meaning would refer to the inhabitants of the islands around the sea. This fits Alhafra's geographical location on Osenia, which corresponds to the region in real-world Australia that lies just underneath the Arafura Sea.