Champa

Champa lies at the south coast of Angara, at a point enclosed by mountains preventing it from being reached by Isaac's party in the first Golden Sun.

Champa (チャンパ村 Champa Village) is a settlement prominently featured in both Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Situated at the southern coast of Angara, it is a poor village whose fishing trade is impacted by environmental factors that get further exacerbated by the events of the first two games, when the sequential lighting of the Elemental Lighthouses enacts gradual changes across the world of Weyard. The people of Champa have nurtured an "industry" based on piracy to sustain their village, violently raiding vessels and small villages across the Eastern Sea.

In The Lost Age, Champa's most prolific pirate, Briggs, crosses paths with Felix's party of Adepts while they are searching for a sailing vessel with which to both enter the Sea of Time and continue their quest to light the remaining Lighthouses. The course dictated by Felix's journey ultimately leads his party to Champa because the village's leader, the elderly Obaba, is the only individual who can reforge the ancient Trident of Ankohl needed to slay the monster that blocks their way to Lemuria inside the Sea of Time. As Felix's party collects the three prongs of the Trident in the nearby Ankohl Ruins and similar dungeons, they may drop them off with Obaba so that she can unite them by magically working the ancient forge of the Ankohl built inside the cliffs.

As of Dark Dawn, taking place 30 years later, Champa has grown in size from a poor village to a "poor country" because its people, overly accustomed to their long tradition of piracy, were unable to capitalize on the Golden Sun event making the land fertile again. When Angara is wracked by a cataclysm late in the game, the villagers and shopkeepers are forced to temporarily abandon Champa and relocate to the nearby Champa Camp. What remains of Champa can be optionally visited by Matthew during his own quest across the Eastern Sea, and Obaba – somehow having not succumbed to her extremely old age – provides the same blacksmithing service the village of Yallam did in The Lost Age.

In Golden Sun: The Lost Age

For all NPC gossip, see Side Scripts.

Following Felix's party's departure from East Indra Shore on Piers' Lemurian Ship, the entirety of the Eastern Sea becomes explorable all at once, and four "mainline" settlements become accessible at this time. Three of them are Izumo on the island northeast of the foggy Sea of Time, Yallam at the northeast coast of Osenia, and the Apojii Islands at the far east end of the world. Champa, the last of these four settlements, is located at the south coast of the northern continent of Angara, at a spot that could not be reached during the first party's quest across the continent in the previous Golden Sun. Champa will become mandatory to visit at a potentially much later point in the party's time spent throughout the Eastern Sea, though a fair fraction of what the village has to offer can be acquired during any number of earlier possible visits.

Initial visit

If the player's game file was enhanced with Clear Data transferred from the first game in which Isaac's party helped out Xian resident Feizhi at Alpine Crossing by casting Lift on the boulder to free her friend Hsu, a cutscene will trigger shortly after Felix begins walking north through the wharf area. Feizhi will appear and give Felix the Golden Ring as a token of her appreciation to Isaac, which essentially amounts to letting any party member use the Resist Psynergy free of cost.

Walking along the tightrope stretching over the village leads to very little, though the village offers useful collectibles sold at its store and hidden within a ring of gravestones.

Whether or not the above cutscene occurs, a different and far more story-relevant cutscene will trigger the first time the party steps back south onto the wooden bridge leading back into the overworld. This cutscene is only "mandatory" because the party must eventually enter Champa on business detailed in the section below, and nothing about it is changed or affects the game as a whole whether it is triggered much earlier or later.

Champa is worth making an early visit to before exploring any new dungeons because the Viking Helm can be found in the ring of gravestones in the vicinity of the southern wharf area, in a chest that requires being exposed with the Reveal Psynergy earned at Air's Rock. While exploring the multiple floors worth of caves carved into the sheer cliff overlooking the village, you can step out onto a natural balcony to acquire one of the game's finite Lucky Medals in a jar left of a crate off to the right. You can briefly meet the distraught chief of the village, Obaba, by opening her door just left of the exit out onto this balcony.

The general store offers useful Plate Mails and the Blessed Robe artifact to outfit your party members' bodies with, and a Silver Armlet can be purchased for whichever caster Adept does not have the equally tough Bone Armlet from Gabomba Statue. The Silver Helm, on the other hand, should be avoided because of your access to both the aforementioned Viking Helm and the useful Thorn Crown found earlier in Naribwe. You should ignore the Master Rapier and Great Axe because better weapons can be both found for free in dungeons and crafted at Yallam's blacksmith, and the cursed Demonic Staff sold as a weapon artifact at this store is both weak to attack with and detrimental to equip.

Subsequent visits

The villagers' initial set of gossip and Mind Read-able thoughts will only be available up until the point in the Eastern Sea arc when the party finishes a leftover chore back at Alhafra in Osenia. After clearing both Air's Rock and Aqua Rock, both the Reveal and Parch Psynergies can be used to clear Tundaria Tower at the south end of the world and acquire both the Burst Psynergy and the Center Prong. When Burst is used on the large, cracked boulder pinning down the broken mast of the sailing ship in Alhafra's wharf, a series of cutscenes will result in the ship setting sail. The next time Champa is revisited, all of its citizens will have updated their gossip and thoughts, and Champa's story-critical sequences can now be initiated.

After giving Obaba the three prongs collected at various dungeons, she will use the forge of the Ankohl to create the plot-critical Trident.

As you pursue Briggs up through the floors of the cliff cave network, NPCs will be positioned at various side entrances to funnel you toward the top room, where the circular Ankohl forge lies. In a cutscene with Briggs and Obaba that triggers whenever you approach them, saying "yes" will make you acquiesce to her threat and walk away; the game does not proceed until you say "no", which will trigger the boss battle with the Avimander. When you win against it, another long cutscene will take place, after which the cliff cave network will update and be properly explorable again.

If you have at least one of the three collectable Prongs, the next time you talk to Obaba at her forge, Felix will place it on the ground, and she will identify it as part of the Trident of Ankohl and offer to reforge it for you once you have given her the remaining two prongs. Besides the aforementioned Center Prong from Tundaria Tower, you must also acquire the Right Prong from the Shrine of the Sea God (requiring Frost and Reveal) and the Left Prong from Ankohl Ruins just east of Champa; completing Ankohl Ruins requires both Reveal and the Sand Psynergy earned by completing Gaia Rock.

The first two prongs you give Obaba will be safely taken off your hands, freeing up inventory space. Once you give her the third and final prong, saying "yes" or "no" does nothing to change the following cutscene, where Obaba tosses in the three prongs and the forge creates the completed Trident out of them, making it seemingly float in place above the abyss. To reach it, stand at the south end of the forge and cast Reveal to display the invisible path that runs underneath it.

The Trident gives the party member who has it in their inventory an infinitely reusable Jupiter-element physical attack for 20% increased damage that ignores the defense of "fish-like" enemies; only this attack can turn off the barrier of invulnerability maintained by Poseidon at the end of the Sea of Time, allowing the party to battle and defeat it as a traditional boss. This allows the party to reach Lemuria and conclude the Eastern Sea arc of the game. (The Trident additionally gives 20 Mercury Resistance if the party member actually has it equipped, and it does not occupy equipment slots shared by other items.)

Vendors

In The Lost Age, Champa's inn is the wooden building at the north end of the village area, just off to the right of the entrance into the cliff network. Its service costs 18 coins per party member, making it cost 72 coins for most of the game and 144 when the party's roster eventually doubles in size.

General Store
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Master Rapier	Light Blade	6800	Attack +86
Great Axe	Axe	5200	Attack +80
Plate Mail	Armor	4400	Defense +33
Silver Armlet	Bracelet	4000	Defense +30
Silver Helm	Helm	3900	Defense +30
Herb	Consumable Item	10	Restores 50 HP to one Adept
Nut	Consumable Item	200	Restores 200 HP to one Adept
Antidote	Consumable Item	20	Cures Poison and Venom from one Adept
Elixir	Consumable Item	30	Removes Stun, Sleep, and Delusion from one Adept
Sacred Feather	Consumable Item	70	Temporarily lowers monster encounter rate
Artifacts
Demonic Staff	Staff	10000	Attack +92, Unleashes Bad Omen, Cursed
Blessed Robe	Robe	7000	Defense +36, HP Recovery +5
Potion	Consumable Item	1000	Restores all HP to one Adept

Collectibles

• Lucky Medal: Found inside the lone jar at the right end of the cliffs' third-floor balcony.
• Viking Helm: Found inside a chest that only appears in the ring of gravestones near the south entrance when Reveal is cast in its vicinity.
• Elixir: Found inside the stacked-up pair of crates in the inn.
• Sleep Bomb: Found inside the barrel sandwiched between two beds in the east bedroom in the first floor of the cliff network.
• Smoke Bomb: Found inside the crate to the upper right of the small house that can be reached by walking left across the tightrope from the area of the general store.

The following is a plot-relevant item granted in a cutscene later on in the Eastern Sea arc:

• Trident: Received after giving the Left Prong, Center Prong, and Right Prong to Obaba in the top floor of the cave network following the boss battle with the Avimander. The trident will be floating above the gaping abyss of the forge of the Ankohl and can only be reached by casting Reveal to show a bridge crossing vertically through and underneath it.

The following is only available in a game file enhanced with data transferred from the first Golden Sun, in which Hsu was helped at Alpine Crossing using the Lift Psynergy:

• Golden Ring: During a special cutscene that triggers while walking north through the village from the south exit for the first time, Feizhi will place this onto the ground for you to collect.

Bestiary

The boss battle that takes place inside Champa's cliff-based cave network is largely positioned as tougher than the Serpent fought inside Gaia Rock, even though it is possible to fight the Avimander first.

Bestiary
Monster Name	LVL	HP	ATK	DEF	AGI	EXP	Coins	Weakness	Drop	Drop Rate
Avimander (boss)	35	3792	281	89	94	2176	1330		Potion	1/1

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

For all NPC gossip, see Side Scripts.

Champa has the grave misfortune of being located within the dark cataclysm that takes place late in Dark Dawn.

The final third of the game takes place across the elevated upper half of the Eastern Sea that surrounds Angara's modern-day incarnation and can be explored as soon as the party departs Belinsk at the conclusion of the arc that took place across the continent's Morgal region. This part of the game is less linear than what came prior, and the party can immediately beach their newly acquired sailing ship at roughly the same area at Angara's south coast where Champa would be expected to remain standing. Owing to circumstances brought about by the plot, Champa's citizens and village-like services, such as vendors and an inn service, have relocated to Champa Camp a short ways east along the coast.

Champa itself, now a burning wreck being tended to by NPCs who have remained behind, features a different layout from its prior incarnation. To enter the cliff cave network through the entrance north of the large fire being fed in the center of the village, head up the stairs right of the flame and climb the wooden ladder into the burning hut, then head left out of its backside. Inside the network, head through the elevated southwest exit back outside, then hop east along the pillars to the Thermal-compatible heat vent; if this is the first such vent you've encountered, Eoleo will cast the Thermal Psynergy on it for you to demonstrate how the Psynergy is used. Ride the vent up, head back inside the cave network, and head upstairs to an intersection that strongly resembles the layout of the second-to-top floor from the Lost Age version of Champa.

As soon as you step through the south exit onto the highest balcony level outside, a cutscene with Obaba will take place, and she will establish herself as the game's functional equivalent to the blacksmith service seen in the previous game's Yallam. If you have any compatible item in your party members' inventories that she can work on, you can pick any forgeable material like a Quality Zol (listed as "Forgeable") or a rusty weapon (listed as "Needs work") to have her take it off your hands temporarily and work it through the Ankohl forge upstairs. Then, you must enter and exit Champa so that she will have returned to her spot on the cliff balcony, where – unlike in The Lost Age – she will hand the completed item to you for free. Even though you can cast Growth on two saplings on the balconies underneath Obaba to create a pair of vine ladders that offer a more direct route between her and the outside world, it takes a fair bit longer to traverse this full distance in both directions, which is what is required to prompt her to complete her current project.

At this late stage of the game, Obaba's blacksmithing service becomes a consistent source of lategame-tier artifacts. Three rusty weapons that can be found in already-accessible shallow spots in the Eastern Sea can be freely converted into the Rune Blade, Kikuichimonji, and Thanatos Mace. Unlike in the previous game, there are only four types of forgeable materials that can be found throughout the game, and while Quality Zol and Mythril Silver can be repeatedly dropped by random monsters in currently accessible areas elsewhere, Orihalcon and Dark Matter are only dropped by monsters in the postgame-exclusive dungeons Otka Island and Crossbone Isle.

When a forgeable item is handed to Obaba, she carries out her blacksmithing service by magically working the Ankohl forge.

On the other hand, the only Orihalcon you can get your hands on prior to Otka Island can be collected within Champa right away and can be randomly reforged by Obaba into one of the best pieces of gear in the game. If you can get it to produce an Excalibur or Herculean Axe, you can essentially start the Eastern Sea arc of the game with your best combatant armed with one of the best weapons in the game already, outclassing a good number of weapons that can be found in dungeons.

First, return to the cave network's third floor and head through the east door into the bedroom, and pick up the Cave-Door Key off the table. Back outside at Champa's base, head down the stairs south of the central fire and jump left off the west end of the wharf onto a crate floating in the water, and the camera will move under the diagonal exit bridge to show you a cave entrance that you can hop toward using more floating crates. Use the cave-door key on the large lock at the end of the linear cave trail to find several chests containing small amounts of coins, and push the pillar into the floor gap left of it so that you can use its Thermal heat vent to ride up to a cave room just above. The Orihalcon's chest lies in this room.

Incidentally, the jar in the top-floor bedroom just west of the forge of the Ankohl contains one of the game's eight Mints. A Water of Life can be found inside the bottom-floor bedroom, inside the upper-left jar.

Collectibles

• Cave-Door Key: Is seen lying on a table in the east bedroom within the cliff cave network's third floor.
• Mint: Found inside the jar in the fourth-floor bedroom of the cliff cave network, west of the forge of the Ankohl.
• Orihalcon: Found inside a chest in a cave room hidden above another such room that requires the Cave-Door Key to unlock. The conjoined pair of cave rooms is reached by hopping west from the south wharf area and across floating crates in the ocean water to enter a cave underneath the diagonal exit bridge. The upper room is reached by pushing the fiery pillar into the hole in the ground to its left, then casting Thermal to ride the heat vent up one floor.
• Water of Life: Found inside the upper-left jar in the bedroom at the end of the east intersection in the first floor of the cliff cave network.
• 6, 8, and 88 Coins: These three coin yields are the contents of the three chests that lie in the above-mentioned lower-floor cave behind the lock that requires the Cave-Door Key.
• Oil Drop: Found inside the jar in the middle of the hall making up the second floor of the cliff cave network.

History

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Champa's populace are a seafaring folk, not surprisingly, considering the terrain. The people of Champa are far from what one would call rich, but they've learned to make do. Because of the hard rocky soil, Champa could not raise crops and relied on fishing for its source of food. However, due to the warming of the ocean's waters, the fish population that had thus far supported Champa became unreliable. With their food source dwindling, and lacking any real funds with which to buy supplies, Champa fell into poverty and famine.

There are few houses in Champa, and some people live on boats in its harbor. Perhaps the most notable dwellings are the ones cut within the cliffsides. Within the cliffs are several levels connected by a series of stairs. The highest floor houses an immense furnace. The caves are reserved for those who support Briggs. Those who do not wish to join his crew live on the boats in the docks.

Obaba, grandmother of Briggs, serves as the town matriarch. However, due to events that occur in The Lost Age, it appears that Briggs and his crew have obtained some power. There is also a mention of elders who appear to play a role in leading Champa, some of whom have recently considered making Briggs Champa's first chief (which, in turn implies that there was no singular person ruling over Champa at the time).

Briggs' haul

Champa has relied on fishing to feed its people for years, quite possibly since before even Obaba was born. However, the waters of the Eastern Sea have been growing warm (possibly beginning years before the Elemental Stars were taken from Sol Sanctum), causing the fish population to drop. A combination of the threat of starvation and the fact that Champa has never been very wealthy ultimately led Briggs and his crew to resort to piracy in the hopes of "earning" enough money to buy food for Champa. Briggs piracy was kept a secret from Obaba, as she would have been outraged to learn that Champa had to steal to survive. Sometime during their travels, Briggs and his crew eventually stumbled upon Treasure Isle and cleaned out a good amount of its treasure, more than enough to keep Champa alive and well for quite some time. However, they were blown off course (most likely due to the tidal wave that wedged Indra between Gondowan and Osenia) and crashed near Madra.

Alex awaits Felix at Champa to introduce his new companions Karst and Agatio and coerce Felix into pursuing his quest with due haste.

When the player first leaves Champa (whether before or after Briggs' return detailed below), Alex will appear to "encourage" Felix and Co. to light the remaining Lighthouses soon. To help him in this, Alex has requested the help of Karst and her partner Agatio, hoping they can take the place of Saturos and Menardi in acting as an incentive to complete their quest. Although Agatio and Karst would rather light the Lighthouses themselves, Alex insists on letting Felix handle the task, since Saturos and Menardi failed to solve the puzzles of the Lighthouses and he feared that Karst and Agatio would fail as well. Before departing, Alex informed Kraden that Babi has finally passed away. Although he originally accompanied the party on their quest on behalf of Babi's goal of finding Lemuria, Kraden insists on continuing with them, hoping to confirm a theory of his upon reaching Lemuria.

After the boat in Alhafra is repaired, Briggs' wife Chaucha and their son Eoleo helped Briggs and his crew escape from jail and hijack the ship, which they take back to Champa with a large amount of money and jewels (presumably their Treasure Isle haul). This brings Champa back from the brink of starvation, but takes its toll as well as many of the villagers become indulgent and quit their jobs. When Felix's team arrives in Champa, Briggs' crew spots them and goes to warn Briggs, fearing that the mayor of Alhafra sent them to take Briggs back. After climbing to the top of the cliffside dwellings, the party finds Briggs and Obaba waiting by Obaba's furnace. Obaba is willing to give Felix and Co. the benefit of the doubt until Briggs preys on her weakness: Briggs insists that if Felix isn't stopped, Briggs will be taken away and "poor Eoleo will be sad." Unwilling to see her great grandson sad, Obaba gives Felix the chance to leave. If the player chooses to stay, Obaba summons the Avimander to fight the party off.

After the Avimander's defeat, Obaba discovers Briggs piracy, but with a little convincing from Chaucha decides to let him off the hook. Chaucha mentions that they planned to repay all the towns they stole from, at which point Briggs seems to come down with a cold. This is most likely an attempt to get out of repaying the towns, especially since, according to one villager, Briggs has never been sick a day in his life.

By this point of the game, most players will probably have at least one piece of the Trident of Ankohl, since the Center Prong is found in Tundaria Tower, a location which must be visited before Briggs can return to Champa. However, it is possible to defeat the Avimander before collecting any pieces of the Trident, or even to collect all three pieces before ever coming to Champa. Talking to Obaba with at least one piece of the Trident in the party's inventory will spark her interest, and she'll take all the pieces the player has collected. The other two pieces can be located in the Shrine of the Sea God near Daila and the Ankohl Ruins near Champa. Once Obaba has all three pieces, she will throw them into her furnace and recreate the Trident of Ankohl (the player must use Reveal to pick it up), which is necessary to defeat Poseidon and reach Lemuria.

Thirty years later

Obaba, despite being saddened by the passing of her grandson, is content to help Matthew's party with her blacksmithing services while she can.

The Golden Sun event brought changes to many areas, Champa included. One major change was that Champa's rocky soil became fertile ground. By this point, however, no one in Champa had any knowledge of farming techniques, forcing the citizens to remain dependent on piracy. Champa's pirates became notorious in the local seas, raiding the numerous trading ships that sailed around Angara. Over time, Champa, like many areas, grew from a city into a fairly large but poor country. As captain of Champa's pirates, Briggs has become known, somewhat reluctantly, as Champa's king. Briggs's son, Eoleo, became a feared pirate in his own right, and is referred to as a prince. However, Obaba still retains a great deal of respect as the town's matriarch.

Champa, along with every other town not protected by Alchemy, was overrun by powerful monsters when the Grave Eclipse event occurred over Angara. While most of the townspeople managed to leave and take refuge in the newly created Champa Camp, there are several visible casualties. Despite the danger, Obaba insisted on staying in Champa, for unknown reasons. To protect her, the Champans opted to burn fires, with two Champans remaining behind to ensure the fires continued to burn. This tactic worries the villagers, as the main fuel sources are the homes and belongings the Champans left behind.

By the time Matthew's party visits Champa, it is in a mostly ruined state. However, Matthew's party scales the cliffs, where Eoleo meets with Obaba to inform her of the death of Briggs. Obaba is saddened, but wishes the group good luck in their travels to stop the Eclipse. Obaba also informs Matthew of her skills as a blacksmith, offering to created weapons and armor for Matthew's group if they bring her Forgeable items. Champa's fate following the Grave Eclipse remains unknown, though Eoleo states his intention to return there, as their quest is completed.

In Dark Dawn, Champa's Encyclopedia entry reads as follows:

This seafaring nation has a long tradition of piracy. Despite their reputation as seagoing thugs, the Champa people have a strong national pride.

Trivia

• The first two floors of the cliff cave network in The Lost Age are structured very differently from the first two floors in the Dark Dawn version of Champa, but the upper two floors are very consistent between games.
• Isaac's party during the first game cannot reach the stretch of coastal land occupied in The Lost Age by Champa and Ankohl Ruins because of a river running southwest of the first game's Xian. This, however, does not prevent the Xian resident Feizhi from making it to the village to partake in a cameo-like cutscene that can only occur in a password-enhanced game of The Lost Age.
• Champa, Ankohl Ruins, and the forests surrounding the ruins were added to the Angaran region of the overworld map in The Lost Age, which was otherwise copied and pasted from the first game's overworld. This retcon includes the extra mountain placed to physically divide Champa from the ruins east of it.

Cultural References

The real-world Champa encompassed independent polities stretching across the east coast of south-central Vietnam; the Chams whom the states were named after were gradually conquered by neighboring Vietnamese. The seafaring and piracy practiced by the in-game Champa is a reference to how the Cham language was part of the Malayo-Polynesian language family that thoroughly spread across the Southeast Asian coasts and islands by the Cham's seafaring ancestors.