Colosseum Final 1
Colosseum Final 1 is the name Golden Sun gives to the first of the three series of puzzle-based stages that comprise the overall Colosso Finals. This first series is a mandatory affair for Isaac to complete successfully by defeating his opponent at the end in one-on-one battle, the opponent being the Colosso Gladiator Azart. Once successful, Isaac will move on to the next series of stages, the Colosseum Final 2 match, which is also required as a victory, and afterwards will move on to Colosseum Final 3 to conclude his participation in the overall finals.
General overview
This first series of puzzle-based stages is the shortest and most straightforward of the three Finals Matches that Isaac must compete in. It has four stages, and runs from left to right. Isaac's opponent is Azart, who will take one minute and five seconds to complete his side of the stages, exactly the amount of time you would take if you moved as fast as you can without any illegal assistance from your cheering Adept companions and going out of your way to collect all three treasure chests along the path, just like he will.
If you go through these stages as fast as possible with all shortcuts exploited and intentionally avoiding out-of-the-way chests, the quickest amount of time you can reach the end of the match is an astounding sixteen seconds. With this in mind, you should definitely take the time to take the contents of all the chests in this match because there is practically no risk of you arriving at the end too late. Successfully exploiting all the shortcuts here and opening all three chests in this match, you should make it to the end in under forty seconds.
The best setup for the four Adepts for this first Match is to arrange Djinn until Isaac is either in the Savage class or the Ninja class, and Ivan is in at least the Seer class so he can use the Growth Psynergy, and Mia is able to use the Douse Psynergy when equipped with the Douse Drop from Mogall Forest. Then, have Garet cheer in stage 1 and use his Move Psynergy, have Mia cheer in stage 2 and use her Douse Psynergy, and have Ivan cheer in stage 3 and use his Growth Psynergy.
At the arena at the end of the match, the equipment rewards are an Iron Shield (+20 Defense) for the combatant that arrives first and Padded Gloves (+2 Defense) for the later one. The one-on-one "boss" encounter with Azart begins when both you and he arrive at the central arena.
Stage 1: The Rock Challenge
The first stage of the first Finals stretch normally involves pushing a vertical earth pillar (not a rock pillar, contrary to the stage's name) into the gap to the lower right, so that the gap becomes small enough to hop across. Right as this Finals stretch begins, run towards the earth pillar and push it down two spaces, then push it to the right four spaces, and hop across the gap. It takes a minimum of twelve seconds to crossed the gap through this method.
A shortcut that can be created by a cheering Adept prior to the match's start is for one to cast the Move Psynergy on the earth pillar on the ground, and move it one space left, allowing for Isaac to run straight toward the gap and cross it with two quick hops. Garet is the only Adept that can make this shortcut, since he is the only Adept other than Isaac to have the Move Psynergy. This is an excellent shortcut because crossing the gap now can take not even two-and-a-half seconds.
Even if your cross the stage's gap through the long method, it is still recommended to spare three seconds to push the next earth pillar after the gap one space right so you can retrieve from the chest behind it a Nut, which is extremely useful in the one-on-one encounters with the Colosso Gladiators to come.
Stage 2: The Pipeworks
When you come across the second stage, the "normal" solution should present itself easily because it is based on a type of puzzle featured heavily in Mercury Lighthouse. Simply head behind the cylindrical pipe to the right and roll it to the left so that it will carry the water flow to the open receptacle on the lower left. When it is weighted down by the water, the small white platform at the bottom of the gap to the lower right will rise up and remain there, so you can hop across the gap and proceed to the next stage. This entire operation should take seven seconds.
The shortcut that this stage allows for is for an Adept in the cheering audience to cast the Douse Psynergy on the empty receptacle beforehand, so that Isaac does not have to push a pipe and can cross the gap to the next stage easily. The stage will now only use up three seconds of Isaac's time.
Stage 3: The Broken Bridge
The third stage is essentially a bridge that has two sections that open and close up like trap doors once every second each. You have to time your crossing of the bridge's trap doors so that you are not on top of one when it opens up, and you drop to the ground below. If you end up falling, you will have to run all the way to the left, and climb up the ladder leaning against the leftmost wooden bridge support in order to try crossing again. But on its own, crossing the bridge should come across as trivially easy.
If you're only trying to cross the bridge to get to the end of the match as fast as possible, then with good timing you would take between five and six seconds to make it to the end of the stage. At the end of the bridge is a stairway to a lengthy path that will lead to a chest containing an Oil Drop. The amount of time it would take to run all the way to the chest and then run all the way back to the end of the stage would add an additional seven seconds to the time elapsed on the stage.
This stage has an available shortcut as well. With it, you can reach the end of the stage in five seconds, but the main purpose of the shortcut is to place you near the stage's chest along the way. Have an Adept with the Growth Psynergy cast Growth on the plant on the ground to the lower left, which grows into a vine ladder Isaac can use to avoid the bridge entirely. (This can be achieved by giving Ivan one of Isaac's Venus Djinn so that Ivan will be in the Seer class series, and having him cheer here.) So, when Isaac gets to the stage, he immediately climbs the vine, goes up to get the chest, and rush to the stage's end in only seven seconds total. If you're playing this stage without the shortcut exploited, you generally would not want to spend the time going for the chest because Oil Drops are not anywhere near as important as Nuts in the Colosso battles, and the chests with the Nuts in stage 1 and the upcoming stage 4 are far worthier of your spare time.
Stage 4: The Lumber Water Crossing Area
This last stage of the first match can be extremely simple if you're just speeding through the stages to the end, since all you would have to do is ride the log to the left horizontally across the pool and exit the stage off the right, like you did in Fuchin Falls Cave. This would only take four seconds.
However, the main feature of this stage is an optional puzzle that allows you to get to a chest at the bottom of the ground portion containing a Nut. After riding the first log to the right, you would run up and around to a second log on top, and ride it down to the bottom, then exit off the bottom left and run clockwise around the pool back to the first log, then ride that back left, so you stop at the middle of the pool above a ladder down to a chest below. After getting the Nut, climb back up the ladder and ride the right log back to the right to the end stage. This puzzle takes an additional sixteen seconds at minimum.
This stage has no possible shortcuts that can be exploited with the help of cheering Adepts, so do not place an Adept here. However, it is generally recommended to complete the optional puzzle and earn the Nut in this stage in spite of the large amount of time used up; after all, your opponent Azart is going out of his way during his version of the course to open all treasure chests along the way, and he would be spending the additional sixteen seconds on his version of this puzzle too. If you either avoid the chest in stage 3 or exploit all shortcuts in previous stages and grab all the chests, you'll have enough surplus time to complete this puzzle safely within time constraints.
