Eclipse (summon)

"A dragon whose wings span the skies."

Eclipse (エクリプス, Eclipse) is a Summon of the Jupiter element first appearing in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Eclipse is one of fourteen summons that is not automatically available once the required Djinn are collected, but must be specifically acquired from a stone tablet containing the summon.

Basic Characteristics

Before Eclipse can be summoned, the player must first acquire the summon from a Summon Tablet. In The Lost Age, Eclipse's summon tablet is available as a prize for Lemuria's Spring, and is automatically given the first time the player's thrown Lucky Medal lands in the center of the spring's target. In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Eclipse is found in the highest room of Eclipse Tower in Belinsk. It is only available after the tower has been activated, and must be collected before the player leaves Belinsk on the sailing ship, or it is permanently lost. Because of its location in Dark Dawn, and the similarity of the name, it is unknown if there is a relation between the summon and the tower. However, even after retrieving the summon, the tower is still capable of using its power.

Eclipse's appearance in Dark Dawn

For a successful summoning of Eclipse, the player must have three Jupiter Djinn and two Mercury Djinn on Standby. Eclipse has a base Jupiter power of 300 and also does additional damage equivalent to 15% of the enemy's maximum HP. In addition, each enemy can have its Attack cut by 25%, and therefore its Attack rating can be cut down to a maximum of 50% with a second summoning of Eclipse. Afterwards, the summoner's Jupiter Power and Mercury Power will rise by 60 and 30 points, respectively.

In all its appearances, Eclipse's summon sequence features a titanic orange dragon above the world’s atmosphere launch a beam attack from its mouth onto the landscape below, engulfing the enemy and the rest of the landscape in a humongous explosion. However, in Dark Dawn, the dragon is a 3-D render rather than the sprite of The Lost Age.

Analysis

Eclipse can be considered one of the most useful summons. It does 125% of the damage that Thor does, while possessing the useful side-effect of lowering enemy Attack. Meanwhile, the total number of Djinn needed for the summon is only 1 more than Thor. Since the Djinn requirements are split between Mercury and Jupiter Djinn, it is possible to set up for multiple uses of Eclipse, easily. In addition, it is the strongest summon that does not require the player to fight a superboss (alongside the equally potent Crystallux in Dark Dawn). In both games, Eclipse is an excellent choice for late-game bosses and the superbosses. In The Lost Age, Eclipse works well against Moapa, Karst and Agatio atop Jupiter Lighthouse, and the game's final boss. In Dark Dawn, many end-game bosses have a significant weakness to Jupiter which makes Eclipse (alongside Thor and Catastrophe) an excellent choice when fighting the final boss and the optional superbosses.

Trivia

• Eclipse is technically the only permanently missable significant collectable in The Lost Age that isn't locked by password. If the player expends all Lucky Medals available to them (21 + how ever many were transferred from Golden Sun) without landing a medal in the center ring there is no way for the player to get Eclipse on that file.

• In Dark Dawn, ordinarily Eclipse is permanently lost after leaving Belisnk, however it is possible using out of bounds techniques to collect the summon much later on.

Cultural references

Origin: Worldwide

In several mythologies, eclipses were believed to be caused by dragons or other monsters devouring the sun and moon. One of these is the giant serpent named Apophis, from Egyptian mythology.

Extended Gallery

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  Eclipse separated sprite

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  Piece of animation from the GSDS Eclipse summon sequence