Ground

Ground
Ground's Djinn Guide entry from Dark Dawn
Element	Venus
Battle Effect	Quickly prevents one of the target's actions this turn
Set Bonuses
HP	+ 9
PP	+ 3
Agility	+ 3
Locations
Golden Sun *	Kalay Docks
Dark Dawn	Tanglewood (temporary)

Ground (ジー Jii) is a Venus Djinni found throughout the Golden Sun series.

Ground is the sixth 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 sixth Venus Djinni in The Lost Age, Ground is still ordered as the sixth 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 Ground and all other Venus Djinn from Golden Sun after all of the Djinn introduced in The Lost Age. According to this order, Ground is the seventeenth Venus Djinni in The Lost Age rather than the sixth, but this order has no influence elsewhere in the game.

In Dark Dawn, Ground appears as one of the "extra Djinn" in the Djinn Guide because of its temporary appearance in the earliest stage of the game.

Basic description

"Use gravity to hold a foe." ~Dark Dawn

When Set, Ground increases its Adept's base HP by 9, base PP by 3, and base Agility by 3.

When Ground is unleashed in battle, the user produces an effect that prevents the next one action that the target has not performed yet this turn from executing. If an enemy only has one action per turn, it will essentially be prevented from doing anything this turn, while an enemy that acts twice per turn will only act once. This effect has the "strikes first" property, meaning it will be the first performed action in a given turn regardless of the agility rating of the user and any other combatant in battle.

In Golden Sun and The Lost Age, Ground's unleash animation visually resembles the user summoning a glowing, transparent image of a Venus Djinni that hovers above the party and generates four spheres of static electricity, which gather into the base of the enemy. In Dark Dawn, the user summoning the 3D model of Ground, which then projects five electrically-charged energy spheres that suddenly gather into the target and encase it in a small, flat dome of thick, yellow electricity for a moment.

Locations

Ground is reached by entering Kalay Docks' north end after sailing across the Karagol Sea.

Golden Sun: Ground is located at the top end of Kalay Docks, and is visible to players entering Kalay Docks for the first time - it cannot be gotten until later in the game, though. It can only be reached once you've sailed across the Karagol Sea and made it to the other side in Gondowan. Then, by going east from the entrance to Altmiller Cave and traveling the stretch of land bordering the top of the Karagol Sea, reenter Kalay Docks from the top end, and you will be right next to the Djinni, waiting to be collected.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age: If players don't transfer data from Golden Sun to The Lost Age, Ground will not be among the Djinn Isaac's party has with them when they join forces with Felix's party late in the game. In this case, Ground may be found as the "make-up" Venus Djinni near the end of Treasure Isle.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Ground is one of the six Djinn that Isaac and Garet loan Matthew and Karis while in Tanglewood, meaning that the player may use it while exploring Tanglewood, the Abandoned Mine beyond that, and the Tangle Bloom boss fight at the end. After this, Ground and the other Djinn are permanently returned to Isaac and Garet for the rest of the game.

Analysis

General: Ground is one of several Djinn that can either nullify an enemy's action entirely or prevent one of a boss' multiple actions in a given turn. This can be potentially very useful, and specific applications are possible when this Djinni is combined with the other Djinn that has the same effect (so that even a boss' multiple actions can be negated in a turn).

By game

"Use gravity to hold a foe." ~Golden Sun

Golden Sun: Ground is the only effect that prevents an enemy's action entirely, and does so as the first action of a given turn when it is selected for use. This is different from the Stun status condition in several important ways: It always works, and it has the top priority of any move in a given turn so it will always hit first, but it will only negate one of an enemy's actions instead of preventing it from acting at all for potentially several entire turns. Depending on your class setup, this is a great command for a supporting Adept to use to partially prevent a boss from damaging the party (it probably isn't a good idea to have Isaac use it when he should be focusing on dealing damage, though).

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), Ground's ability makes it a second Petra, a Venus Djinni findable as soon as that party enters the Great Western Sea. Just like Ground, Petra should be quite useful if handled properly, and both Ground and Petra together are equally usable. One particularly great use of Ground or Petra is in the third and final stage of the final boss fight against Doom Dragon; the two moves Doom Dragon is allowed to use will almost always both be extremely powerful and deadly, so preventing one of them will be a huge help in surviving the end of the battle. Another especially under-appreciated use of this effect manifests in the start of the Star Magician battle; Ground and Petra sharing the same priority as the Guard Aura monster skill the Guardian Ball uses to make the Star Magician invulnerable with means that if the user of Ground/Petra has higher Agility than the Guardian Ball (though the Guardian Ball has one of the highest agility ratings in the game, with 292 agility; this problem can be solved beforehand with Vine/Mud), the user can outspeed the Guardian Ball and make it unable to use Guard Aura with Ground/Petra, thus ensuring that the other three Adepts this turn can fully and safely make use of the strongest summons all together. This Djinni can singlehandedly make a very tricky and challenging optional boss battle much more simple than otherwise possible, in other words.

When you have both Djinn in your collection, the two together can completely prevent any enemy that only acts once per turn from ever attacking. While Adept One uses one of the two Djinn to freeze the enemy, Adept Two re-Sets the other of the two Djinn that was used to freeze the enemy in the previous turn, and the next turn Adept Two does the freezing while Adept One resets his Djinni. Adepts Three and Four, in the meantime, are the fighters who safely deal damage. This alternating strategy can be infinitely performed to ensure complete safety for the Adepts throughout the battle (though of course the battle would be a lot longer and more tedious this way). This is not as insanely helpful against any boss that can act more than one turn, though, since its second attack will not be prevented - and the reason this strategy never caught on is that none of the bosses following the reunion act only once per turn to begin with.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: In the short period of time Ground is available to Matthew and Karis in Tanglewood and the Abandoned Mine, Ground is essentially a useless effect because there is no threat from any of the enemies' actions to begin with. The Set Adept's turn is best off doing something offensive to defeat the enemy outright rather than keep an enemy "pinned down" for no real purpose. The only purpose to Unleashing it is to put it on Standby for a summon like Cybele. In the main game, the Jupiter Djinni Doldrum and the Venus Djinni Ivy are identical to Ground in function.

Name Origin

The words ground and earth are used fairly interchangeably (except when referring to the planet Earth). Jii is the Japanese word meaning ground or earth, making these names synonymous.

To ground something also means to restrict its movement to the ground, such as an airplane or electricity, making the English name a pun that also describes its effect.