Lucky Wheels

The Lucky Wheels minigame in progress.

Lucky Wheels is a minigame playable in both Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. It is located in Tolbi (above the inn) in the first game and Contigo in the second, and it is played using the Game Tickets your party can amass through extensive shopping. It is essentially the main purpose of your Game Tickets and is effectively where players of either game get most of their Boots, Shirt, and Ring artifacts from.

Rules

Lucky Wheels work in much the same way a slot machine does. The player bets up to 4 tickets. Betting one ticket allows the player to score only on the middle row, betting two tickets scores on the middle three rows, betting three tickets scores on five rows, and betting four scores on all rows and the diagonals.

After the player has bet, the lever is pulled and the wheels spin. The player can let them stop spinning on their own or press the R button to stop them. When they stop, the player decides which slots to hold. Slots that are held do not spin when the lever is pulled next. The player has 5 spins in which to score. With this in mind, the player must match up the symbols that correspond to the prize he or she wants in a row.

Symbols

There are 6 different symbols on each wheel, which correspond to the prize they yield:

Hearts award health-restoring items:

Nut: Restores 200HP. Can be bought for 200 coins and sold for 150 coins.

Vial: Restores 500HP. Can be bought for 500 coins and sold for 375 coins.

Potion: Restores all HP to one party member. Can be bought for 1000 coins and sold for 750 coins.

Stars award items to use in battle:

Elixir: Cures Sleep, Stun, and Delusion, and all other conditions that disappear after a battle. Can be bought for 30 coins and sold for 22 coins.

Psy Crystal: Fully restores a party member's PP. Can be bought for 1500 coins and sold for 1125 coins.

Water of Life: Revives a downed ally and restores 100% health. Can be bought for 3000 coins and sold for 2250 coins.

Boots award one of the following 3 boots:

Fur Boots: An Artifact that increases base Defense by 2 and Mercury resistance by 15. Its buy value is 1200 coins and its sell value is 900.

Quick Boots: An Artifact that increases base Defense by 3 and base Agility by 20. Its buy value is 2100 coins and its sell value is 1575.

Hyper Boots: An Artifact that increases base Defense by 4 and adds 12% to the Unleash rate of weapons. Its buy value is 2400 coins and its sell value is 1800.

Shirts award one of the following 3 shirts:

Running Shirt: An Artifact that increases base Defense by 1 and base Agility by 15. Its buy value is 400 coins and its sell value is 300.

Silk Shirt: An Artifact for female Adepts only that increases base Defense by 6 and base Luck by 1. Its buy value is 1800 coins and its sell value is 1350.

Mythril Shirt: An Artifact that increases base Defense by 10 and base HP by 5. Its buy value is 2900 coins and its sell value is 2175.

Rings award one of the following 3 rings:

Sleep Ring: An Artifact that does not provide any effects whether it is equipped or not. Rather, it can be used as an item while in the inventory of an Adept that is able to equip it (but it does not necessarily have to be actually equipped) to attempt to afflict multiple enemies with the Sleep status effect in battle, though there is a chance its functionality as a Usable item will break and it will have to be repaired to reuse its Use effect. Its buy value is 1400 coins and its sell value is 1050 coins, its sell value while broken is 700, and its repair value is 350.

War Ring: An Artifact that does not provide any effects whether it is equipped or not. Rather, it can be used as an item while in the inventory of an Adept that is able to equip it (but it does not necessarily have to be actually equipped) to increase an Adept's Attack rating by 25% in battle, though there is a chance its functionality as a Usable item will break and it will have to be repaired to reuse its Use effect. Its buy value is 2600 coins and its sell value is 1950 coins, its sell value while broken is 1300, and its repair value is 650.

Adept Ring: An Artifact that does not provide any effects whether it is equipped or not. Rather, it can be used as an item while in the inventory of an Adept that is able to equip it (but it does not necessarily have to be actually equipped) to restore 7PP (to any Adept outside of battle, though during battle the Adept that has this item can only use this ring on himself), though there is a chance its functionality as a Usable item will break and it will have to be repaired to reuse its Use effect. Its buy value is 3100 coins and its sell value is 2325 coins, its sell value while broken is 1550, and its repair value is 775.

Moon symbols are "wild cards" that can be matched with any other symbol.

Notes

It should be noted that it is impossible to receive the same prize of a category from the slots twice in a row. For example, if you are farming War Rings, and you reset every time you get a ring that isn't a War Ring, you will literally never get another War Ring. You must receive at least one Adept or Sleep Ring before you can get another War Ring. This applies to healing and combat items, shirts, and boots, as well. So your farming pattern would be:

War Ring -> Adept/Sleep Ring -> War Ring -> Adept/Sleep Ring -> etc.

Additionally, the first prize you get will never be the 'best' prize possible. You will never receive Hyper Boots, an Adept Ring, a Mythril Shirt, Water of Life, or a Potion the first time you receive a prize from that item category. You must receive at least one 'lesser' prize before you can receive the 'best' prize. So, the prizes will be:

Row 4 wins a Ring-class item, and in this case the lower-left-to-upper-right diagonal also wins a Shirt-class item. Both items will be rewarded after this game.

War/Sleep Ring -> Adept Ring/ring not received -> War Ring/ring not received -> etc.

Also, it appears that when more of a specific image is matched in a row, a better prize is awarded. Matching 4 boots and 1 moon yields a better prize than matching 1 boot and 4 moons. The wheels are also randomized every time it is played.

It is possible to get two matches at the same time, as demonstrated by the pictured image. Getting three or more items is extremely unlikely, though.

When your party's inventory is within six items of being completely filled, the lady at the counter will warn you, saying any prizes won may not be able to be taken with you. She confirms whether it is okay to proceed with the game - if you say no, she will tell you to get rid of some items and return again. If your inventory is completely full, she will warn you again saying you cannot carry any more items. If you win any prizes, the game will prompt you to drop an item to replace with the prize, but you can refuse the prize entirely.