Magic Shell Psynergy series

Magic Shield being cast in Dark Dawn

Magic Shell (いっしんめっきゃく, Single-minded Clarity) and Magic Shield (しんとうめっきゃく, Wholehearted Clarity) make up a series of Jupiter-aligned Support Psynergy found throughout the Golden Sun series. They are functionally identical to the Ward Psynergy series.

Basic Description

Magic Shell is a single-target Psynergy, that can be targeted on any currently-battling member of the party that is not currently downed. Magic Shield is similar, but affects all non-downed active party members.

Magic Shell

Jupiter

3 PP

"Boost Elemental Resistance." (GS-TLA) "Boost Resistance with a psychic field." (DD-present)

Raise the Resistance of one ally by 40 points.

Magic Shield

Jupiter

5 PP

"Boost Elemental Resistance." (GS-TLA) "Boost party Resistance with psychic shields." (DD-present)

Raise the Resistance of all actively-battling allies by 20 points.

In Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Magic Shell's visual effects show purple balls of energy entering the targeted Adept; a purple shield then appears to show the rise in Resistance. Magic Shield has an identical visual multiplied by the four battling Adepts. In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Magic Shell shows symbols with a purple aura appearing and entering the targeted Adept. A round, purple shield forms to show the rise in Resistance. Magic Shell multiplies this effect by each battling party member.

Mechanics

In the Golden Sun series, Elemental Resistance can be raised to a maximum of 80 points. This means that Magic Shell can be cast a maximum of two times on the same Adept in the same time period, while Magic Shield can be used four times. The effects of Magic Shell an are only temporary, however, repeated re-castings can keep the Elemental Resistance-bonus from wearing off. Otherwise, the effects of Magic Shell and Magic Shield are reverted when the affected Adept is downed or switched out, or is targeted by the Break Psynergy. It should be noted that raising Resistance via Magic Shell or Magic Shield will affect the Resistance level for all four elements. It should be noted that an Adept may only have up to 200 points of Resistance to any element. If an Adept has a resistance of 120 or more, the Adept may hit this limit with multiple castings.

Availability

Magic Shell and Magic Shield are exclusive to the Samurai class series, available to all Venus and Mars Adepts, with the exception of Himi. Venus Adepts require large numbers of Mars Djinn and Jupiter Djinn to access the class, while Mars Adepts require large numbers of Venus Djinn and Jupiter Djinn. Magic Shell will be available at Level 10, while Magic Shield is available at Level 27.

Analysis

Raising Resistance is an excellent tool for more battles, as nearly all elementally aligned Attacks include Elemental Resistance in their damage calculations. However, such boosts are limited and can wear off within a few turns, resulting in a waste of a turn and PP. Despite this, such techniques can be highly useful.

Magic Shell and Magic Shield are functionally identical to the Ward series, barring a difference in the Levels each series is learned at. The series's low PP cost means that it will have a low impact on the Samurai's PP. In Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age, many bosses have the Break Psynergy, which make it difficult to raise Resistance for any significant length of time. Magic Shell and Magic Shield are best used against bosses like the Star Magician, who rely heavily on Elemental Power-based techniques. However, it should be noted that Ward and Resist, the Magic Shell series' counterpart, is more widely available to support-based classes like the Ranger class series, and can be used more effectively than by them as opposed to the offensively oriented Samurai.