Magma Rock

Magma Rock lies in the heart of southern Gondowan and can be reached from the Western Sea late in The Lost Age.

Magma Rock (マグマロック, Magma Rock) is a dungeon-like location in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Located in the southern part of Gondowan on the west side of the thick river separating it from the nearby village of Kibombo, it is the next-to-last mandatory dungeon and can only be reached once Felix's party has been expanded very late in the game. Similar to the other three "Elemental Rock" dungeons, this is a particularly long and involved dungeon themed after the element of Mars and will ultimately teach the Mars Adept Jenna the Blaze utility Psynergy. Additionally, the important Magma Ball item needed to reach the northernmost part of the overworld, where the final dungeon Mars Lighthouse lies, can be found in Magma Rock.

Walkthrough

The true "dungeon" of Magma Rock begins by climbing the cliff ladders above the "front entrance," which functionally amounts to a base-level exit.

Magma Rock is a mandatory major dungeon visited very late in The Lost Age, and its length comes somewhat close to the notorious Air's Rock explored early in the game, featuring a similar setup where you must climb up several screens worth of exterior space before descending through multiple floors inside the dungeon itself. It is one of the Elemental Rocks, making it a highly involved puzzle-filled maze of a dungeon that will eventually reward you with a new Utility Psynergy for one of your party members: Blaze, which Jenna can use in the upcoming Mars Lighthouse dungeon. The most commonly used utility Psynergy used to solve puzzles in Magma Rock is the Burst Psynergy, so setting that to a shoulder button shortcut is recommended.

Magma Rock's location on the world map can be reached as soon as Felix's party sails into the Western Sea later in the game; sail into the river east of the southeast tip of the island continent of Atteka and you will sail up a thick river through the center of southern Gondowan, where you can disembark northwest of Kibombo's location on the world map. Magma Rock is a short ways north, though you can detour farther northwest to find Gondowan Settlement. However, a round boulder that immediately blocks your way can only be surmounted after completing the Jupiter Lighthouse episode and expanding Felix's party with Isaac's party from the first Golden Sun; they will bring with them the previous game's Lift Psynergy.

Exterior climb

Battling monsters on the exterior portion of Magma Rock

Once you have Isaac's party added to your roster, use the Lift Psynergy on the round boulder to make it float, and climb up to the little black entrance. It leads to a small area where a chest waiting for you turns out to be a Mimic, which drops one of the game's Apples when defeated. This screen can only be progressed through after descending downstairs from the dungeon above, so step back outside and climb the cliff ladders surrounding the black entrance to begin the climb up through the exterior portion of Magma Rock.

Head right and climb up to the small moai facing left, and cast Burst on it to have it fire a destructive projectile at the cracked post left of it to remove it. Climb up to where the cracked post was and move the earth pillar left onto its gray tile, then climb up further, and then slide down a cliff slide to your left. Cast Burst on the small moai you land near and then quickly climb up the ladder and hop onto its head so that the moai propels the platform composing its scalp up using an upward jet of lava, and hop left. Follow along until you push an earth pillar at the top edge of the screen right onto its gray tile, then climb up into the next screen.

You are now at the southeast part of a large, maze-like exterior screen composed of red cliffs. Head east and climb back down to get an Oil Drop from a chest in the previous screen, then climb up and have a moai shoot a Burst projectile west to destroy a cracked post. Change your class if necessary to grant yourself the Growth Psynergy and use it to turn the rightmost shrub into an ivy ladder, then climb up and slide down a cliff slide and have another moai shoot a Burst projectile at another cracked post. Slide all the way back down and cast Growth on the bottom shrub, then set off another moai that will propel you upward and hop left. Move the earth pillar four tiles west onto a gray tile to clear the east half of this screen.

Exploring the upper reaches of the exterior screens of Magma Rock.

In the west half of the cliff maze screen, when you reach four cliff slides, slide down the second one from the right to open a chest and collect 383 Coins. Slide down it and set off a moai head whose scalp will send you back upward to the level with the four cliff slides. Now slide down the second cliff slide from the left, cast Lash on the coiled rope, and climb it left to another timed moai head. Set it off with Burst, and in the limited time you have before it blows its top upward, you can slide down either cliff slide and climb up to its scalp. Follow along and move an earth pillar right onto its gray tile, then climb up the cliff ladder further to the right of that into the next exterior screen.

In the next exterior screen with the visible landscape background, you should have ended up climbing onto a ledge left of a cracked post blocking your way straight up. Hop left and pass left under a moai facing right, and climb up a small cliff ladder just past a tightrope overhead and cast the Move Psynergy to move an earth pillar one tile right. Retrace your steps east of the moai and climb up two small cliff ladders, then hop left three times onto the earth pillar and then hop right to make the left cracked post crumble underneath you. Cast Burst on the right-facing moai head to destroy the cracked post that prevented you from going up originally, then walk west across the tightrope, climb down, and return east to under where that post was and now climb up through its area. You will push an earth pillar two tiles east onto a gray tile and then exit into another exterior screen to the east.

Casting Burst on small moai heads so that they shoot "Burst projectiles" at other important targets is a key mechanic of puzzles throughout all of Magma Rock.

Now in an exterior screen where the landscape is still visible, climb up the short cliff ladder right next to your start position. Before beginning a climb up a long cliff where moai heads are tossing Burst projectiles between each other, climb down two southeast cliff ladders back down to the screen below, run west past the earth pillar (you can move it right onto its tile if you wish to make a retroactive shortcut, but you probably won't make use of it), and find a chest containing one of the only two Salamander Tails in the game that aren't randomly dropped by endgame-level monsters. Retrace your steps back up to the cliff wall and now climb it while dodging the Burst projectiles being tossed back and forth.

At the final screen atop Magma Rock's exterior, head east and ignore the cliff ladder and cliff slide near each other because they lead back down to a part of the previous screen that only exists to create a shortcut leading back to this upper screen. Climb a cliff ladder and wrap clockwise around a giant, fiery stone in front of a cracked wall, and climb down to a left-facing moai and have it shoot a Burst projectile left at the fiery stone to make it explode. Enter the large, gaping black entrance to enter the top floor of Magma Rock's multi-floor interior.

Interior descent: Upper main floor

Each of the three primary "puzzle floors" inside Magma Rock are centered on having small moai statues shoot Burst bullets at giant moai heads that fill the floors with lava.

Follow along the linear route north, then back south, until you step into a main chamber with a small moai head to your left pointed left at a giant moai head. Cast Burst to shoot a Burst bullet at the giant head to fill the entire floor with lava. (Incidentally, if this is a game file in which Isaac's party joined Felix's with any of the first Golden Sun game's seven Mars Djinn missing from their Djinn collections, one of the missing Mars Djinn will be placed to the south, near the "lava dam.") Head back up north and hop on the now-floating white platform tile moving in a clockwise, angular fashion so that you can jump onto the ledge to the left.

Follow along northwest and down into a fork, and go left instead of down. At the fork following that, go right instead of down. Pass south through a door back into the lava-filled main chamber, then go south into the exit immediately underneath you to find a chest with a Lucky Medal. Head southeast and step on the floor switch to open the lava dam and remove the lava, then climb down into the area with the pillars. You can move the central pillar down south all the way north onto the indentation in the ground to complete a shortcut, but you can already head into the tall black exit east of the giant moai head and follow along until you go downstairs into the next floor. (Note the blue, arrow-like wall ornament pointing down at it; each of the next two floors mark their exit stairwells in this manner.)

Middle main floor

Each of the puzzle floors also forces you to empty the lava by opening lava dams, letting you explore the exposed space and set elements up for when you next flood the floors with lava.

You step down into the top end of the second of Magma Rock's three interior floors worth of puzzle rooms. Do not shoot a burst bullet into the giant moai head to your left yet; instead, climb straight down into the lower floor and walk under the tightrope and follow along southwest until you find a branch where you can exit either out of the tall exit above you or the exit south of you. Take the south branch and follow along until you reach and battle the Mars Djinni, Fury. Once you have added that to your collection, go back and take the top branch, and move a yellow-tipped pillar south onto the indentation in the ground.

Return to the giant moai head and have the small moai head shoot a Burst bullet at it to fill the floor with lava. Head east and hop west onto the part of the lava dam with the floor switch, but be careful not to step on it as you walk left across the dam and walk the tightrope west. Head down into the lava-filled room and ride the moving white tile platform to the chest visible to your right, which contains a Mist Potion. Use the yellow-tipped platform you moved earlier to hop southwest and get to the room where you fought Fury, and run east so you can hop to the platform as it floats east. Follow along northeast to an area with rocks and lava on both sides of you, and you can easily Burst the two cracked posts without even needing to use the moai head to your upper left. Ride the rotating white tile platform to your right to the right ledge.

Head back north and step on the floor switch to open the lava dam and empty out the lava from this floor. Climb down to the lower part of the floor using either of the wall ladders flanking the giant moai head, head south under the tightrope, climb up the wall ladder right of the small moai head facing east, and climb down the wall ladder east of that to enter the blue-marked stairwell leading down to the third main puzzle floor.

Lower main floor

You step down somewhere at the center-east edge of the complex of rooms making up the third and final "main puzzle-room floor" of Magma Rock's interior. Climb down the wall ladder just to your right and follow along south and back north, and head west past the small black door to reach the giant moai head and shoot a Burst bullet at it from the east. With the floor filled with lava, ride the sequence of white tile platforms all the way west across the lava in this main chamber, then follow along southwest until you get to dangling chains. Ignore them until you press on the floor switch at the lava dam room southwest of them, then cast Whirlwind to swing east across them. Climb down and enter the tall doorway between the two dangling chains, then at the next branch, head east and climb up to get the other Salamander Tail in a chest.

Battling enemies inside Magma Rock's interior portion.

Head back north into the main chamber's lower level, and push the three yellow-tipped pillars onto their respective indentations on the ground. Head to the far east end and through the tall doorway above to reach a chest containing the Golem Core. Then, return and step out through the southeast exit so you can push another yellow-tipped pillar onto the indentation just to the right of it, then climb the wall ladder you just opened up and head back through the small doorway right of it so you can get back to the giant moai head and flood the floor with lava again.

Hop across the sequence of rotating platforms west through the lava-filled main chamber again, but this time, hop south across the three yellow-tipped pillars you moved into place earlier. You will end up in a fairly long and winding linear route in a southeastern direction, and you will eventually end up at the southeast corner of the floor, where you can push a yellow-tipped pillar two tiles west into the lava near the blue arrow indicating where the exit stairs are currently submerged. Proceed back northwest from the yellow tile and head north through several small doorways until you step on the floor's northeast lava dam switch to empty the lava one last time. Retrace your steps back to the yellow-tipped pillar you had just moved and hop left from it to reach the downstairs stairwell marked by the blue arrow.

Base-level floor

Jenna is delighted when she finally receives a Psynergy of her own from Magma Rock: the Blaze Psynergy.

You finally step into the room where you had originally fought the Mimic for its Apple. Push the yellow-tipped pillar and hop left from it. As you head into the next lava-filled room full of stationary platforms, you will witness a volcanic eruption that will deposit obstacles onto the platform, and the game's camera will make it a point to focus on one particular burning red rock that appears.

Hop along the platforms counter-clockwise and head up through the north doorway, and follow along into the special chamber containing the tablet that will imbue Jenna with the Blaze Utility Psynergy. Since the floating tiles will have disappeared behind you, hop across the floating tiles to your left to an island with one burning flame, and cast Blaze on it while standing left of it to shoot out a jet of fire that lights up the green floor fixture on the other end. This makes a pillar sink into the ground so that you can take the remaining floating platforms back out of the special chamber.

Retrace your steps all the way back to the point where you originally witnessed the eruption. Cast Blaze on the lower left flame so that a flame jet lights the lower-right fixture on the ground in front of another yellow pillar, then cast Blaze on the new flame to light up the green fixture left of that. This opens up a doorway letting you wind around to where you can hop to the burning red rock that was noted earlier; interact with it to gain the Magma Ball rare item. You are now finished with the dungeon, so you can either head south through Magma Rock's base-level exit or use Retreat to leave.

The Magma Ball must be used on the Cannon in Loho further north on the world map, in Angara, to have the cannon installed on the party's ship and allow it to cross into the final part of the game at the Northern Reaches.

Enemies

The exterior portion of Magma Rock features a bestiary that is expanded as the party transitions into the interior portion.

Bestiary of Magma Rock (Exterior)
Monster Name	LVL	HP	ATK	DEF	AGI	EXP	Coins	Weakness	Drop	Drop Rate
Lich	33	187	305	81	146	401	330		Psy Crystal	1/128
Little Death	33	222	335	108	191	420	273		Hiotoko Mask	1/64
Phoenix	33	281	344	112	243	3750	286		Water of Life	1/64
Raging Rock	33	186	312	180	173	401	209		Vial	1/32
Wise Gryphon	34	297	367	111	215	487	320		Psy Crystal	1/64

Bestiary of Magma Rock (Interior)
Monster Name	LVL	HP	ATK	DEF	AGI	EXP	Coins	Weakness	Drop	Drop Rate
Grand Chimera	34	313	336	109	168	396	300		Mist Potion	1/64
Lesser Demon	34	410	374	119	178	511	304		Rune Blade	1/128
Lich	33	187	305	81	146	401	330		Psy Crystal	1/128
Little Death	33	222	335	108	191	420	273		Hiotoko Mask	1/64
Phoenix	33	281	344	112	243	3750	286		Water of Life	1/64
Raging Rock	33	186	312	180	173	401	209		Vial	1/32
Wise Gryphon	34	297	367	111	215	487	320		Psy Crystal	1/64
Mars Djinni (Fury) (unique)	33	890	280	86	247	1041	681			N/A
Mimic (unique)	358	936	364	114	210	1500	726		Apple	1/1

Enemy Formations

• Group 1: Raging Rock x1-3
• Group 2: Wise Gryphon x1, Raging Rock x0-2
• Group 3: Lich x1, Wise Gryphon x0-1
• Group 4: Little Death x1, Lich x0-2
• Group 5: Phoenix x1, Little Death x0-1, Lich x0-1
• Group 6: Phoenix x1-2
• Group 7: Lesser Demon x1-2, Little Death x0-1
• Group 8: Grand Chimera x1-2

Collectables

These can be found in the dungeon's exterior portion:

An internal volcanic eruption will generate the Magma Ball, an item necessary for reaching the final stages of the game.

• 383 Coins: In a chest at the lower part of the lower of the two left screens. Use the second slide from the right to obtain this.
  
• Oil Drop: In a chest in the top-right-most corner of the first main screen, reached only by climbing down from the screen above.
  
• Salamander Tail: In a chest in the top-right corner of the lower of the two "left" screens, reached from the screen to the right of that.

These can be found in the dungeon's interior portion, and are divided by their three main floors. These can be found in the first floor from the top:

• A Mars Djinni may be found here at the lava gate, depending on whether Isaac's party has joined Felix with less than all 7 of the first Golden Sun game's Mars Djinn in his party's inventory. This will be one of the missing Mars Djinn from the first game making a reappearance for the party in The Lost Age to collect.
• Lucky Medal: In a chest in the first floor's general southwest area.

In the second floor from the top:

• Fury: A Mars Djinni that is found at the left end of the "bottom hall" of this floor. It can only be reached while the lava level is lowered.
• Mist Potion: In a chest in a room that, when filled with lava, has a single platform floating across it in a circle, which is how this chest would be reached.

In the third floor from the top, which is one floor above the "ground-level floor":

• Golem Core: In a chest in the top-right room, reachable only while the lava level is lowered (since it would be submerged in lava otherwise).
  
• Salamander Tail: In a chest in a room more-to-the-center that, when filled with lava, has a single platform floating across it in a circle, which is how this chest can be reached. However, when the lava is down, it can also be reached by climbing up a ladder.
  

Finally, at the default "ground-level floor" which one can technically enter from the exterior's "main entrance", but which can only be properly explored by entering from the interior floor above:

• Blaze: This Psynergy spell is the "ultimate goal" of this dungeon the same way the other Elemental Rock dungeons have had Psynergy spells at the end of them as mandatory rewards. Investigate the stone tablet and Jenna learns this Psynergy through a cutscene.
• Magma Ball: In the volcanic room where a "cutscene" shows a burning red rock bring spouted out onto one of the platforms, investigate the rock, choose that you want to retrieve it and you get this item, which is required to progress following Magma Rock.

History

Spoiler warning: The following section(s) contain plot details that some people may not wish to learn before reaching this point in the game on their own.

Magma Rock is the Elemental Rock of Fire, just like Air's Rock, Aqua Rock, and Gaia Rock. If the local folklore of Air's Rock presumes correctly that it has stood on the world since its beginning, then it can be assumed that Magma Rock has similar origins. The mountain is very much an active volcano, and it is constantly making noisy internal eruptions heard by the people of the nearby Kibombo tribe. These explosions are known to form portable Magma Balls.

Magma Rock is also much like the other Elemental Rocks in that it features an ancient labyrinth populated by moai spouting the element associated with the mountain itself. It is not known who or what created these complexes during the world's ancient past.

Geographically, the Kibombo tribe's settlement lies southeast of the mountain across a river that is currently overflowing and abnormally thick by the time The Lost Age takes place. The villagers describe the mountain as the "rocky peaks at the belly of the continent", and their legends hold that it hides a "great treasure" of some sort. This hearsay is what spurs Kibombo's warriors to head north and try to investigate Magma Rock whenever the local rains let up for the year, but they never find any of the purported treasure. The previous witch doctor of Kibombo, Oeia, claimed to the villagers that the "magic" wielded by Kibombo's leaders is deeply tied to the "belly of the continent", suggesting he was aware that the village's proximity to Magma Rock was the source of the magic demonstrated by both himself and his successor to the office of witch doctor, Akafubu. It can be reasonably speculated that both are Mars Adepts in particular.

A small family living in their own residence a short ways northwest of Magma Rock are apparently aware of the legends of treasure within the mountain, but they are given to warning travelers not to attempt to climb the mountain themselves in search of it. They believe it to be "cursed" because "even the warriors who survive to make it back do so by the skin of their teeth."

Late in The Lost Age, Felix and Isaac's combined party of Adepts successfully make the climb onto Magma Rock and descend into its magma-filled depths, solving its volcanic riddles like Felix's party had previously stripped the other three Elemental Rocks clean in his quest for expanded Psynergy. An ancient tablet within the deepest chamber of the internal complex is engraved with the following message:

Wielder of Flame's strength, Lay your hands upon this stone.

If th'art worthy, I will grant thee the power to Blaze with fire.

Jenna, glad to have finally found the Elemental Rock tablet for her own element after the other three Rock dungeons gave special abilities to her friends, is magically imbued with the ability to manipulate standing fire. The party also retrieves one of the leftover Magma Balls for themselves on their way out. This allows them to make use of the ancient Cannon recently unearthed at the village of Loho further north, which is what ultimately allows the party to breach the remote Northern Reaches and reach the final destination on their quest, Mars Lighthouse.

Spoilers end here.Those who did not want the plot ruined for them may now continue reading as normal.

Trivia

• Magma Rock is likely based off of the volcanic Virunga Mountains of the Congo, a western branch of the East African Rift Valley.
• Throughout every interior floor of Magma Rock, every small, sideways-facing small moai head that is placed at the bottom of a ledge can be activated by casting Burst upward at it while standing directly underneath it on the lower level of the current floor. Burst is not supposed to reach the small statue from underneath it, but it does because of a programming oversight, and it allows Felix to walk around in the part of the floor that is supposed to be submerged in lava. He will appear as if he were "walking on lava", and since the collision detection that prevents the party from climbing into the lava in normal play will also prevent the party from climbing back up to solid land, the party will now be stuck until you cast Retreat.
  • If this is done in the upper, first puzzle floor in particular, it is possible to walk through the lava through the tall door just right of the two moai heads and walk into the submerged staircase under the blue arrow marker. Felix will emerge into a perfectly lava-free version of the the second puzzle-room floor below like in normal play.