Summon

Summons are among the most well known and most powerful abilities in the Golden Sun series. A summon allows the player to call upon a powerful spirit to assist them in battle.

Mechanics

Official art depicting the Procne summon

Like Psynergy and Unleashes, Summons are aligned with one of the four elements: Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. Unlike Psynergy, Summons can not be used at will. Instead, the summon is fueled by the usage of Djinn that have been placed in Standby mode. Typically, the element of most of the necessary Djinn will match the elemental alignment of the summon, though some summons also require Djinn of other elements as well. The power of a summon generally correlates with the amount of Djinn needed to fuel the summon. After a Djinni has been used to fuel a summon, it will enter Recovery for a set period of time. Further summons require that the player return Djinn to standby mode.

Each summon, with the exception of the healing summon Coatlicue, has a specific base damage associated with it. However, the total damage potential of a summon also depends on the elemental Power of the summoner and the elemental Resistance and maximum Hit Points of the targets. Summons typically have an unlimited range with unequal damage distribution.

After a successful summon, the elemental power of the summoner will be increased by a specified amount. The amount of increase depends on the number and element of the Djinn used to fuel the summon. Typically, using 1 Djinn of an element will increase the matching Elemental Power by 10, 2 Djinn result in a 30 point increase, 3 Djinn result in a 60 point increase, and 4 or more result in a 100 point increase. However, Adepts can only have one such buff per element at a time, so buffs from multiple Summons will not stack. However, more potent Elemental Power buffs can override weaker ones.

Djinn are selected to be used for Summons in the same order as the order they were put on Standby. For instance, if the player were to summon Thor, which requires 4 Jupiter Djinn, and there were 6 Jupiter Djinn on Standby, the 4 Djinn who were put on Standby earliest (either by being unleashed in battle or by being manually put on Standby out of battle) would be used for the Summon and then put into recovery, while the 2 Djinn who were more recently put on Standby would not be used.

In every game, Summons may be selected even if at the time of selecting there are insufficient Djinn on Standby in order to perform the summon; if other party members unleash the requisite Djinn before the summoner acts - either by having higher Agility or using a Djinni which acts first in the turn - the Summon can still be performed. Additionally, Dark Dawn adds a new feature where any Adept who selects a Summon whose requirements are not yet satisfied will automatically delay their own action during the turn until after the Summon's Djinn requirements have been met, whenever possible, making it easier to use a Summon on the same turn as its Djinn are prepared.

Damage Calculation

Any offensive Summon's damage output is similar to the damage output of an area-of-effect Psynergy; the central target will take an amount of base damage uniquely assigned to the Summon, plus an amount of extra damage equal to a percentage of the target's total HP. This percentage is also uniquely assigned to the Summon. The outcome of this damage will then be raised or lowered depending on whether the caster's Elemental Power for the Summon's element is higher or lower than the target's Resistance for that element. If the user has 20 more Power than the target's marching Resistance value, the Summon would be 10% more damaging to that target. If the target has 30 more Resistance than the user's matching Power value, the Summon would only be 85% as damaging to that target because it would be 15% less damaging.

The same hit will also be dealt to every other enemy on the target's side, but the effective damage output on a given enemy will be cut down proportionally to how many positions away from the target's position that enemy is, just like any area-of-effect Psynergy. However, while the aforementioned Psynergies deal 80% of their overall force to each enemy one position away from the selected target, 60% of their overall force to each enemy two positions away, and then 40%, 20%, and 10%, Summons hit enemies off to the side of the selected target more weakly. The percentages are 70%, 40%, 30%, 20%, and 10%, respectively.

List of summons

In Golden Sun

Golden Sun features a total of sixteen summons, with each element having four summons. These summons use one to four Djinn of a single element and are available as soon as the party has enough Djinn to use them. However, these summons have no secondary effects.

Name	Djinn Required	Base Damage	HP Multiplier	Power Boost
Venus	1 Venus	30 (Venus)	0.03	10 Venus
Ramses	2 Venus	60 (Venus)	0.06	30 Venus
Cybele	3 Venus	120 (Venus)	0.09	60 Venus
Judgment	4 Venus	240 (Venus)	0.12	100 Venus
Mars	1 Mars	30 (Mars)	0.03	10 Mars
Kirin	2 Mars	60 (Mars)	0.06	30 Mars
Tiamat	3 Mars	120 (Mars)	0.09	60 Mars
Meteor	4 Mars	240 (Mars)	0.12	100 Mars
Jupiter	1 Jupiter	30 (Jupiter)	0.03	10 Jupiter
Atalanta	2 Jupiter	60 (Jupiter)	0.06	30 Jupiter
Procne	3 Jupiter	120 (Jupiter)	0.09	60 Jupiter
Thor	4 Jupiter	240 (Jupiter)	0.12	100 Jupiter
Mercury	1 Mercury	30 (Mercury)	0.03	10 Mercury
Nereid	2 Mercury	60 (Mercury)	0.06	30 Mercury
Neptune	3 Mercury	120 (Mercury)	0.09	60 Mercury
Boreas	4 Mercury	240 (Mercury)	0.12	100 Mercury

In The Lost Age

Golden Sun: The Lost Age includes the sixteen regular summons from Golden Sun. However, the game also introduced thirteen new summons, which needed to be specifically acquired by encountering special stone tablets. These summons use Djinn of two different elements and each summon has a special secondary effect. Furthermore, 4 of these thirteen summons can only be acquired after defeating a special superboss.

Name	Djinn Required	Base Damage	HP Multiplier	Power Boost	Special Effect
Zagan	1 Venus 1 Mars	50 (Venus)	0.06	10 Venus 10 Mars	May lower enemy defense by 25% (maximum reduction is 50%).
Megaera	1 Mars 1 Jupiter	40 (Mars)	0.06	10 Mars 10 Jupiter	Increases all allies' attack ratings by 12.5% (maximum increase is 50%).
Flora	1 Venus 2 Jupiter	80 (Jupiter)	0.09	10 Venus 30 Jupiter	May inflict Sleep.
Moloch	2 Mercury 1 Jupiter	100 (Mercury)	0.09	30 Mercury 10 Jupiter	Lowers enemy agility by 50% (maximum reduction is 50%).
Ulysses	2 Mars 2 Mercury	160 (Mars)	0.12	30 Mars 30 Mercury	May cause targets to lose their turns.
Haures	3 Venus 2 Mars	270 (Venus)	0.15	60 Venus 30 Mars	May inflict Deadly Poison.
Eclipse	3 Jupiter 2 Mercury	300 (Jupiter)	0.15	60 Jupiter 30 Mercury	May lower enemy attack by 25% (maximum reduction is 50%).
Coatlicue	3 Jupiter 3 Mercury	60 (Mercury) (not an attack)	N/A	60 Jupiter 60 Mercury	Heals each party member by 60 points, adjusted for the user's Mercury power, and grants a gradual regeneration buff lasting five turns. At the end of each turn until the buff runs out, each party member is healed by a set percentage of their maximum HP equal to ((remaining turn count + 1) x 10)%.
Daedalus	3 Venus 4 Mars	100 (Mars)	0.07	60 Venus 100 Mars	After everyone has finished their moves on the next turn, a missile hits the enemies. It has 250 base Mars damage and its HP multiplier is 15%. dimRatio (see above) is 1 for all enemies hit by the missile.
Azul	3 Venus 4 Mercury	330 (Mercury)	0.21	60 Venus 100 Mercury	May inflict Stun.
Catastrophe	3 Mars 5 Jupiter	400 (Jupiter)	0.24	60 Mars 100 Jupiter	Lowers each enemy's PP by 10% of its maximum PP.
Charon	8 Venus 2 Jupiter	500 (Venus)	0.30	100 Venus 30 Jupiter	May kill targets instantly.
Iris	9 Mars 4 Mercury	800 (Mars)	0.40	100 Mars 100 Mercury	Revives all allies and restores everyone to full health.

In Dark Dawn

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, all 29 summon spirits from the first two games return, in addition to one new summon spirit, known as Crystallux. The older summon sequences underwent visual changes of varying degrees. Some spirits, such as Moloch remain relatively unchanged, while others, like Ulysses, are radically different to the versions seen in the first two games. When Dark Dawn was first announced, trailers showing some of the summon spirits' animation sequences were released to the public. Many of these clips featured animation sequences that were later altered when the game was released. For instance, the Neptune summon was initially shown to be a whale almost identical in appearance to the whale seen in the first two games, but was later altered to have a darker color and sport horns and markings that were not present on the original version.

For a video exhibition of all 30 summon sequences in the game in sequential order, visit this youtube video.

Name	Djinn Required	Base Damage	HP Multiplier	Power Boost	Special Effect
Crystallux	3 Venus 2 Mercury	300 (Venus)	0.15	60 Venus 30 Mercury	May lower targets' resistances.

Trivia

• Graphics director Fumihide Aoki posted a video of a cut summon sequence named "Artemis" that was originally planned to feature in the Game Boy Advance duology, depicting the goddess pictured below appearing from behind the moon and having three simplistic rabbit-like creatures fire purple spheres of energy from their mouths.

Extended gallery

• 

  Concept art of unused Artemis summon planned for the GBA titles

External links

• All 29 Golden Sun and The Lost Age summons in a row
• All 30 Dark Dawn summons in a row