Lucky Medal Fountain

Tolbi Spring from the first Golden Sun.

The Lucky Medal Fountain is a minigame found in Tolbi in Golden Sun and in Lemuria in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. It is the only place to find a wide variety of equipment, and the Eclipse Summon can be found in the Lemurian Spring.

Tolbi and Lemuria Springs

Chronologically, the first Lucky Medal Fountain built was in Lemuria. Babi and Lunpa discovered Lemuria over a hundred years ago and visited the civilization. During this time, Babi began playing the game and loved it so much that, when he returned to Tolbi with his Lemurian Draught, he built a replica of the Lemuria Spring which appeared in the first Golden Sun. The water in Lemuria's spring can be drunk by Felix's group to restore their HP and PP because it is the spring that Lemurians bottle their life-extending draught from, but the water in Tolbi springs does not do the same thing presumably because it is just plain water. Also, the turtles in Lemuria's Spring have lived forever because its waters extend life, whereas the turtles in Tolbi's spring have not.

Playing the game

To play the game, the player must stand in front of the fountain and look in the opposite direction of it. The player has a choice of either throwing a coin or a Lucky Medal behind their back and attempt to land it inside the fountain. Within the fountain are two yellow circular targets within one another, with a blue ring between the two. A blue "bulls-eye" is in the center. The prize won from the fountain depends on where the coin or Medal lands; for example, if it lands on the smallest target center, you win a grand prize. However, if the coin or Medal lands on the outside target, or on the blue area between the targets, you'll win a prize of less worth. As a general rule, the closer to the center the coin or Medal lands, the more valuable the prize is. If it lands outside the targets, it is unlikely you'll receive a prize of much worth. The turtles and crabs are objects that randomly move around the fountain, making it difficult to land a prize of your liking. If any of them are hit, not only will their colors change and increase their speed, but also your coin or Medal will bump off at a great degree and greatly alter the outcome of the coin or Medal's final landing. The turtles and crabs have three speed settings that follow a cycle; if hit a third time, they reset to their slowest speed.

Coins vs. Lucky Medals

Two objects can be thrown in, a coin or a Lucky Medal. Throwing a coin will earn the player more coins, if it at least lands within a target, that is. If the coin lands outside of a target, no prize is given. The maximum number of coins that can be won is 20. Throwing a Lucky Medal will win players a wide variety of prizes, depending on your landing. Valuable items and equipment can be won, all of which are Artifacts. Each Fountain has its own set of equipment that can be won, and all equipment won at the Fountains cannot be found anywhere else in the games. In The Lost Age, you can win the Eclipse Summon tablet by scoring a perfect landing.

Random Number Generator

The Random Number Generator does indeed have an impact on what prize is received. In the first Golden Sun, this can be manipulated by saving, doing a hard or soft reset, and then adding random numbers by casting psynergy or entering and leaving the screen a certain number of times. By repeatedly resetting, you can check how many times you have to change screens to receive certain items. The same mechanic exists in The Lost Age, however, in this game the title screen advances the random number 60 times per second making manipulation very difficult.

Prizes

The prizes available by tossing a Lucky Medal into either of the Fountains are divided up into distinct prize pools. The prize pools determine the quantities of the items within that pool and which rings allow for these prizes to be won. The information is summarized in the following table.

Lucky Fountain Prize Pools
	Tolbi Fountain	Lemuria Fountain	Rings	Quantity
Prize Pool 0		Eclipse	Center circle	Only one
Prize Pool 1	Assassin Blade Earth Shield Spirit Armor	Aegis Shield Erebus Armor Hestia Blade	All	3
Prize Pool 2	Adept's Helm Burning Axe Cocktail Dress	Floral Dress Mighty Axe Minerva Helm	Inner Yellow and outwards	4
Prize Pool 3	Glittering Tiara Grievous Mace Guardian Armlet	Crown of Glory Fireman's Pole Leda's Bracelet	Purple and outwards	5
Prize Pool 4	Battle Gloves Kimono Ninja Hood	Brilliant Circlet Crafted Gloves Wild Coat	Outer Yellow and outwards	6
Prize Pool 5	Potion Psy Crystal Water of Life	Potion Psy Crystal Water of Life	Blank and outwards	7

Each time an item is won at the fountain the quantity of the item is decreased by 1 unless there is only 1 of the item left (in this case the quantity remains 1). The exception is Eclipse which can only be one once, and is guaranteed to be won on the first time a Lucky Medal lands in the center. This means that each time an item is won the probability of the item being won is decreased. The probability of winning an item is determined by

Probability of Winning = Quantity of Item Remaining / Number of Possible Items Remaining

As an example, the probability of winning the Wild Coat on the first Lucky Medal toss when the Medal lands outside of all of the rings is 6 / 75 which is 8%. For another example, the probability of winning the Assassin Blade when the Medal lands in the purple ring after previously having won an Adept's Helm and Earth Shield is 3 / 19 which is about 15%.

Assuming no prior items have been won, the base chance of winning an item from each prize pool is as follows:

Item Base Probabilities
	Center, purple circle	First, yellow ring	Second, purple ring	Third, yellow ring	Fourth, blank ring	Outside all rings
Prize Pool 1	33.3%	14.2%	8.3%	5.6%	4%	4%
Prize Pool 2		19.0%	11.1%	7.4%	5.3%	5.3%
Prize Pool 3			13.8%	9.2%	6.7%	6.7%
Prize Pool 4				11.1%	8.0%	8.0%
Prize Pool 5					9.3%	9.3%

Tolbi Spring

Tolbi Spring Rewards
	Center, purple circle	First, yellow ring	Second, purple ring	Third, yellow ring	Fourth, blank ring	Outside all rings
Assassin Blade	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Earth Shield	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Spirit Armor	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Adept's Helm		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Burning Axe		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Cocktail Dress		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Glittering Tiara			✔	✔	✔	✔
Grievous Mace			✔	✔	✔	✔
Guardian Armlet			✔	✔	✔	✔
Battle Gloves				✔	✔	✔
Kimono				✔	✔	✔
Ninja Hood				✔	✔	✔
Potion					✔	✔
Psy Crystal					✔	✔
Water of Life					✔	✔

Lemuria Spring

Lemuria Spring Rewards
	Center, purple circle	First, yellow ring	Second, purple ring	Third, yellow ring	Fourth, blank ring	Outside all rings
Eclipse	First time only
Aegis Shield	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Erebus Armor	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Hestia Blade	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Floral Dress		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Mighty Axe		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Minerva Helm		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Crown of Glory			✔	✔	✔	✔
Fireman's Pole			✔	✔	✔	✔
Leda's Bracelet			✔	✔	✔	✔
Brilliant Circlet				✔	✔	✔
Crafted Gloves				✔	✔	✔
Wild Coat				✔	✔	✔
Potion					✔	✔
Psy Crystal					✔	✔
Water of Life					✔	✔

Trivia

• The behavior of the turtles and crabs, changing color and speed when struck, is reminiscent of Shellcreepers and Sidesteppers in Mario Bros.