Goblin's Rod

Goblin's Rod
Visual effect of Sargasso
Trade values
Item class	Staff
Buy value	9800
Sell value	7350
Statistics boosts
Attack Boost	134
Unleash effect
Effect name	Sargasso
Unleash rate	35%
Extra damage	39
Side effect	May fell the target instantly

The Goblin's Rod is a Staff-class weapon found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. It is acquired by finding a Rusty Staff at a white spot in the Great Western Sea, north of Hesperia, and bringing it to Sunshine the blacksmith in Yallam, where he will reforge it into the item. The Goblin's Rod is bought for 9800 coins while its resale value is 7350 coins. Visually, the Goblin's Rod resembles a rather hammer-shaped rod with a blue aura around it.

The Goblin's Rod carries a non-elemental attack rating of 134. This staff has the Unleash effect Sargasso, which activates at a rate of 35% (which is standard) and converts the attack into a Mercury-elemental attack with 39 extra attack points added, and the effect has a chance of instantly felling the target. Sargasso visually resembles a large swirling blue mass of energy that appears and expands when the wielder strikes the foe.

The Goblin's Rod, as a Staff-class item, can be wielded by Ivan, Sheba, Jenna, and Mia. The Goblin's Rod, accessible as soon as you can enter the Great Western Sea, is one of many weapons throughout the game that is quite powerful for when it can be first acquired but may not remain in the inventory for a very long period of time because a superior weapon may be found sometime later. In terms of element and unleash effect, the Goblin's Rod is actually a nearly identical version to the Crystal Rod, but with slightly less Unleash bonus power, which is offset by nearly 30 more base attack points than the Crystal Rod. It may seem practical to use because of its Unleash effect, but the Adepts who can equip it are normally used less for physically attacking and more for casting Psynergy, so it may not see as much practical use as other weapons.

Etymology

The name "Sargasso" may be a reference to the Sargasso Sea, a region of the North Atlantic Ocean located next to the Bermuda Triangle, a location that attained its own infamy for being the location where a number of aircraft and surface vessels have allegedly mysteriously disappeared inextricably, never to be found. Charles Hoy Fort, writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena, proposed a dimension into which lost things go named the "Super Sargasso", and proposed the idea of the spontaneous, anomalous teleportation of an object into another dimension. Apparently, the Sargasso unleash effect's ability to instantly remove an enemy from a battle should be thought of as the enemy being sent to another dimension.