Rockfall Psynergy series

Rockfall, Rockslide, and Avalanche are a series of Venus Psynergies featured throughout the Golden Sun series. Prior to Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the series shared visuals with the Gaia Psynergy series.

Basic Description

Rockfall, Rockslide, and Avalanche are offensive, ranged Psynergies. The overall power of each stage is determined by comparing the user's Venus Power and the target's Venus Resistance, and multiplying the resultant ratio by the base power of the Psynergy being used.

This Psynergy series is visually identical to the Gaia Psynergy series.

Rockfall: "Attack with a blast of rocks": This costs 5 Psynergy Points, has a base power of 30, and has a range of three targets. The ground beneath the enemy opens up and engulfs the enemy party in a wide reverse shower of Venus energy and medium-sized boulders. It is available at level 6.

Rockslide: “Attack with blast of rocks”: This costs 15 Psynergy Points, has a base power of 90, and has a range of five targets. The ground beneath the enemy opens up and engulfs the enemy party in a wider reverse shower of Venus energy and medium-large-sized boulders. It is available at level 24.

Avalanche: “Attack with blast of rocks.”: This costs 30 Psynergy Points, has a base power of 160, and has a range of five targets. The ground beneath the enemy opens up and engulfs the enemy party in a very large reverse shower of Venus energy and large boulders. It is available at level 54.

In Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the Rockfall series shared visuals with the Gaia series. Visually, the Rockfall series featured the ground opening up beneath the targets, with a reverse shower of Venus energy and rocks engulfing the targets. The reverse shower increases in size with each successive stage. In Dark Dawn, the caster stabs their weapon into the ground, causing the earth to open up underneath the targets. The targets are then hit with a reverse shower of rocks and energy; the reverse shower is still similar in nature to Gaia, but is differentiated by darker-colored energy.

Damage Calculation

Elemental Power attacks such as Rockfall, Rockslide, and Avalanche use a set base power as the base damage to be modified. For example, the base power of Avalanche is 160. Thus an unmodified Avalanche would deal around 160 points of damage.

Avalanche's attack takes this base damage value and uses it in the following equation:

final damage = (base damage) * (1 + (User's Venus Power - Enemy's Venus Resistance) / 200)

To word this in prose, Rockfall, Rockslide, and Avalanche take the base damage of the particular attack, and then modifies this by how much higher or lower the user's Venus Power is than the target's Venus Resistance. The difference between the user's Venus Power and the user's Venus Resistance is then divided by 200, then 1 is added to this, resulting in what can be called the "elemental damage multiplier". This number is what the Psynergies' damage is multiplied by.

For example, if an Adept with a Venus Power of 150 casts Avalanche on a monster with a Venus Resistance of 50:

• damage = (base damage) * (1 + (Power - Resistance) / 200)
• damage = (160) * (1 + (150 - 50) / 200)
• damage = (160) * (1 + 100 / 200)
• damage = (160) * (1 + 0.5)
• damage = 160 * 1.50
• damage = 240

Therefore, an Avalanche cast under these circumstances would deal approximately 240 points of damage to the main target. Since Avalanche is a ranged Psynergy, adjacent targets would take a percentage of the total damage, with the percentage decreasing as the distance from the main target increases.

Availability

The Rockfall series is unique to the Samurai class series, available to Venus and Mars Adepts. Access to the class requires Jupiter Djinn and Djinn of the element symbiotic to the Adept's own element. Rockfall is learned at Level 6, while Rockslide is learned at Level 24. Avalanche is learned at Level 54.

Analysis

General: The Rockslide series is a variation of the Gaia series. While the Gaia series is more powerful due to higher base power and there inherently higher Venus Power of its wielders, its high PP cost can strain the user's PP pool. In contrast, the Rockslide series is weaker, both in base power and potential Venus Power, yet is cheaper; combined with the Samurai's higher PP pool, the caster can get more uses of the Rockslide series. However, the Rockslide series does compete with the Samurai's Demon Night duo, which has great power, less PP, but a smaller range.

Trivia

• The Gaia Psynergy series and the Rockfall Psynergy series are learned at the same levels, with the exception of Rockfall, which is learned at level 6 while Gaia is learned at level 7. In addition, Avalanche and Grand Gaia share the distinction of being the Psynergies learned at the latest level.

• Despite the names of each stage implying a downward shower of rocks, the series's visuals have consistently depicted an upward shower.