- "Create a watery shield."
Shade when used in battle.
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Shade is a Mercury Djinni found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and is numerically the eleventh Mercury Djinni in the games' official Djinni ordering and thus the fourth numbered Mercury Djinni of The Lost Age. |
Location[]
Shade is automatically Set onto Piers when he first joins your party.
Shade is a Djinni that is automatically handed to you as you play through the game, being present on Piers as soon as he joins your party in the town of Kibombo somewhat early on in The Lost Age. Shade is one of three Djinn in The Lost Age - the others being Echo and another Mercury Djinni in Piers' possession, Spring - that is impossible not to obtain.
Description[]
When Set, it increases base HP by 9, base Defense by 3, and base Luck by 2.
When Shade's battle effect is used, all damage done to all current battling party members is reduced by 60% for the duration of that turn, and this effect is always cast first regardless of the user’s Agility. Shade and the similar Djinn Granite and Flash share the same priority bracket as the Ground and Petra Djinn, meaning that if two units use any of these abilities, the one with the higher agility will act first.
Ability analysis[]
Shade is extremely useful from the moment it is collected all the way up to the end of the game, because of a very reliable damage-reduction effect. It is typically used in boss encounters, and can give your party a much needed cushion against enemy damage while other Adepts of your party focus on healing dangerously low-health party members. Much later in the game, when Isaac's party joins Felix's along with all their returning Djinn, the Mars Djinni Flash provides a much stronger version of the same effect, but even then Shade is not necessarily considered "obsoleted to uselessness", as both Djinn can be used and alternated between. It could be said that Shade itself is used as a better form of Granite, though, since that Djinni only protects against 50% damage, making Shade used in Granite's place, making Granite become an extra placeholder in need during battles to still provide a reliable, albeit less good defense when Shade and Flash have been used.
Name Origin[]
Shade is an area where less light is able to reach; it's an odd name for a Mercury Djinni. The name may refer to coolness in the shade, similar to how the Djinn offers the party relief from enemy attacks, or it may refer to the darkness of the bottom of the sea. Another possibility is that it refers to shadows created by overcast skies and an impending storm.