Star Magician

Star Magician and a series of his personal minions called the Ball enemy line are an optional boss encounter located and fought at the end of the optional dungeon Treasure Isle in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and at the end of the Lost Ship optional dungeon in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Star Magician awaits players willing to attempt an extreme battling challenge and guards the summon tablet containing the Azul summon sequence.

Background and Story

Star Magician awaits Adepts powerful and tactical enough to challenge him for the Azul summon tablet.

Star Magician, resembling a humanlike entity in a navy-blue robe and a shadowy face obscured by a pointed hood, does not have any bearing on either game's actual story. It is a powerful being that possesses mastery and control over his personal magic-imbued spherical minions.

In The Lost Age, the Star Magician stands guard in the deepest part of Treasure Isle. In the event any group of intrepid and capable Adepts enters the cave-like dungeon and has the Psynergy powers necessary to bypass the obstacles that would otherwise prevent outsiders from descending into the cave's deepest depths, Star Magician and the summon tablet await in an unlit, cavernous chamber at the end. Star Magician will speak to his challengers via telepathy to introduce himself before attacking and employing his minions to overpower the opposition:

"I am the guardian of water. If you would claim my power, you must prove your worth."

In The Lost Age, as Isaac and Felix's combined party of powerful and capable Adepts nears the end of its quest, they will have amassed the Psynergy necessary to explore and loot Treasure Isle beyond what Briggs' pirates and even Felix's original party could reach. It will be one of the fiercest and most tactics-demanding battles they will ever wage, but if they are triumphant over the sorcerer, they will gain the ability to summon the most fearsome embodiment of the power of watery might, the serpentine leviathan Azul, in future battles.

Thirty years later, the Star Magician, for unknown reasons, has moved and now resides within the Lost Ship, a wrecked, haunted vessel that is obscured in a cloud of purple mist in the northern portion of the Eastern Sea. The way to the ghostly ship is detailed in a small map known as the Treasure Note. In Dark Dawn, Matthew's group of Adepts come across the ship while exploring the Eastern Sea in search of a way to end the Grave Eclipse that is currently affecting much of Weyard. After reaching the stern of the ship, the Star Magician will announce his appearance before attacking with his minions. Like the Warriors of Vale's battle against the sorcerer, Matthew's party's battle is a fierce one, but if successful, they will gain the ability to summon Azul in future battles.

As A Boss

Star Magician himself attacks the party by throwing powerful Mine Balls while he summons Ball minions that both further assault the Adepts and protect Star Magician from harm.

The boss encounter with Star Magician and his summonable "Ball" minions is one of the most challenging, thought-provoking, and tricky encounters in the entire Golden Sun series. Star Magician is one of four "superbosses" located throughout Weyard in The Lost Age, the others being Valukar, Sentinel, and Dullahan, and while all of these bosses fight using unique battling setups and are very tough, Star Magician is easily much more dangerous than Valukar and Sentinel and is only surpassed by Dullahan as the game's hardest battle. Star Magician is encountered at the end of the optional Treasure Isle dungeon, in a deeper area that requires the Grind Psynergy from Lemuria and then the Lift Psynergy that comes with Isaac's party to reach and explore. Specifically, the battle will automatically begin as soon as you visibly approach Star Magician and he steps towards you to attack. Star Magician has the lowest HP rating among the four superbosses. He has 560 PP, 460 Attack, 139 Defense, 268 Agility, and 52 Luck. Star Magician also acts two times each turn. In terms of resistance, the Star Magician has a Mercury resistance rating of 180, a Jupiter resistance rating of 150, a Venus resistance rating of 130, and a Mars resistance rating of 72, and in regards to its abilities it uses its available Mercury-based attacks with a Mercury power rating of 105 and its available Jupiter-based attacks with a Jupiter power rating of 95. If Star Magician is defeated in battle, you are awarded 7866 EXP and 5566 coins along with the EXP and coins his "Ball" minions yield whenever they are destroyed (and Star Magician starts the battle out with four Ball minions, one of each of the four varieties he can summon), and you can gain the summon tablet Star Magician was guarding, the Azul summon.

• HP: 7,486
• PP: 560
• Attack: 460
• Defense: 139
• Agility: 268
• Luck: 52
• Number of Turns: 2
• Mercury Power: 105
• Jupiter Power: 95
• Mars Resistance: 72
• Venus Resistance: 130
• Jupiter Resistance: 150
• Mercury Resistance: 180
• EXP: 7,866 + other balls experience points
• Coins: 5,566 + other balls coins
• Other Awards: Azul

Arsenal

Star Magician sprite

Star Magician's collection of abilities, which he can use two of per turn, allows him to hold his own with powerful long-range group assaults, but what makes him especially difficult is his ability to infinitely summon a variety of personal minions that each count as an opponent to consider:

• Mystic Call: Used 141 / 256 times, this unique monster skill is the trademark of Star Magician that makes him particularly infamous as a boss: If he has less than four "Ball" minions by his side, he will be able to use this, and a new Ball minion will join the battle and fill up a missing space in his side's ranks. The variety of Ball minion he summons is randomly determined. (Note that the battle starts out with each of the four varieties by his sides.)
• Mine Ball: Used 64 / 256 times, this is a monster skill where Star Magician charges up a ball of energy in his hands and lobs it at the party, where it explodes into a large blue explosion of energy, dealing a Mercury-based attack equal to his normal physical attack multiplied by 1.5 and has a range of 5. This is his "main" offense he uses as himself when not summoning ball minions.
• Spark Plasma: Used 23 / 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that strikes the party repeatedly with a barrage of purplish-white lightning bolts, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 180 and a range of 7. It consumes 37 of the user’s PP.
• Megacool: Used 17 / 256 times, this is a Psynergy spell that summons large rows of ice spiking out from the ground at the opposition, dealing a Mercury-based attack with a power rating of 180 and a range of 7. This ability consumes 33 of its user's PP.
• Attack: Used 11 / 256 times, this is this boss' standard physical attack. Star Magician's physical attack is visually different from every other monster in that he does not leap forward to collide with the target Adept: He stays stationary as he lobs a small red ball of energy at his target. Star Magician rarely uses this command, though, and each of his other commands are much more dangerous to the party as a whole.

Ball Monster Line

The Ball enemy line is a group of monsters found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. These monsters, resembling orbs with lines criss-crossing their bodies, are palette swaps of each other. They only appear during the battle with Star Magician deep within Treasure Isle and the Lost Ship. The Ball monsters serve as minions to the Star Magician, with up to four balls able to accompany the Star Magician at any one time. Despite the four Ball limit, the Star Magician has a seemingly endless supply of them, and is able to summon more Balls to replace those that are felled. The specific variety of Ball summoned is chosen at random. The wide variety of Balls give the Star Magician a wide range of potential abilities and benefits.

In The Lost Age, there is one ball to represent each of the four elements, represented by the color of the Ball: Thunder Balls, Anger Balls, Refresh Balls, and Guardian Balls. The Star Magician will start out with one of each variety. In Dark Dawn, the Star Magician is now accompanied by Ghoul Balls and Death Balls, in addition to the four other varieties; the battle will start with a Ghoul Ball, a Refresh Ball, a Death Ball, and a Guardian Ball.

Thunder Ball

• Color: Purple
• HP: 280
• PP: 43
• PP Recovery: 10 
• Attack: 329
• Defense: 123
• Agility: 219
• Luck: 30
• Venus Resistance: 48
• Mars Resistance: 100
• Mercury Resistance: 100
• Jupiter Resistance: 152
• Jupiter Power: 110
• Battle Commands:
  • Attack: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack.
  • Flash Bolt: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is a Psynergy spell where two purple lightning bolts strike the party, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 40 and a range of 3. It consumes 7 of the user’s PP.
  • Storm Ray: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is a Psynergy spell that strikes the party with purple lightning, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 65 and a range of 3. It consumes 10 of the user’s PP.
  • Shine Plasma: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is a Psynergy spell that strikes the party with three purplish-white lightning bolts, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 100 and a range of 5. It consumes 18 of the user’s PP.
• EXP: 296
• Coins: 243

Refresh Ball

• Color: Light Blue
• HP: 360
• PP: 43
• PP Recovery: 10 
• Attack: 317
• Defense: 124
• Agility: 136
• Luck: 36
• Venus Resistance: 100
• Mars Resistance: 25
• Mercury Resistance: 175
• Jupiter Resistance: 100
• Battle Commands:
  • Earnest Ply: Used 5 out of 8 times, unique Psynergy spell exclusive to Refresh Ball that restores 1000 HP to the Star Magician. It is both visually and functionally identical to Pure Ply, even consuming 12 of the user’s PP.
  • Attack: Used 1 out of 8 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack.
  • Cure Poison: Used 1 out of 8 times, this is a Psynergy spell that removes the Poison or Venom condition from Star Magician. It consumes 2 of the user’s PP.
  • Restore: Used 1 out of 8 times, this is a Psynergy spell that removes the Sleep, Stun, Delusion, and Death Curse from the Star Magician. This consumes 3 of its user's PP.
• EXP: 448
• Coins: 278

Guardian Ball

• Color: Neon Green
• HP: 520
• PP: 43
• Attack: 317
• Defense: 127
• Agility: 292
• Luck: 33
• Venus Resistance: 152
• Mars Resistance:  100
• Mercury Resistance: 100
• Jupiter Resistance: 48
• Battle Commands:
  • Guard Aura: Used 5 out of 8 times, this is a Monster Skill that covers the Star Magician in a protective aura that lowers all damage done to it to practically nothing for that turn (5% of what it would be otherwise) - and on any turn Guard Aura is used it will always be the first command executed that turn. An extremely effective defense for the Star Magician that is part of what makes the battle so tricky.  If you're using summons at the start of the battle, Guardian Ball may use this on Star Magician, preventing you from any dealing major damage.
  • Defend: Used 3 out of 8 times, this monster has the ability to use the Defend command, which causes all damage incurred to either its HP or PP meters to be reduced down to 50% for the turn, and this effect is active before any other action in the turn takes place.
• EXP: 439
• Coins: 289

Category:Monsters with high Venus resistance | Category:Monsters with low Jupiter resistance

Anger Ball

• Color: Neon Pink
• HP: 460
• PP: 43
• Attack: 357
• Defense: 125
• Agility: 173
• Luck: 27
• Venus Resistance: 100
• Mars Resistance:  175
• Mercury Resistance: 25
• Jupiter Resistance: 100
• Battle Commands:
  • Attack: Used 5 out of 8 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack.
  • Angry Mine: Used 3 out of 8 times, this is a Monster Skill where the monster leaps forward into the party and disappears in a massive explosion, dealing a Venus-based attack with a power rating of 300 and a range of 3. This attack removes the user from the battle in a way that it is not counted as "felled" (you don't get its EXP and coins).
• EXP: 387
• Coins: 30

Category:Monsters with high Mars resistance | Category:Monsters with low Mercury resistance

Category:Monster lines | Category:Monsters exclusive to Golden Sun: The Lost Age

Strategies

Star Magician and the Ball Monster Line make for one of the game's hardest battles, because there would almost always be multiple opponents each contributing something substantial to the battle either against you or in support of the Star Magician. The main reason behind its trickiness is that there is a likelihood that a rush-summoning strategy where you try to overpower and annihilate the opponent with multiple high-level summons will be effectively nullified by the Guard Aura a Guardian Ball may start off each turn with; using your summons on a turn where Guard Aura protects the Star Magician will pretty much count as wasted summons that will only end up felling the Ball minions in his vicinity. One might assume then that winning the battle is a question of first destroying the Guardian Ball and then unleashing all the summons the next turn; what makes this approach hard to pull off is the fact that if your Adepts have many of their Djinn on Standby, their classes will be lower and they will be far weaker both in Defense/HP and Attack/Agility, meaning some or all of the Adepts will be defeated by the constant powerful attacks of the Star Magician and his minions before they can summon.

Strategy 1

Star Magician's Mine Ball monster skill is his own primary method of assault in addition to the abilities of his minions.

Leveling up your party beyond 40 should be considered a requisite to the battle because success in the battle depends on how well all of the statistics of all of the Adepts are developed: Especially if you're going to try to win the battle with summons, you will need the Attack and Agility to effectively take care of the Ball minions when you're not summoning and you will need the resiliency to weather the constant group-based attacks to your party. What will also be an absolutely immense help to you is a Venus Adept equipped with the Sol Blade and enough defensive items that increase the Unleash rate of the Sol Blade's Megiddo attack that you can reliably Unleash Megiddo every time that Adept attacks. Try to get and equip all of these on your Sol Blade-wielding Adept before the battle: the Valkyrie Mail, Riot Gloves, Mythril Helm, and Hyper Boots. If you don't have Riot Gloves or Mythril Helms, you can use the somewhat less effective Aegis Shield and Warrior's Helm items in their place. An Adept equipped with the Sol Blade and all these items will be able to instantly KO a Ball minion of your choice each turn, and do respectable damage to Star Magician himself once there aren't any Guardian Balls or Refresh Balls around. It will be even more helpful if you can get your hands on Excaliburs and Tisiphone Edges for your other battling Adepts to use.

Summoning would be a strong way to damage the Star Magician when there aren't any Guardian Balls around to protect him, but since the battle starts with a Guardian Ball around, there's a chance he will be shielded on the first turn and thus all your summons on the first turn will only achieve destroying the first four Balls. But that means there's also a chance the Guardian Ball will not use Guard Aura on the first turn, instead using Defend, and if a full-on rush-summoning session is used in such a lucky first turn the Star Magician should receive massive damage in addition to removing all of its Ball minions. That would be an immense help, and if your Adepts are properly leveled and outfitted as recommended above, you should be able to effectively take out each Ball he summons as you keep on inflicting damage. This is a general theme of the battle: remove all the Balls and keep the number of Balls Star Magician summons back at a minimum as you damage Star Magician. After all, Star Magician would theoretically be a straightforward opponent like Sentinel if the Ball minions are taken out of the equation of the battle. So, on your first try at the battle you might want to try the typical rush-summoning approach anyway just to see how well it turns out.

Mars summons would be the most effective to use against the Star Magician himself because of his Mercury affiliation, so a Meteor summon would always be great if it's used on a turn Star Magician is not shielded by a Guard Aura. If you have Daedalus because you defeated Valukar, an interesting alternative can be pursued because the Daedalus summon is two attacks spread out over two turns, with the second attack as strong as a Meteor summoning. On the first turn of the battle, you can summon Daedalus multiple times so that the first weaker portion of each Daedalus assault softens up the opposition, while you have your warrior-style Adepts make sure to defeat the Guardian Ball. It wouldn't matter so much if Guardian Ball does use Guard Aura the first turn because it not being around in the second turn will ensure that the second stronger portion of each Daedalus summoning will score strong blows against Star Magician and the rest of his Ball minions, which is the aim of using Daedalus like this in this battle.

Another useful strategy when fighting the Star Magician is to use the first turn to eliminate the Refresh and Guardian Balls, but leave the other two balls. Before the battle, make sure to prepare the 2nd team (the Adepts not battling) for a summon sweep by putting all their Djinn on Standby. You also want to make sure you have someone in both sides of the party that can cast a mass heal since the goal here is to get the Star Magician to summon only Thunder Balls and Anger Balls. Although they do a lot of damage, your team should be able to survive it and heal up the next turn. Once you've succeeded in getting the Star Magician down to just offensive balls, he will no longer be able to heal or shield himself, which means your non-healing team members can go all-offense on Star Magician. When using Psynergy, try to stick to only the Psynergy that will hit the Star Magician and not the balls, so you don't risk him summoning a Refresh or Guardian Ball. If all goes well, you can align your team with Felix, Jenna, Mia, and Isaac in the first group since all of them should be able to heal and attack fairly well in their default classes (Jenna and Mia both should be able cast mass heals to sustain the group), plus you can Revive with two characters if needed. Should the whole party be taken out, you will automatically switch to the second team, which is fully equipped for full power summons and assuming you've done a decent bit of damage already and there are no Refresh or Guardian Balls on the field, you should easily finish him off with your summons, especially with Garet's Meteor and if you have someone else use his remaining Mars Djinn for a second fire-based summon. Even if you don't you'll have wiped out all the balls and as long as you keep all the Refresh and Guardian Balls down, you can finish him off with a few more attacks. Assuming your team can take the hits, this may be the best way to take down the Star Magician since he will no longer be able to heal or protect himself. However, the Anger Balls left in this scenario may self-destruct, leaving room for Refresh or Guardian Balls to replace them.

A somewhat more generic but nonetheless valid strategy to utilize against Star Magician is to equip Mia with the Psychic Circlet, Iris Robe (or Mysterious Robe) and Clear Bracelet, allowing her to cast the Wish Psynergy series indefinitely. Along with her natural Mercury power and all Mercury Djinni, this will enable her to ideally restore close to 700HP per turn to every member of the party, effectively making them invulnerable. Then all that is left is to target all Guardian and Refresh balls, which will eventually only leave Thunder Balls (Anger Balls will self-destruct), which do so little damage relative to HP regeneration, that they can be effectively ignored. Then the player can focus on felling the Star Magician himself, mopping up the non-respawning Balls afterward.

A rather time-consuming strategy may be employed by removing all Refresh, Anger, and Thunder Balls, leaving only the defense-oriented Guardian Balls and the Star Magician himself. While damage to him will be minimal each turn, he will have no chance to recover, and his are the only attacks you are left to deal with. A slow battle, but one with few surprises.

Regardless of what attack strategy you use, it's extremely beneficial to have +80 resist on all adepts, and wear as much as Jupiter and Mercury resistance gears as possible. The majority of attacks directed at the party are spell-based, so having high resistance help soften the blows quite a bit. Also, as the Star Magician does not have Break, he cannot negate boosts to resistance, so Psynergies like Ward are very useful.

Strategy 2

• Suggested Level: 40 and above
• Suggested Pysnergy: Pure Wish/Wish Well/Cool Aura, High Impact, Resist, Revive, Pure Ply, Potent Cure
• Beginning Party: Felix, Isaac/Piers, Sheba/Ivan, Mia/Jenna
• Suggested Party afterwards: Sol Blade user (preferably Felix or Isaac), Tisiphone Edge user (preferably Felix or Isaac), Excalibur user (preferably Piers), Powerful Healer (preferably Mia)
• Suggested Djinn Combination: All Venus Djinns on Isaac and Felix, all Mercury Djinns on Piers and Mia, all Mars Djinns on Jenna and Garet, and 9 Jupiter Djinns on Sheba and Ivan.
• Strategy on Beginning Party:
  • Felix and Isaac focus on attacking the Refresh, Guardian, and (if possible) Anger Balls and if only Thunder Balls are spared, then they attack Star Magician.
  • Ivan/Sheba focuses on casting High Impact and Resist until it reaches on 0, and if the condition is satisfied, they switch with Piers.
  • Mia focuses on healing using Pure Wish assisted by massive PP recovery items like Iris' Robe.
• Strategy after the Beginning Party:
  • ​Felix, Isaac and Piers focus on killing balls except Thunder balls. If four Thunder Balls are spared, focus on Star Magician.
  • Mia focuses on healing.
  • Avoid using too much Djinn for they can remove some important Pysnergy like Pure Wish and Revive.
• Added Information:
  • If a party member dies, particularly Mia, either Revive it or switch her to Jenna.
  • If Mia's healing is not effective enough, the three attackers can use healing as an alternative (Potent Cure and Pure Ply).
  • If Mia runs out of PP, switch her with Jenna or use a Psy Crystal on her.
  • Before barraging Star Magician with powerful attacks, focus first on the two balls, Guardian and Refresh, as they can guard and heal Star Magician.
  • Spare the Thunder balls and, if you want, the Anger balls, though their suicidal Psynergies can deal massive amount of damage, especially if four Anger Balls are spared and all of them used Angry Mine, which can kill most or all of your party members.
  • Advanced offensive Pysnergy like Odyssey and Diamond Berg can also be used as an alternative.
  • Djinns should be refrained from usage, unless severely needed (either for healing  or guard aura purposes).

Strategy 3

With a little luck and different class set ups, you can defeat Star Magician with a weaker party (around level 30) as soon as the two parties have reunited, before even attempting Magma Rock. It is recommended that you first collect all Djinn that are available directly after the reunion, and also to collect the Coatlicue summon tablet.

• Suggested Level: 30 and above
• Suggested first party and classes: Ivan (Sage), Isaac/Felix (Master), Garet (Samurai), Sheba (White Mage)
• Suggested second party and classes: Jenna (Templar), Isaac/Felix (Berserker), Piers (Ranger) Mia (White Mage)
• Party comments: The first party has both good attacking and support power. Both Ivan and Sheba have access to the Wish psynergy series, and Sheba also has Revive and Ward/Resist while Ivan has Impact. Samurai Garet also has the Angel Spear and Magic Shell psynergies, which are exactly the same as Impact and Resist, as well as great attacking power. Whoever you chose to have as your Master (Isaac or Felix) will be the main offensive part of this party, with Garet secondary offensive and support, and the two Wind Adepts for healing and support. The strongest weapon you can get (in a password enhanced game) is Excalibur, as you're given an Orihalcon - it is best to equip this to your Master. The second party isn't as strong, but all going well the first party shouldn't be downed in it's entirety so at most you'll only need to switch out one or two. Both Templar and Ranger aren't fantastic classes, but with the Djinn you have at this point in the game these are some of the better classes to get into. Jenna as a Templar has Wish, Ply, Cure Poison and Restore, as does Mia as a White Mage, who also has Revive and Resist. Ranger Piers has Resist and that's about it, so he'll likely be the last choice to switch in. Berserker Isaac/Felix has great attack, Planetary, and Revive.

General Strategy

• Begin the battle with 3 Mercury and 3 Jupiter Djinn on standby and have either Ivan or Sheba summon Coatlicue on either the first or second turn (the first turn is probably best as the amount of HP Coatlicue restores is small when first summoned). This will ensure your party get automatic healing for the next five turns, allowing you to focus on buffing your party up. The boost to Mercury power will also increase the effectiveness of the Wish series.
• With Coatlicue taking care of your healing needs, have Ivan and Sheba both cast Impact on Isaac/Felix, which will max his attack. Then have them both cast the same on Garet to max his.
• Garet should cast Magic Shell, and Sheba should cast Resist once she has finished casting Impact on Isaac/Felix and Garet, until resistance is maxed.
• Isaac/Felix should focus on attacking first the Guardian Ball, then the Refresh balls. If Star Magican summons another of these types, attack those as well. Garet should also focus on eliminating these balls alongside casting support Psynergy when needed.
• In an ideal battle, you'll end up with Star Magician having 4 Thunder Balls. 1 Anger ball (maximum 2) is also ok - more than that though and you run the risk of them all self destructing on you in one turn, which will wipe out your party.
• Once Coatlicue has worn off, Ivan and Sheba should focus on using Wish and periodically casting Impact when your attack buffs wear off. If you are able, unleash another 3 Mercury and Jupiter Djinn for another Coatlicue summon. Aside from this, however, Djinn and summons should be avoided - you could end up being put in a weaker class and losing access to your valuable healing psynergy, and a strong summon would also down all of the Thunder Balls, giving Star Magican the chance to summon more Guardian and Refresh balls.
• Isaac/Felix should then focus on simply attacking Star Magician with Excalibur. With Unleash boosting equipment such as Hyper Boots, Erinyes Tunic, and Aegis Shield, they should be Unleashing Legend more often than not. With two Impacts cast to max attack, if Legend triples it's damage you should do over 1000 damage to Star Magician each time.
• Garet should also attack Star Magician, ideally with the Fire Brand you will have found shortly before the battle. With Hyper Boots and an Aegis Shield to boost his unleash rate, and his attack maxed, he should do decent damage against Star Magician.
• If someone is downed, have Sheba Revive them. If Sheba is downed, switch her for Mia or Templar Jenna in a pinch.
• So long as you keep on top of your buffing Psynergies and healing with Wish or Coatlicue, you should have little problem defeating Star Magician even with a lower levelled party. Only a couple of adepts should be downed and easily revived or switched - you shouldn't have to use the entirety of the second party at all.

Strategy 4 (At low level in Hard Mode)

• Suggested Level: 30 and above in Hard Mode, can work at an even lower level in Normal Mode
• Suggested first party and classes: Ivan & Piers (Sage), Isaac/Felix & Garet (Berserker)
• Suggested second party and classes: Jenna (Fire Master), Isaac/Felix (Lord), Mia & Sheba (Sage)
• Required Djinns on the first party: Flash (Garet or Isaac/Felix), Shade (Piers or Ivan)
• Required equipments : Equipments that can restore or boost MP equiped on some of your characters in the Wizzard class. Also, the Fire Brand, found in this dungeon can be very helpful.
• Strategy : This strategy is for patient and experienced players. You can fight him just after recruiting the characters from the original Golden Sun. The main goal here is to endure Star Magician and his minion's assaults for a very long period of time (Mine Ball can be very deadly, especially if he use it twice in one turn...).

Characters roles

• Your characters will have different roles (They can be switched, depending on your preferences). Garet and Piers will be your Djinns casters : one will cast his protective aura while the other will set his Djinn for the next turn, so you stay safe during the whole fight. Isaac will be your main attacker (With Planetary or with his weapon unleash if he runs out of MP). The last one will serve as support, using Wish Well on the team or Impact on your main attacker. Be sure to NOT LET DIE any of your Djinns casters, or it'll mostly be Game Over for you...

First step : Killing his supportives minions

• First of all, focus your attack on his Refresh and Guardian Balls. Since on the first turn one of your Djinn Caster will be free, it won't be too hard to kill one of them on the first round. Repeat the process utill he only have Thunder or Anger Balls with him. The first ones aren't too dangerous so you'll have to keep them alive during the whole fight to prevent him to summons Guardian or Refresh Balls.

Second step : Dealing with the Star Magician Himself

• Now you can focus on the main boss. Be carefull to still use a protective Djinn and set the other every turn. If you make a mistake, your whole team can be severly punished or your weakest characters can die in a single round. During the turn you use Flash, you can use another attacker from your second team (Jenna or Felix/Isaac) to deal with him quickly. If you're properly equipped and under the Impact effect, you can do 800-900 HP each turn on the Star Magician. Don't forget to heal your main team from time to time (Jenna as a Fire Master can fit both role, as an attacker and a weaker healer with Healing Aura). Repeat the process until the Star Magician dies, then kill the remaining balls.

Tips :

• Avoid using summons on the ennemies, since it deals lots of dammages on multiple ennemies. If a Thunder Ball dies, the Star Magician can summon a Refresh or a Guardian Ball, forcing you to repeat the first step.
• If one of your Djinns casters dies, make sure to resurect him as soon as possible. If your main attacker or supporter dies, you can simply switch with another one or resurect him if you want.
• This battle can takes a lot of time, but if you play carefully and equip your MP restoring items on your healers, while making sure he don't die, you won't run of MP before the end of the battle.

Strategy 5 - minimum level game, without summons

This is a feat that is very possible to achieve! And you can do that in 2 different ways: (#)

Without codes:

Method (1)

2 characters in total, 1 per game in Golden Sun 1 and 2 will need to be chosen to not be used in all the big boss battles. You'll unfortunately/ luckily, depending on your mindset need to level up one of the characters each game to finish the game (story-line wise).

Golden SUN 1 and 2 needs to be played almost wholly because the Boss's, like the Star Magician are only reached at the end of Golden Sun 2. Now, reach that point of the game you reach the Star Magician, having all your other characters KO'd (so they do not gain a level)! And revive them just before the fight!

Method (2)

Play your game of Golden Sun 1 normally and send a modified password (with minimum level characters) to your second game.

Using a code (gameshark):

Just put in a code to not let your characters gain any levels. Once done, you can play the game almost normally. Your characters will not gain any levels.

Then, it is best to collect all the djinni in the game, from Golden Sun 1 and 2 with the number of 72 djinni in total. (use less, if you want an even harder challenge :) ).

What I did from Golden Sun 1 on, to succeed that feet, is finding the right equipment.

GOLDEN SUN 1: collect all the speed enhancing equipment from Tolbi Spring and transfer it to golden sun 2. The same goes for the Djinni and resistance-enhancing equipment and eventually the virtuous armlet, for Mia (to improve her "wish" psynergy).

GOLDEN SUN 2: Collect the trainer's whip, which is essential for Piers to cast a better form of "wish", called: "elder wood". From the Lemuria spring, collect speed enhancing equipment as well, like multiple copies (8) of the aerial gloves, you can get via the Shaman trial Road glitch. The same applies to the guardian ring, and Ninja hoods/ garbs/ Elven shirt you can get multiple copies of, once you reach Contigo. There are much, much more types of speed enhancing equipment as well, like the quick boots.

In short: make your party as speedy as possible. To be precise: make them speedier than Star Magician, who has 268 points in Agility (look above).

Give your important characters, like Piers PP-recovery equipment, that up the defenses as much as possible. I used the crown of Glory, the Mysterious Robe (from Prox) and the Iris Robe among all the most important available equipment for my characters.

The battle - preparation + rules towards success:

If one character is downed, revive him/ her immediately. By losing 2 characters, you effectively lose 1 whole turn to attack !!!

Spread all the djinni evenly that give ALL or most of your characters the ability to revive them. Collect as much waters of life as possible, from the slots OR trial Road glitch to those who cannot revive their comrades (reliabely) because you will need at least 5 of them. Next, place speed lowering Djinni (towards enemies) and/ or speed enhancing Djinni (for your own characters) on those who you choose to let attack.

Use Flash, Shade, Granite, Lull and/or Haze on 2 characters on the outskirts of the party (to lessen the damage of the enemies). Then attack, or summon Rush the Star Magician if needed.

BATTLE METHODS:

In general: fell the Star Magician at first, THEN the ball minions. Following which strategy you pick: a normal battle or summon rush, you'll fell the magician respectively after quite a while or relatively quickly.

METHOD 1 - SUMMON RUSH (quick way - tried and tested)

Note: the Summon Rush is the cheapest method done best, ONCE and only ONCE the guardian ball has been defeated. The reason is because it has a function, similar to the Djinni Flash, but even more improved.

Personally: I wouldn't do a low level/ minimum level game, with all those preparations to finish my enemy like that. That's why I prefer to battle them via the second method:

METHOD 2 - STANDARD BATTLE (longer, what I tried and tested)

General info:

This method needs a little bit more tactical abilities. If you battle well here ... Then, believe me ... The end boss at the Mars Lighthouse will be a piece of cake!

Do all the steps done beforehand, like described above (#) to improve your chances at succeeding. Use the Djinni Flash and Company alternatively and almost permanently.

To lessen the duration of a battle, think about using the best/ or as good as possible weapons in the game. In case you wish to SAFELY perform the longer battle, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT put more than 2 Djinni in standby, ready to summon them. Using more than 2 will put you at great risk. This is especially true for Sheba and Ivan.

Note: I remarked that Coatlieue, while being a very useful summon in normal game play, is only useful here to a small extent. It uses 3 to 1 whole ( = extremely risky) preparation turns, with a specific setup, where you almost do not attack ... To set it up. Your party has a small HP pool in that kind of battle, so using it is not the best, but a viable solution.

That's why I suggest you to use the Djinni their stat boosts as a type of permanent shield or HP enhancer. The Djinni: Flash, Shade, Granite, Lull and/or Haze + the wish series and equipments, like the trident are there to cover you. Use forged Golem Core equipment to improve the HP rate of a character.

Battle explanation:

Part 1: Make sure the star Magician is only protected by 4 guardian balls, this requires some luck, because felling 1 ball by one is the most secure, but from time to time the most time consuming process to make a Guardian ball appear.

WHY?! The angry ball literally explodes a low level party with ease; the Thunder ball shocks your party in 1 swoop and the Refresh Ball makes your attacks worthless, due to HP recovery. The guardian balls on their own just protect the magician or themselves.

On the top of that, with 4 guardian balls, the guard is (very rarely) left completely open, which grants you the ability to do a full scale attack, if well-prepared !!! (this happened +- 3 times to me in a whole battle).

Part 2: Protect yourself against the Magician his attacks and fell him at first !!! That process will take some time. Once the magician is finished, those Guardian balls will prove to be no threat at all!!!

They can only use the "defend" command, so... You'll chop them down with ease.

Good luck!

Once you've succeeded that feat, then try it in hard Mode as well. It's not as difficult as you might think. You just need to be able to strategize a little bit, be very persistent, think and prepare yourself well ahead to accomplish that :)

As a boss in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

As in The Lost Age, the Star Magician is one of four "superbosses" that the player may choose to fight, the others being the Ancient Devil, the Ogre Titans, and Dullahan. The Star Magician is the only one of the quartet that can be fought prior to gaining the Sol Blade, requiring only the Search Psynergy to explore the ship. The battle still remains one of the tougher ones, partly due to its early accessibility, and partly due to its somewhat enhanced battle strategy.

The version of Star Magician in Dark Dawn's Lost Ship fights very similarly to the Lost Age version. The main difference is that there are two more kinds of Balls that Mystic Call can bring up, apparently associated with the revealed fundamentals, light and darkness. Black Death Balls (darkness-connected) can cast Condemn. Much more irksome are the yellow Ghoul Balls (light-connected), which can "eat" one of your Djinn. Once eaten, a Djinni is essentially in constant Recovery, unavailable for summons and contributing no stats. The only way to get the Djinni back is to destroy the Ghoul Ball that ate it (or, of course, Star Magician, whose destruction destroys all of his Balls). Both these Balls are apparently earth-aligned, and vulnerable to Jupiter attacks. When the encounter starts, Star Magician is accompanied by one each of Refresh, Guardian, Death, and Ghoul Balls. Also in Dark Dawn, the Refresh Balls will cast Pure Ply on any enemy, as opposed to just the boss like they did in The Lost Age, making them not nearly as annoying.

Trivia

• Unusually, data exists in the game code for what was apparently planned to be two palette-swapped versions of Star Magician. Neither of them are actually any visually different from the Star Magician, and their statistics and abilities have not been completed at all, leaving them with weak placeholder stats and skills. This is actually the same story with certain other unique bosses such as Sentinel and Valukar, but what makes Star Magician's case unique is that each of these copy enemies have their own names, registered as Dark Wizard and Evil Shaman.
• Star Magician is notable among The Lost Age's optional bosses in that it can be battled as soon as Isaac's party joins your team. The Teleport Psynergy, found in Mars Lighthouse, is needed to reach the other three, and additional requirements on top of that to fight Dullahan.
• Similarly, in Dark Dawn, the Star Magician can be battled as soon as Himi joins the party, whilst the Ancient Devil and Ogre Titan cannot be battled until the Sol Blade is acquired in the final dungeon. Likewise, Dullahan cannot be fought until the final boss is defeated at least once.
• The Star Magician is one of only two bosses in the entire series that can be officially fought in multiple games. The other such boss is Dullahan.
• Star Magician is the only "super boss" in Dark Dawn whose weakness is the opposite element of the summon it guards: It guards a Mercury summon but is weak against Mars. This is not true in The Lost Age, as Valukar and Sentinel have similar properties.