Statistics

Certain Psynergy can be used in battle to augment stats temporarily.

The Djinn play into the stat mechanic heavily, as they change a character's class, which in turn changes character stats; for the better or worse.

Statistics, often abbreviated to Stats, in the Golden Sun series are no different than in any other RPG. The status screen tells you each Adept's name, stats, current class, and any status conditions affecting them.

Methods of increasing/decreasing Stats

There are several ways of increasing an adept's specific stat. The most common is through the use of equipment, as well as consumable items that permanently raise a stat, such as a cookie or mint. The second method is used within battle: adepts may have several buffing-type Psynergies available depending on their class, that are used to raise an adept's or entire parties' stats temporarily; these boosts disappear after the battle. The player should be aware of the spell Break, which negates all bonuses the party may have cast for themselves; consequently most bosses possess this spell. Lastly, Djinn can be reordered among characters to change classes and in turn raise or lower stats. This is extremely useful for building an adept's luck rating, as their are but few other ways of doing so.

At times, it may actually be desirable to lower a stat. This becomes apparent when abusing the Random Number Generator to acquire drop-items from enemies: usually, it will be required that the monster be felled with a specific element of Djinn on a specific turn (most often the second). If a normally speedy character such as Ivan lacks the attack power to fell the monster at the start of that turn, it is suggested to lower his agility rating by way of class change, or agility-reducing equipment such as the Turtle Boots. This way, one can weaken the monster with the other battling adepts and have Ivan finish the monster with the Djinn strike, guaranteed.

Types

Level

The character's current level, which increases when the Adept gains enough experience points. As an Adept's level increases, so does their HP, PP, Attack, Defense, and Agility.

Experience

The character's current amount of experience points. It also tells you how many more points you need to reach the next level. Experience points are gained by defeating enemies. Adepts who are downed do not receive any experience. In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Adepts not battling only gain half as much experience as usual. Felling an enemy with an offensive Djinni increases the amount of experience that enemy gives.

Hit Points

The character's current and maximum amount of Hit Points (also called HP). As Adepts and enemies take damage their HP is depleted. When anyone's HP reaches zero that person is Downed and cannot fight or receive experience points. There are many ways to recover lost HP or raise a character's maximum HP. There are also several ways to revive Downed Adepts, the first of which is to visit a Sanctum (although the easiest would probably be the Revive Psynergy).

Psynergy Points

The character's current and maximum amount of Psynergy Points (also called PP). Every time an Adept or enemy uses Psynergy (either in or out of battle) their PP is depleted. Psynergy spells cannot be cast if the caster doesn't have enough PP remaining. There are also some moves that lower the target's PP. There are several ways to recover lost PP, the simplest of which is to simply walk around outside of battle, or to raise an Adept's maximum PP.

Attack

Attack determines how much damage the Adept will do when attacking with weapons, offensive Djinn, and certain Psynergies (such as Ragnarok). The higher an Adept's Attack, the more damage they can dish out. Attack can be increased in many ways, the most common of which is by equipping weapons.

Defense

Defense determines how much damage the Adept will take when attacked with any method involving the enemy's Attack. The higher an Adept's Defense, the less damage they take, preventing them from being Downed. Defense can be increased in many ways, the most common of which is by equipping armor.

Agility

Agility Determines the turn order in battle. The Adept or enemy with the highest Agility takes the first action, the one with the second-highest Agility has the next action, etc., although there are exceptions. There are ways to boost an Adept's Agility, although they are not as common as Attack and Defense boosting effects.

When using djinn and equipment, they all have a different, ... "priority". Try to remember them well. Even djinn, amongst themselves do not have the same priority. Unleashing the djinni "Breath" will always act before the usage of a djinni like Echo, or no matter how fast a character is !!!

Luck

The higher a character's Luck is, the better their odds of avoiding status-affecting attacks. If Luck reaches 40, the Adept becomes immune to illnesses.

Djinn

Shows how many Djinn of each element are assigned to that Adept, as well as how many are set.

Elemental Levels

This is a general indicator of how skilled that Adept is with each element. Each Adept starts with level 0 in their assigned element, with a point of 9 being the highest achievable for 1 element in a mono-elemental class in Golden Sun 2 and Dark Dawn, while 7 being the maximum in Golden Sun 1. This is derived from the maximum number of Djinn a character can have..

Besides being able to achieve the maximum level for an Elemental Level, characters are able to be proficient in different elements as well. If you have, for example 3 djinni of 3 different elements: earth, fire, wind on an adept, no matter what base type the adept is ... A character in that case will be at level 3 for earth, fire and wind.

The same applies to another number of djinni for other elements. Having 1 Mercury, 2 Mars; 1 Jupiter and 4 Venus still results in a level 1 for water, level 2 for fire, 1 for wind and 4 for earth respectively, with a max, (or general level, in that case) of 8, contrary to 9 in the first example, where the adept has 9 djinni.

So ...The current number of djinn a character has, depends the highest levels he can have for 1 or 4 different elements at a maximum!

This in turn has an effect on the characters themselves, becoming dual, partial, tri-elemental classes, to just give an example of the class branches, derived from the basic Mono-Elemental classes. This also changes the psynergies they can use.

In Short:

Elemental Levels are a good oversight to know how much damage you can dish out and at the same time how much you can resist from each element. Elemental Powers give almost the same data, but in greater detail. (more explained below).

Elemental Powers: Elemental Power and Resistance

Elemental Powers are given a somewhat similar approach to how Elemental Levels are ranked, but in greater detail. 200 is the maximum power, 0 the minimum, with 100 being a standard reference to indicate a normal elemental effectiveness, both offensively-wise or resistant-wise.

Just like the elemental levels: each Djinni has an effect on what power can be dished out. But if you inspect it more closely, equipments, weapons and some special items, like the Trident of Ankohl, the Warrior's helm set to a character or even summons increase or decrease that person's Elemental Level.

To sum up the differences:

Elemental Levels are more fixed due to djinni, while Elemental Power is more influencable by what is cited above, to the point of being possible to be debuffed by a move, called "break".

Resistance

Resistance is how well you can resist damage from each element. A high resistance reduces damage from elemental attacks. Resist increases by 5 for each level in that element. Some equipment, Psynergies, and Djinn effects can also raise or lower an Adept's resistance.