Trial Road

Trial Road's entrance has historic pillars, upon which are engraved the names of Shaman's heroes.

Trial Road is a dungeon-style location connected to Shaman Village. In The Lost Age, Felix's party and the town leader Moapa compete in a dungeon race similar to Colosso in Golden Sun. It is laid out as two parallel dungeon paths, with different puzzles in them, and unlike Colosso you can choose which one to race on while Moapa races on the other. At the mountainous peak of Trial Road, the boss battle with Moapa and two Knights would ensue. Afterwards, after gaining the Hover and Lift Psynergies, a secret area near the peak houses a Jupiter Djinni.

Description

Before entering Trial Road, Moapa will test the party to see if they are worthy of the ascent. The player will recognize the large pink stone from Air's Rock. Sheba will cast Whirlwind on it to clear the way. This act will surprise Moapa, who was not expecting the hero to be a girl, much to Sheba's anger.

Interestingly enough, the dialogue between Moapa and your companions suggests that he and his warriors have successfully climbed Trial Road. Although the puzzles ahead do NOT require Psyenergy to complete (you only need Psyenergy for the chests or to solve the puzzle more quickly), Moapa would have been unable to access these trials before because he does not possess the power of Anemos. The power needed being Whirlwind (or Gale, which works the same way) to clear the sand in front of Trial Road.

Regardless, once this is done, Moapa will explain the rules, which are quite simple, Trial Road is a series of puzzle-filled rooms which the player must race to complete. If the player arrives first, then progress to the next door will require the player to temporarily surrender one piece of equipment to progress. If the player arrives second, then two items must be surrendered. The same holds true for Moapa, and he will be weaker in the final battle if the player finishes rooms faster than he does. The player can choose from one of two routes, each with different puzzles. Whichever they player chooses, Moapa and crew will take the other.

As a note, the player is not stripped of items before entering the race, as they were during Colosso, so it is likely the player will already have some healing items, as well as having access to all Adepts and thus any healing Psynergy they normally would have. Therefore there is more value in fast completion than in obtaining items, so this description will focus on a fast completion, rather than one that allows access to all the items. If the player so desires, Trial Road can be repeatedly entered, and hence any skipped items can be gathered at a leisurely pace after the dungeon is completed.

Left Route

Note: The order of rooms changes depending on the name Felix is given at the beginning of the game. If Felix is not named "Felix", all 8 of these rooms will be shuffled in different orders depending on the name given.

Room 1

Sand and Whirlwind make room 1 a piece of cake.

The first room on the left route consists of a sand-waterfall, like those found in Yampi Desert or Ankohl Ruins. There is a Potion in the chest. The fastest way to complete this room is to cast Sand and climb the waterfall, step off to the right and cast Whirlwind. Climb up to access the exit.

Room 2

By rolling the logs into this position, Felix becomes able to advance through the second room.

The second room on the left route is a log-rolling challenge. It is fairly simple, the player will have to push the horizontal log up. Then, cast Move on the pillar and push it up one space. Push the horizontal log up one space, and both vertical logs to the left. Push the horizontal log down, and the pillar one space right and up. Then push the top vertical log right, into the water. The player can now jump across and climb the vines to the next room, or they can push the horizontal log back up, then the remaining vertical log right to access the chest, which contains a Vial.

In room 3, it is probably easier to ignore the vines and simply take this route instead.

Room 3

The third room has several pillars to push. Cast whirlwind on the rightmost vine-covered pillar and push it all the way up. climb the vine, hop across and climb the second vine to reach the exit. The other vine-covered pillar can be whirlwind-ed and pushed to reach the Vial, although it may be faster to push the other three pillars and jump across and climb up and down instead, if the chest is the objective.

Utilising Scoop will enable Felix to quickly clear room 4.

Room 4

The fourth room can simply be completed by pushing the pillar in between the rock-surrounded geysers. Jump over the geysers and across to reach the exit. Alternatively, casting Scoop on the left or right indents will also provide a shortcut (the middle one is a dead-end). Either way, the Potion on the right can be accessed by climbing back down the vines before reaching the end of the racing section of Trial Road.

Right Route

Putting the pillars in this pattern will stop the pillars from falling, and speed up your ascent through room 1.

Room 1

The first room contains pillar-jumping puzzle. Cast Pound on both poundable pillars, and push a pillar onto both of the spots now vacated. Pushing the third pillar into the middle will allow access to a Vial . Either way, climb the vine on the right and jump across to reach the exit.

In room 2, it is easier to simply push this pillar all the way up, than to bother with the other pillars.

Room 2

In the second room, simply push the leftmost pillar all the way up, climb the vine and jump across to the exit. It is not worth the time penalty to get the Vial .

Crushing (or Bursting) this pillar will enable quick passage through room 3.

Room 3

The third room is a Burst-puzzle. Firstly, the chest is easily accessed, simply climb and get it. It contains a Nut. Then, either burst or jump on the pillar twice (probably faster to jump on them, given Burst's long animation), and climb the vine behind it. The left one will only lead to a Potion, while the right will lead both to a Vial and the exit.

Using Move and Frost will create a path for Felix to clear room 4.

Room 4

The fourth room contains a Frost-related puzzle. To reach the chest, melt the right ice pillar by pushing the burning torch next to it, then away again, allowing you to jump over and collect the Vial . Otherwise, Move both pillars toward you, melt the left ice pillar and jump over, refreezing it with Frost once you are done. Climb up and jump over to reach the final exit.

Summit

Atop the summit of Trial Road is an ancient arena, where Moapa will challenge the party to a duel.

Climb the vines next to the exit and jump across into the colored circle to complete the race portion of this dungeon by triggering the boss battle with Moapa. However, later in the game, once Jupiter Lighthouse has been completed, a second area can be accessed. Using Hover on the purple tiles next to the left exit will allow the player to float across to a new stairwell. Once inside, Lift the boulder and proceed down the pathway to an area with multiple springs. Here, casting cyclone on a patch of grass to the left will cause a battle with a Mad Plant, but more importantly, the Jupiter Djinni Gasp can be found here. The chest contains an Elixir. Also of note is that unlike the rest of Trial Road, this area does have random encounters.

Battle at the Secret Area of the Trial Road

Enemies

Bestiary of Trial Road
Monster Name	LVL	HP	ATK	DEF	AGI	EXP	Coins	Weakness	Drop	Drop Rate
Mole Mage	31	199	265	47	74	191	132		Antidote	1/32
Nightmare	31	258	287	89	138	241	198		Healing Ring	1/64
Pteranodon	31	242	291	100	166	341	174		Nut	1/16
Wargold	31	202	303	78	181	321	226		Oil Drop	1/16
Wolfkin	31	213	309	89	174	337	219		Weasel's Claw	1/16
Jupiter Djinni (Gasp) (unique)	32	870	276	84	239	1000	660		N/A	N/A
Mad Plant (unique)	35	730	358	103	174	1121	594		Lucky Pepper	1/1
Knight (2) (boss)	37	1954	321	106/151	143	835	205	Equal	N/A	N/A
Moapa (boss)	37	3042	354	120/174/219	181	1670	2460	Equal	N/A	N/A

Note: The defense ratings for Moapa and the Knights vary depending on how well players do in Trial Road; the more times a player beats Moapa to the blue chests, the more the enemies' defenses drop.

Item Duplication Glitch

When the test begins, if the player goes into their inventory and drops items and equipment, and later quits the same test by stepping on the arrow tile and choosing "Yes," the dropped items will appear in the shop's Artifacts list (if they are classified as such).

This is one of the best glitches to exploit, since the 'dropped' items will be returned to the player's possession after quitting the test. The player can restart the test and continually drop items, creating unlimited copies that can later be purchased. Thus multiple copies of unique items can be bought, such as the class-changing items, artifact weapons/armor/accessories like the Golden Boots, - assuming they are equipped, since non-equipped items of those types will temporarily disappear while playing Trial Road to prevent cheating with the chests - Lucky Medals, Psy Crystals, Waters of Life, and Forgeable items. The glitch cannot be used to duplicate rusty items or stat-boosting items such as Power Bread because those disappear while playing Trial Road.

This glitch becomes unavailable once Trial Road is completed, meaning that the best end-game items cannot be duplicated.