Bane

"Attack with nature's venom."

Bane is a Venus Djinni found in Golden Sun and is numerically the seventh Venus Djinni in the games' official Djinni ordering and thus the final Venus Djinni of the first game.

Location[]

Bane is located in the sixth floor of the optional Crossbone Isle. The entire room is a puzzle maze that must be fully solved in order to both exit it and get the Djinni, with the idea being to hound it to the elevated portion at the lower right of the room and trap it with Halt like on Kite at Vale Cave. Refer here for the full walkthrough on Floor 6 of Crossbone Isle.

Description[]

When Set, it increases base HP by 12 and base Attack by 4.

When Bane's battle effect is used, the user attacks and a vaporous red cloud is let loose upon impact. It deals a Venus-based attack equal in power to the user's normal physical attack with an additional 60 damage points, and there is a chance that the target will be afflicted with the Deadly Poison status condition. It is similar to the Jupiter Djinni Wheeze, but with that being Jupiter-aligned and dealing 10 less bonus damage.

Ability analysis[]

In Golden Sun, Bane is invaluable because of the powerful and practical Deadly Poison effect it can trigger, making it one of only two possible options the party has to apply Deadly Poison (the other being the Unleash effect of the Wicked Mace). What blunts its usefulness is that the endgame enemies it would have the greatest effect upon - Deadbeard, Saturos and Menardi, and the Fusion Dragon - are nearly immune to status effects being applied onto them, and random monsters typically die in very few rounds of battle before the venom has a chance to kick in and be useful. As for pure damage, Flint outperforms Bane in that area in an endgame party. However, that it has the highest added base damage in the first game makes it respectable even if its secondary effect does not kick in, perhaps as a substitute for Flint. Possibly the best chance for this Djinni to shine is when used against the mini-bosses of Crossbone Isle in the remaining floors, such as against the Cerebuses (the venom will do an astounding 440 or so damage at the end of each turn to a Cerebus). It also works effectively against the infinitely respawning Tempest Lizard of Suhalla Desert, as it is one of the few endgame bosses not completely immune to venom. This makes for a quick fight and high EXP.

In The Lost Age, when Isaac's party joins Felix's party along with their returning Djinn (granted that Password data transfer is in effect), Bane is essentially a slightly stronger Venus-element variation on the Jupiter Djinni Wheeze. Whenever the Venom effect kicks in, it deals heavy damage based on how much HP the enemy has, but the near-immunity of any boss-like enemy prevents that effect from happening from either of these Djinn.

Name Origin[]

Bane was a term used in the Middle Ages for poisonous plants, possibly why this Djinni is capable of poisoning its target. In addition, plants are associated with the Earth element, which makes sense for a Venus Djinni.