Brand

Brand is a Mars Djinni found in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Brand resides at the top screen of the Passaj Mountain Climb dungeon-style area, right before the town of Passaj.

Basic description[]

When Set, Brand increases its Adept's base HP by 8, base PP by 4, base Defense by 2, and base Agility by 3.

When Brand is unleashed in battle, the target is afflicted with the Psynergy Sealstatus condition, which prevents it from using Psynergy (i.e. an effect that would consume PP), just like the Bind Psynergy. Unlike the Bind Psynergy, which has very iffy accuracy, Brand is guaranteed to inflict Seal on the enemy it is used on.

In Dark Dawn, Brand's unleash animation visually resembles the 3D model of Brand appears in front of the target, then disappears after a moment. What follows is identical to the visual of the Bind Psynergy - the purple Psynergy Seal symbol rotates at the enemy's place while it and the enemy are surrounded by a field of multiple, multi-colored rings that gather into the symbol.

Location[]

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Brand resides at the top screen of the Passaj Mountain Climb dungeon-style area, right before the town of Passaj. Brand will be clearly visibly looking down on you from an elevated ledge the first time you make the trip up to Passaj, but you cannot get to it until the second time you go to Passaj, with the Sol Mask from the Ouroboros dungeon in your possession. Once you use the Sol Mask at the Alchemy Forge and go through the story-relevant cutscenes that transforms Passaj into a fortress-like area with raised walls, go up the new stairs to the right of the weapon and armor shop and walk along the wall down to its two exits to the side of the normal exit, and take the left exit down. Back down in the screen that has Brand in it, slide down the cliff slide to the lower left, then hop and follow along the linear path to your right until you slide down another cliff slide at the lower right part of the area, just to the right of Brand. Collect Brand without a fight. Now return to Passaj by casting Growth on the plant to the upper right and following it back north.

Analysis[]

General: Brand and any of the Djinn identical to it automatically make the Bind Psynergy worthless because they inflict the status effect with full accuracy, compared to how often Bind misses. There are only specific cases in any game when this effect can be useful, though, since it only prevents an enemy from using Psynergy - any ability that uses up any PP from the user's PP meter - while not limiting its ability to attack and use Monster Skills.

Ability analysis[]

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Brand is one of the two Djinn in this game with the accurate Psynergy-sealing effect, and it is found about a third through the game, while its identical counterpart Rime is found late in the game. This means that Brand is the Djinni that provides this effect for much of the game, and the party will only be getting a second counterpart to it near the end. Naturally, in concept these Djinn are valuable for obsoleting the inaccurate Bind Psynergy, but at present it is not known whether there are boss enemies that get as successfully hindered as in previous games. Since Dullahan returns with all the same abilities, it can be presumed that Brand only serves to help Dullahan because it must use its powerful monster skills in place of its comparatively harmless status effect Psynergy.

Name Origin[]

Branding something is creating a mark on an object by charring it.