Golden Sun 2 - Any% FAQ

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Golden Sun: The Lost Age - Any% FAQ
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Q: What are you playing on?
A: I'm currently playing on my Gamecube using a Game Boy Player. I use a Dualshock 1 as a controller thanks to an adapter.

Q: How are you progressing the text while taking a bathroom break?
A: The game auto-scrolls text if you hold the B button, so I hold it down with an object while I go to the toilet. It's a long game that's lacking in good bathroom break spots and sadly I have a very weak bladder and a room that's 2 sets of stairs away from my bathroom. This method of text scrolling is slower than manually mashing so I still lose time by doing this, but I'm able to minimize it to seconds rather than minutes.

Q: Do you use a password to carry over data from Golden Sun 1?
A: No, we use the party the game gives us. There is no reason to use a password, unless you intend to bring over a very high levelled party, which would make the last part of the run very uninteresting.

Q: What's up with Felix's name?
A: Several puzzles in the game are decided through Felix's name, more specifically the final puzzle in the Gabomba Statue, the maze in Gaia Rock and the Trial Road puzzles. This doesn't really do much for the first 2, except make them consistent and thus predictable, but Trial Road is sped up immensely by generating the fastest set of puzzles. The characters in Felix's name all have a certain value and the total needs to add up to 143 in hexadecimal for the right road or 100/84/86/93 for the left road. Some of the names that fit this are (^_^, $waG and ~~G for right or ^^D and >_<' for left.

You can find a list of the values for each character here http://pastebin.com/Yb6h1Rva
Baffan also made a script that gets possible names for each hexadecimal number (this only includes 3-character names) https://baffan.com/gs2/

Q: Do you use Isaac's party?
A: I currently do not, but I might change that at some point. Using Isaac's party can have some nice benefits as they are a higher level when you get them making for more survivability and killing power, however the strategies I'm currently using are routed with Felix's party in mind. I do however use the Djinni they bring along.

Q: Are the Djinni in Isaac's party fixed?
A: No, there are various sets of Djinni you can get. This can however be manipulated at the start of the run by clearing Felix's name 11 times, this will get me Flash, Ground, Tonic and Kite as well as a bunch of other djinni that aren't as important.

Q: Why do you fight encounters instead of fleeing?
A: Fleeing is not guaranteed, even less so since you're usually slightly underlevelled and failing multiple flees can put you at serious risk of dying, so fighting is usually the safer option unless you have "attacks first" which guarantees a flee. Aside from that you need a certain amount of levels anyway to be be able to deal with bosses properly, so fighting stuff along the way eliminates the need for grinding.

Q: Can't the RNG be manipulated like in Golden Sun 1?
A: Not entirely no. Unlike Golden Sun 1, the opening cutscene and title screen of Golden Sun 2 changes the random number every frame and there's a fixed waiting time untill you can progress past the title screen after skipping the opening cutscene. In order to consistently manipulate it I would have to be able to skip the cutscene on the first frame possible and then clear the title screen on the first frame possible after the waiting period.

Despite this, I do try to manipulate the RNG in a few points during the run by using an audio cue from the background track. There is currently 2 points where I do this: forging the Spirit Ring and getting Wild Coats + Leda's Bracelet from the fountain in Lemuria.

Additionaly, while I can't consistently do complete RNG manipulation, there is a more primitive form of it I can do for a bunch of the bosses. The game basically has 2 random numbers worth noting, the General Random Number (GRN) and the Battle Random Number (BRN). The GRN I can't consistently manipulate for the reasons above, but the BRN is only changed in battle and can be consistently set to 0 with a hard reset. This allows me to predict which moves are going to be used to some extent, I just can't predict who gets targeted. I can also change the BRN in my favour prior to starting a fight by using a 2nd file (that I create during the run) and engaging in battle there, then soft resetting, which doesn't reset the random numbers.

Q: Why are the Spirit Ring, Wild Coats and Leda's Bracelet important?
A: The Spirit Ring heals my entire party for the same amount as the psynergy Wish Well, it is also the only item of its kind that doesn't have a chance of breaking when used outside of combat. It is an important part of the strats for killing the Serpent with 0 lights as well as Poseidon. Aside from this it's just generally useful to have around as it takes the burden of healing away from Felix and Piers, making the run safer.

The Wild Coats give 40 agility and are neccesary to outspeed Doom Dragon when combined with Zephyr. They also just generally make the run faster as you outspeed most enemies, giving them less or no opportunity to attack. Less actions, less damage, less downtime for healing.

Leda's Bracelet boosts jupiter power by 30, making it a very useful accesory for Sheba, who together with the summon Eclipse will be my main powerhouse for bossfights from the moment I get it.

Q: How are you warping all over over the place?
A: This is most likely thanks to the Retreat Glitch. If you use Retreat through a hotkey (L or R) when you don't have enough PP, the game will get confused and think you are in the first room of the dungeon as if the Retreat succeeded, even though you're still in the same room. If you then interact with a door or chest in your current room it will instead interact with the corresponding door/chest in the first room, which are sometimes garbage data doors/chests stored out of bounds and if no such door exists it will instead send you to the global 0, 0 point, which is on a beach just outside of Madra (also known as the Madra door)

Additionaly if you save and reset after doing the retreat glitch, the game will put you in the first room at the same coordinates you were at in the room you used retreat in. This can allow you to get out of bounds and interact with garbage data doors directly.

Aside from the retreat glitch I also use something called Sanctum Warping in the run. If you hold L + Start while loading your file the game's built-in recovery system will activate and send you to the sanctum of the town you last visited.

Q: What classes are used throughout the run?
A: I use base classes up untill Aqua Rock Interior where I will put Jenna and Felix into the Brute series giving them access to the murder-element psynergy known as Planet Diver as well as very good offensive stats. Piers and Sheba will remain in their base classes untill after Moapa where they will go into the Hermit series for the remainder of the game giving them access to Hail Prism and Shine Plasma. To finish things off I will be putting Felix and Jenna into the Ninja class after Flame Dragons in Mars Lighthouse for some pretty filthy digusting offense stats as well as the Death Plunge and Shuriken psynergy.