Golden Sun/Vault

After some incredibly lengthy cut scenes, you will find yourself outside Vale, and you have been tasked with retrieving the three Elemental Stars that Saturos and Menardi have stolen, in order to save the world.

First of all, equip the catch beads to Isaac or Garet – this gives you the Catch psynergy. Catch allows you to grab items, usually from trees. If you see a nut (or other object) in a tree, don’t hesitate to try Catch.

Head south along the path until you meet the Venus Djinni, Flint. Flint will demonstrate the basics of using Djinn in and out of battle.

Vault
Now that that has finished, follow the road along until you reach a junction, and then head south, until you find the town of Vault. Try to enter, and you will be treated to a cut scene of a group of wagons, lead by Master Hammet attempting to travel south, to Kalay. However, the bridge is out, so they head north, to Lunpa.

Once this is over, you now end up in Vault. If you need to heal or regain PP, use your coins to pay for a night at the inn. However, this does not revive your characters, cure poisons or remove curses. To do that, you must visit the town sanctum.

Vault, like every other town, has a weapon and armor shop, and a restorative item shop. If you have collected enough gold coins, visit the shop to upgrade your weapons and armor. This is something you should get into the habit of doing at every town you come across.

Once you have bought any items you need, head to the mayor’s house, and go inside. Go right to the back, and talk to the boy with blond hair. You will discover that this is Ivan, another Adept. He can read minds, and has far stronger psynergy than you currently do. Agree to help him find his master’s rod, and Ivan will join your party.

To get started on finding the rod, head to the inn, and go up the stairs to the top floor. Go to talk to the two people you find in the room. When they run away, go to leave. You will now try to surround one of the thieves.

Once you have surrounded one, Ivan will read their mind, and discover that they hid the items somewhere in the inn. Go outside, and head up the ladder on the outside of the inn, and go into the hole. Use your Move psynergy to move the large crate to the left, then jump across the hole in the floor, and go right. You will discover a boy who has been tied up. Go and talk to him to free him, but just then, the three thieves walk in.

After a brief discussion, they will attack!

Boss Battle: Bandit and Thieves
This is your first boss battle of Golden Sun, and a fairly easy one. These enemies do not have any particular strengths or weaknesses you can exploit.

Make sure that Ivan attacks every turn with Ray, Garet can use Flare (Fire if you already have it) or normal attacks, while Isaac should use normal attacks, Quake (or Earthquake if you are already level 4), Flint and the Venus summon, or Cure to heal your party. Make sure to concentrate your attacks on the central bandit, as he is the strongest.

Once you win this battle, you will receive the Bandit’s Sword. It is weaker than a Long Sword, but it has a special ability – a weapon unleash called Rapid Smash. It can either be sold for a considerable sum (for this point in the game), given to a character, or kept to be given out later.

After the battle, Ivan will collect the Shaman’s Rod and leave Vault for Lunpa, to attempt to find his master.

Leave Vault, and head right. Cross the bridge, and keep going right, following the road, until you see a cave entrance. This is the entrance to Goma Cave.