Speed Punch (マッハパンチ, Mach Punch) is a stand-alone Jupiter-based offensive Psynergy introduced in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.

Basic Description

Speed Punch is an offensive, single-target Psynergy that is Attack-dependent, meaning that characters with higher Attack will deal more damage with this Psynergy. In addition, the caster's Jupiter Power and the target's Defense and Jupiter Resistance will all factor into the damage dealt.

Speed Punch

Jupiter

6 PP

"Delivers a punch at the speed of sound." (DD-present)

Attack a single enemy using a base damage of a normal physical attack plus an additional 33 points.

Visually, Speed Punch shows the caster rushing towards the enemy to throw a physical punch at high speed. Purple lines stream from the caster's fist, to indicate speed.

Availability

Speed Punch is available to the Scrapper class series and the Wild Animal class series. Thus, it is exclusive the the Jupiter Adept Sveta. The Scrapper class series is accessed when Sveta has been given Venus Djinn. The Wild Animal Class is accessed whenever Sveta uses the Beastform Psynergy. In both classes, Speed Punch is learned at Level 1.

Analysis

General: Speed Punch is relatively equal in power to the Ragnarok, Heat Wave, and Diamond Dust Psynergies. Out of the group, it is the earliest learned, being the first Psynergy available to both the Wild Animal and Scrapper classes. It is also the only physical elemental attack learned by the Wild Animal and Scrapper classes to be Jupiter-influenced. As the player progresses, Speed Punch becomes outclassed by Psynergy Slam and Psynergy Surge in terms of raw power. However, Speed Punch is much cheaper in terms of PP usage. which is useful when considering the lower PP multipliers of the two classes.

Vs. Djinn: Many, though not all, offensive Djinn use a damage multiplier instead of a fixed damage increase, in addition to the Power - Resistance multiplier. As a result, these Djinn have the potential to be much stronger than Speed Punch, especially in the later stages of a game when the Adept in question has a higher Attack rating. However, unleashing Djinn in battle places them in Standby, resulting in several two disadvantages. First, Djinn must be Set to affect a character's class; unleashing a Djinni may result in lower stats across the board, including Attack and Power, reducing the damage dealt by subsequent attacks. Second, a Djinni's effect cannot be used again until that Djinni is re-Set, which means either wasting a turn manually Setting the Djinni or using it to perform a Summon, after which the Djinn used must spend several turns Recovering before they automatically Set themselves.

Either way, offensive Djinn cannot be repeatedly used as easily as Psynergy, making Speed Punch more feasible for long-term combat for the Scrapper class. It should be noted when Sveta is in the Wild Animal class, Djinn cannot be accessed in any form. Thus, Speed Punch is automatically the offense of choice, both during the effects of Beastform and after exiting the form, should Sveta still have enough Venus Djinn Set to be in the Scrapper class.

By Game

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Speed Punch is not likely to see a great deal of use, as Sveta will already know the stronger Psynergy Slam by the time she permanently joins the party. However, many of the monsters in the Belinsk Ruins, as well as the final boss are weak against Jupiter, and thus Speed Punch can still prove useful. Given the high Attack multipliers of the Wild Animal class, Speed Punch will still do a decent amount of damage, while conserving more of the class's small PP pool. Generally, Speed Punch would be used over Psynergy Surge and Psynergy Slam in situations where the player desires a Jupiter-based Attack, or wants to conserve PP.