Taopo Swamp Walkthrough - Golden Sun: The Lost Age

The Taopo Swamp Dungeon is the first real Side Quest dungeon of Golden Sun: The Lost Age. You can access this dungeon immediately after you acquire the Lemurian Ship (and you should). From Alhafra you'll want to sail east around the continent and land on the beach in the southeast. From this beach you can run straight north to the town of Yallam.

Exit out of Yallam to the north and you'll find yourself on a new part of the World Map that we couldn't reach previously. From here you'll want to travel west and then southeast to reach Taopo Swamp (pictured below). All in all it's pretty easy to locate this dungeon.

Inside the dungeon the first 'puzzle room' you come to will be the large swamp. You'll have to use the Move Psynergy on the stump and Whirlwind on the vines to the north to access a cave. Inside here you can use Scoop on the item in the ground to get a Tear Stone. Exit the cave and now it's time to deal with the more annoying puzzle... the swamp.

Throughout the swamp you'll notice a bunch of bubbles coming up from below. Each time you step on these bubbles it will raise your character's height and basically reset your sinking. It doesn't matter how fast you run, you sink based on each movement you make. So it's more important to go slowly and make a direct line towards your target than it is to run there quickly.

You'll find the first treasure chest by exiting the swamp in the southeast (just south of where you entered). Inside the chest will be a Cookie. Our next goal is to reach the eastern side of the swamp which is where you'll find a plant to use Growth on as well as some vines that we can use Whirlwind on right next to it.

Note: To learn the Growth Psynergy you'll need to have at least one brown & red (Venus & Mars) Djinni on Felix or Jenna. Pairing these two Djinni will change the users class and grant them the Growth Psynergy. It doesn't matter if you have 3 Venus and 1 Mars or vice versa, as long as you have only these two types paired together on that user. Put the rest on Standby if you need to or trade them to different users.

At this point in time the dungeon breaks into two different halves. You'll notice in my screenshot above I have one door marked as 'Path 1 Djinni' and the other is marked as 'Path 2'. As you can surmise, Path 1 will lead you to a Djinni and the second path will lead you the rest of the loot that this dungeon has to offer.

Path 1 Djinni: Check out my Djinni Locations (Part 2) for exact details about how you can get Flower, the Djinni inside of here. Aside from Flower, you can also find some extra loot in this part of the dungeon by using Cyclone on the grass that you find. This will reveal a Mad Plant that will drop a Lucky Medal once defeated. The last item to find in this area is a Tear Stone , it will be half buried and you'll have to Scoop it out.

Path 2: The second path will take us to the end of this dungeon and get us the loot at the end. When you first enter this path you'll have access to about 5 or 6 rooms, they will lead you in one big circle if you follow the linear route through them. In this part of the dungeon all of the puzzles will revolve around the Douse Psynergy. You may have noticed in the bottom part of this dungeon there is a puzzle involving a puddle of water and an air vent, the air vent will dry up the puddle and melt and Frost pillar you make. You need to time your Frost Psynergy properly to advance past this puzzle... Or you can use the Douse Psynergy on the puddle to refill it instead of waiting - which is exactly what we need to do upstairs!

Upstairs you will find a small circular indent in the ground (pictured below). You will need to wait until the vent blows hot air and then use the Douse Psynergy on the circle followed by the Frost Psynergy. This will fill it with water then freeze it. Now you have a very limited amount of time to jump across the pillar and to the next section of the dungeon.

Use the Douse Psynergy on the circle to fill it with water then Frost to freeze it

When you reach the next room make sure that you use your Lash Psynergy on the rope here to make a shortcut. Keep following the linear path and the next area you'll come to is a room filled with lava. Use the Douse Psynergy on the glowing rock to cool it off and then use the Move Psynergy to push it into the lava and make a platform to step on. Exit this room the south to find another room with some lava and air vents. Our goal here is to move across the north-eastern portion of the room while avoiding the air vents.

In the southern portion of this room you'll find another glowing rock that you can use Douse and Move on; this will give you access to a chest with a Vial inside. To continue with the dungeon use the same Douse/Move combo on the glowing rock in the northeast and exit the area to the north. Following the river north will lead you to a large pillar with a rock ontop of it, use the Tremor Psynergy to knock the rock off and into the lava. This will make a path to a new section of the dungeon. Douse the glowing rock and push it into the lava to create yet another shortcut - then enter into the new part of the dungeon.

The next few parts of the dungeon are extremely linear, the final room of this dungeon will have a glowing rock sitting in the middle which you'll need to use the Douse Psynergy on. When you use Douse on this rock you'll notice a pulsating light coming from under the ground in this room (pictured below). Use the Scoop Psynergy on this pulsating light to reveal our reward for completing the dungeon - Star Dust!

Use the Scoop Psynergy on the light to dig up Star Dust!

Once you loot the Star Dust I recommend you use Felix's Retreat Psynergy to quickly leave the dungeon. Before we move on from this side quest let's wrap it up into a nice bow first, head over to the town of Yallam and visit the Blacksmith, Sunshine. You can trade the Tear Stones and the Star Dust that we found in this dungeon to Yallam and he'll make you a random item from a list of possible crafts.

I recommend you check out the list of Forgeable Items on the Wiki for more information on what each item can be turned into. Before you give your items to Sunshine it's best to save your game - if you don't get what you want then you'll reset the game and try again until you get the items you want from him.

Best Items From Sunshine:

Tear Stone: Spirit Ring (if you use this outside of battle it will never break)

Star Dust: Luna Shield/Planet Armor

Mythril: Mythril Armlet, Mythril Clothes, Mythril Helm, Levatine

Dark Matter: Darksword, Demon Circlet

Note: From my research and observations which item you get from Sunshine is determined when you give him the item to forge. What this means is if you plan to do the reset method to get a specific item you will need to save the game prior to giving Sunshine the item. I recommend you also watch this video here for more information about how to get the items you want from Sunshine.

 

Return to Golden Sun: The Lost Age Walkthrough (Chapter 3)