Salamander enemy line

The Salamander, Earth Lizard, and Thunder Lizard are enemies that are randomly fought throughout each game in the Golden Sun series. These monsters are palette swaps of each other that have differing levels of power and defense and are fought in different locations in the games. In the Game Boy Advance games, they resemble real-world salamanders that are larger in size, but they are slightly redesigned in Dark Dawn to stand on their hind legs and feature rudimentary wings.

Salamander
A  Salamander  is a variant with violet skin, a green underbelly and blue claws and mouth, and it is level 14 in Golden Sun and level 19 in The Lost Age. In Golden Sun the Salamander can be fought in Lamakan Desert, while in The Lost Age it is located in the Gabomba Statue.

In the first game the Salamander takes much more punishment than any of the other monsters it is fought alongside, though it is the slowest in the desert. It is pretty much the "standout" of the random monsters in Lamakan Desert, but in The Lost Age it is totally outperformed by the Red Demon (but it still has the second highest HP rating of the monsters there).

A Salamander's statistics are as follows:

A Salamander uses these battle commands:

Earth Lizard
An Earth Lizard is a level 28 variant with green skin, a blue underbelly, violet claws, and an orange mouth. In Golden Sun only two Earth Lizards are fought throughout the entire game, as one scripted boss encounter that occurs on the seventh "dungeon floor" of the optional Crossbone Isle as soon as you try to enter the door to that floor's puzzle room.

The encounter with two Earth Lizards can be expected to be about as difficult as the "sub-boss battle" on the sixth floor above with the Chimeras, and most likely more difficult than the battle in the floor above with the single Lizard King. In particular, Acid Breath can pile on damage rather well. But this battle can most likely be conducted "as usual" and be won, and like the other sub-boss encounters in Crossbone Isle this battle can be "cheaply" won by having everyone use a 4-Djinn Summon on the first turn to annihilate the lizards.

An Earth Lizard's statistics are as follows:

An Earth Lizard uses these battle commands:

Thunder Lizard
A Thunder Lizard is a level 28 variant with purple skin, a light green underbelly and orange claws and mouth. In Golden Sun the Thunder Lizard is fought randomly in the later "dungeon" portion of Venus Lighthouse as one of the "final" random monsters of the game. Two also appear as part of a scripted battle on the eighth floor of Crossbone Isle, as sidekicks to the Poison Toad.

The Thunder Lizard is one of the toughest random enemies in the original game, right up there with the Grand Golem and Fenrir, because it appears only in the game's final dungeon. Its Storm Breath can pile on a good amount of damage. Its rare drop, the Blessed Mace, is the weapon with the highest physical attack rating that Mia can have in the first game assuming she is not equipped with the Cursed Wicked Mace and the Cleric's Ring, but since it does not have an Unleash effect, many don't consider it as desirable as the Crystal Rod one can just buy in Lalivero. It can, of course, be gotten quickly through abuse of the Random Number Generator.

A Thunder Lizard's statistics are as follows:

A Thunder Lizard uses these battle commands:

Salamander
A  Salamander  is a level 15 variant with violet scales, a green underbelly and blue claws. Salamanders appear in The Ouroboros.

A Salamander's statistics are as follows:

A Salamander uses these battle commands:

Earth Lizard
An Earth Lizard is a level 31 variant with yellow scales, a cyan underbelly, and purple claws. Earth Lizards appear in Warrior's Hill.

An Earth Lizard's statistics are as follows:

An Earth Lizard uses these battle commands:

Thunder Lizard
A Thunder Lizard is a level 48 variant with purple scales, a light green underbelly and green claws. Thunder Lizards appear in Crossbone Isle.

Thunder Lizards have the capacity to rarely drop the unique Vajra Mace.

A Thunder Lizard's statistics are as follows:

An Thunder Lizard uses these battle commands:

Cultural References
Salamanders are mythical creatures affiliated with the fire element and resemble the real-life amphibians of the same name. The connection between the two originated from old tales in Europe about these amphibians. The Salamanders hid within rotting wood and often remained hidden when humans cut down the wood to use for heating. When wood was put on the fire, the creatures "mysteriously" emerged from the flames.