Deadbeard

Deadbeard (タロス Talos) is an optional boss monster found in the lowest level of the optional dungeon Crossbone Isle in Golden Sun. It is the toughest boss in the first game, more dangerous than even the game's proper final boss, though unlike the resident "superboss" in both The Lost Age and Dark Dawn, Dullahan, Deadbeard can still be handled with typical battling procedure.

As a boss in Golden Sun
The boss fight with Deadbeard (who is level 43) at the end of Crossbone Isle automatically ensues the moment the player climbs the left flank of stairs on the Pirate Ship. This room is reached after clearing the ninth and final "puzzle-floor" of the dungeon; the player will need to have essentially reached the end of the main game, acquired the Carry Psynergy from lower Venus Lighthouse, and acquired the Halt and Cloak Psynergies elsewhere, and then go to Crossbone Isle via riding the pink whirlwind in Suhalla Desert in order to be able to complete the dungeon to its end. The reward for defeating Deadbeard is a chest containing the unique Demon Mail, the piece of equipment with the highest Defense rating boost in the original game. Also, if a game file in which Deadbeard was defeated is used for Password data transfer into The Lost Age, a brief, bonus cutscene will appear in the top floor of Alhafra's inn after Briggs has finished taking the sailing ship out of town.

Deadbeard has the most up-front offensive capabilities and overall durability of any single enemy in Golden Sun. His 6000 HP is supported by a strong defense rating, and he has the highest Attack rating of any enemy in the first game, as well as the third-highest Agility rating (behind only the final boss and Menardi, respectively). This attack rating can be augmented by his Impact Psynergy to make each of his normal attacks very powerful single strikes, and he often attacks with high-tier area-of-effect Psynergy, most often Freeze Prism, to pile on group damage at a fairly constant rate. Furthermore, attempts by the party to increase their own survivability from these attacks with Resist and attack strength with High Impact can potentially be quickly negated by Deadbeard's Break Psynergy, ensuring that the party needs to level up to around 30 to conduct the battle without too much issue.

However, Deadbeard is not necessarily much more difficult than the final boss of the game, and this is because there are no particular threats in Deadbeard's arsenal beyond highly-damaging attacks, such as his lack of damaging status conditions and his lack of an enemy-exclusive ability that would be a stronger physical attack than the default attack given to him. A party around level 30 that keep all 28 of the game's Djinn Set onto themselves can deal with Deadbeard relatively reliably, and are all the better off while in optimized mixed-elemental class setups, so long as the (extremely PP-efficient) Wish Well Psynergy is available to cast every turn. Furthermore, as summon sequences in Golden Sun games deal damage proportional to the size of each struck opponent's maximum HP meter, 4-Djinn summons will do immense damage to him - over 1000 in the case of Judgment - and even a 1-Djinni summon such as Mars will do several hundred damage points. Finally, Deadbeard's own statistical self-boosts can be negated by the party's own Break Psynergy if the party has been leveled to at least 30.

A great way to maintain a constant flow of damage upon Deadbeard's health meter while maintaining the party's health is to have each Adept regularly use individual Djinni effects and then use single on-standby Djinni for single-Djinni summons on the following turn. Since the party's highest-tier classes will be maintained so long as they have at least six Djinn Set, each Adept is free to unleash one of their seven Djinn without lowering their class stage, and this allows the Adept to use a small summon that will likely deal more damage than even a physical Psynergy like Ragnarok (this tactic primarily works when every Adept is set in their mono-elemental classes). And since Deadbeard is constantly increasing his own stats in areas of attack and defense, it is not as useful to use attack-oriented Djinn as it is to use healing and support Djinn to maintain your party's health, such as the Venus Djinni Granite, the Mars Djinn Flash and Corona, the Jupiter Djinn Breeze and Zephyr, and the Mercury Djinn Spritz and Dew.

It is possible to defeat Deadbeard with an all-out summon rush, in which all twenty-eight Djinn are On Standby and all level four Summons are cast on the first turn, and all level 3 summons cast the second (or vice versa; either order is viable because when a summon is used, the Adept's elemental power for that element sharply increases, which will largely crank up the power of his next summoning of that element). Assuming most of the party is lucky enough to survive Deadbeard's assaults in between the two turns worth of summoning, it is possible to defeat Deadbeard and his 6000 HP in two turns. The primary reason why this approach is at risk of not fully depleting Deadbeard's HP in and of itself manifests if Deadbeard casts Ward early on to increase his resistance; in that case, hopefully the weakened party will survive long enough that their remaining physical or Psynergy assaults can cross the finish line in time. The chances of the summon-rush approach working can be increased by holding appropriate equipment that increases elemental power - the Gaia Blade and Warrior's Helm for Isaac, the Virtuous Armlet, a Feathered Robe, and possibly the Swift Sword for Ivan, and the Spirit Armlet for Mia. One can even equip the Spirit Gloves for an extra 5 elemental power boost on either Isaac or Garet.

Another easy way to defeat Deadbeard is to seal away his Psynergy with the Jupiter Djinni Luff, which is 100% accurate. Since he has no enemy abilities, you can effectively limit his actions to using his basic attack two times per turn throughout the entire battle if you simply keep his Psynergy sealed the entire battle. Ideally, Ivan should be the one to use Luff every other turn (manually resetting it each turn between instead of using it as a single-Djinni summon each turn between due to the extra turn that will be required before Luff can be available again) because he is the most likely to have an agility rating higher than Deadbeard's; in this scenario, Deadbeard getting his Psynergy sealed before his actions will cause the seal to last for both of Deadbeard's actions on both this turn and the next, and by the time the seal wears off, Ivan will be ready to immediately inflict it again.

Alternating usage of the protective Djinn Flash and Granite can make this battle even safer to win with, though if you dedicate two adepts into maintaining this constant damage-reduction barrier, this battle will become much more time consuming due to the lack of damage output from your party.

Deadbeard's statistics are as follows:

Deadbeard uses the following battle commands

Background and story
Deadbeard, like Crossbone Isle itself, is an entity which little tangible information about is provided within the games, so it can only be speculated as to what Deadbeard really is and might have been, as well as his origins. Deadbeard, however, is a monster that a few people around Weyard, mainly pirates, are aware of, and they describe it as an "ancient ghost pirate" that guards the treasures at Crossbone Isle. Pirate lore claims that whosoever may be able to slay Deadbeard in combat will have proven himself worthy of the title of leader of all pirates, and therefore will command the respect of buccaneers the world over.

Deadbeard is a giant, supernatural entity that assumes the guise of a colossal red skeleton, twice the size of a normal human, clad in a thick suit of medieval-looking armor. Where his head/skull is supposed to be is his helmet which obscures his actual face (if Deadbeard even has a face as corporeal as his other features) so that the only visible aspects of the entity's facial area is a glowing pair of beady yellow eyes. He wields a thick-bladed sword that is longer than a human is normally tall.

Deadbeard haunts the dilapidated Pirate Ship located at the bottom of Crossbone Isle, shored up at an underground lake, and presumably has for untold amounts of time. It can be speculated that this ship "belongs" to Deadbeard because of that. Late in Golden Sun, Isaac's traveling party of Adepts explores the island and picks it clean of its loot, defeating all of of the rare and powerful lesser monsters along the way. When they reach the underground lake and board the damaged vessel, Deadbeard attacks the party, and Isaac's group engages in its most intense brawl yet, but they weather Deadbeard's powerful Psynergy-based assaults and eventually slay the wraith, putting Deadbeard's soul to rest. A chest materializes on the bow of the ship after the battle and Isaac claims the sturdy but cursed Demon Mail before departing the now empty Isle.

Pirates across Weyard will somehow learn of Deadbeard's defeat, and that the identity of the one who defeated it and pillaged the Isle clean is Isaac. Recalling the stories that the one who defeats Deadbeard will gain the honorific of leader of all pirates, buccaneers will start seeking out this apparently tough and reliable man to join his pirate crew. If the game file where Deadbeard is defeated is used for data transfer into Golden Sun: The Lost Age, then in the town of Alhafra, after the pirate Briggs flees the town on a ship and departs back for Champa, a pair of swashbucklers will appear in the second floor of Alhafra's inn as the town updates. The moment Felix's party comes in, an optional cutscene will occur where the two talk about how Crossbone Isle was picked clean and its feared ancient pirate ghost guardian was defeated by Isaac, which effectively means Isaac is their leader now, and that is why they are now looking for him so that they can join his crew. Then they will pass by Felix's group as they leave the inn on their search. It should be noted that this cutscene can occur anytime after when it can first occur, meaning that it can be triggered late in the game when Isaac's party has joined Felix's. In that case, though, the cutscene will play out exactly as it would otherwise, and the pirate pair will not realize they just passed by their new "leader" as they leave the inn in search of him.

Name Origin
The name Talos comes from a figure from Greek mythology, who was a giant bronze man/god who sunk ships approaching Crete by tossing rocks at them. Talos is also the name of extremely strong enemies in Camelot's Shining series, of which several other allusions are made to throughout the Golden Sun games.

Deadbeard's name is an obvious play on the real-world pirate Redbeard.