Demon Circlet

A Demon Circlet is a Circlet-class headwear found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. In both games, it is the strongest Circlet-class headwear in terms of Defensive power.

Basic Description by Game
The Demon Circlet increases the wearer's defense by 50, which is the highest defensive rating for all Circlets. Also, it increases his/her Critical Hit and Unleash rate by 15%. It can be bought for 15800 coins and sold for 11850 coins. The Demon Circlet is cursed, meaning that the wearer cannot remove the Demon Circlet unaided, and may sometimes be immobilized during a turn in battle.

In The Lost Age, the Demon Circlet is forged from Dark Matter, and can be obtained by giving the Dark Matter to Sunshine, which he will forge into one of 5 items determined at random. Being a Circlet, it can be equipped by Jenna, Ivan, Sheba, and Mia. In Dark Dawn, the Demon Circlet is one of three items obtained from Dark Matter, and can be obtained by giving Dark Matter to Obaba in Champa. The Demon Circlet can be equipped by Karis, Amiti, Rief, and Himi.

The Lost Age
The Demon Circlet is not likely to see much use, partly since it cannot be acquired until late in the game and partly due to the curse. If it is used, it should be given to an Adept who uses physical attacks often and has a weapon with a powerful Unleash (for example, Jenna with a Tisiphone Edge). Since it is cursed, the Demon Circlet must be equipped on an Adept wearing the Cleric's Ring to negate the effects of the curse in battle. Among the other cursed items, only the Demonic Staff and the Wicked Mace can be equipped by Adepts who can wear circlets, and neither of these weapons are particularly useful, so players are likely to choose not to use the Demon Circlet so they can use the Cleric's Ring on a warrior-type Adept who can equip a more useful combination of cursed items, such as the Darksword and the Fear Helm.

However, this item can be used to give a non warrior-type Adept a 102% chance to unleash with weapons that have a 40% unleash chance themselves. For example, give Ivan an Atropos' Rod (40%), then equip Riot Gloves (20%), then give him Mythril Clothes (15%), then the Demon Circlet (15%), and finally a pair of Hyper Boots (12%). 40+20+15+15+12=102. So Ivan will theoretically have a 102% unleash chance, which will of course result in always unleashing. This can only be done for either Jenna, Sheba, Ivan or Mia, as there is only one Cleric's Ring.

When you are trying to get as much chance to unleash on your characters, you will wind up using the Demon Circlet. The 4 warrior-type Adepts will have Riot Gloves (replaces possible Terra Shield), and Mythril Helms (who will replace possible Fear Helm). The Stealth Armor/Demon Mail will be replaced by either a Mythril Clothes or the Valkyrie Mail. The Darksword is a relatively weak weapon as its unleash is very weak compared to the unleash of Excalibur. Thus not a single warrior-type Adept will want to equip a cursed item because there are better items in stead. So the Cleric's Ring can be used on a non warrior-type Adept so it can use the Demon Circlet for increased unleash chances. So when you've just completed the game, you'll most likely find the Demon Circlet useless. But much later, when you try to give everyone perfect gear, you can actually wind up finding it quite useful.

Dark Dawn
While the Demon Circlet is the strongest headwear in terms of both Unleash rate increase and Defensive ability, its usefulness is brought down due to its cursed nature and its late availability. Dark Matter, required for forging the Demon Circlet, can only be found in Crossbone Isle, found only after the completion of the main storyline or by a glitch. However, there are only two other pieces of headwear that increase the Unleash rate, the Warrior's Helm and the Lucky Cap, and both are singular Artifacts. The Demon Circlet is the only one that can be obtained in multiples. Also, unlike other cursed equipment, the player can equip the curse-negating Cleric's Ring, as it is obtained in the same dungeon as Dark Matter. The main drawback in this case is that there is only one Cleric's Ring, and two other potential uses: Tyrell with the Darksword or Sveta with the Bloody Claw.

If the Demon Circlet is used, it can be combined with the Mythril Clothes and Mythril Armlet for a total 75% Unleash Rate, assuming a standard weapon activation of 35%. Should the player also use the Lord Sun's Ring and Ninja Sandals, the Unleash rate can be maximized; however, these two Artifacts are usually given to Matthew, who can wield the Sol Blade. Due to the random nature of Dark Dawn's Unleash system, Amiti can benefit best from this setup, if he is wielding the Sagittarius Bow. Unlike the other endgame weapons, all three of the Sagittarius Bow's Unleashes are possess fairly strong damage multiplers, rather than having weaker Unleashes with set damage additions. Thus, a more standardized rate of damage can be ensured. However, any mage Adept wielding a strong weapon like the Verdant Sword or the Tisiphone Edge can still benefit from an increased Unleash rate.