Dirge enemy line

The Dirge, Foul Dirge, and Vile Dirge are species of monsters randomly battled in Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. These monsters, resembling small small bat-like mammals that are more accurate depictions of a bat then the monsters in the Bat monster line, are palette-swapped variants of each other that have differing levels of power and defense and are fought in different locations in the games.

Dirge
A Dirge is a tan-colored variant. Statistically, this monster has 91 HP, 122 Attack, 32 Defense, 60 Agility, and 2 Luck. In terms of resistance, it has a Venus Resistance rating of 127, a Mercury Resistance rating of 72, a Mars Resistance rating of 48, and a Jupiter Resistance rating of 7, and it regards to its abilities it uses its available Jupiter-based attacks with a Jupiter power rating of 110.

The Dirge uses the following battle commands:
 * Attack: Used 6 out of 8 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack.
 * Flying Attack: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is a Monster Skill where the monster charges forward very quickly to deal one or two orange claw swipes in a row at a targeted Adept, dealing a Jupiter-based attack equal to its normal physical attack with an additional 8 damage points, and having a chance to inflict double the resulting damage.

Felling a Dirge yields 47 Experience Points and 61 Coins, and there is a 1/16 chance that the monster will randomly drop a Nut. If it is felled by the attack effect of an offensive Jupiter Djinni, its rewards increase to 61 EXP and 79 Coins, and the chance to drop its item becomes 1/4. In Golden Sun, the Dirge is first battled throughout Fuchin Falls Cave, and subsequently Mogall Forest, the overworld region of Angara encompassing the exit to Mogall Forest and the entrance to Lamakan Desert, and throughout Altin Peak.

While the Dirge does not have the highest HP among the monsters in Fuchin Falls Cave, it has the highest Agility rating, and for this it may be equivalent in threat level to the Bone Fighter. In The Lost Age it is fought only through Kibombo Mountains, where it is definitely one of the less threating monsters there.

Foul Dirge
A Foul Dirge is a purple-colored variant. Statistically, this monster has 149 HP, 177 Attack, 46 Defense, 120 Agility, and 2 Luck. In terms of resistance, it has a Venus Resistance rating of 127, a Mercury Resistance rating of 72, a Mars Resistance rating of 48, and a Jupiter Resistance rating of 7, and it regards to its abilities it uses its available Jupiter-based attacks with a Jupiter power rating of 110.

The Foul Dirge uses the following battle commands:
 * Attack: Used 6 out of 8 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack.
 * Swift Strike: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is a Monster Skill where the monster charges forward very quickly to deal one or three orange claw swipes in a row at a targeted Adept, dealing a Jupiter-based attack equal to its normal physical attack with an additional 15 damage points, and having a chance to inflict triple the resulting damage.

Felling a Foul Dirge yields 82 Experience Points and 100 Coins, and there is a 1/32 chance that the monster will randomly drop a Smoke Bomb. If it is felled by the attack effect of an offensive Jupiter Djinni, its rewards increase to 106 EXP and 130 Coins, and the chance to drop its item becomes 1/8. In Golden Sun, the Foul Dirge is battled in the overworld region surronding Tolbi, and within nearby Altmiller Cave.

The Foul Dirge has the highest Agility rating in both areas where it can be fought, and may even be the highest among the monsters in the aforementioned overworld area, but in Altmiller Cave it is quite outranked in damage output and sturdiness by the Dread Hound and Golem. Its Swift Strike monster skill can do over 100 damage if it manages to connect with its effect, but this is rare to happen because of how uncommon it is for the monster to even use the skill in place of a normal attack.

Vile Dirge
A Vile Dirge is a light-blue-colored variant. Statistically, this monster has 173 HP, 228 Attack, 56 Defense, 120 Agility, and 2 Luck. In terms of resistance, it has a Venus Resistance rating of 127, a Mercury Resistance rating of 72, a Mars Resistance rating of 48, and a Jupiter Resistance rating of 7, and it regards to its abilities it uses its available Jupiter-based attacks with a Jupiter power rating of 110.

The Vile Dirge uses the following battle commands:
 * Attack: Used 5 out of 8 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack.
 * Wing Beat: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is a Monster Skill that shoots out a small group of glowing feather-like objects through a targeted Adept, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 35.
 * Flying Attack: Used 1 out of 8 times, this is a Monster Skill where the monster charges forward very quickly to deal one or two orange claw swipes in a row at a targeted Adept, dealing a Jupiter-based attack equal to its normal physical attack with an additional 8 damage points, and having a chance to inflict double the resulting damage.

Felling a Vile Dirge yields 75 Experience Points and 98 Coins (oddly, the Foul Dirge yields more in both stats when felled), and there is a 1/16 chance that the monster will randomly drop a Weasel's Claw. If it is felled by the attack effect of an offensive Jupiter Djinni, its rewards increase to 97 EXP and 127 Coins, and the chance to drop its item becomes 1/4. In Golden Sun, the Vile Dirge is ideally first battled in the lower cavernous areas of Lunpa Fortress, then in the overworld area of Gondowan encompassing Gondowan Passage and the rest of the game's locales, including within Suhalla Desert. In The Lost Age Vile Dirges are, interestingly enough, one of the stock monsters that you fight while sailing across the Great Western Sea, rather than on land.

In Golden Sun in Lunpa Fortress the Vile Dirge is as fast as the Rat Warrior and has the same stats everywhere else except HP. In Gondowan it is outperformed by the Dirty Ape, and in Suhalla Desert it has still the highest Agility of the monsters but is much weaker offensively and defensively than several other monsters there. In The Lost Age it is severely outperformed by the other monsters you can encounter in the Western Sea.