Tornado Lizard enemy line

The Tornado Lizard, Storm Lizard, and Tempest Lizard are species of monsters found in Golden Sun, all mainly in Suhalla Desert. These monsters, resembling large, well-built bipedal lizards with dinosauric qualities, are palette swaps of each other and have differing levels of power and defense. None of these monsters are encountered in random battle, and the latter two members, in fact, both serve as full-fledged boss monsters. The Tempest Lizard gains further distinction as the only boss monster in either game that can be battled and defeated as many times as one would like.

Tornado Lizard
A small-in-comparison member with an orange body and light green underbelly. The Tornado Lizard, when encountered by choice in Suhalla Desert, has 530 HP, 37PP, 267 Attack, 74 Defense, 104 Agility, and 18 Luck. Its resistances are highly lopsided; it is very resistant to Jupiter attacks and highly succeptible to Venus attacks. Felling a Tornado Lizard yields 620 EXP, 477 coins, and in somewhat common cases, a Weasel's Claw.

The commands available to the Tornado Lizard are impressive for a monster that can be fought as many times as one would expect from normal monsters. It can attack with a physical attack, cast the Storm Ray, Wind Slash, and Tornado Psynergies for Jupiter-elemental damage to multiple party members, cast Impact to increase its attack by roughly 66 points, cast Ward to raise all its resistances by 40, and launch a unique attack called Wing Flutter, which does moderate damage to up to three Adepts and resembles it shooting out a row of glowing yellow feathers towards each Adept in succession.

The Tornado Lizards are found in limited quantity throughout the Suhalla Desert, but restore themselves in number whenever Isaac leaves the desert, so they can be fought infinitely like normal enemies. They appear invisible at first, but when Isaac approaches one in a narrow area, it will manifest as a narrow tornado and block his path. When he steps inside it, he will be hoisted and juggled about the air for three full seconds before being blown all the way back to near Suhalla. When he opens up the Psynergy menu and casts the Douse Psynergy, he will engage in battle with the Tornado Lizard behind the cyclone; upon defeating it Isaac will be able to progress onward.

In regards to the story, the Tornado Lizards and their more powerful subspecies are indigenous to the Suhalla Desert and shroud themselves in sand cyclones they generate themselves, and when Mt.Aleph erupted the monsters became more violent and territorial. Nowadays, when someone gets caught up in one of these monsters' tornadoes, that person will be hurled far into the air and land near the town of Suhalla. However, when that person douses the monster with water, the cyclone will dissipate, and the Tornado Lizard will be revealed, in which case it will physically attack. Their presence and behaviors make the desert impassable to all but accomplished warriors.

When Sheba is escorted through the desert by soldiers from Tolbi, they lose each other through the desert's blustery sands. Then Saturos and his band travel through the desert, using Water-based Psynergy to reveal the lizards in their way and then slay them with their powerful swordplay and sorcery. Taking their example to heart, the soldiers try the same thing by carrying buckets of water into the desert and pouring it on the monsters, but they are thoroughly beaten and mauled in retaliation and barely make it back to Suhalla. Then Isaac and his group of Adepts pass through the desert in pursuit of Saturos. Having heard of the accounts of the soldiers, when they encounter a Tornado Lizard and get caught in its cyclone, they cast the Douse Psynergy to reveal the monster, then engage in a tough but manageable battle to slay the beast.

Storm Lizard
A very large member with a light-green body and reddish underbelly. The Storm Lizard, when fought as a potentially optional boss in Suhalla Desert, has 2900 HP, 42PP, 291 Attack, 86 Defense, 112 Agility, and 22 Luck, and it can act twice per turn, making it a very fierce boss in the game. Its resistances are highly lopsided; it is very resistant to Jupiter attacks and highly succeptible to Venus attacks. Felling the Storm Lizard yields 1300 EXP, 6100 coins, and a guaranteed Psy Crystal.

The commands available to the Storm Lizard are nearly identical to what a Tornado Lizard can use, but even stronger. It can attack with a physical attack, cast the Storm Ray, Sonic Slash, and Tempest Psynergies for Jupiter-elemental damage to multiple party members, cast Impact to increase its attack by roughly 72 points, cast Ward to raise all its resistances by 40, and launch a unique attack called Wing Stroke, which acts like a powered-up version of the Tornado Lizard's Wing Flutter and resembles it shooting out six glowing yellow feathers towards each Adept at a time in succession. Its PP meter will run out rather quickly, so it should not use too many Psynergy spells for the duration of the battle, relying on its attack and Wing Stroke.

The Storm Lizard is found in the Suhalla Desert, and it presents itself somewhat differently from the standard Tornado Lizard. It resides in a much larger cyclone that is visible at its starting point, which is in the area near the desert's exit, in front of the statue of a Pharoah. The moment one climbs down a cliff ladder to the sand below, the tornado will chase after the player, and it will catch him and juggle him like a normal tornado, and casting Douse will initiate the boss battle. However, it is possible to officially skip the battle by outrunning the tornado and making it to the desert's end in time; in this sense it is one of the game's two skippable boss battles (the other being the Tempest Lizard). The tornado will remain at its starting point area in Suhalla Desert, and if the player reenters the desert and comes close to its area the tornado will give chase again. Therefore, most players would rather get the battle over with, so they can explore the desert better.

Tempest Lizard
A very large member with a dark blue-and-purple body and reddish underbelly. The Tempest Lizard, when fought as an optional boss in Suhalla Desert, has 3000 HP, 45PP, 295 Attack, 94 Defense, 114 Agility, and 26 Luck, and it can act twice per turn. Therefore, it is extremely similar to the Storm Lizard statistically, only marginally higher. Its resistances are identical to the Storm Lizard as well; it is very resistant to Jupiter attacks and highly succeptible to Venus attacks. Felling the Tempest Lizard yields 1360 EXP, 6400 coins, and a guaranteed Potion.

The commands available to the Tempest Lizard are completely identical to what a Storm Lizard can use. It can attack with a physical attack, cast the Storm Ray, Sonic Slash, and Tempest Psynergies for Jupiter-elemental damage to multiple party members, cast Impact to increase its attack by roughly 72 points, cast Ward to raise all its resistances by 40, and launch a unique attack called Wing Stroke, which acts like a powered-up version of the Tornado Lizard's Wing Flutter and resembles it shooting out six glowing yellow feathers towards each Adept at a time in succession. Its PP meter will run out rather quickly, so it may not use too many Psynergy spells for the duration of the battle, relying on its attack and Wing Stroke afterwards.

The Tempest Lizard is found in the Suhalla Desert, in a secluded area reachable by entering a secret cave entrance. It resides in a large cyclone that is colored pink, and it is visible to the right while the player travels down the desert's normal path. It is an optional boss battle not required to reach the game's ending at all, and it can be battled anytime by casting the Douse Psynergy like with the other Tornado Lizard line monsters. What makes this monster especially notable from a battle standpoint, then, is that slaying it does not permanently remove it from the game; it will respawn itself when the player leaves and reenters the desert, something that no other boss in the entire Golden Sun series can do.

Another aspect to the monster that is even more noteworthy, however, and is what therefore makes it an extremely important monster from a gameplay point of view, is that when you step into the tornado and let it blow you away, you will be blown to Crossbone Isle itself, Golden Sun's resident optional "superdungeon". This monster's tornado essentially acts as the portal to the secret area, and the monster in its tornado will remain on the overworld region of Crossbone Isle on the beach area while the player is free to explore the island's dungeon. When the player wants to return to Suhalla, he steps into the tornado and lets himself be blown away. However, even here the Tempest Lizard can be fought repeatedly; slaying it on Crossbone Island will make it disappear only until you reenter and reexit the island's dungeon location, in which case it will regenerate. This made Tempest Lizard a popular method of levelling up the party in the original Golden Sun, and it was certainly the best way to do so because each defeat yielded a normally hard-to-find Potion. (On a side note, battling it here will cause the background to be the game's uncommonly seen beach background.)

Hardcore players would make it a several-times-a-day routine to defeat the Tempest Lizard in two turns by having all four Adepts summon their respective 4-Djinn summons on the first turn, then having Isaac finish the monster off with the Bane Djinn effect to defeat it and gain enhanced experience and gold rewards (through the Dark Panther method), then making the monster reappear by entering and exiting Crossbone Isle and then battling it all over again. Alternatively, one can defeat the Tempest Lizard in two turns with simple battle commands using a Random Number Generator sequence, though the previous method is far preferred. First, Cursed equipment must be removed and the Crystal Rod must be equipped on Mia, and then the game is to be be saved, turned off, and turned on. Then the party must enter and exit Crossbone Isle once each, and then initiate the boss battle with Tempest Lizard using Douse. On the first turn of this battle, have Isaac cast Cure on himself, have Garet cast Guard on Isaac, have Ivan use Resist, and have Mia attack. On the second turn, have everyone else Defend while Mia attacks; her Crystal Rod should Unleash its Drown effect and One-Hit KO the enemy.