Fire Brand

A Fire Brand is a Long Sword-class weapon Artifact available in Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. In The Lost Age, only one is found in a treasure chest deep in Treasure Isle, as a reward for solving a Lift-based puzzle that has two possible solutions (with the other solution being able to progress into the next room). In Dark Dawn, multiples can be acquired as a rare drop item from Pyrodras in Burning Island Cave. Being a Long Sword-class weapon, the Fire Brand can be equipped on warrior-style Adepts, namely Felix, Piers, Isaac, Garet, Matthew, and Tyrell. Its buy value is 23400 coins and its sell value is 17550.

In The Lost Age
The Fire Brand increases the wielder's base Attack rating by 176 points. The sword is a pure-element weapon because its physical attack is itself an attack whose resulting damage is either increased or decreased based on how the user's Mars power compares to the target's Mars resistance. Its Unleash effect is Purgatory, with the standard base activation rate of 35%, which is a physical attack with an additional 67 points of damage added, and then the resulting damage is either increased or decreased based on how the user's Mars power measures against the target's Mars resistance. In addition, the effect may inflict the Sleep status condition on the target. Purgatory is a spectacular visual effect resembling the user summoning a huge interwoven column of fire bursting from the ground beneath the target. The fire column then expands to cover most of the screen before contracting to the point of vanishing, leaving the enemy burnt.

The Fire Brand is technically one of the game's best weapons, perhaps just above a Levatine in quality, and the two are the strongest  Mars-based weapons. In general they have the same levels of power and usefulness in battle, and are differentiated by the fact a Levatine is a  "normal" weapon artifact with a normal physical attack and that the  Levatine's Unleash effect will always score enhanced bonus damage  because the effect ignores half the target's defense rating. The Fire Brand, on the other hand, is a pure-element weapon whose Unleash may put  the target to Sleep, so if you have both weapons deciding between one  over the other is a matter of personal taste. However, they are not the actual best weapons because weapons of other elements such as the  Tisiphone Edge, Excalibur, and Masamune can outright  multiply the damage they inflict with their Unleashes, so while the  Levatine and Fire Brand are solid for a Mars Adept warrior like Garet to  wield, it might be better for him to use one of the above three weapons  for potentially much stronger damage.

In Dark Dawn
In Dark Dawn, Fire Brands gains two new Unleashes: Power Charge and Fearless Attack. Under normal circumstances, these Unleashes would be non-elemental Unleashes. However, the Fire Brand's status as a pure-element weapon causes these Unleashes to become Mars-based, and thus they compare the attacker's Mars Power to the target's Mars Resistance when calculating damage. Power Charge multiplies damage by 1.4 and may ignore 50% of the target's defense. Fearless Attack multiplies damage by 1.7; Purgatory remains the signature unleash (although it is no longer unique to Fire Brands) and retains its characteristics from The Lost Age.

Given its Mars-based nature, a Fire Brand is an excellent choice for Tyrell. Matthew, the only other Adept who can equip Long Swords, will most likely possess the stronger Sol Blade. A Fire Brand's secondary Unleashes are essentially Mars-based physical elemental attacks and come with useful damage multipliers. Thus, Tyrell can do a great deal of damage with them without needing a change in class. However, players may still choose to equip Tyrell with another damage-multiplying weapon such as Excalibur or Herculean Axe, though for the former they will need to put Tyrell in a different class to maximize damage and for the latter they will likely need a spare, as many players will likely give their first Herculean Axe to Eoleo.

Cultural References
The word "purgatory" was derived from the Latin word "purgere" which means "to clean." In Roman Catholicism, it is the process of purification in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for heaven.