Iron Shield

An Iron Shield is a Shield-class arm equipment available in both Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. It is sold in armor vendors at Xian, Altin, and Kalay in Golden Sun and at Naribwe and Kibombo in The Lost Age. This shield can be equipped on all warrior-style Adepts in both games, namely Isaac and Garet in the first game together with Felix and Piers in the second, and is in fact the initial equipment of Piers in the second game. It increases the equipped Adept's base Defense rating by 20 points. Its buy value is 1200 coins and its sell value is 900 coins.

In Golden Sun when it can first be bought in Xian, it is a solid upgrade to the Bronze Shields Isaac and Garet might be equipped with, but if you decide for any reason not to buy Iron Shields at that point it might not even be a bad decision because later on in Altin during your exploration of the Altin Peak dungeon, the armor vendor that opens up after the floodwaters recede sells superior Gauntlets, and a strong shield artifact named the Dragon Shield can be found in a chest in the dungeon itself.

In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the Iron Shield might never be useful as an item to purchase when it is first sold in Naribwe because in the earlier dungeon Air's Rock you can find the even stronger shield artifact Fujin Shield, which would obviously be equipped on Felix by the time you get to Naribwe because he's the only Adept at that point that can equip shields. When Piers joins the party later, he has an Iron Shield of his own equipped, which is definitely not a bad thing because it is the best hand-armor aside from the Fujin Shield Piers can possibly wear at that point. It will last him until the party first sails out into the Great Eastern Sea.