Dullahan

Dullahan is an optional boss monster located and fought at the end of the optional dungeon Anemos Inner Sanctum in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and it is the deadliest boss in the game. Dullahan awaits daring players willing for the game's biggest battling challenge and guards the summon tablet containing the most powerful summon sequence in the game, Iris. Dullahan makes a reappearance in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, once again guarding the Iris summon tablet. This time, he can be found on Crossbone Isle, a dungeon which is different from the Crossbone Isle seen in the original Golden Sun, but is likely intended to be the same location.

Background and story
Dullahan, resembling a large, animate suit of purplish armor with nothing where its head should be (although in Dark Dawn, it carries a shield that apparently is its "head"), does not have any bearing on the game's actual story, nor is any background information provided. It is an incredibly powerful entity that, prior to the reintroduction of Alchemy, is found standing guard within the deepest depths of the Anemos Inner Sanctum, the sealed, secret dungeon within the Anemos Sanctum located near Contigo and the giant crater that was the former site of the City of the Anemos. For an indeterminable amount of time the Dullahan has stood watch over a summon tablet containing the power of the Sun itself (the Iris summon sequence, in other words).

Should any group of intrepid Adepts brave the traps and dangers of Anemos Inner Sanctum and make it to the dungeon's end, seeking the Sun's power, they will reach a chamber where using the power of Anemos will ferry them to the platform where Dullahan and the summon tablet await. Dullahan will introduce himself telepathically to his challengers before destroying them:


 * “I am the shadow, the keeper of light. If you want the sun’s power, show me your own.”

In The Lost Age, as Isaac and Felix's combined party of capable Adepts nears the end of its quest, they may decide to return to Contigo and explore the Anemos Inner Sanctum as they have so many other dungeons if they have all the Psynergy powers and Djinn necessary to do so. Their encounter with Dullahan will be the most fierce battle they will ever wage, but should they actually manage to defeat the entity, they will gain the ability to summon the embodiment of the Sun's power, the goddess Iris, in future battles.

The power of Dullahan can be harnessed to a degree by Adepts wielding dark magical arts such as those provided by the Tomegathericon. An Adept proficient enough to be called a Necromage may summon an image of Dullahan himself to abuse an enemy by swinging an immensely long sword fashioned from purple lightning, the Formina Sage, regardless of whether the real Dullahan in the Anemos Inner Sanctum has been defeated.

Thirty years later, Dullahan is found still standing guard over the Iris summon within the deepest depths of Crossbone Isle. In Dark Dawn, Matthew's party of Adepts may decide to explore the vast dungeon, provided they can encounter the secret passage to the dungeon. After passing through Crossbone Isle's many traps and puzzles, Matthew's party may engage Dullahan in the toughest battle they have ever faced. If successful, they, like the Warriors of Vale, will gain the ability to summon Iris in future battles.

As a boss in The Lost Age
Dullahan is a boss enemy more powerful than the final boss encounter at the end of Golden Sun: The Lost Age - much, much more powerful - though he is optional to battle. Therefore, he fits the bill of the Golden Sun series' "Superboss," something many RPGs have as a final challenge for fans before they finish the game. Oftentimes, the Superboss makes the final boss look like a puppy in comparison.

Dullahan is encountered at the end of the optional Anemos Inner Sanctum dungeon, which can only be entered and explored in a data-enhanced game of The Lost Age. Specifically, the battle will begin after solving a puzzle involving moving six blocks so they form an image of a bird, and then hopping onto the blocks and casting the Hover Psynergy. The blocks will lift up and transport you to the platform on the other end, where Dullahan awaits and the battle automatically begins.



Dullahan, statistically, has far higher numbers than any other enemies for several of its statistics. He has the highest HP rating in the game, 16000 HP, and regenerating 200 each round. He has 300 PP, which is a lower maximum amount than certain other bosses, but he regenerates 100 PP per turn, effectively giving him unlimited PP. He has higher Attack and Defense ratings over any other monster, with 676 Attack and 269 Defense, and his 59 Luck is higher than any other enemy in The Lost Age, outdone only by Deadbeard's 60 Luck in Golden Sun. Dullahan's 241 Agility is the only stat outdone by other monsters, which are the Star Magician and its Guardian Ball minion, as well as every monster in the Phoenix monster line. Compounding his astronomically high statistics is that he acts three times per turn, a trait shared only by the Doom Dragon, Sentinel, Wonder Birds, and the Serpent if it is fought without having been weakened by sunlight prior. In terms of resistance, Dullahan has a Mercury resistance rating of 190, a Venus resistance rating of 150, a Mars resistance rating of 130, and a Jupiter resistance rating of 110. If Dullahan is defeated in battle, you are awarded 15600 EXP, 6775 coins, and can reap the ultimate summon tablet Dullahan was guarding, the Iris summon.

Hard Mode is a replay mode where all enemies possess 1.5 times their normal HP meters and 1.25 times their normal Attack and Defense ratings. Interestingly enough, however, Dullahan is one of the only two enemies that does NOT get as much of a challenge boost as all the others. The theoretical maximum amount of HP the game's code would allow any enemy to have is 16,383, so Dullahan when fought in Hard Mode will only have an extra 383 HP, instead of the 24,000 HP he should have in theory. (The other boss that hits the HP cap is Valukar, though he still gets a comparably sizable boost in HP.) The 845 Attack and 336 Defense Dullahan will have will not be obstructed, however.

Arsenal
Dullahan's arsenal of abilities include some ferocious and crippling powers interspersed with some comparatively harmless status effect Psynergy, and since he can use any of these abilities three times a turn, it is often that Felix's party does not survive long against him:


 * Attack: This is this monster's standard physical attack. Since he has the highest physical attack rating in the Golden Sun series, his normal attack will do more damage than that of any other opponent, but compared to his other skills this seems somewhat weak.
 * Bind: This is a Psynergy spell that displays a holographic symbol onto a targeted Adept, attempting to Seal that Adept's Psynergy capabilities. It consumes 4 of its user's PP. It doesn't seal Djinn effects or Summon sequences, and since the "typical" way players go about battling Dullahan is through repeated high-level summonings, Dullahan using Bind might be considered him wasting a turn.
 * Break: This is a Psynergy spell that removes any statistical buffs from the current battling party. This ability consumes 5 of its user's PP. It's probable you wouldn't be spending your time buffing up your characters' stats in a fight like this, so Dullahan using this is akin to him giving your party a temporary reprieve. One way this ability can hinder you, however, is if it removes the elemental power boosts you amass while using Summon spells, thus removing the enhanced power of further summonings by the same Adepts.
 * Charon: Dullahan has the capacity to freely use the second strongest Summon Sequence in the game (a sequence normally reserved for the player's party) as one of his battle commands. For all four Adepts in the current battling party, Charon could potentially instantly down each one, and if not it will inflict immense Venus-based damage with a power rating of 500. This is the only summon sequence in the Golden Sun series that can be specifically and freely used by an enemy. A common misconception is that he will not be able to summon Charon at all if the player has not collected it; in actuality, he is able to summon it regardless of whether the player collected it at the beginning of Anemos Inner Sanctum or not.
 * Condemn: This is a Psynergy spell that projects an image of the Grim Reaper that approaches a targeted Adept and slashes once with its scythe, and the targeted Adept may be instantly downed. This ability consumes 8 of its user's PP. Of course, this is very bad if it connects, but very good if it misses, as that would equate to one of Dullahan's actions being wasted.
 * Curse: This is a Psynergy spell that briefly generates a candle icon at the target Adept's position, and the target has a chance to get inflicted with a 7-turn Death Curse status ailment. This ability consumes 6 of the monster's PP. Considering the wild nature of the battle, an Adept actually dying because of a Death Curse is rare, so Dullahan using this is akin him wasting one of his available moves in a given turn. Nonetheless, Dulluhan often casts Curse directly before summoning Charon or casting Djinn Storm.
 * Djinn Storm: This unique monster skill, shared only with the Doom Dragon, is most likely the single most crippling and dangerous effect in the Golden Sun series. A screen-filling mass of multicolored energy erupts around the entire party, putting into Recovery mode all of the Djinn on all currently battling party members. This makes the entire party much weaker and more succeptible to attacks for quite a few turns, but worst of all for many players, it removes the current party's ability to use Summons that have most likely been prepared for the battle beforehand. For players trying to battle and defeat Dullahan the "typical" way of summon-rushing, this is essentially a "game over move" if Dullahan uses this too early before all available summons have been cast.
 * Element Swap: This monster skill, despite what its name and its attached visual of Dullahan flashing with a rainbow light may suggest, simply does not have an actual battle effect other than him passing with this move. It is equivalent to other non-moves occasionally programmed into monsters' command lists to add thematic flavor while giving the monster the chance to let up on its otherwise repeated assaults, such as when the Doom Dragon "cannot move" and when enemies in the Thief monster line are reported by the game as glaring at you. Thus, it is a good move to see Dullahan randomly use in place of some other horrific assault. Nonetheless, it is a possible indication that Dullahan will use Charon on his next turn. It will also use it as its first move in a turn before casting Haunt and Curse in succession. In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the animation is changed to the shield inhaling several masses of dark energy.
 * Formina Sage: This is a monster skill where Dullahan wields a huge beam of purple lightning fashioned in the shape of a long sword and slashes through an Adept with extreme power while stationary, dealing a Jupiter-based attack equal to its normal physical attack multiplied by 2.8. With the damage output ranging between 800 and 1000 points, this will often down an Adept in one hit. The name "Formina Sage" itself is a mistranslation; the correct name for the skill should be "Fulminous Edge". This mistake is corrected in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.
 * Haunt: This is a Psynergy spell that causes a mass of purple skull symbols to swirl into each party member, and each affected party member has a chance to get inflicted with the Haunt status ailment. This ability consumes 5 of the monster's PP and has a range of 3. It doesn't actually hinder the party as much as Dullahan's other skills, so Dullahan using this is like him giving your party a temporary reprieve.
 * True Collide: This is a monster skill where Dullahan siphons energy in the form of masses of dark-purple energy orbs out of up to three Adepts and into himself, dealing a Venus-based attack with a power rating of 180 and a range of 3. In addition, for each Adept struck, Dullahan has a chance to restore his own HP equal to the damage dealt to that Adept. This can slightly prolong the battle. The name appears to be yet another instance of faulty translation; it is renamed "Dark Contact" in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.
 * Crucible: In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Dullahan has the same formidable arsenal of attacks as well as the ability to call upon any standby djinn, and summon them against you. This makes the popular "Summon Rush" technique even more prone to failure as Dullahan may use your own summons against you.

Strategies
Dullahan, being the Golden Sun series' ultimate challenge, has been the subject of much fan debate in the realm of how best to defeat him. Typically, players attempt to annihilate Dullahan with many repeated high-level summonings before he can annihilate them. Summon spells in Golden Sun games deal damage proportional to the size of each struck opponent's maximum HP meter, meaning that a 1-Djinn summon such as Jupiter will do over 300 damage to Dullahan, Moloch will do around 700, Meteor will do 1500, and Charon and Catastrophe will do around 3000. The following summon-specific setups are fairly reliable:


 * The two Venus Adepts Isaac and Felix and the two Mars Adepts Garet and Jenna in the front party with the two Jupiter Adepts Ivan and Sheba and the two Mercury Adepts Mia and Piers in the back party, with most of everyone's Djinn On Standby. Have the first party summon Daedalus and other summons repeatedly until the first party is defeated. Then have the second party summon Eclipse repeatedly until either Dullahan is defeated or your party is. A possible addition to this strategy is using Granite on the first turn to keep the battling party alive longer.
 * The two Venus Adepts Isaac and Felix and the two Jupiter Adepts Ivan and Sheba in the front party with the two Mars Adepts Garet and Jenna and the two Mercury Adepts Mia and Piers in the back party, with most of everyone's Djinn On Standby. Have the first party summon Charon twice and keep summoning Thor until the first party is defeated. Then have the second party summon either Meteor and Boreas repeatedly or Ulysses repeatedly until either Dullahan is defeated or your party is.
 * Have the two original parties (Felix, Jenna, Sheba Piers in one, and Isaac, Garet, Ivan and Mia in another) with all Djinn on Standby. Summon as much as possible, including Charon and Catastrophe. If luck is with you, you can use all of the first party's summons in 2 turns before Dullahan crushes you. Repeat with the second party. With luck, you will achieve three turns or so before you go down, and in those you can defeat Dullahan. A member tried this on his 1st time around with Dullahan and succeeded with all original [Isaac, Mia, Ivan, and Garet] party members still standing.
 * Another good strategy for Dullahan is to have all Djinn for both parties on standby, save one Djinn for each character. These should be the ones you are not likely to miss, like Shade or Ground. Enter the battle with Felix's party, with Isaac's party in the back. To start, have Felix summon Charon, Jenna summon Ulysses, Sheba summon Catastrophe, and Piers summon Ulysses as well. On the next turn, use whoever has the highest water power (probably Piers if he's still alive) and summon Boreas. Keep fighting until your first party is down and Isaac's party takes over and repeat the process.
 * (Suggested for lv.99 party) A non-summoning strategy that works well is to play out the fight with Dullahan as a damage race. Use the most powerful attack stats possible through Djinn setups for class bonuses and also use individual Djinn for their stat bonuses (preferably with the Venus and Mars Adepts as Ronin/Masters). Keep the Djinn with shield effects on your front four characters as Dullahan can not break through them. Keep Ivan or Sheba on the front with Isaac, Felix and Garet, he will act as healer. Keep loads of potions and water of life on as many of your front four party members as possible. Don't use Psynergy for attacking (except with Ivan, Sheba and Mia, but they are just around to help revive your Venus/Fire Adepts in worst-case situations) and don't attempt to use status effects to your advantage as Dullahan is highly resistant (not immune, however) to them and likes to use Break on his first turn. Do not bother using summons to beat him, as getting the Djinn together takes far too much time and Djinn Storm is always going to come at the worst possible time and throw you off balance. Just use Ivan to heal your group and keep one of the others to keep him alive/resurrect him. Do not spend time trying to clear any status ailments that Dullahan puts on you (except stun, or any other debilitating effect), usually right after cleansing the ailment, Dullahan will kill one of your guys anyway, so the point is lost. Only heal with Ivan if you know you can almost fully recover an ally, otherwise use Ivan to attack as well. If Dullahan uses Djinn Storm on you, your Venus/Fire adepts and Ivan (if set up properly) will all have access to revive/resurrect psynergy at different points of recovery, you can survive through this phase so long as you heal characters well and keep the damage up. Ivan will get killed in one shot probably very often, but it's best to keep him alive (you can use Jenna in his place too, but she lacks the extra utility of Ivan). --If you can spare the effort, you can set up your back four characters before entering the battle to summon Iris(this is only possible when facing Dullahan in the arena mode), it will save you about 10 rounds of fighting and healing, but is not necessary to win. This will be a very prolonged battle, but it's a very effective and reliable way to win against him even multiple times consecutively.

Since the damage all these summons do is based on their users' elemental power ratings and nothing else, these chancey rush-summoning strategies can be pulled off by parties of a wide range of levels, including parties as low as level 30. Summonings can also do noticeably higher amounts of damage if Adepts are equipped with items that effectively boost elemental power, such as Big Bang Gloves, Feathered Robes, and Triton's Wards. But leveling everybody up to 50 and beyond is extremely helpful nonetheless because their added resiliency increases their chances that they will not succumb to Dullahan's offenses quite as quickly; hence, they can fit in more summonings in their limited time on the battlefield, which can be vital in determining the battle's eventual victor. Everyone having agility ratings higher than Dullahan is a real necessity, however.

Incorporating the Jupiter Djinni Lull into your summon-rushing strategy does in fact allow for a far more sure-fire battle than most would realize is possible. If you've raised your party's levels high enough and equipped all members with speed-increasing equipment like Quick Boots and Running Shirts that each member has over 250 agility even when all Djinn are on Standby, then you can effectively get an entire turn's worth of summoning in without Dullahan attacking if you use this method: Have Lull be the only Djinni Set and have him set onto your frontal party member with the lowest agility. Then on the first turn of the battle, have the other three members summon and then have your fourth-acting member use Lull to end everyone's turn, including Dullahan's. That way, the next turn will begin immediately without Dullahan having used any of his commands, and all four members can summon again. With the right setup of available summons and specific element-boosting equipment, it is possible to have Dullahan defeated by the second turn, before he can even execute a single command. It should be noted that the summon Moloch, which always halves Dullahan's speed, is useful when you are fighting with a party below level 50 (however, Moloch's speed-lowering ability will only cause Dullahan to act slower than normal starting on the turn following the summoning, not during the turn it is summoned, even if Moloch is the first command executed in the first turn of the battle).

For those wishing to defeat him without resorting to "summon rushing", be prepared for a long fight. Be sure that everyone is at least level 50 (level 56 is preferable so as to unlock all psynergy) and be sure to bring plenty of items. Keep everyone clear of status effects and their health relatively high; it's a simple battle, but very long and dangerous. Having a large stock of Mist Potions spread out among ALL Adepts can alleviate the pain of Djinn Storm. Mist Potions can be purchased in the normal item shop in Prox. Since at this point, almost all of your weapons and armor come from Artifacts found in chests, you'll probably have a VERY large surplus of coins just sitting around collecting dust.

Alternating between unleashing the Mars Djinn Flash and the Mercury Djinn Shade (and to a lesser extent the Venus Djinn Granite) - where one Djinn is set to a party member on the turn the other is unleashed, can be an effective way to mitigate most of Dullahan's damage to your party. Nonetheless, this strategy is particularly susceptible to Djinn Storm and can make summons difficult to execute without accidentally putting the most recently unleashed Djinn on recovery.

For a true challenge, consider the "Four Ronin" strategy, in which one optimizes the djinn setup of the Venus and Mars adepts in the party to have four characters with 210% base HP. All healing and most revival must be item-based, and if this front party falls, reset the encounter.

As a boss in Dark Dawn
Dullahan's return appearance in Dark Dawn is very similar to before. It now has the second highest HP in the game, only barely beaten out by the fifth Ogre Titan. His abilities have strengthened, as Dullahan can now use the Crucible ability, previously unique to Valkular, to call upon any standby Djinn, and summon them against you. This makes the popular "Summon Rush" technique even more prone to failure, as Dullahan may use your own summons against you. On the positive side, his major attacks are set in a pattern - Condemn -> Charon -> ??? -> Djinn Storm, which makes strategy to avoid either Charon-kills or "dodging" the Djinn Storm easier. One noteworthy part of the pattern is that Dullahan will almost always use Charon before Djinn Storm. The advantage of this is that every character that is downed by Charon won't be hit by Djinn Storm and will be fighting fit after being revived. Dullahan retains a natural weakness to Jupiter, though Dark Contact will change this.

Strategies
Overall, similar strategies can be used in Dark Dawn as in The Lost Age. However, a few key differences should be noted. If using the summon rush strategy, it is in the best interests of the player to ensure that the first round of summoners are faster than Dullahan, to prevent any use of Crucible. In relation, the player should be careful about leaving their Djinn in standby after unleashing them. Also, it is worthwhile for the player to level up against Tua Warriors before fighting Dullahan. Besides the experience, the player can easily stock up on numerous Waters of Life, to be distributed throughout the party. The Venus Djinn Chasm is an also excellent aid in the battle, since it reduces damage done by 90%.

Another fact worth noting is that the "four Ronin" setup from The Lost Age, is inaccessible, as Himi does not have access to the class. However, should the player wish to use a similar strategy with the other Venus and Mars Adepts, Himi's place could potentially be replaced by Savage Fiend Sveta, who rivals any Adept in offensive power. The main drawback is that Sveta's time in the class is limited by the amount of set Djinn in her possession.

Cultural references
The dullahan is a powerful fairy from Irish folklore, and is essentially the Irish version of the Grim Reaper (its name means "dark man"). It takes the form of a horseman who carries his head under his shoulder. This head has tiny, constantly flitting black eyes, a hideous ear to ear grin, and flesh the color and texture of moldy cheese. Often, the horse itself is headless, and the dullahan may drive a coach pulled by several such headless horses. Gates cannot stop the dullahan's journey--they just unbar automatically as it approaches. Once the dullahan stops riding, it calls out a name. The mortal who is named dies, and the dullahan drags his or her soul to the afterlife. Those who try to spy on the dullahan riding across the country are rewarded with a bucketful of blood splashed in their faces. Curiously, dullahans are terrified of gold--even a gold pin can drive them away from their task.

That dullahans are so closely associated with death is probably the reason why Necromages can call upon one to fight on their behalf, and why the boss can call on Charon so readily.

Trivia

 * As of Dark Dawn, Dullahan is the only summon-guarding "superboss" whose elemental weakness has no relation to the primary element of the summon it guards. In this case, Dullahan is vulnerable to Jupiter attacks but protects a Mars summon. By comparison, the other three superbosses in The Lost Age are weak to the element opposite of the summon they guard, while the two new guys in Dark Dawn are weak to the same element as their summon.