Giant Axe

A Giant Axe (Gigant Axe in Japan) is an Axe-class Artifact weapon found throughout the Golden Sun series.

Basic Description by Game
In all its appearances, the Giant Axe increases the wielder's base Attack by 114 points. It can be bought for 14000 coins and sold for 10500 coins.

In the original Golden Sun, they are occasionally dropped by Earth Golems in Suhalla Gate and the exit of Venus Lighthouse, and can be equipped by Isaac and Garet. In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Earth Golems once again drop the Giant Axe, and can be found in Treasure Isle. In The Lost Age, Felix and Piers can equip the Giant Axe. Its Unleashed power is Meltdown (Melty Armor in Japan), which adds another 47 damage points, converts the damage from physical to Mars, and attempts to lower the target's defense by 25% (this effect can stack up to twice). It has the standard base unleashing rate of 35%. Meltdown appears as the axe strike creating a cloud of fluid, wavering Mars energy and the Impair graphic effect of a breaking red shield on the victim.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn changes the Giant Axe from a random monster drop to a normal treasure found in the Phantasmal Bog. It can be equipped by Matthew, Tyrell, and Eoleo. As part of Dark Dawn's changes to the Unleash system, the Giant Axe now has three Unleashes: Stone Justice, Berserk Rush, and Meltdown. Stone Justice is a Venus-based Unleash that adds 11 points of damage and may also lower the target's agility by 50%. Berserk Rush is a non-elemental physical attack that multiplies damage by 1.6. Meltdown remains the signature Unleash, but is slightly altered to have a range of up to three adjacent targets.

Analysis
In Golden Sun, if it can be gotten off an Earth Golem in Suhalla Gate before arriving at Lalivero, it makes a strong late-game weapon that would constitute an attack upgrade to the Dragon Axe if that is currently equipped in the party, and would be better than any weapon for Isaac or Garet in Lalivero's artifact shop. It would probably remain on one of your warrior Adepts after the other has equipped the Gaia Blade, and even then it remains a good placeholder weapon for either the Muramasa or Wicked Mace.

Overall, it seems that this is one of the three best non-cursed weapons to equip to Garet in Golden Sun because of its moderately high attack strength, useful secondary effect, and alignment to Mars. Another non-cursed option is the Blessed Mace, which has 12 more Attack and a slight HP regeneration but lacks an Unleash. Therefore, if one were to want to equip a non-cursed weapon on Garet, the Giant Axe will help players who prefer physical attack while the Blessed Mace will help players who focus on offensive Djinn such as Scorch and single-target Psynergies such as Heat Wave. The last possibility, the Kikuichimonji, will help Garet greatly if has some Jupiter levels (e.g. Ninja, Samurai, and Conjurer). However, even without Jupiter levels, it still makes for an excellent non-cursed endgame choice with a powerful Attack rating (unlike the Giant Axe) and a powerful unleash (unlike the Blessed Mace). Therefore, the Kikuichimonji is perhaps the best of the non-cursed items to equip on Garet.

In The Lost Age, since Earth Golems can be fought in the earlier portion of Treasure Isle as soon as the Great Eastern Sea can be sailed around, the Giant Axe technically becomes possible to obtain after the game's first quarter. While it would be strong at this point, it is actually instantly obsoleted by the fact that another dungeon monster drops the better Tartarus Axe with twice the likelihood, the Minotaurus in Tundaria Tower and Ankohl Ruins, so focus on that instead.

In Dark Dawn, the Giant Axe is the strongest weapon available when obtained. While Stone Justice is fairly weak by this portion of the game, it still has the useful ability to lower Agility. Berserk Rush will give consistent power, while Meltdown is given an improvement in its expanded range. Given the Mars-based nature of Meltdown, Tyrell could make the best use of the weapon at the time. It is powerful enough that it will remain in the player's possession throughout the remainder of the Morgal section of the game. However, the Giant Axe will quickly become outclassed by the forgeable weapons available after the player gains the Sailing Ship.

RNG methods
While the Giant Axe is a rare drop in Golden Sun, there exist within the game certain ways to manipulate the game's Random Number Generator to ensure a drop following a battle encounter. One such method is detailed below.

First of all, make sure that you have all 28 Djinn, with all of the Djinn of each element set on the appropriate character so that they will be in their mono-elemental classes (Venus Djinn on Isaac, etc.). Ivan needs to be the character with the lowest agility, while still being above 150 - putting all of Ivan's Jupiter Djinn except Gust on Standby helps, as does giving agility-boosting equipment like the Ninja Garb to other characters.

Proceed to the room in the lower "exit" area of Venus Lighthouse that has a giant statue of a goddess and glowing circular tiles on the ground. Now save, turn off the game completely and then turn it on again. After that, run around the Goddess room and get into a battle; it should be with an Earth Golem, a Nightmare, and a Horned Ghost. Now follow the next steps:
 * Isaac uses Clay Spire
 * Garet uses Flare Wall
 * Ivan uses Tornado
 * Mia uses Ice Horn.

All the attacks have to be concentrated on the Nightmare. The Nightmare and the Horned Ghost should die. The Earth Golem shouldn’t attack you.

On the next turn, Ivan unleashes Gust to attack the Earth Golem and everyone else defends. The Earth Golem should die. If done correctly, a Giant Axe should be awarded along with the experience and coins.

One of the best possible methods is to do as follows - Go to the area in Venus Lighthouse with the Psynergy Stone in the center. Save and turn the game completely off, then turn it back on. Go up the left flight of stairs and run around in the room with the lightning barrier until you initiate a battle. It should be against an Earth Golem and a Gnome Wizard. Here's how the first turn should go:
 * Isaac uses Gaia
 * Garet uses Eruption
 * Ivan uses Plasma
 * Mia uses Wish

Concentrate all attacks on the Gnome Wizard, and he should die this turn, leaving the Golem open for an attack. Finish him off with Ivan using Smog and everyone else defending. This should grant you the Giant Axe, along with the experience and coins.

Gallery of Dark Dawn unleashes