Bandit's Sword

The Bandit's Sword is a  Light Blade-class Artifact weapon found in Golden Sun.

Basic Description
The Bandit's Sword increases the wielder's attack by 12 points. it can be sold for 525 coins, and re-bought for 700 coins.

The Bandit's Sword is automatically received after defeating the thieves in Vault. As a Light Blade, it can be equipped by Isaac, Garet, and Ivan. If transferred into Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Felix, Jenna, and Piers can also equip the Sword.

Its Unleash effect, Rapid Smash, deals a Jupiter-aligned attack equal to the user's normal physical attack rating but, noticeably, all resultant damage is multiplied by 0.9, thus decreasing it. This is offset by Rapid Smash's occasional tendency to do double that amount. Visually, Rapid Smash resembles a normal strike with a blue shockwave released on impact. Two shockwaves are released if it does double damage.

Analysis
The Bandit's Sword is the second artifact that can be found in Golden Sun, appearing shortly after the Magic Rod. At first glance, the Magic Rod would appear to be the stronger of the two. However, due to the potential power of Rapid Smash, it can easily be argued that the Bandit's Sword is not only stronger, but also the strongest weapon to be found for quite some time. However, this power relies a lot on luck: first, Rapid Smash has to be unleashed, which only happens about 35% of the time. Even then, it can only outshine later weapons if the player is lucky enough for Rapid Smash to do double damage. Weapons found shortly afterwards can be considered more reliable as they are guaranteed to do more damage than the Bandit's Sword (Elven Rapier in particular), although perhaps not as much damage as a double-strike Rapid Smash. In the end, how long the Bandit's Sword remains in use is largely a matter of preference.