Armored Shell

An Armored Shell (Armor Shell in the Japanese version) is an Armor-class bodywear available in both Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. It is sold in armor vendors at Tolbi in Golden Sun and at Apojii Islands in The Lost Age. Being an Armor-class piece of body protection, an Armored Shell can be equipped on warrior-style Adepts, namely Isaac and Garet in the first game, along with Felix and Piers in the second. It increases the equipped Adept's base Defense rating by 30 points. Its buy value is 3600 coins and its sell value is 2700 coins.

In Golden Sun when Armored Shells can first be bought in Tolbi, it is worth telling players bluntly not to buy them at all, because in the nearby Tolbi Spring, the Lucky Medal minigame freely dispenses all sorts of equipment that is very powerful and useful at that point in the game, with one of the best prizes being the armor Artifact Spirit Armor. This armor, with 32 Defense and adds 15 to all four elemental resistances for the equipped Adept, is so good it is actually better to equip than the Armored Shell's two later commonly-sold counterparts, the Plate Mail and the Steel Armor. Redeeming all your Lucky Medals at Tolbi Spring for equipment like Spirit Armors before even stepping into the shop at Tolbi is how a "perfect" game of Golden Sun would likely be played.

In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Armored Shells can first be bought in Apojii Islands, meaning they are available to buy as soon as you get the Lemurian Ship to sail the Great Eastern Sea with. It's true an Armored Shell is a significant-enough defense boost over a Psynergy Armor a warrior Adept might be wearing to consider replacing that with this, but the next level of common armor, the Plate Mail, also becomes available for buy at a shop in a Great Eastern Sea settlement (Champa, namely) at the same time as the Armored Shell, so you might as well go buy that instead of an Armored Shell.