Tisiphone Edge

A Tisiphone Edge is a Light Blade-class weapon found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It has the highest attack rating of all light blades.

Basic Description by Game
In all its appearances, the Tisiphone Edge carries a non-elemental attack rating of 178. It can be sold for 17250 coins and re-bought for 23000. Visually, the Tisiphone Edge is a thin, yellow rapier-like sword with a large, red hilt.

In The Lost Age, it is acquired as a rare drop from a Cruel Dragon at Islet Cave, and can be equipped by Isaac, Garet, Ivan, Felix, Jenna, and Piers. It is extremely hard to get, however, unless you use the Random Number Generator method provided below. The Tisiphone Edge has the Unleash effect Vengeance, which activates at a rate of 35% (which is standard) and converts the attack into a Venus-elemental attack with 71 extra damage points added, and the effect may either multiply the attack's strength by 1, 2, or 3 (at a rate of 30%, 20%, and 50% respectively). When Vengeance multiplies the attack strength by 3, it actually does more damage to an opponent than Megiddo does to the same opponent, because when the attack strength is multiplied by 3, the extra damage points are multiplied as well, so with the 3x multiplier, Vengeance adds 213 extra damage points in addition to tripling the base physical attack. Vengeance resembles a large, horned, Amazon-esque woman who replaces the party and looses seven arrows at the target in just over a second. Depending on the damage multiplier, some of these will miss.

In Dark Dawn, the Tisiphone Edge is a rare drop item from Great Dragons within Crossbone Isle. If a Mercury Djinni deals the killing strike, the chances of the weapon being dropped greatly improve. Currently, there is no known RNG method to guarantee that the Tisiphone Edge will be dropped, owing to Dark Dawn's more complicated Random Number Generator. The weapon retains Vengeance as its main Unleash, and gains three additional unleashes: Vorpal Slash, Combat Dance, and Light Surge. As a Light Blade, the Tisiphone Edge can be equipped by Matthew, Tyrell, Karis, Himi, Eoleo, and Amiti.

In The Lost Age
The Tisiphone Edge is one of the game's best weapons, potentially dealing massive damage that rivals the unleash effects of the game's other ultimate weapons, the Sol Blade and the Excalibur. It's a good idea to provide Tisiphone Edges to party members who aren't using an Excalibur or the Sol Blade. As a Venus elemental attack, Tisiphone Edge's Vengeance is especially strong with a Venus Adept, so one should consider giving the sword to the Venus Adept not using the Sol Blade.

In Dark Dawn
Like many "ultimate weapons," the Tisiphone Edge's effectiveness drops slightly because of the revisions to the Unleash system. In Dark Dawn, the Tisiphone Edge chooses between one of four potential Unleashes, which reduces the chance of triggering Vengeance's damage multiplier. While Light Surge and Combat Dance are not weak Unleashes, it's less likely that the user can inflict damage amounts as large as in The Lost Age on a regular basis. It's also likely that the Tisiphone Edge won't see so much action as in The Lost Age, since Crossbone Isle can only be explored after the final boss is dead (or if a glitch is used). Nevertheless, the attack increase is still the highest of any light blade, which makes the Tisiphone Edge worth retaining.

Vengeance's Venus power makes the Tisiphone Edge a good tool for Himi. If the player puts her in the Ninja class series to increase her Jupiter power, she can make best use of the other three unleashes too. Karis does well with the blade as well, but the Verdant Sword and Sagittarius Bow provide stiff competition. The Verdant Sword is weaker, but is a Jupiter-based pure-element weapon. Its main Unleash, Emerald Blitz, guarantees double damage as opposed to Vengeance's off-chance of multiplied damage. And the Sagittarius Bow uses steadier, less chancy unleashes than the Tisiphone Edge, so it's all a matter of personal preference.

RNG Method
Normally the Tisiphone Edge is very hard to acquire, it being the extremely rare drop of Cruel Dragons in the Islet Cave. Killing the dragons with Mars Djinn quadruples the chance, but still doesn't guarantee that they will drop the weapon. But in The Lost Age, it is possible to manipulate the Random Number Generator to get a Tisiphone Edge every time. The most common method looks like this:

Once you enter the long hallway, save and do a hard reset by flicking the power switch off and on. Jog around until you encounter your first monster. If it is a Cruel Dragon and a Druj, continue. If it isn't, do another hard reset and try again. The Adept who attacks third must attack with an offensive Mars Djinni for this method to work.

1st Round
 * Felix casts Clay Spire;
 * Jenna casts Aura;
 * Sheba casts Destruct Ray;
 * Piers casts Glacier.

*The monsters should not attack this turn because you get the first strike when using a hard reset.

2nd Round
 * Felix attacks other monster;
 * Jenna unleashes Core/Shine;
 * Sheba casts Destruct Ray;
 * Piers attacks other monster.

This should yield a Tisiphone Edge.

NOTES:

-If you get a duo of a Cruel Dragon and a Druj and you unleash the Mars Djinni on the Druj, you will instead receive the Berserker Band.

-Psynergies that affect your entire party (Aura and Wish series, High Impact, etc.) can also be used, but group healing Psynergies are the equivalent of two area Psynergies. This can be used to your advantage in certain situations, such as if your Mars Adept does not attack third. For example, if your party is Sheba, Jenna, Felix and Piers (in order of agility), you can have Jenna cast Aura in addition to the other three area Psynergies during turn 1, then on turn 2 continue the battle as normal, having Sheba cast an area Psynergy and Jenna unleash her Mars Djinni.

-If there is a Wonder Bird in the party with the Cruel Dragon, you have to alter the battle plan just slightly to accommodate (the Wonder Bird is the equivalent of half of a multi-area Psynergy). This can be done easily by using a single-target Psynergy, such as Spire or Heat Wave, but if you want, just kill the Wonder Bird for experience and find a Druj and a Cruel Dragon separately.

Cultural allusions
In the Greek mythology, Tisiphone is one of the three Erinyes, or Furies, along with Alecto and Megaera (who can be summoned in The Lost Age). Her purpose was to avenge murder by inciting suicidal madness in the guilty. She was once in love with Cithaeron, who apparently committed a mortal crime. Cithaeron implored her to execute him herself, which she did by having him be bitten by one of the poisonous snakes that served as her hair.

Trivia

 * The Tisiphone Edge is the only dropped weapon that has a Venus-based signature unleash in both The Lost Age and Dark Dawn.