Claymore

A Claymore (バスタードソード, Basutādo sōdo^?, lit. Bastard Sword) is a common Long Sword-class weapon available throughout the Golden Sun series.

In Golden Sun and The Lost Age

Claymore (GBA)
In-Game Description
"Long Sword" (GS) (TLA)
Trade Info
Weapon class	Long Sword
Buy value	4000
Sell value	3000
Artifact?	No
Statistic Boosts
Attack Boost	70
Acquisition
• First sold in Altin (GS) • First sold in Kibombo (TLA)

In Golden Sun, the Claymore can first be purchased at the village of Altin while clearing out the connected dungeon of Altin Peak. The weapon shop that sells it is initially closed because it, like the rest of Altin, is flooded, but the flooding is fully drained once the party defeats all three Living Statues hiding in the dungeon's upper subdivisions.

The previous village, Xian, would have introduced the Battle Rapier and Battle Mace (which have +58 and +56 Attack, respectively). Unlike those weapons, the Claymore can only be equipped by Isaac and Garet, but its offered +70 Attack is a fair deal higher than even the strongest Artifact weapon for those two party members that the player may have found for free by this point, the 55-Attack Arctic Blade from Fuchin Falls Cave. This will not necessary replace the Arctic Blade because, while the Attack boost will roughly translate to 8 points of extra damage dealt per hit, the Arctic Blade has a 35% chance to proc a Mercury-aligned Unleash effect that adds 18 damage points and causes a 60% chance to lower the target's Attack by two stages.

Even so, your other warrior-style Adept will only be equipped with one of those two basic weapons from Xian at best, so spending 4,000 coins on a Claymore for him may be worthwhile for progressing through the remainder of Altin Peak and fighting the Hydros Statue boss. The dungeon following Altin, Lamakan Desert, allows you to collect the 76-attack Vulcan Axe artifact for free, largely obsoleting the Claymore (unless you prefer to have the Adept without the axe equip this sword in place of the Arctic Blade for its harder strikes with generic attacks and elemental physical attack Psynergy). Even if you take this future acquisition into account, buying one Claymore at Altin for use against both the mine's Hydros Statue and the desert's Manticore boss is still a viable purchasing decision because it will only truly cost you 1,000 coins in the long term, since it can be sold for 3,000 coins when you're done with it.

On the other hand, the Manticore boss has very little resistance to the Mercury unleash effect of the Arctic Blade. Furthermore, the village that is reached after Lamakan Desert, Kalay, offers the next step up from the Claymore, the Great Axe, which offers 80 Attack and costs 5,200 coins. (Kalay itself is the only other settlement in the game that sells Claymores, incidentally.) The Kraken boss fought on the Tolbi-bound Ship is best dealt with having your two warriors equip a Great Axe and the Vulcan Axe.

In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Claymores can be bought as soon as you complete Gabomba Statue and become capable of shopping at Kibombo in the daytime. Despite the game's lopsided focus on finding powerful weapon artifacts in dungeons that obsolete generic weapons you can buy at vendors, a Claymore still offers a narrow window of opportunity to be a viable purchase. Out of the two warrior adepts featured in your party throughout most of this game, Felix and Piers, one of them will likely be wielding the 76-Attack Disk Axe found in Kibombo Mountains previously, which comes complete with a Mars Unleash that adds 24 points and might Stun the target.

However, Piers will have recently joined the party equipped with a 56-Attack Battle Mace. Since you have two warriors but only one Disk Axe to distribute to them, the only feasible upgrade over the Battle Mace you will have had access to by the time the Claymore becomes available for purchase is the Storm Brand potentially found much earlier in Air's Rock. This offers 60 Attack and an Unleash that is coincidentally a slightly stronger duplicate of the Arctic Blade's from the first game, which matches Piers' Mercury elemental focus. If you retain this sword for the Aqua Hydra coming up fairly shortly, the boss will be very resistant to this Unleash, and its chance to lower the boss' Attack by two 12.5% "stages" will be quite low – but the attack drop can still happen and will be useful for the party's survival in that case.

With all that in mind, you can buy a Claymore for Piers if you would rather rely on each of his physical strikes dealing roughly 5-6 more base damage throughout the battle. If you do so, you will likely sell that Claymore off very quickly as you begin sailing the Eastern Sea and getting stronger weapons as artifacts in dungeons and as randomly crafted items from forgeable materials in Yallam (incidentally the only other settlement in the game where Claymores are sold at vendors).

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Claymore (DD)
The DS model of the Claymore
In-Game Description
"Weapon: Long Sword" (DD)
Trade Info
Weapon class	Long Sword
Buy value	4000
Sell value	3000
Artifact?	No
Statistic Boosts
Attack Boost	70
First Unleash effect
Effect name	Critical Strike
Extra damage	x1.5
Second Unleash effect
Effect name	Spin Strike
Extra damage	0
Side effect	Hits each adjacent foe
Acquisition
• First sold in Te Rya Village (DD)

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Claymores are first sold in Te Rya Village. Like with all generic weapons, the Claymore receives multiple "generic Unleashes" that are randomly chosen between when the Adept equipping it procs an Unleash: Critical Strike (かいしんのいちげき, Critical Hit^?), which deals 1.5 times the damage of a standard physical attack, and Spin Strike (かいてんぎり, Spin Slash^?), which does not add any damage but aligns the physical attack with Jupiter and additionally hits each enemy adjacent to the target for 80% of the normal damage. This set of Unleashes happens to be identical to the basic Long Sword.

Unlike both of the previous games, Claymores in Dark Dawn are decisively obsoleted by weapon artifacts that can be found without any monetary expense in earlier dungeons. Matthew and Tyrell, the only two Adepts who can wield long swords in this game, can already be equipped with the 88-Attack Grievous Mace from Craggy Peak Ruins, the 84-Attack Mystery Blade from Harapa Ruins, and even the 76-Attack Vulcan Axe from the Ouroboros dungeon before that. There is just as little reason to spend coins on a Claymore at the vendors at Belinsk and Saha Town coming up. Since none of these three settlements can be reached following the Morgal arc in the game, this weapon becomes permanently unavailable once you jump onto the ship at the port following Belinsk Ruins and initiate the battle with Gloom Skorpnas.

Gallery of Dark Dawn unleashes

• 

  Critical Strike

• 

  Spin Strike

Etymology

The Claymore's original name in Japanese, Bastard Sword, refers to a large, straight-bladed European sword that can be used with either one or two hands, also known as a longsword.

A claymore is a large two-handed sword historically used by Scottish Highlanders.