Levatine

The Levatine (レヴァテイン, Revatein^?, lit. Lævateinn) is a Long Sword-class Artifact Weapon available in Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It is forged from a Mythril Silver.

In Golden Sun: The Lost Age

Levatine (TLA)
Visual effect of Radiant Fire
In-Game Description
"Long Sword: Unleashes Radiant Fire" (TLA)
Trade Info
Weapon class	Long Sword
Buy value	19700
Sell value	14550
Artifact?	Yes
Statistic Boosts
Attack Boost	173
Unleash effect
Effect name	Radiant Fire
Extra damage	66
Side effect	May ignore 50% of the target's Defense
Acquisition
• Forged from Mythril Silver (TLA)

The Levatine increases the wielder's base Attack rating by 173 points. In every game it appears in, it is acquired by bringing some Mythril Silver to that game's blacksmith, whereupon it is turned into either this or one of several other items determined at random. In The Lost Age, its chance to be forged from a Mythril Silver is 10%, and the player must pay its 19700 coin value in order to obtain it. It can be equipped by Felix, Piers, Isaac, and Garet.

In The Lost Age, its Unleash effect is Radiant Fire (ヘルファイア, Herufaia^?, lit. Hellfire), with the standard base activation rate of 35%, which is a physical attack with an additional 66 points of damage added, and then the resulting damage is either increased or decreased based on how the user's Mars power measures against the target's Mars resistance. In addition, the effect may ignore half of the target's Defense rating during the attack, which increases the damage done. Radiant Fire visually resembles the wielder’s attack exploding into a series of circular fire patterns.

In The Lost Age, a Levatine is one of the game's strongest weapons; it is about equal to the Fire Brand, and the two are the strongest Mars-based weapons. While the Levatine has the potential to deal enhanced damage because of its Unleash's side effect, the Fire Brand is a pure-element weapon whose Unleash may put the target to Sleep, so if you have both weapons, deciding between one over the other is a matter of personal taste. However, neither of these weapons are as powerful as the Tisiphone Edge, Excalibur, and Masamune, which have Unleashes that may multiply the damage outright. However, the Levatine and Fire Brand are solid for a Mars Adept warrior like Garet to wield in the game's late stages if you do not have the other aforementioned weapons, despite receiving stiff competition from other weapons.

A Levatine is often compared to the Mythril Blade, the other weapon artifact that can be forged from a Mythril Silver, and the more-common-to-forge Mythril Blade has lower power levels and has an Unleash that is of the Mercury element and Seals the target's Psynergy. Many players would identify the Levatine as a better weapon, but in practice that is the truth mainly if it is a Venus or Mars Adept who is considering equipping the weapons. However, the Mythril Blade is a strong, solid weapon for the Mercury Adept warrior Piers to equip, just as the Levatine is a solid weapon for the Mars Adept warrior Garet.

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Levatine (DD)
The DS model of the Levatine
In-Game Description
""Weapon: Long Sword" (DD)
Trade Info
Weapon class	Long Sword
Buy value	19700
Sell value	14550
Artifact?	Yes
Statistic Boosts
Attack Boost	173
First Unleash effect
Effect name	Critical Move
Extra damage	x1.4
Side effect	May reduce target's HP to 1
Second Unleash effect
Effect name	Centurion
Extra damage	x2.4
Side effect	May ignore 50% of the target's Defense
Third Unleash effect
Effect name	Radiant Fire
Extra damage	66
Side effect	Hits each adjacent target May ignore 50% of each target's Defense
Acquisition
• Forged from Mythril Silver (DD)

In Dark Dawn, the Levatine has the same statistics and is also forged from a Mythril Silver, but it now has two other Unleashes which it may randomly choose to execute when it is Unleashed. The first is Critical Move (クリティカル, Critical^?), a non-elemental attack which multiplies the damage dealt by 1.4, and the second is Centurion (センチュリオン, Centurion^?), a Jupiter-aligned attack that multiplies damage by 2.4 and has a chance to ignore half of the target's Defense rating. Radiant Fire remains the weapon's theme Unleash, but is improved by hitting each adjacent foe as well, so that it can hit up to 3 targets at once. It can only be equipped by Matthew and Tyrell.

In Dark Dawn, the Levatine, surprisingly enough, is the stronger Long Sword behind the Sol Blade, and is one of the game's best weapons to make physical attacks with, because of the changes to each weapon's Unleash collection that the redesigned Unleash system puts in place. Many of the most powerful late-game weapons returning from The Lost Age receive several unleashes that are weaker than the Unleash they are typically known for, and the game randomly chooses which of a given weapon's Unleashes will be executed when an Unleash occurs. It therefore becomes much more difficult to trigger the top Unleash effects of these weapons, and this is especially true with weapons like Excalibur and Tisiphone Edge, which have a total of four Unleashes to choose from. Some of these weapons end up weakened enough that they're no longer better than other weapons they used to be superior to.

The Levatine, on the other hand, is a case where its unleashing capabilities have increased since the previous game. While it has three Unleashes this time, and the first new Unleash is the weak Critical Move, its other new unleash is one of the best in the game. Centurion has the enormously powerful damage multiplier value of x2.4, as well as the chance to further increase damage by ignoring half of the target's Defense rating. Furthermore, its returning Radiant Fire unleash has been improved with the capacity to hit each adjacent foe, giving it a usefulness of a different sort. This makes the Levatine a weapon where two of its three Unleashes are useful, giving it quite a good chance to produce a strong result whenever it is used to Unleash with, unlike other late-game weapons which have lower chances to produce their most desirable effects. That Centurion's elemental affinity is Jupiter, as opposed to Venus or Mars like the innate elements of the two Adepts that can wield it, is a somewhat inconsequential downside, though it does mean that its power can be maximized if the user is in the Ninja class series, which has set Jupiter Djinn increasing the wielder's base Jupiter Power rating.

As it is a Long Sword, it can only be equipped on Matthew and Tyrell, and Matthew will be getting the Sol Blade anyway, so this is generally considered a weapon exclusive to Tyrell. However, it is one of two possible choices as Tyrell's best weapon because of its unusually strong and consistent Unleashing capacity compared to other late-game weapons. It is better for him to use this than Excalibur or Tisiphone Edge because the chances for those to score their most full-powered Unleash results are both quite low, and Levatine is now superior to the Fire Brand, whose unleashes range from average to solid at best. Another weapon that Levatine can beat out is the Herculean Axe: it is hampered by having four unleashes, two of them surprisingly weak and a third Unleash that is essentially a somewhat weaker version of Radiant Fire. Its fourth and main Unleash, Olympus Rage, gives a x2 multiplier and has a chance to instantly fell the target. This occasional instant death effect can help make some random battles go by even quicker than they would otherwise, but that does not make up for how even the uncommonly triggered Olympus Rage deals less base damage than the more commonly triggered Centurion unleash of the Levatine.

While the Levatine is perhaps the best choice of weapon for Tyrell as a weapon to launch physical strikes with, due to having an average damage multiplier of roughly x1.6 whenever it unleashes, there is one other weapon that can turn out to be even better than it under specific circumstances: the Darksword. The Samurai class series which Tyrell may become when Venus and Jupiter Djinn are Set onto him contains the ever-so-strong Quick Strike Psynergy, an elemental physical attack Psynergy that deals an attack with a x1.8 damage multiplier. This attack is both stronger on average and more reliable than Unleashing with Levatine and most other weapons because it is not affected by the chances associated with the Unleash system – the Unleashes of a weapon cease to matter at all, and only the attack rating boost of the equipped weapon counts in this case. Therefore, if Tyrell's class becomes Samurai or Ronin and the Darksword is obtained, the Darksword becomes the best weapon for him to use because it has the highest base attack rating of all weapons.

All of this only applies to an endgame file, however, because a Darksword can only be forged and the Cleric's Ring can only be found once the Dark Dawn version of Crossbone Isle is made accessible. This means that the Levatine is easily the best weapon for Tyrell throughout the remainder of the main game, until it becomes possible to perform the Endless Wall Glitch. For a player choosing not to perform the glitch, Crossbone Isle will remain inaccessible until the main game is cleared, and therefore the Levatine will remain the best weapon right up to the final boss battle.

Cultural references

The Lævateinn is a famous weapon from Norse mythology. It was wielded by Surtr, the giant of fire in Norse lore who is believed to be the one who will finish the destruction of the world at the end of the battle of Ragnarok.

Gallery of Dark Dawn unleashes

• 

  Critical Move

• 

  Centurion

• 

  Radiant Fire