Long Sword (weapon)

"Long Sword" redirects here. For the class of weapons this item belongs to, see List of Long Swords.

A Long Sword (ロングソード, Rongu sōdo^?) is a common Long Sword-class weapon available throughout the Golden Sun series. In each game, it is available in the earliest weapon shop the player comes across and will always offer a comparatively higher Attack boost than the basic weapons of other classes it will be sold alongside.

In Golden Sun and The Lost Age

Long Sword (GBA)
In-Game Description
"Long Sword" (GS) (TLA)
Trade Info
Weapon class	Long Sword
Buy value	200
Sell value	150
Artifact?	No
Statistic Boosts
Attack Boost	14
Acquisition
• First sold at Vale (GS) • First sold at Daila (TLA)

Long Swords can be bought as soon as the player has completed the dark-and-stormy prologue sequence of the original Golden Sun and can freely explore Vale in the present day with Isaac, Garet, and Jenna in the party. Before entering Sol Sanctum, you are free to head to the shops at the base of the village and spend most of your starting 300-plus Coins on a 200-coin Long Sword for either Isaac or Garet, the game's resident two Long Sword-class weapon holders. Doing so will make each of their attacks deal several more damage points to the extremely weak enemies in the dungeon. It is even possible to sell off one of your Short Swords and Jenna's Wooden Stick so that you can just barely afford two Long Swords for both of the boys, letting Jenna have the remaining Short Sword.

On the other hand, you can spend those coins on the basic defensive gear sold at the shops and ignore Long Swords altogether. When the party leaves Vale early in the game's main quest, the next village, Vault, sells Battle Axes that offer a significantly improved 24 Attack Point increase and only cost 80 coins more than Long Swords, which is highly useful. Long Swords remain available for purchase at Vault and Bilibin.

In The Lost Age, spending your paltry starting amount of coins on defensive equipment in the first village you come across, Daila, is far more strongly recommended than buying a Long Sword for Felix, your sole heavy-weapon-wielding Adept for the first 30% of the game. This is because weapon artifacts that can be found by solving puzzles in the game's dungeons are generally much stronger than weapons that can be bought, such as the enormously powerful Themis' Axe that can be found in the second "dungeon", Dehkan Plateau. At this stage of the game, your offensive area-of-effect Psynergy can blow away enemies very easily. Long Swords technically remain available for sale at Madra and Alhafra and technically can be equipped by Piers much later.

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Long Sword (DD)
The DS model of the Long Sword
In-Game Description
"Weapon: Long Sword" (DD)
Trade Info
Weapon class	Long Sword
Buy value	200
Sell value	150
Artifact?	No
Statistic Boosts
Attack Boost	14
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 at Patcher's Place (DD)

In Dark Dawn, Long Swords are first available at the store in Patcher's Place, the first "main settlement" on the player's path following the lengthy prologue sequence. The revised Unleash system gives all weapons — even "basic" store-bought ones — multiple Unleashes that are randomly chosen between whenever the equipped Adept procs the base Unleash chance.

By striking with the Long Sword enough, the equipped Adept can build "Long Sword-class weapon experience" so that it will gain its first Unleash, Critical Strike (かいしんのいちげき, Critical Hit^?). Attacking more with it will add Spin Strike (かいてんぎり, Spin Slash^?) as an Unleash that can be procced in place of Critical Strike. While Critical Strike is simply the wielder's standard physical attack made 50% more damaging in terms of the end result, Spin Strike is a Jupiter-aligned Unleash that also hits each adjacent target for 80% of the overall force dealt to the central target. This makes the Long Sword the game's earliest example of a weapon that can randomly produce an area-of-effect Unleash.

The Long Sword will still be superior to the Short Swords that this game's two sole Long Sword users, Matthew and Tyrell, will be equipped with when they arrive at Patcher's Place. There is somewhat more reason to buy one or two Long Swords this time around because it can be put to good use against the Dim Dragon and Dim Dragon Plus boss battles at the end of the mandatory Psynergy Training Grounds. On the other hand, like in the first Golden Sun, Battle Axes are sold in the next town, Carver's Camp, and they retain the significant Attack Point increase and unusually small corresponding price increase. None of this is to mention that one of your two warrior-style Adepts can be heavily improved by gaining the free Themis' Axe in Goma Highlands Road along the way to Carver's Camp. Therefore, it is possible to go down to Carver's Camp first, then go back to the Psynergy Training Grounds once you have been powered up.

Given that mastering a Long Sword at this stage will give the Adept in question a head start on the Weapon Experience meters of future Long Sword-class weapons, you can consider having one of your two warrior-style Adepts train with the Long Sword if you would rather have that Adept stick with long swords throughout the game. Since Matthew will always be equipped with the game's ultimate weapon, the Sol Blade long sword, at the end of the game, keeping long swords on him throughout the game makes mastering that take less time when it comes time to use it. The basic Long Sword technically remains available to buy at Carver's Camp and Harapa, a village accessible throughout the Ei-Jei arc of the game; since that weapon shop will have disappeared by the time Harapa can be revisited late in the game, the Long Sword is technically "permanently missed" as soon as the party leaves Passaj for the Clouds of Passaj.

Gallery of Dark Dawn unleashes

• 

  Critical Strike

• 

  Spin Strike