Sword of Dusk

The Sword of Dusk (ソードオブダスク, Sword of Dusk^?) is a Long Sword-class Artifact weapon introduced in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Sword of Dusk
The DS model of the Sword of Dusk
In-Game Description
"Weapon: Long Sword" (DD)
Trade Info
Weapon class	Long Sword
Buy value	11500
Sell value	8625
Artifact?	Yes
Statistic Boosts
Attack Boost	100
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
Third Unleash effect
Effect name	Sunset Burst
Extra damage	x1.8
Side effect	May Delude the foe
Acquisition
• Chest in Teppe Ruins (DD)

The Sword of Dusk is found in a treasure chest that can be reached during your initial exploration of Teppe Ruins close to midway through the game. Its first two Unleashes are generic Unleashes that can be found on even the earliest Long Sword: Critical Strike (かいしんのいちげき, Critical Hit^?), which deals an attack for 50% increased damage, and Spin Strike (かいてんぎり, Spin Slash^?), which deals a normal-strength attack aligned with Jupiter that also hits each adjacent enemy for 80% of the attack's overall force.

Its third and final Unleash is the exclusive Sunset Burst (サンセットフレア, Sunset Flare^?), which deals a Mars-aligned physical attack that strikes for 80% increased damage and carries a 65% base chance to inflict the foe with Delusion. (This condition causes each attempt made by the target to deal a normal physical attack to miss 60% of the time; while it can last up to seven turns total, the enemy has a 30% chance to shake the status off at the end of each turn.) While the Sword of Dusk is mastered, this Unleash's relative probability of being randomly picked will increase.

The Sword of Dusk's base 100 Attack points puts it ahead of the attack damage of the strongest weapons you could have by the point you step out of Craggy Peak Ruins and into the Khiren Glacier region of the world map. For comparison, the Grievous Mace from Craggy Peak Ruins features 88 Attack, and the Mystery Blade from Harapa Ruins before that features 84 Attack. Its high Attack rating for this part of the game synergizes with the powerful x1.8 multiplier of Sunset Burst and helps compensate for the usually low damage output of the other two Unleashes.

Because Sunset Burst is aligned to Mars and the Sword of Dusk itself offers a good attack boost, you can give it to the Mars Adept Tyrell to make up for the lacking Attack modifier of his Guard class series, letting fellow long-sword-wielder Matthew keep the Grievous Mace. On the other hand, Matthew's comparatively higher Attack modifier in his Squire class series makes this hit harder despite the elemental mismatch, giving Sunset Burst more base damage to work with. In either case, the party should have enough Djinn on hand that both Matthew and Tyrell can exchange their respective elements of Djinn to become the Barbarian stage of the Brute class series, which features a much higher Attack rating at this point.

The Sword of Dusk can remain equipped on one of the two long-sword-compatible warrior Adepts for an impressively long time, depending on which of your other party members you decide to give increasingly powerful dungeon artifacts to. The 114-Attack Giant Axe can be found earlier in the Phantasmal Bog and will be an ideal weapon for one of the two warriors – either Matthew for his higher Attack or Tyrell for his higher Mars power complementing its own Mars Unleashes. While the Sylph Rapier found in Talon Peak features a very impressive 124 Attack, you may decide to hand it to either Karis or Amiti to give them more functional Attack stats. If you give the rapier to Matthew, it is recommended that he is given Jupiter Djinn to enter the Apprentice class series, which has the same Attack scaling as the Squire series. Finally, you can find the Hagbone Mace in Belinsk Ruins, which has "only" 108 Attack but carries two Venus-aligned Unleashes.

Matthew's performance with the Sword of Dusk may end up roughly matching most of the above Artifacts because the Unleash mastery system imparts an Attack bonus when the Sword of Dusk is fully mastered. If he has been fighting mostly with long swords throughout the game thus far, he would have to then commit to a fair amount of hands-on fighting with an Artifact of a different weapon type in order to eventually master that, giving that a similar Attack increase. Once the Morgal arc of the game concludes and you can start sailing the Eastern Sea for the rest of the game, you can easily start finding much more powerful weapons of every type.

Gallery of Dark Dawn unleashes

• 

  Critical Strike

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  Spin Strike

• 

  Sunset Burst