Equipment

As in all other RPGs, equipment can be bought or found throughout the Golden Sun series and is an integral part of the gameplay experience. Equipment can be equipped to any Adept in the party in order to increase that Adept's statistics or grant them other abilities, such as increasing the chance that an Unleash will occur or automatically recovering HP and PP during battle. Many weapons also have Unleash effects, special attacks that occur randomly in place of the Adept's normal attack. Some equipment can even be used to grant and Adept new Psynergies that can be used outside of battle to solve puzzles (some of these Psynergies can be used in battle as well), although they do not affect any other aspects of the Adept in question. These Psynergy-bestowing items are often required to beat the game, and cannot be sold or dropped. The most common use for equipment, however, is to increase an Adept's Attack and Defense specifically.

Some pieces of equipment have special abilities that can be "Used" in battle like normal items, although there is always a chance they might break when Used. Broken equipment can still be equipped to gain its normal stat boosts, but its "Use effect" cannot be activated. If broken, equipment can be taken to any vendor (regardless of whether that shopkeeper sells that type of equipment) to have it repaired to full working condition; repairing broken items costs one-fourth the item's purchase value. Broken equipment can be sold, but for only one-half its purchase value. If sold, the broken equipment is automatically repaired (items normally sell for three-fourths their purchase value, meaning broken items have the repair cost deducted from their sell cost). It should be noted that a piece of equipment does not have to be equipped for its effect to be activated, although it must be in the inventory of an Adept that can equip it.

Most equipment count as Artifacts, special items that, if sold, can be repurchased from any appropriate vendor. In fact, most Artifacts are equipment. Many equipment Artifacts are unique, either found while exploring towns and dungeons or naturally appearing in the vendors' inventory as the game progresses (equipment Artifacts found by vendors appear in both games and can be transferred from Golden Sun to Golden Sun: The Lost Age, allowing players to obtain multiple copies of these otherwise one-of-a-kind items). Most other equipment Artifacts are won as spoils during combat, although this is often a rare occurrence and may require the use of RNG-manipulation. There are even some pieces of powerful equipment that can only be obtained by taking Forgeable materials to Sunshine in Yallam and paying him to turn it into an item, a feature introduced in The Lost Age. The few remaining Artifacts are often acquired in unique ways, such as receiving them as gifts or winning them in minigames.

Most equipment can be labeled as one of four main types: Weapons, Bodywear, Headgear, and Armwear. The latter three are often grouped together as "armor". Each Adept can only be equipped with one item from each of these types at a time. Each type can be divided into several classes of equipment, which determine which Adepts can equip which items. There are also a number of miscellaneous classes that, like the main types of equipment, an Adept can only equip one item of at a time (with the exception of Psynergy-bestowing equipment). However, these items are rare and relatively minor compared to the other types. This is reinforced by the game mechanics: a window appears that shows an Adept's current equipment when holding the R button while viewing that Adept's inventory, but only the four main types of equipment are shown.

Weapons

Weapons are perhaps the most notable type of equipment, due in large part to their Unleash effects. Unleashes are special attacks unique to each weapon that occur randomly when an Adept performs a physical attack. Unleashes increase damage done, sometimes outright multiplying it, and often come with an additional effect, such as lowering the target's statistics, inflicting them with a status condition, or replenishing the wielder's HP or PP, among other effects. Also, all Unleashes are aligned with a certain element, causing the damage it does to be dependent on the wielder's power in and the targets resistance to that element. Unleashes also have a unique visual effect, some of which are relatively elaborate.

Not all weapons have Unleashes, but they all share a single purpose: to artificially increase an Adept's Attack rating. The Attack stat primarily affects how much damage is dealt by a physical attack, which does not cost any PP and is the only way to activate an Unleash, but it also affects the damage done by certain Psynergies (such as Ragnarok and Heat Wave) and all offensive Djinn. Because of all this, having a strong weapon equipped is recommended even for characters who are not likely to use physical attacks often.

Interestingly, an Adept's battle sprite changes to reflect which class of weapon that Adept currently has equipped.

Long Swords

Main article: List of Long Swords

Long Swords are weapons equippable by the "warrior-type" Adepts: Isaac, Garet, Felix, and Piers (with the exception of the Sol Blade, which can only be equipped by the Venus Adepts Isaac and Felix). These weapons are among the strongest in the series, and the most powerful of each games' weapons are all Long Swords (although weapons of other classes often come close). This makes them ideal end-game weapons for the above Adepts, although there are exceptions. Unlike other weapon classes, Long Blades are fairly balanced in terms of the elements of their Unleashes.

Light Blades

Main article: List of Light Blades

Light Blades are weapons equippable by Isaac, Garet, Ivan, Felix, Jenna, and Piers. These weapons are some of the strongest in the series, often falling just short of the power offered by Long Swords. This is made up for by the fact that more party members can equip Light Blades than Long Swords. Light Blades are easily the strongest weapons available to Ivan and Jenna in terms of raw attack power, although some Staffs may prove to have superior Unleashes for these two Adepts. Most Light Blade Unleashes tend to be aligned with the Jupiter element.

Axes

Main article: List of Axes

Axes are weapons equippable by the "warrior-type" Adepts: Isaac, Garet, Felix, and Piers. Axes are powerful weapons, often competing with Long Swords for the position of "most powerful weapon". Although many of the first Axes available are stronger than Long Swords available at the time, they are eventually overpowered by other weapon classes and ultimately end up serving as "placeholder" weapons. Most Axe Unleashes tend to be aligned with the Mars element.

Maces

Main article: List of Maces

Maces are weapons equippable by Isaac, Garet, Mia, Felix, Sheba, and Piers. Maces are perhaps the weakest weapon class in the series, serving as little more than "placeholder" weapons for the "warrior-type" Adepts. But for Mia and Sheba, who can only equip Maces and Staffs, Maces may prove to be powerful weapons until near the end of the game, where they are quickly overpowered by various Staffs. Most Mace Unleashes tend to be aligned with the Venus element.

Staffs

Main article: List of Staffs

Staffs are weapons equippable by the "mage-type" Adepts: Ivan, Mia, Jenna, and Sheba. These weapons are some of the strongest in the series, although they tend to be overpowered by Long Swords and Light Blades. Still, they often serve as the strongest weapons available to Mia and Sheba, who cannot equip any other weapons besides Maces. Interestingly, all but two Staffs (Wooden Sticks and the Shaman's Rod) are Artifacts. Most Staff Unleashes tend to be aligned with the Mercury element, although there are also a large number of Jupiter Unleashes.

Bodywear

Bodywear is one of the three armor-types of equipment. These items tend to give the wearer greater defensive boosts than the other types of armor, not surprising since it covers more of the body. Most equipment that regenerates HP in battle is Bodywear.

Clothing

Main article: List of Clothing

Clothing is a class of Bodywear equippable by all Adepts.

Armor

Main article: List of Armor

Armor is a class of Bodywear equippable by the "warrior-type" Adepts: Isaac, Garet, Felix, and Piers. Armor tends to give the wearer a greater defensive boost than other types of Bodywear.

Robes

Main article: List of Robes

Robes are pieces of Bodywear equippable by the "mage-type" Adepts: Ivan, Mia, Jenna, Sheba. Many Robes possess HP and PP regenerating qualities, as well as boosting the wearer's elemental Resistance.

Headgear

Headgear is one of the three armor-types of equipment. These items tend to increase an Adept's ability to use or resist Psynergy, such as increasing or regenerating PP or increasing elemental Power. In fact, most equipment that regenerates PP is Headgear.

Hats and Crowns

Main article: List of Hats and Crowns

Hats and Crowns (and to a lesser extent, Caps, Hoods, and Masks) are pieces of Headgear equippable by all Adepts. The only items that grant "warrior-type" Adepts HP-regenerating effects belong to this class, which also has many items that can be Used in battle.

Helms

Main article: List of Helms

Helms are pieces of Headgear equippable by the "warrior-type" Adepts: Isaac, Garet, Felix, and Piers. Helms tend to give the wearer greater defensive boosts than other types of Headgear.

Circlets

Main article: List of Circlets

Circlets are pieces of Headgear equippable by the "mage-type" Adepts: Ivan, Mia, Jenna, and Sheba.

Armwear

Armwear is one of the three armor-types of equipment. Armwear is actually more defense-oriented than other types of armor, often boosting the wearer's elemental Resistance or providing Use effects that can disable enemies or defend or heal allies.

Gloves

Main article: List of Gloves

Gloves are pieces of Armwear equippable by all Adepts. Unlike other classes of Armwear, Gloves focus more on offense than defense, and many increase the wearer's Attack or elemental Power.

Shields

Main article: List of Shields

Shields are pieces of Armwear equippable by the "warrior-type" Adepts: Isaac, Garet, Felix, and Piers. Shields tend to give the wearer greater defensive boosts than other types of Armwear and are the most likely to increase the wearer's Resistance.

Bracelets

Main article: List of Bracelets

Bracelets are pieces of Armwear equippable by the "mage-type" Adepts: Ivan, Mia, Jenna, and Sheba. Many Bracelets can be Used in battle for defensive or disabling effects.

Interestingly, although the armor class is called "Bracelets", most of these items have Armlet in their names.

Supplemental

Shirts

Main article: List of Shirts

These items are individually equippable by various Adepts.

Boots

Main article: List of Boots

These items are equippable by all Adepts.

Rings

Main article: List of Rings