Gaia Blade

Gaia Blade (GBA)
Visual effect of Titan Blade
Trade values
Item class	Long Sword
Buy value	17000
Sell value	12750
Statistics boosts
Attack Boost	135
Psynergy Point Boost| |-}}{{#if: |	20
Elemental Resistance Boosts	20
Unleash effect
Effect name	Titan Blade
Unleash rate	35%
Extra damage	70

Gaia Blade (DD)
The Titan Blade unleash as it appears in Dark Dawn.
Trade values
Item class	Long Sword
Buy value	11,500
Sell value	8,625
Statistics boosts
Attack Boost	168
Elemental Power Boosts	20
Elemental Resistance Boosts	20
First unleash effect
Effect name	Power Charge
Extra damage	x1.4
Second unleash effect
Effect name	Spiral Assault
Extra damage	x1.3
Side effect	Hits adjacent foes as well
Third unleash effect
Effect name	Sky Diver
Extra damage	66
Side effect	May stun the foe
Fourth unleash effect
Effect name	Titan Blade
Extra damage	70

The Gaia Blade is a Longsword-class weapon Artifact available in Golden Sun and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, and in the first game is the strongest weapon.

Basic Description

GBA series

The Gaia Blade increases the wielder's base Attack rating by 135 points, the highest attack rating increase provided by a piece of equipment in Golden Sun, and also increases the wielder's Venus power by 20 and Venus resistance by 20. The sword is a pure-element weapon because its physical attack is itself an attack whose resulting damage is either increased or decreased based on how the user's Venus power compares to the target's Venus resistance. The Gaia Blade's Unleash effect is Titan Blade, with the standard base activation rate of 35%, which is a physical attack with an additional 70 points of damage added, and then is affected by the user and target's Venus statistics as before. Visually, Titan Blade is the most spectacular Unleash effect in Golden Sun, which visually is the wielder summoning a colossal yellow sword crashing down into the area where the target is, letting loose a veritable water spout of yellow energy as it digs into the target, and detonating in a large bright explosion of purple energy.

Dark Dawn

In Dark Dawn, the Gaia Blade's Attack is boosted to 168 and it is found hidden deep within Yamata Ruins, and requires both the Yellow Orb and the Utility Psynergy Search to be found. Similarly to the stronger Sol Blade, only Matthew can equip the Gaia Blade. The Gaia Blade gains 3 new unleashes: Power Charge, Spiral Assault, and Sky Diver.

Ironically, none of the Gaia Blade's new Unleashes appear to be of the Venus element: Two of them are aligned with Jupiter, the element in conflict, while the remaining one is with the symbiotic element (Mars). This is a somewhat awkward combination considering the Gaia Blade's Venus elemental nature. Visually regarding its special abilities, Power Charge resembles a burst of white energy being emitted upon hitting the target. The Spiral Assault casts a whorl of wind blades towards the opposition, dealing Jupiter-based damage to the target and the two adjacent units. In the case of Sky Diver, the Adept leaps high into the air and swings the blade forward to release a golden bird-like spirit that dives into the enemy with a huge explosion, which has a chance to paralyze the target. This sword's signature Unleash, Titan Blade, summons a massive blade to the target's location and erupts in Venus energy as it digs in the earth before the screen flashes white. It is very similar to its previous visualization but rendered this time.

Analysis

Golden Sun

In Golden Sun, the Gaia Blade is perhaps quite clearly the best weapon in the game. Most players would equip it on Isaac because when he has all seven Venus Djinn on him his very high Venus power and resistance (further bolstered by the sword itself) causes his normal attack, Unleash, and even his Psynergy moves to be noticeably more powerful than those of any other Adept. A typical method of capitalizing on Isaac's efficiency with the Gaia Blade is to equip the Warrior's Helm, which increases his Unleash rate by 10% and Venus power by 10, and Hyper Boots, which further increases his Unleash rate by 12%. He will be able to Unleash a powerful Titan Blade effect 57% of the time when he attacks, and if he is wearing Spiked Armor that chance even further increases by 6% to form the maximum possible Unleash rating of 63%. (Titan Blade's effect is essentially a more damaging version of the Ragnarok Psynergy attack, which is viewable as a more damaging version of a normal physical attack with the Gaia Blade.)

Golden Sun: The Lost Age

Considering how powerful and easy to get the Gaia Blade is, it can safely be assumed that if Golden Sun: The Lost Age is played with full data transfer, Isaac will be equipped with the Gaia Blade when his party joins Felix's. At that point, even though the Gaia Blade has technically less of an attack rating than weapons Felix's party can have (Hestia Blades and the Phaeton's Blade, namely), the Gaia Blade is still a good weapon for Isaac to wield and can only be reliably replaced by a stronger Venus-based weapon, such as the three possible weapons that can be forged from Golem Cores. One of those three weapons, a Huge Sword, is a direct improvement over the Gaia Blade that shares its pure-element Venus nature and has higher Attack and an Unleash with an additional side effect that lowers enemy Defense, though it does not increase Venus power and resistance.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

When the Gaia Blade is acquired in Yamata Ruins, it will be more powerful than some of the weapons you will already have in your possession. However, the addition of Jupiter and Mars-based unleashes does not give Matthew as much power as he could. Regardless, since only Matthew can wield it, it will make a placeholder weapon until the Sol Blade has been acquired.