Sylph Rapier

Sylph Rapier
Visual effect of Mad Zephyr
Trade values
Item class	Light Blade
Buy value	10100
Sell value	7575
Statistics boosts
Attack Boost	124
Unleash effect
Effect name	Mad Zephyr
Unleash rate	35%
Extra damage	40
Side effect	May double the resulting damage.

A Sylph Rapier is a Light Blade-class Artifact weapon found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.

Basic Description by game

The Sylph Rapier increases the wielder's attack by 124. It can be sold for 7575 coins and subsequently re-bought for 10100 coins. As a pure-element weapon, its normal attack always counts as an elemental physical attack, and damage from the attack is either increased or decreased based on how the user's Jupiter power compares to the target's Jupiter resistance (it is the only pure-element Jupiter-based weapon native to the second game, incidentally, with the Elven Rapier in Golden Sun being the other).

In The Lost Age, it can be attained by giving a Sylph Feather to Sunshine; it is one of five items that may result randomly from the forging job. As a light blade, it can be equipped by Isaac, Felix, Garet, Jenna, Ivan, and Piers. Its Unleashed power is Mad Zephyr, which adds 40 damage points to the resulting damage, is affected by the Jupiter element, and then has a chance to deal double damage after the attack bonus is applied. It has the standard base unleashing rate of 35%. Mad Zephyr appears as the wielder sending a series of four needles of light violet energy blasting into the target. If double damage is inflicted, far more needles are shot at a much higher rate of fire.

In Dark Dawn, the Sylph Rapier is found in a treasure chest on Talon Peak. It can be equipped by Matthew, Tyrell, Eoleo, Amiti, Karis, and Himi. The Sylph Rapier retains its status as a pure-elemental weapon, but is no longer the only Jupiter-based pure-element weapon available. As part of the revisions to the Unleash system, the Sylph Rapier gains two new unleashes. Critical Move is a physical attack that multiplies damage by 1.4. Normally, Critical Move is a non-elemental attack, however it becomes a Jupiter-based Unleash due to the Sylph Rapier's pure-elemental status. The second unleash, Double Attack, does Jupiter-based damage with a multiplier of 1.6. Mad Zephyr remains the Sylph Rapier's signature unleash and retains the same mechanics as in The Lost Age.

Analysis

Like the Swift Sword in the first game, though to a lesser degree, the Sylph Rapier is a notable weapon in The Lost Age due to having a massive damage spike. Though slightly inferior in raw attack and in unleash damage added to the Dracomace Jenna might be using at this point in the game, Mad Zephyr does far more damage than even Felix or Piers can do if its double-damage ability activates. As such, it is worth considering forging the weapon for Jenna's use during the late Eastern Sea and early Western Sea, particularly if she is made an Enchanter, Ascetic, or Ninja to boost her Jupiter power.

In Dark Dawn, the Jupiter Adept, Karis, can easily make use of the Sylph Rapier, which provides a great increase in Attack for that point in the game. As a weapon, however, it does share some competition with the Yew Bow, another Jupiter-based pure-element weapon available just before the Sylph Rapier. The Yew Bow's attack increase is 4 points less than the Sylph Rapier, but the Yew Bow has two Jupiter based unleashes with high damage multipliers. Thus, a player may choose to let another Adept equip the Sylph Rapier, which has a wider variety of potential wielders, and allow Karis to retain the Yew Bow, which is limited to her and Amiti.

Cultural References

A Sylph is an invisible being of the air, or an air elemental, invented by the medieval alchemist Paracelsus.