Guardian
- This page is about the recurring Enemies in The Legend of Zelda series. See Guardian (Disambiguation) for similar terms.
| Guardian | |
|---|---|
ArtworkModel  BotW   BotWHWAoC | |
| Main appearance(s) | |
| Other appearance(s) | |
| Habitat(s) | |
| Attack(s) | Shooting lasers |
| Effective Weapon(s) | Guardian and Ancient weapons Master Sword |
| Spoil(s) | |
Guardians are recurring Enemies in The Legend of Zelda series.[name reference needed]
Contents
Characteristics
Breath of the Wild
Guardians are ancient machines created by the Sheikah, originally created to aid in the battle against Calamity Ganon. Most Guardians are under the control of Calamity Ganon during the events of Breath of the Wild and are scattered across Hyrule, attacking those who approach. Guardians that are not possessed by Calamity Ganon's Malice, such as those that reside within Ancient Shrines, in the Trial of the Sword, at Upland Zorana, and in the Final Trial, glow orange and blue instead of the pink that corrupted Guardians display. Despite not being possessed by any evil force, they will still attack Link as they were tasked by the Monks to fight him as part of the trials that he must undergo.[1]
While Guardians are formidable opponents, they have a few weaknesses. A Guardian's eye is their weak spot; shooting it with an Arrow causes extra damage and stuns them for a brief period of time. While sufficiently strong weapons can deal a fair bit of damage to Guardians, they are especially weak to Ancient equipment, which deals much more damage to them. The Master Sword, which doubles its attack power near guardians, is another effective weapon against them.
Guardian Stalker
- Main article: Guardian Stalker
Guardian Stalkers are powerful enemies, with high health, high resistance and a laser beam attack that deals up to 15 Hearts of damage. If a target is too close to them, they will attempt to distance themselves in order to fire their lasers; otherwise they will relentlessly pursue said target until they lose track of it. When defeated, they may drop any combination of Ancient Screws, Ancient Gears, Ancient Springs, Ancient Shafts, Ancient Cores and Giant Ancient Cores. Link can cut off the legs of a Guardian Stalker, temporarily stunning them.
Decayed Guardian
- Main article: Decayed Guardian
Decayed Guardians are decayed variations of the Guardian Stalkers that have long lost their mobility. They are found buried in the ground, unable to move due to having no legs. Decayed Guardians appear inactive until Link approaches it, when they light up and aim their laser sights at Link in preparation to fire.
Guardian Scout
- Main article: Guardian Scout
Guardian Scouts are smaller variants of Stalkers that can be found within Ancient Shrines and Divine Beasts. They come in four different forms, ranging from I to IV. Depending on the form, these can be equipped with different weapons. The stronger variants found within the 'Test of Strength' shrines can also use their laser to repeatedly burn the ground surrounding them, sending Link back if struck. Additionally, when near death, they will charge a stronger laser attack that cannot be interrupted.
Guardian Turret
- Main article: Guardian Turret
Guardian Turrets do not move, but instead fire powerful lasers at Link. They are only found around Hyrule Castle. Upon spotting Link, their head will begin to elevate and they will charge their laser in preparation to shoot. Several Guardian Turrets guard the entrance to the Sanctum of Hyrule Castle, where Calamity Ganon resides.
Guardian Skywatcher
- Main article: Guardian Skywatcher
Guardian Skywatchers are a flying type of Guardian. They scan their environment with a red searchlight and will begin charging their laser upon locating a target. Many Guardian Skywatchers patrol around Hyrule Castle and the Akkala Citadel Ruins.
Sentry
- Main article: Sentry
Sentries are a type of flying Guardian, similar to Guardian Skywatchers, that only appear on Death Mountain during the "Divine Beast Vah Rudania" Main Quest. Rudania dispatches Sentries as Link and Yunobo approach Death Mountain to hinder them as they attempt to disable Rudania.[2][3] Sentries use red searchlights along the path up the Mountain which, should Link or Yunobo be spotted, will cause Rudania to furiously unleash Magma Bombs at them.[4]
Other Appearances
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Trivia
- Guardian Stalkers were based on the Octoroks from The Legend of Zelda, which to people on the development team seemed huge in comparison to Link, leading to the cephalopod-like design of the Guardians and the technological theme of the game.[5]
Nomenclature
 Names in Other Regions 
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Name | Meaning | |
 |
EnglishUK | Guardian | |
 |
Japanese | ガーディアン (Gādian) | Guardian |
 |
Dutch | Wachter | Guardian |
 |
FrenchEU | Gardien | Guardian |
 |
German | Wächter | Guardian |
 |
Italian | Guardiano | Guardian |
 |
Russian | Страж (Strazh) | Guardian |
 |
SpanishLA | Guardián | Guardian |
Gallery
A Decayed Guardian attacking Link in Breath of the Wild
Inactive Guardians inside the Temple of Time in Breath of the Wild
A destroyed Guardian
Princess Zelda defending Link from a Guardian
Concept art of the Guardian Turret
A Guardian statue from the E3 2016 Breath of the Wild booth
Statues of Link and a Guardian fighting from the E3 2016 Breath of the Wild booth
Guardian in early development in 2014 Breath of the Wild trailer
Attacking the Guardian in the 2014 Breath of the Wild trailer
The Breath of the Wild Guardian amiibo
References
- ↑ "Hello everyone. I'm Hidemaro Fujibayashi, director of The Legend of Zelda™: Breath of the Wild.
Today's interesting detail is about the color of Guardians.
Spoilers ahead!
---------------------------------------------------------------
In The Champions' Ballad DLC Pack 2, Kass acts as the storyteller and sometimes appears near a Divine Beast to recite a ballad.
In one of the challenges in The Champions' Ballad DLC Pack 2, you will encounter a Guardian that glows a shade closer to orange instead of the common reddish color. This is actually a Guardian that hasn't been corrupted by Calamity Ganon.
If you look carefully at the small Guardians that appear in the Shrines of Trials, they also glow orange. This means that these Guardians were prepared by the Sheikah Monks for the trials, and diligently fulfill their tasks.
To help you fight Guardians, here are the materials to create one Ancient Arrow: Ancient Screw (x2) Ancient Shaft (x1), and Arrow (x1). You can receive them by starting up the game with the button below. Just make sure that you either have the game card inserted or the digital version of the game on your system.
We hope this helps!" — Hidemaro Fujibayashi, How to enjoy The Champions' Ballad DLC Pack 2 - Part 3., , published December 26, 2017, retrieved December 28, 2017. - ↑ "These sentries dispatched from Divine Beast Vah Rudania are equipped with searchlights that can spot intruders." — Hyrule Compendium (Breath of the Wild)
- ↑ "Oh... Yikes... A sentry is always a nuisance, no matter where it is or how many of them there are." — Yunobo (Breath of the Wild)
- ↑ "If one finds you, Rudania will go nuts, which will cause Death Mountain to erupt, goro. I...always get spotted, and then magma bombs come raining down one after another." — Yunobo (Breath of the Wild)
- ↑ "In creating a huge world, I went back to the first Zelda title. And I wanted to see an enemy like Octorok. Octorok to me when I was playing felt really large. That’s why the first enemy I created for the game was the Guardian. But then just creating a large octopus is kind of gross, so we decided to take the more sci-fi, technology route, and that’s where the visual for the Guardian comes from. And that decision leads into the storyline, and influenced many other elements we added to the game." — Matt Peckham, Why Nintendo Had to Destroy Tradition to Create the New 'Zelda', Time, published June 15, 2016.
