Guardian

Guardian

• Extended
• Retracted

Health points	30HP × 15
Behavior	Hostile
Mob type	Monster, Aquatic
Attack strength	Laser: Easy: 4HP Normal: 6HP Hard: 9HP Spikes: Easy and Normal: 2HP Hard: 3HP
Hitbox size	Height: 0.85 blocks Width: 0.85 blocks
Spawn	Ocean Monument

{
    "title": "Guardian",
    "rows": [
        {
            "field": "30<span class=\"hidden-alt-text\">HP</span><span class=\"nowrap mc-hearts\"><span class=\"iconbar pixel-image nowrap\" style=\"--icon-offset:-1px;\" title=\"1  heart\">(link to File:Heart (icon).png article, displayed as 9px|link=|alt=&#9829)</span> × 15</span>",
            "label": "(link to Health article, displayed as Health points)"
        },
        {
            "field": "Hostile",
            "label": "Behavior"
        },
        {
            "field": "(link to Monster article, displayed as Monster), (link to Aquatic article, displayed as Aquatic)",
            "label": "(link to Mob article, displayed as Mob) type"
        },
        {
            "field": "(values exceeds 1000 characters...)",
            "label": "Attack<br/>strength"
        },
        {
            "field": "Height: 0.85 blocks<br>Width: 0.85 blocks",
            "label": "(link to Hitbox article, displayed as Hitbox size)"
        },
        {
            "field": "<span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:EnvSprite ocean-monument.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Ocean Monument|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Ocean Monument article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Ocean Monument</span>)</span>",
            "label": "(link to Mob spawning article, displayed as Spawn)"
        }
    ],
    "invimages": [
        "Guardian Spawn Egg"
    ],
    "images": [
        "Guardian.gif",
        "Guardian (Retracted).png"
    ]
}

Guardians are aquatic hostile mobs that spawn in and around ocean monuments. They attack with a slow-charging laser beam, and inflict retaliatory damage when damaged by a melee attack.

Spawning

Guardians spawn naturally in ocean monuments. They require water, flowing or stationary, to spawn.

In Java Edition guardians spawn less often in ocean open to the sky than they do in covered areas (such as inside or underneath the monument). Specifically, spawning fails 95% of the time if the spawning water block is below sea level (Y=63 by default), all blocks between the spawning water block and sea level are liquid or fully transparent, and the block at sea level has a view of the sky. They can spawn only if the spawning block and the block below the spawning block are both water. The block above the spawning block also cannot be solid and has to be transparent, air, or water.

In Bedrock Edition, guardians are structure spawns, spawning in water source blocks in 25 pre-determined spawning columns. Guardians usually do not (or possibly never) spawn near a player. Also, guardians seem not to spawn below solid blocks such as the prismarine blocks of the monument unless there are no water source blocks available above the solid blocks. This means that guardians don't spawn inside an ocean monument until most or all of the spawning column blocks above it are unavailable (i.e., no longer water source blocks). Guardians can spawn between Y=39–61 (inclusive, from the monument floor to one block above its highest point). To find the X and Z coordinates of the columns, start counting from the northwest corner of the monument. That is, standing on the furthest corner prismarine block with the smallest X and Z coordinates, let's say (X, 41, Z). The coordinates of each spawning spot are in a grid at X+2, X+13, X+29, X+45, and X+55, combined with Z+2, Z+13, Z+29, Z+45, and Z+55. For example, the bottom of the most northwest column is at (X+2, 39, Z+2) and the top block belonging to the southeast corner column is at (X+55, 61, Z+55). The guardians spawn at the northwest corner of a spawning column block, which can be helpful for some guardian farming mechanics such as causing them to spawn inside of a portal where they are immediately sent to the nether.

Guardians still spawn even if the monument has been destroyed by the player.

Drops

Primary loot

Item		Roll Chance	Quantity (Roll Chance)
			Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Prismarine Shard	100%	0–2	0–3	0–4	0–5
	Random Fish	2.5%–5.5%	1 (2.5%)	1 (3.5%)	1 (4.5%)	1 (5.5%)

Secondary loot

In addition to the drops above, one of the following is selected

Item		Roll Chance	Quantity (Roll Chance)
			Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Raw Cod	2/5	0–1	0–2	0–3	0–4
	Prismarine Crystals	2/5	0–1	0–2	0–3	0–4
	Nothing	1/5	1	1	1	1

Guardians also drop 10XP when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

Behavior

Guardians swim around in water, attacking any players, squid, glow squid, or axolotl that come into range of its laser. They swim in abrupt charges, moving their tail rapidly when doing so. When swimming, their spikes retract. When not swimming, they sink slowly and their spikes extend and quiver.

During idle swimming, a guardian chooses a water or waterlogged block within a 9×9×9 area centered on itself as the destination to pathfind toward. If unreachable, they still swim directly toward the target despite any blocks in the way. They attempt to cross air blocks and do not try to prevent fall damage.

Stationary guardians are pushed much faster horizontally by flowing water than other mobs, but when swimming they are completely unimpeded - they remain affected by bubble columns however.

There is a slight bias for blocks with a higher light level to be the chosen destination when swimming. If undisturbed, guardians can be seen loosely congregating around the sea lantern blocks of their ocean structure.

When out of water, they abandon any previous pathfinding target - instead squeaking loudly and hopping erratically, uninfluenced by nearby water or players. They still use their laser and have their spikes extended. Guardians do not suffocate and survive indefinitely without water unlike other aquatic mobs.

The guardian's eye follows and stares at any nearby players, and always looks directly at its target. In Java Edition, the eye does not follow unarmored players under the effects of a potion of Invisibility and the guardians cannot attack them. A player can wear one piece of armor while under the effects of Invisibility and not be attacked.

Guardians, as aquatic mobs, are affected by the Impaling enchantment.‌

Combat

Guardians have two methods of attack: a laser and a defensive attack analogous to the Thorns enchantment. Unlike most other hostile mobs, a guardian does not follow a player who moves out of sight. Instead, it simply continues swimming until the player becomes visible again to start charging its laser.

Guardians attack players, axolotls, and squid. Otherwise, a guardian does not retaliate against mobs (such as iron golems) that attack it, other than damaging the attacking mob with its natural thorns defense.

Laser

The laser takes 2 seconds to charge, doing no damage in the meantime. It starts out purple and fades to yellow. Once charged, the laser flashes green before disappearing and deals 6HP regular damage and additional 1HP magical damage on normal difficulty. The latter bypasses armor. Guardians swim around for 3 seconds before firing again. If the target approaches while the guardian is loading its laser, it stops firing and swims away until it is at a comfortable range, at which point it continues attacking. The laser cannot be dodged or blocked by a shield and has a maximum range of 15 blocks.

Once the target is out of range, or if the laser is obstructed by solid blocks (including transparent blocks like glass), the guardian's laser disengages and the shooting sound stops.

Spikes defense

Guardians deal damage each time it is hit with a melee attack while its spikes are extended, similar to the Thorns armor enchantment. If cornered, the guardian usually extends its spikes and fires at the player, even at point-blank range.

Sounds

Java Edition:
Guardians use the Hostile Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

[hide]Sounds
Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Guardian moans	Hostile Creatures	Randomly while in water	entity.guardian.ambient	subtitles.entity.guardian.ambient​	0.1	0.8-1.2	16
	​Guardian flaps	Hostile Creatures	Randomly while out of water	entity.guardian.ambient_land	subtitles.entity.guardian.ambient.land​	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	​Guardian shoots	Hostile Creatures	While a guardian uses its laser attack	entity.guardian.attack	subtitles.entity.guardian.attack​	0.0-1.0	0.7-1.2	16 (technical) / ∞ (effective)
	​Guardian dies	Hostile Creatures	When a guardian dies while in water	entity.guardian.death	subtitles.entity.guardian.death​	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	​Guardian dies	Hostile Creatures	When a guardian dies while out of water	entity.guardian.death_land	subtitles.entity.guardian.death​	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	​Guardian hurts	Hostile Creatures	When a guardian is damaged while in water	entity.guardian.hurt	subtitles.entity.guardian.hurt​	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	​Guardian hurts	Hostile Creatures	When a guardian is damaged while out of water	entity.guardian.hurt_land	subtitles.entity.guardian.hurt​	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	​Guardian flops	Hostile Creatures	While a guardian is on land	entity.guardian.flop	subtitles.entity.guardian.flop​	1.0	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

[hide]Sounds
Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Hostile Creatures	Randomly while in water	mob.guardian.ambient	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Hostile Creatures	Randomly while out of water	mob.guardian.land_idle	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Hostile Creatures	While a guardian uses its laser attack	mob.guardian.attack_loop	?	?
	Hostile Creatures	When a guardian dies while in water	mob.guardian.death	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Hostile Creatures	When a guardian dies while out of water	mob.guardian.land_death	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Hostile Creatures	When a guardian is damaged while in water	mob.guardian.hit	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Hostile Creatures	When a guardian is damaged while out of water	mob.guardian.land_hit	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Hostile Creatures	While a guardian is on land	mob.guardian.flop	1.0	1.0

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags	[hide]Translation key
Guardian	guardian	aquatic axolotl_always_hostiles can_breathe_under_water not_scary_for_pufferfish sensitive_to_impaling	entity.minecraft.guardian

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	[hide]Translation key
Guardian	guardian	49	entity.guardian.name

Entity data

Guardians have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Java Edition:

• [NBT Compound / JSON Object] Entity data
  • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template[show]
  • Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template[show]

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

[hide]
Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		It Spreads	Kill a mob next to a catalyst	—	10	Bronze
		Monster Hunter	Attack and destroy a monster.	Kill a hostile mob or one of the following neutral mobs: an enderman, a piglin, a zombified piglin, a spider, or a cave spider.	15	Bronze
		Overkill	Deal nine hearts of damage in a single hit.	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have nine hearts of health overall.	30	Bronze
		Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	—	20	Silver

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	A Throwaway Joke	Throw a Trident at something. Note: Throwing away your only weapon is not a good idea.	Hit a mob with a thrown trident.
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration and combat	Kill any mob, or be killed by any living entity.
	Arbalistic	Kill five unique mobs with one crossbow shot	Armor Stand also counts for this advancement. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Kill one of these 73 mobs near a sculk catalyst:[show] Mobs that drop no experience as well as the ender dragon are ignored for this advancement.
	Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Kill one of these 37 mobs:[hide] Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.
	Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Kill each of these 37 mobs:[hide] Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.
	Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	–
	Take Aim	Shoot something with an Arrow	Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot a mob with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow.

Video

Note: This video is outdated in Java Edition, as raw fish, cooked fish and clownfish are now called raw cod, cooked cod, and tropical fish as of 1.13.

History

[hide]Java Edition
1.8			June 3, 2014				Jeb announces he is working on a hostile mob that lives underwater, though currently doesn't do much.
			June 8, 2014				Jeb provides more details into the upcoming mob - it has a ranged attack and is hostile to squid as well as the player. He recommended using a full set of diamond armor, potion of Water Breathing and Respiration enchantment on Hard difficulty.
			June 9, 2014				Jeb posted a stylized guardian image to Reddit for use as a user flair. This was the first indication of how the guardian would look.
			14w25a				Added guardians.
1.9			15w43a				The drop chances of guardians for raw fish and prismarine crystals have been changed. Instead of a 33% chance of fish and a 33% chance of crystals (only if the fish drop failed with both percentages adjusted by Looting), the percentages have been changed to 40% fish, 40% crystals, and 20% neither, with the amount increased by Looting.
			15w47b				Sounds for guardians' defensive Thorns attack have now been added.
1.11			16w38a				The common drop of guardians, raw fish, now drops as cooked fish, if killed while on fire.
1.14			18w43a				The texture of guardians has been changed.
1.15			19w34a				Guardians now take damage on magma blocks.
1.17			21w11a				The texture of the guardian has been tweaked, so that a floating pixel present in the tailfin no longer exists.
			21w13a				Now drop cooked cod or salmon instead of raw cod or salmon if on fire when killed or killed by a fire source.
[hide]Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.16.0			build 1				Added guardians.
[hide]Bedrock Edition
1.2.0			?				Guardians no longer play flopping sounds when on land.
1.4.0			beta 1.2.20.2				Guardians now attack fish.
1.6.0			beta 1.6.0.5				Guardians no longer attack fish.
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				The texture of guardians has been changed.
1.17.0			beta 1.17.0.50				The texture of the guardian now have been tweaked that a floating pixel in the tailfin have now removed.
1.20.40			Preview 1.20.40.20				Guardians once again play flopping sounds when on land.
[hide]Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3		Added guardians.
TU46	CU36	1.38	1.38	1.38	Patch 15	1.0.1	Sounds for guardians' defensive Thorns attack have now been added.
TU54	CU44	1.52	1.52	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	The common drop of guardians, raw fish, now drops as cooked fish, if killed while on fire.
TU56	CU48	1.55	1.55	1.55	Patch 26	1.0.6	The common drop of guardians, raw fish, no longer drops as cooked fish, if killed while on fire.
[hide]New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.3.12							Added guardians.

Data history

[hide]Java Edition
1.11			16w32a				The entity ID has been changed from Guardian to guardian. The Elder tag has been removed.
1.13			17w47a				Numeric IDs for entities were presumably deprecated in this version.​

Issues

Issues relating to "Guardian" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• A guardian's eye is actually the "head" part of the mob's model. This gives the illusion of a dynamic eye.
• Guardians' laser-beam attacks are affected by the potion of Strength, which normally affects only melee attacks.
• When placed or spawned on a slime block, guardians start bouncing and continue and each bounce higher than the last, until each bounce brings the guardian to 17 blocks height.
• In the texture file for the guardian, "jeb" is written in the bottom right corner.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 

  Jeb's Instagram mob reveal.

• 

  Jeb's Instagram mob reveal.

• 

  The inside of a guardian (with their spikes extended).

• 

  A guardian's "eye" follows players at any position.

• 

  A guardian attacking a squid.

• 

  A group of guardians defending their monument.

• 

  Size comparison between a guardian and its elder variant.

• 

  A guardian in a boat.

Textures

• 

  Guardian texture file, with "jeb" written in the corner.

In other media

• 

  The guardian face texture as revealed by Jeb on reddit.

• 

  Guardians in promotional artwork for the Boss Update.

• 

  Lego Minecraft Guardian.

• 

  Guardian artwork.

External links

• Meet the Guardian – Minecraft.net on September 25, 2017