Guardian

Guardians are pufferfish-like 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.

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 will spawn even if the monument has been destroyed by the player.

Drops[]

When killed, guardians always drop 0-2 prismarine shards. Looting increases the maximum prismarine shard drop by one per level, for a maximum of 5.

They also drop one of the following:

• 40% chance of dropping a raw cod (cooked cod if killed by fire‌^{[JE only]}). An additional 0-1 drops are added per level of Looting for a maximum of 4 cod with Looting III.
• 40% chance of dropping prismarine crystals. An additional 0-1 drops are added per level of Looting for a maximum of 4 prismarine crystals with Looting III.
• 20% chance of dropping neither.

When killed by the player Guardians have a 2.5% chance of dropping a random fish as an extra drop in addition to the normal fish drop. This chance is increased by 1% per Looting level, for a maximum of 5.5% with Looting III. This drop uses the same chances that fishing uses, resulting in a 60% chance for raw cod, a 25% chance for raw salmon, a 13% chance for pufferfish, and a 2% chance for tropical fish. A guardian on fire drops cooked fish.

Guardians also drop 10 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.

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.

Stationary guardians can be pushed by flowing water, but swimming guardians cannot. When pushed horizontally, they move significantly faster than other mobs pushed by water.

When out of water, guardians squeak while flopping about. They do not suffocate in air and can live indefinitely out of water. Their spikes always extend when out of water.

Guardians, as aquatic mobs, are affected by the Impaling enchantment.‌^{[JE only]}

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 and deals 6 regular damage and additional 1 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.

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.

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Entity data[]

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

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements[]

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration and combat	—	Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.	adventure/root
	Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Adventure	Kill one of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement. Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	adventure/kill_a_mob
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Monster Hunter	Kill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Axolotl Bee Blaze Camel Cat Cave Spider Chicken Chicken Jockey Cod Cow Creeper Donkey Dolphin Drowned Elder Guardian Enderman Endermite Evoker Fox Frog Ghast Goat Glow Squid Guardian Hoglin Horse Husk Llama Magma Cube Mooshroom Ocelot Panda Parrot Phantom Pig Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Polar Bear Pufferfish Rabbit Ravager Salmon Sheep Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Skeleton Horse Skeleton Horseman Slime Sniffer Stray Spider Spider Jockey Squid Strider Trader Llama Tropical Fish Turtle Vex Vindicator Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.	adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst
	Take Aim	Shoot something with an Arrow	Monster Hunter	Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot an entity with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow.	adventure/shoot_arrow
	Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement. Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement.	adventure/kill_all_mobs

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[]

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		16w32a			The entity ID has been changed from Guardian to guardian. The Elder tag has been removed.
		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.
1.17		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.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.16.0		build 1			Added guardians.
Bedrock Edition
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.
Legacy Console Edition
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Added guardians.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.3.12					Added guardians.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Guardian" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues 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.^[verify]
• If summoned with {NoAI:1}, the guardian's eye still follows the player.
• In Bedrock Edition, guardians do not make the flopping sounds while on land.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

• 

  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.

In other media[]

• 

  The guardian texture, with "jeb" written in the corner.

• 

  The guardian face texture as revealed by Jeb on reddit.

• 

  Guardians in promotional artwork for the Boss Update.

• 

  Lego Minecraft Guardian.

References[]

External links[]

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