The Guardians: bigger, more dangerous, rare and named. A guardian is now a highlight, not a formality.
We measured it: guardians died in 7 to 8 seconds, nobody lost a life, and hardly anyone saw all three phases. In Orbit, seven to ten came per system. Now there are fewer, and each one is a real fight.
- Bigger: about one and a half times the size, hitbox included. An arrow at the screen edge always shows guardians and the Core, even without Tracking.
- Rare:
- In Orbit, besides the two key guardians, at most two more come per system. The first appears after five minutes at the earliest. After each guardian there are eight quiet minutes, and the kill count starts over.
- In Arcade, a guardian only comes every ten sectors (10, 20, 30, 40), and the Core stays at 50. Sectors 5, 15, 25, 35 and 45 are now normal waves.
- None appear inside a station’s safe zone.
- Four phases (at 70, 40 and 15 %, marked on the boss bar): two escorts join from the second phase on. Below 15 % comes the Frenzy: the guardian glows red, fires faster and circles tighter. When it changes phase, it shimmers briefly while it can’t be hurt.
- Two fighting styles:
- The Blade cuts with sweeping beams and with two beams that cross over you. It charges: a glowing lane as wide as its hull shows 0.85 seconds ahead where it will go. Then it tears through the spot where you were and leaves a wake of projectiles.
- The Hammer drops impacts where you’re about to be, sends double shock waves with two gaps, and later adds a cross of impacts plus micro rockets.
- Tougher: 3.5 times the hull in Orbit, twice as much in Arcade. A guardian has at most 80 % of the Core’s hull at the same time, but never less than before. Frost holds a guardian for only a third as long, and slowing brings it down to 70 % instead of 45 %.
- Entrance: every guardian has a name, such as “Sichelherz”, “Gluthammer” or “Nachtschneide”. It arrives with a banner, a shake and a short flash. The flash respects the “Soft flashes” option. The key guardians keep their names: the Guardian of the Shipyard fights as a Hammer, the Guardian of the Ember as a Blade.
- Loot: 5 instead of 3 wreck parts, and a wreck with two boons (three in Arcade). In Orbit there are also two components, 90 instead of 40 ions and more points.
- Guardian Hunt: if you accept the mission and fly in its zone, a guardian finds you after 15 seconds. It counts for the zone that called it. The “Guardian Hunt” trial now asks for four guardians in one flight instead of five.
- Fixed:
- Parts of the phase 2 and 3 patterns fired six to fourteen times in a row, depending on the frame rate. Now every pattern has its own timer.
- A guardian far away used to rush in at thousands of px/s. Now it’s at most 520.
- Key guardians at the edge of a safe zone switched on and off every frame.
- In online co-op, the guest now sees the boss bar.
- Tools: balance version 10, so telemetry keeps old and new runs apart.