Guardian

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This article is about the StarCraft unit. You may be looking for the StarCraft II units, the brood lord and canceled swarm guardian or the StarCraft 64 map.

Guardian
Unit
Race	Zerg
Role	Heavy Siege Flyer
Armament	Acid spores
Properties
Hit points	150
Size	Large
Production
Minerals	50
Gas	100
Control	2
Build time	40
Produced at	Mutalisk
Requires	Greater spire
Hot key	G
Combat
Ground attack	20
Cooldown	30
Armor	2
Attack range	8
Sight range	11

The guardian is a zerg long-range bomber.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Game Unit 2.1 StarCraft 2.1.1 Upgrades 2.2 StarCraft II 3 Special Guardian Strains 4 Notes 5 References

[edit] Overview

The guardian is evolved from the mutalisk and thought to be based on the nesting form of the mantis screamer. It possesses a thicker carapace than its counterpart and attacks by lobbing explosive globs of acid.^[1] The guardian is much slower than the mutalisk however, and is often designated to guard larvae.^[2]

Despite being devastating in terrestrial combat, guardians are next to useless in space combat.^[3]

[edit] Game Unit

[edit] StarCraft

The guardian is converted from an existing mutalisk. It has an anti-ground attack that out-ranges almost all ground-to-air weapons and in large groups, can be particularly devastating as a bomber unit. While the guardian has a respectable attack of 20 (26 when fully upgraded), it has no defense against enemy air units and is vulnerable to ground-to-air units when on the run. The slow speed of the guardian also makes it renders it vulnerable to area-of-effect spells such as psionic storm and irradiate.

[edit] Upgrades

Flyer Attacks
Evolved at	Spire Greater spire
Properties
Level Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Minerals 100 175 250 Gas 100 175 250 Required Lair Hive
Notes
+1 bonus to attack per level for mutalisks +2 bonus to attack per level for guardians and devourers.

Flyer Carapace
Evolved at	Spire Greater spire
Hotkey	C
Properties
Minerals 150 225 300 Gas 150 225 300 Required Lair Hive
Notes
+1 bonus to armor per level for overlords, mutalisks, guardians, devourers, scourge and queen.

[edit] StarCraft II

In StarCraft II, the guardian has been replaced by the swarm guardian^[4] and later the brood lord.^[5]

[edit] Special Guardian Strains

• Feral Guardian
• Gilson the Evil
• Kukulza
• Zergrinch Gargoyle

[edit] Notes

Most sources list the guardian's attack as being one of acid.^[1][6] However, its battle.net page lists its attack as being one of plasma.^[2]

[edit] References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Underwood, Peter, Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and Jeffrey Vaughn. StarCraft (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment, 1998.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Guardian StarCraft Compendium. Accessed on 2008-01-13
3. ↑ Mesta, Gabriel (July 1, 2001). StarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). ISBN 0-671-04149-5.
4. ↑ Medievaldragon. 2008-03-10, StarCraft II-Zerg Unveiled. Blizzplanet. Accessed on 2008-03-10
5. ↑ Dustin Browder, Lipton, Karune. 2009-04-22. The Official STARFEEDER Starcraft 2 Q&A. Starfeeder. Accessed 2009-04-22.
6. ↑ Golden, Christie (June 30, 2009). StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga #3: Twilight. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). ISBN 978-0-7434-7129-9.

Zerg Units and Structures of StarCraft/Brood War
Ground units	Larva · Drone · Zergling · Hydralisk · Defiler · Ultralisk • Brood War only • Lurker
Air units	Overlord · Mutalisk · Guardian · Scourge · Queen • Brood War only • Devourer
Infestation units	Broodling · Infested terran
Transition units	Egg · Lurker egg · Cocoon
Basic buildings	Hatchery · Extractor · Evolution chamber · Spawning pool · Creep colony · Spore colony · Sunken colony · Hydralisk den
Advanced buildings	Lair · Hive · Spire · Greater spire · Queen's nest · Nydus canal · Defiler mound · Ultralisk cavern · Infested command center
Other	Creep