Guardian

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	This article is about the StarCraft unit. You may be looking for:
	The brood lord from StarCraft II other uses of the term guardian

The guardian is a zerg long-range bomber.

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

OverviewEdit

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]

Game UnitEdit

StarCraftEdit

Guardian

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

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 renders it vulnerable to area-of-effect spells such as psionic storm and irradiate.

ProductionEdit

Guardian Morph

Acquisition
Requires	Greater Spire

Usage
Minerals	50
Gas	100
Units	1 mutalisk
Hotkey	G

Notes

Causes mutalisk to morph into a guardian.

UpgradesEdit

Flyer Attacks

Evolved at

Hotkey

Properties

Level	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Minerals	100	175	250
Gas	100	175	250
Evolution time	266	298	330
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

Hotkey

Properties

Level	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Minerals	150	225	300
Gas	150	225	300
Evolution time	266	298	330
Required		Lair	Hive

Notes

+1 bonus to armor per level for overlords, mutalisks, guardians, devourers, scourge and queen.

DevelopmentEdit

During development, scourges (or "avengers" as they were then known) emerged from destroyed guardians.^[4]

StarCraft IIEdit

In StarCraft II, the guardian has been replaced by the swarm guardian^[5] and later the brood lord.^[6]

Special Guardian StrainsEdit

NotesEdit

Most sources list the guardian's attack as being one of acid.^[1]^[7] However, its battle.net page lists its attack as being one of plasma.^[2]

ReferencesEdit

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Underwood, Peter, Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and Jeffrey Vaughn. StarCraft (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment, 1998.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Guardian StarCraft Compendium. Accessed on 2008-01-13
↑ Mesta, Gabriel (July 1, 2001). StarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). ISBN 0-671-04149-5.
↑ Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft Map Editor. (Blizzard Entertainment) (in English). March 31, 1998
↑ Medievaldragon. 2008-03-10, StarCraft II-Zerg Unveiled. Blizzplanet. Accessed on 2008-03-10
↑ Dustin Browder, Lipton, Karune. 2009-04-22. The Official STARFEEDER Starcraft 2 Q&A. Starfeeder. Accessed 2009-04-22.
↑ Golden, Christie (June 30, 2009). StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga #3: Twilight. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). ISBN 978-0-7434-7129-9.