Guardian Elder

Behavior

Elder Guardians do not swim around as much as normal Guardians, however they act the same as regular guardians on land. Their eyes will follow and stare at any nearby players, and will always look directly at who they're attacking. This makes them the first mob with dynamic eyes. (The eyes are actually the head part of the model and almost all mob's heads will look toward the player making it look as if the mob's eye was looking at you.) Once each minute, the Elder Guardian will search for players in a 50-block radius who are not afflicted with Mining Fatigue, who are afflicted with a level of fatigue lower than III, or whose affliction will wear off in less than one minute. The players found will be inflicted with Mining Fatigue III for 5 minutes, and a ghostly image of the Elder will appear to the player.

Strategy

Elder Guardians are very resistant to melee attacks when under water, as the player will not be able to quickly approach the Guardian due to the water's slowing effect. Guardians will swim away when approached by a player it is targeting, and the Elder Guardian will deal of damage every time it is hit when its spikes are extended. If cornered, the Elder Guardian will usually extend its spikes and fire at the player, even at point blank range. The Elder Guardians are resistant to fire damage, but if somehow are brought on land, they sometimes take fall damage from their swift movement. If the player must fight an Elder Guardian in melee, they should try to corner it and hope for the best; or else try to trick it into swimming within melee range repeatedly. The Elder Guardian cannot shoot as fast as a player with a bow can, so a skilled player will be able to shoot the Guardian, and then hide to break the beam's lock, repeating until the Guardian is dead. If the Guardian is in shallow water the player can use a fishing rod to pull it out of the water where the players can then kill it with melee without being shot at or hurt by the spikes. The Elder Guardian has a very large amount of HP (80), making melee attacks even harder. Elder Guardians do more damage than regular Guardians. Fighting Elder Guardians is incredibly dangerous without armor. Entering their territory without armor will almost always lead to a swift death, even if armed with a sword or bow and arrow.

Trivia

• The Elder Guardian ranks 2nd health-wise out of non-boss mobs, secondary to the Iron Golem .
• The Elder Guardian is the first mini-boss mob to be introduced into the vanilla game.
• The Elder Guardian's texture has inverted colors of a normal Guardian .