Guardian
hostileOurs, not the game's own: the biome names next to that structure, how a guardian behaves. Same on Bedrock v1.26.40.05 for health. Checked 2026-08-22, and here is how we check.
Added InOverview
A Guardian is a hostile mob: it will attack players on sight whenever it is able to reach them.
You will normally come across guardians in the Overworld, where they appear in Ocean Monument.
Its defining trait is simple: shoots laser beams that require charge-up time.
Stat-wise it sits at 30 health (15 hearts), dropping 10 experience on death.
It was first added in 1.8 and has been a fixture of Minecraft ever since.
Also worth noting: Prismarine is used for conduits and sea lanterns.
Knowing how the Guardian behaves is mostly about survival: recognising it early and reacting correctly is what keeps a night-time excursion from ending in a respawn.
Damage by Difficulty
Spawning
In the wild, the Guardian is generated in Ocean Monument.
Spawns in and around Ocean Monuments in water.
Naturally spawned guardians will despawn over time when no player is nearby; naming one with a name tag or leading it away on a lead keeps it permanent.
A Guardian farm is built around its own spawn rule rather than around the light level, so start from what makes them appear at all.
Ocean MonumentWhere the Guardian spawns
- Inside a monument the biome list is replaced: weight 1 there, 100% of the monster list, in groups of 2 to 4.
Drops
Here is what you can expect to collect from a Guardian:
Every kill yields 1 Raw Cod and 1 Prismarine Crystals.
On top of that, you may come away with 0 to 2 Prismarine Shards.
You also collect 10 experience for every Guardian you defeat.
These are well worth keeping. Prismarine is used for conduits and sea lanterns.
The Looting enchantment on your sword raises the quantity and, for many of these items, the drop chance of the rarer rolls, so it is well worth using when you grind this mob.
Across many kills the guaranteed items pile up steadily while the chance-based extras trickle in, so consistent farming is the way to build a meaningful stockpile.
| Item | Count | Chance | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prismarine Shard | 0 to 2 | not every kill | Looting III up to 5 |
| Raw Cod | 1 | always | Looting III up to 4, cooked when burnt |
| Prismarine Crystals | 1 | always | Looting III up to 4 |
That Prismarine Crystals row is not its own: the elder guardian drops 1.
Guardian attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
 Size | 0.85 x 0.85 blocks |
 Eye height | 0.425 blocks |
 Tracking range | 8 chunks |
 Experience | 10 |
 Movement speed | 0.5 |
 Health | 30 points |
 Attack damage attribute | 6 |
| Follow range | 16 blocks |
Where the Guardian lands, it has company: the shulker on the same 30 health.
Guardian: 3 items per kill over 3 drop rows
A guardian averages 1 Prismarine Crystals a kill on the rolls Minecraft Java 26.2 makes for it, before Looting, which puts a full stack of 64 Prismarine Crystals at 64 kills. Next down is Prismarine Shard at 1 a kill, which is 64 guardian kills to 64. 1 further row sit under those, down to 1 Raw Cod per guardian and 64 kills a stack.
| Item | Average per kill |
|---|---|
 Prismarine Shard | 1 |
 Raw Cod | 1 |
 Prismarine Crystals | 1 |
How this average is worked out
| Weapon | Attack damage | Full swings | Swings per 64 Prismarine Crystals |
|---|---|---|---|
 golden sword, wooden sword | 4 | 8 | 512 |
 stone sword | 5 | 6 | 384 |
| iron sword | 6 | 5 | 320 |
 diamond sword, golden axe, wooden axe | 7 | 5 | 320 |
 netherite sword | 8 | 4 | 256 |
 diamond axe, iron axe, stone axe | 9 | 4 | 256 |
 netherite axe | 10 | 3 | 192 |
Coming the other way, a guardian hit is 30% of a player's 20 health, 4 of them a full bar, all out of the guardian's 6 damage on Normal. On Easy the same guardian hit is 20%, on Hard 45%, so 5 hits against 3.
Behavior & Combat
In the field, shoots laser beams that require charge-up time. Deals thorn damage to attackers. Inflicts Mining Fatigue via Elder Guardians nearby.
At 0.5 it is 9th of 72 for speed, just above the creaking at 0.4.
On the offensive it deals 4 on Easy, 6 on Normal and 9 on Hard, and you will need to chew through 30 health (15 hearts) to bring one down.
To deal with one efficiently, exploit its weaknesses: it is vulnerable to Impaling enchantment and Axolotls (ally).
A sword enchanted with Impaling shortens the fight considerably against this mob.
Since it can attack from range, closing the distance quickly or breaking line of sight with cover is often safer than trading hits at a distance.
The practical takeaway is to respect its strengths, exploit the weaknesses listed above, and you will rarely lose a fight you choose to take.
Guardian commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /summon minecraft:guardian | Puts a guardian on the block you are standing on. |
| /give @p minecraft:guardian_spawn_egg | Hands you the guardian spawn egg, so you can place guardians where you want them. |
| /kill @e[type=minecraft:guardian] | Removes every guardian that is loaded around you. |
Entity id minecraft:guardian, spawn egg minecraft:guardian_spawn_egg.
Guardian farm
The guardian has no biome of its own to spawn in: it comes with the monument, at 100% of the monster rolls there, 2 to 4 at a time.
That turns a guardian farm into monument work: light everything that is not meant to make guardians, and the rolls land where you want them.
Each kill is worth 10 experience and up to 2 prismarine shards, or 5 with Looting III, which is the number to scale the guardian farm against.
10 experience per killPrismarine Shard up to 2, 5 with Looting IIIGuardian version history
The guardian was added in Minecraft 1.8, which came out on 2 September 2014, so the guardian has been in the game for 11 years.
3 other mobs here came with it: the rabbit, the elder guardian and the endermite. That puts the guardian behind 34 of the 88 mobs here and ahead of 50.
Every guardian figure on this page is read from Minecraft Java 26.2 as it stands today, not from the version above.
What Guardian sounds like
Turn subtitles on and every guardian sound names itself in the corner of the screen. These are the 6 lines a guardian can put there, and you can play any of them yourself with /playsound minecraft:entity.guardian.ambient master @p.
| Sound | What you hear |
|---|---|
| entity.guardian.ambient |  Guardian moans |
| entity.guardian.hurt | Guardian hurts |
| entity.guardian.death | Guardian dies |
| entity.guardian.attack | Guardian shoots |
| entity.guardian.ambient_land | Guardian flaps |
| entity.guardian.flop | Guardian flops |
Advancements that need Guardian
2 advancements ask for guardian by name, and each of them counts other mobs too.
- Monster HunterKill any hostile monster
- Monsters HuntedKill one of every hostile monster
