Beetle Guard

Speed | 17 m/s

The **Beetle Guard** is a gorilla-like insect monster introduced in Risk of Rain 2, and is part of the    Beetle monster family.

## Environments

* Beetle Family Event only:
* Other Environments with the Artifact of Dissonance enabled

## Skills & Behavior

Any single instance of damage that deals more than 15% of the Beetle Guard's total health will stun it and interrupt its attacks or movement.

### Primary: Ground Slam

The Beetle Guard raises both its arms into the air before slamming them down, causing spikes to erupt from the ground around it, primarily in front. This skill deals 440% damage with a proc coefficient of 1.0 and launches any targets in the air with a force of 1500. This attack has an animation duration of 2.7 seconds.

This skill has a cooldown of 3 seconds.

### Secondary: Sunder

The Beetle Guard smashes the ground with its right arm, causing a line of spikes to appear from the ground that continuously travel at 40m/s for 1.5s, dealing 300% damage with a proc coefficient of 1.0. Any target hit by the spikes is knocked towards the Beetle Guard with a force of -2500. This attack lasts for 2.05 seconds, but scales with attack speed.

The hitbox is at the front of the spike wave and any spikes left lingering behind are purely for a visual effect without doing any damage. The hitbox has a height of 5.95m and a single jump cannot clear it, therefore players are advised to move out of its way.

This skill has a cooldown of 8 seconds, and the Beetle Guard can store two charges of this skill.

This attack can be blocked by .

### Utility: Defense Up

Note: This content is not functioning within the game.

The Beetle Guard never uses this skill. It puts both arms onto the ground, pushing itself up and shivering, then gains a temporary buff (EnrageAncientWisp) for 8 seconds, causing shields to appear circling it. This does not actually grant the Beetle Guard any shield or armor, but gives 40% additional speed.

This skill has a cooldown of 30 seconds.

### Behaviors

1. **Use primary**: the Beetle Guard must be within 10m from its target. The Beetle Guard will also move directly towards the player, ignoring any node graph points.
2. **Return to leader (far)**: the Beetle Guard must have a leader and be more than 100m away from it. This behavior will be active for 3 seconds.
3. **Strafe while waiting for primary**: the Beetle Guard must be within 10m from its target. It will also ignore any node points when deciding for its movement destination.
4. **Chase off nodegraph**: the Beetle Guard must be within 10-25m from its target and have line of sight.
5. **Use secondary**: the Beetle Guard must be within 10-40m from its target and have line of sight. This behavior will be active for 3.5 seconds. This means that if the Beetle Guard have both charges ready, it will fire them one after another. Otherwise, it will stay stationary for 3.5, even if it has enough attack speed to finish the attack much earlier.
6. **Chase**: no requirements, as long as its target is still alive.
7. **Return to leader (default)**: the Beetle Guard must be at least 15m away from its leader. Unlike the , it will not attempt to find a new target. However, if the player gets near its field of vision, or attacks it, it will retaliate. This behavior have the result where if the Beetle Guard kills its current target and does not instantly find another one, it will go back to the  and stay idle.

## Notes

* The Beetle Guard's turning animation does not necessarily accurately represent its actual direction. This can lead to situations where it casts Sunder behind it, while it visually looks in a different direction.

## Lore

```
$ Transcribing image... done.
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Complete!

This is the logbook entry of D. Furthen, naturalist for the UES [Redacted] in conjunction with the UES Research and Documentation of Outer Life. I am joined by my good friend Tharson, who is keeping me safe through this journey.

Amazing! We have witnessed our first ever eusocial creature outside of Earth. I observe from afar a giant cousin of the previously described Worker Beetles.

I will describe its properties below. I have assigned their common name as ‘Beetle Guard’.

• Much greater in size than their smaller cousins, the Guard is the size of a rhinoceroses. The Guard has the same 5 eyes as the Worker's, with one of them protruding from the top of its head. This most likely allows the Guard to see while keeping its head down in a defensive position.

• The Guard appears higher in the social hierarchy than the Worker. I have witnessed Workers scatter when a Guard appeared.

• The Guard’s chitin plates extend to cover its entire body, with only joints revealing the thinner, darker exoskeleton below.

• Tharson has reported that the Guard’s chitin is significantly sturdier than the Workers. We have consumed many resources to fell this magnificent creature, including our disposable missile launcher. Tharson’s battle with the Guard lasted for about an hour before it finally succumbed. Amazing! Tharson is OK from this encounter.
```

## Version History

PC Patch v1.1.1.2
* Bug Fixes
	+ Updated outdated icons for friendly Beetle Guards

Anniversary Update
* Gameplay Changes
	+ - Summon Beetles
			* Beetle Count: 5 ⇒ 2
			* 🌧 Now summons Beetle Guards instead of
* Quality of Life
	+ 🌧 Remove area indicators for attacks
	+ 🌧 Updated the Beetle Guard visuals when they spawn from a  to stand out more
* Bug Fixes
	+ Fixed enemy Beetle Guards not appearing in   Void Fields or with Artifact of Dissonance

Early Access Artifacts Content Update
* Gameplay Changes
	+ Max Health: 600 (+180 per level) ⇒ 480 (+144 per level
		- *Developer Notes: We aim for monsters to have, depending on their role, an approximate “health per director point” ratio. Some outliers had significantly higher health for what they cost to spawn, so we’re aiming to normalize these outliers.*

Early Access Hidden Realms Content Update
* Quality of Life
	+ Fix inconsistent prices across maps for Beetle Guards

Early Access 'Skills 2.0' Content Update
* Major Content and Changes
	+ Added New Monster Lore Entry: Beetle Guard

Early Access Scorched Acres Content Update
* QOL
	+ Reduce shake amplitude of Beetle Guard sunder by 66%