Elder Guardian

An elder guardian is a stronger and larger variant of the guardian, and the largest aquatic mob. It attacks the same way as a normal guardian, but also applies Mining Fatigue to players in a large radius around itself. They are only found in ocean monuments; three of them generate in each one.

## Spawning

Three elder guardians spawn naturally during the generation of each ocean monument: one in the top room of the monument and the other two in each wing section of the monument. They do not respawn after their initial spawn, thus there are a limited number of them per world.

## Drops

Elder guardians drop the following items:

* 0–2 prismarine shards – always. Affected by Looting: 1 more drop per level, for a maximum of 5.
* 1 trident shard – when killed by the player. Not affected by Looting. Three of them are required to craft a Trident.
* One of the following:
	+ 1⁄2 chance: a raw cod (cooked cod if killed by fire‌. Affected by Looting: 0–1 more drops per level, for a maximum of 4.
	+ 1⁄3 chance: prismarine crystals. Affected by Looting: 0–1 more drops per level, for a maximum of 4.
	+ 1⁄6 chance: no drop.
* 2.5% chance: a random fish. Affected by Looting: 1% more chance per level, for a maximum of 5.5% with Looting III. This drop uses the same chances that fishing uses, resulting in a 60% chance for raw cod, a 25% chance for raw salmon, a 13% chance for pufferfish, and a 2% chance for tropical fish.
* 10 – when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

## Behavior

Elder guardians do not swim around as much as normal guardians. Elder guardians do not swim away when approached by a player it is targeting, unlike regular guardians. Like normal guardians, elder guardians attempt to attack both the player and squid.

The elder guardian's eye follows and stares at any nearby players, and always looks directly at its target. The eye still follows a player under the effects of Invisibility or in Spectator mode, but doesn't attack.

Elder guardian are considered aquatic mobs, and thus are affected by the Impaling enchantment.

Elder Guardians are weak to Lightning magic.

The elder guardian has three methods of attacking, including firing its laser, inflicting Mining Fatigue, and a defensive thorn-like attack.

The elder guardian pathfinds toward an ocean monument if it is not within one.

An elder guardian attacks axolotls that are not playing dead. Otherwise, an elder guardian does not attack mobs (such as iron golems) that attack it, although the attacking mob takes damage from the elder guardian's natural spikes defense.

### Laser

The laser takes several seconds to charge, doing no damage and allowing the player to move away in the meantime. As it charges it turns from purple to bright yellow (thus acting as a warning indicator). Once charged, the beam flashes green, abruptly ends, and deals 15-30 damage on hard difficulty. The elder guardian swims around for a few seconds before firing again. The beam cannot be dodged and has a maximum range of approximately 14 blocks. Once the player is out of range, or if the beam is obstructed by solid blocks, the guardian's beam disengages from the player and deals no damage.

### Inflicting Mining Fatigue

Immediately after spawning and once each minute thereafter, the elder guardian searches for any player within a spherical radius of 50 blocks to afflict with Mining Fatigue III.

When afflicted, the player sees a ghostly image of the elder guardian and hears a ghostly noise. The effect decreases a player's attack speed by 30% and decreases mining speed even more for 5 minutes. The attack targets players through blocks, even underground, and a potion of Invisibility offers no defense. This is not considered an attack in regards to the Thorns enchantment.

The image of the elder guardian is a particle effect that can be recreated by issuing the command `/particle minecraft:elder_guardian`.‌

### Spikes defense

An elder guardian deals 2 (3 on hard mode) of damage every time it is hit while its spikes are extended, similar to the Thorns enchantment on armor. If cornered by a player or axolotl, the elder guardian usually extends its spikes and fires at point-blank range.

## See Also

* Mobs
* Guardian