Guardian

Hero Guardians are a group of non-offensive pets that greatly boost certain stats on nearby defenses. They target whichever applicable defense(s) is/are closest to the hero.

There are four types of guardians: Apprentice, Squire, Huntress and Monk. They raise the Damage/Potency, Resistance, Attack Rate and Range of defenses respectively. Boosted defenses emit a small purple sparkle at their base.

Unique Stats and Scaling

The Boost stat (Blue Arrow) determines the potency of the guardian's boost. Stops increasing after 40. Can be upgraded on every third item level.

Guardian Range (Orange Star) determines how far the guardian can boost defenses from the hero. Stops increasing after 90. Can be upgraded on every fifth level.

Defenses to Boost (Triple-Yellow Stars) is the number of defenses the guardian can boost. Maxes out at 6. Can be upgraded on every tenth level.

... (Range cap set in PC patch 7.25c)

Boost Multiplier Scaling

	Multipliers
Boost Stat	Apprentice (Damage)	Squire (Resistance)	Huntress (Attack Rate)	Monk (Range)
1	1.0000	1.0000	1.0000	1.0000
2	1.2100	1.2968	1.2311	1.1892
3
4
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40+	2.7578	3.9882	3.0243	2.5149

Guardian Range Scaling

*Base effect range is 4.85.

Range Stat	Pet Range Multiplier
1	1.0
2
3
4
5
10
15
20
25
30
40
50
60
70
80
90+

History

Guardian Familiars came about when Trendy Entertainment released their 4.2 iOS update. The 4.2 update included a new backup feature as well as some hacking prevention coding. This coding, however, caused users to have their save file (.dun) replaced with a backup file (.bak) which was empty. All iOS users who updated to 4.2 lost their Heroes. Trendy Entertainment issued an Official Apology and told the community that they would make up for the loss of their Heroes.

After announcing the Guardian Familiars the Android users started to protest, some even stating that they would want their Heroes deleted so they could get a Guardian too. Nothing was officially mentioned about what Android would get, if anything, to compare to the Guardians. When v5.0 went live for Android, players noticed these new Animus Familiars in the patch notes.

When v5.0 was released, some players noticed a different version of Dungeon Defenders: FW on the Android Market for Tegra 2 CPU's Dungeon Defenders FW Deluxe. After someone posted a picture of the Squire Guardian, iOS players become upset that their Guardian was no longer an exclusive for their loss.

Notes and tips

• A guardian will not attempt to boost Tower Buff Beams or any defenses that are unaffected by the hero defense stat the pet corresponds to. To give examples:
  • Apprentice Guardians will not boost Magic Blockades or Gas Traps.
  • Squires ignore non-physical defenses: all traps, auras and beams (except Physical Beams).
  • Huntresses ignore Magic and Spike Blockades, Reflection Beams and the Ensnare, Strength Drain and Enrage Auras.
  • Monks ignore beams and all blockades except Slice N Dice.
• Guardian pets do not stack with the Tower Buff Beam, Remote Defense Boost or guardians of the same class. HOWEVER, the specific stat boosts of guardians will often be greater than any of those from a fully-upgraded Buff Beam. Whichever stat multiplier between the beam and guardian(s) is higher/highest takes precedence on the double-boosted defenses.
  • The Huntress and Monk Guardians benefit already-buffed defenses (via Buff Beam) significantly more than an Apprentice or Squire.

• The Summoner can equip two different guardians at once to boost defenses. Since pets are disabled in Phase Shift and Overlord Mode, a dedicated support Summoner is recommended to not die instantly to residual damage or an occasional surprise attack from Dark Elf Warriors, Djinn, etc.
• On all versions except PC Vanilla, two guardians of the same class will attempt to boost the same defenses, if their users are in close-enough proximity to each other or are both equipped to a Summoner.
• Unlike Animii, none of the guardian pets are locked to certain heroes.

Gallery

Click an image for an animation.

History

Vanilla

• 9.?: Multiple guardians of the same class will no longer attempt to boost the exact same defense(s).
• 9.?: "Defenses to Boost" maximum increased from 5 --> 6 for all guardians.
• 7.08:
  • Enabled Guardians to boost multiple nearby Defenses! This is a new, upgradeable stat on all Guardians (only upgrades once every 10 levels so you need to be packing a high-level Guardian to get the most out of it). Increased Guardian boost-amount exponents by 100% so their Boost-stat value will have more of an effect as well. Enjoy it, it makes Guardians an incredibly powerful buff especially when used in team groupings!

Redux

• ?.?: "Defenses to Boost" maximum increased from 5 --> 6 for all guardians.

See Also

• Polybius (Pet)