Guardian

Guardians are powerful, benevolent beings from the Astral Plane. They were created by the Ichoriens to help fight Gargos, and they now aid the denizens of Earth against the invasion of Gargos and other evils.

Description[]

Guardians can vary widely in appearance. They often take on the form of animals from the Earth, but in a smaller form such as only the head of the creature. They levitate through the air and possess bright neon colors and markings. While this is the most common form, Guardians can take on all sorts of shapes and sizes, manifesting as objects or weaponry and even human beings.

Killer Instinct (2013)[]

Several characters in the roster have Guardians constantly at their sides:

These Guardians are destined to protect the Earth from Gargos, and they assist their human counterparts by giving them superhuman abilities so they can fight.

Shadow Lords[]

Guardians play a large role in the game mode Shadow Lords. They were chased out of the Astral Plane years ago by Gargos' takeover, and now they are willing to help Earth defeat the evil warlord. Guardians can be gathered by paying Kan-Ra to summon them in the Emporium, then equipped to a character in order to give them special properties. Each kind of Guardian has its own effects:

Ram: Defense type. Allows the player to perform a Psychic Breaker after taking 235 units of damage.
Vampire Bat: Damage type. Returns damage dealt to opponent as health, Shadow, or Instinct.
Fractured Ward: Defense Type. Grants super armor over time, which is automatically applied and will be used up when receiving any unblocked attack. Doesn't negate or reduce damage.
Snake: Damage Type. Grants the ability to, after performing any type of combo ender, poison the opponent through a Poison Bite. While poisoned, the enemy takes potential damage over time. The Snake also slows down the opponent's potential damage regeneration.
Exemplar: Skill type. Grants the ability to parry attacks. Successfully doing so rewards health, Shadow, and Instinct, in addition to being able to Punish. The match starts with maximum stacks, each parry uses a stack, and stacks regenerate over time. The maximum number of stacks and the time it takes to regenerate them varies. Acts similar to Arbiter's Instinct Mode.
Watcher: Defense type. Grants the ability to quickly knock your opponent away. Press (LP+LK) while blocking to perform a Block Breaker.
Tiger: Pressure type. Allows the player to break an opponent's block. Performing any attacks to the opponent while they're blocking to build a Guard Crush meter; once it's filled you will able to break the opponent's guard with a special or Shadow Move.
Owl: Stack type. Grants the ability to dash through the opponent. Feral Dash can also perform any attack hits blocked by the opponent.
Astral Tiki: Attack type. Enhances the power of Heavy attacks, which staggers an opponent. This activates damaged and unbreakable throw bonus for a short amount of time.
Lion: Skill type. The Lion's Rage ability is activated once its owner hits a certain health threshold, granting them a damage and defense bonus. The more health you lose, the more your damage and defense increases. If you start a match will low health, this Guardian will apply the damage and defense boost immediately.

Trivia[]

There are many animal-based spirits or motifs which have not been explicitly confirmed to be Guardians, but are implied to be. These include Orchid's Firecats, Spinal's octopoid shield, Thunder's flock of ravens, Sadira's many spiders, and Mira's beetles on her Gloves of Rasavatham.