Guardian



Guardians are large creatures found only in the Depths. Their main purpose is keeping the player from finishing the game if the maximum karma has not yet been reached.

Appearance
These entities are among the tallest in the game, towering high above the Slugcat. Despite this size, the only physical part of a Guardian is its rectangular head, everything below is considered part of the background and can be walked right through. The head is adorned with a red mark resembling the 10th karma symbol. This cross is dim when idle, but lights up whenever the Guardian is provoked.

Right below the head are 4 grey, spiky arms, with with two black rings around them. A series of beads hangs from each arm. These beads get progressively darker the further they are down the chain. The arms can move independently of one another, but usually make similar movements together. Additionally, these gestures seem to be preformed in tandem with the halo.



Akin in color to the holographs displayed by the Yellow Overseer, this golden disc is arguably the most prominent feature of the Guardian. It's made up of rings filled with various glyphs seen nowhere else in the game. These symbols orbit around the center in alternating directions, and can be linked together with two circles connected by a line. When linked, the symbols tend to change and shift around, moving into emptier rings, including the central one, where they'll be stationary. Lastly, this projection can change size by adding more rings depending on what the Guardian is doing. It stays the same size while idle, and grows when aggro'd.

Behavior
Guardians are stationary by default, and will only move when aggravated. They will enter a hostile state if the player attempts to walk by them without the highest karma level. In this state, their halos are larger, the mark on their face glows a bright red, and they'll constantly push the Slugcat and any surrounding Objects. This effect is mild with the Guardian found inside of a closed room, and while it makes moving around a bit tricky, its perfectly feasible to get through. This isn't the case with the two Guardians that stand right before the cave system leading to the Void Sea. Any creature that gets close will be swiftly launched all the way back to the start of the room. The same will happen if attempted for a second time. However, if the Slugcat approaches for a third time, it'll be violently slammed into the ground and killed instead.

Trivia

 * There are a few ways to get past the Guardians without the max karma, these include:
 * Eating a mushroom and throwing two [[File:Flashbang icon.png]] Flashbangs to blind the guardians temporarily. (intended)
 * Manipulating the guardians to throw you straight up and then throw objects to reach the pipe.
 * Distracting the guardians with another living creature, such as a [[FIle:Vulture Grub icon.png]] Vulture Grub or [[File:Hazer icon.png]] Hazer.
 * Abusing load times and areas to despawn the guardians. (commonly used in speedruns)
 * The Guardian's halo is called a "think-ring", and the eight unique glyphs that it displays numbered from 0-6 (the dot glyph is designated as -1) in the files.
 * These glyphs may compose a base-7 number system, making the "thing-rings" a sort of abacus.
 * The design of the glyphs was likely inspired by the Thai abugida.