Editing The Guardians

{{Status|Gameplay}}

{{Center|This article is about the gameplay aspect. For the Forerunner machines, see [[Guardian]]. For other uses, see [[Guardian (disambiguation)]].}}

"'''The Guardians'''" is a [[Wikipedia:Placeholder name|placeholder name]] shown when a player's character in a ''Halo'' game dies of unknown causes. When a player dies under bizarre or unknown circumstances, the message "''<player> was killed by The Guardians''" is shown. The message appears in ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved|Halo Combat Evolved]]'', ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved (PC port)|''Halo: Combat Evolved'' for PC]]'', ''[[Halo Custom Edition]]'', ''[[Halo 2]]'', ''[[Halo 2 (Windows Vista)|''Halo 2'' for Windows Vista]]'', ''[[Halo 3]]'', ''[[Halo 3: ODST]]'', ''[[Halo 4]]'' and ''[[Halo: Reach]]''.

In ''Halo: Combat Evolved'', every object is assigned ownership. As an example, any bullets generated as a result of a shooting player would have their ownership attributed to the player who fired them. However, in cases where a player is killed by objects that have no ownership, the resulting death will be credited to the Guardians. This theory can be easily tested by having a player fire a rocket or any other slow moving projectile at another player and exiting before the impact. Since the player has left, the rocket will no longer have a valid ownership attribute, and the resulting death will appear as a Guardian kill.

Melee deaths in ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' are subject to the same system. If two players simultaneously melee each other, one of the deaths will be attributed to the Guardians, since logic in the game prevents a melee being attributed to a player who's awaiting respawn.

Kills caused by environmental objects (such as the trains in ''Halo 2''<nowiki/>'s [[Terminal (map)|Terminal]]) and scripted environmental objects (such as the mines in [[Sandtrap]], the cannons in [[Snowbound]], and the towers in [[Sandbox]]) are similarly inexplicable, and are thus credited to The Guardians.

Other examples of inexplicable kills include: being crushed by falling [[M808B Main Battle Tank|Scorpions]]; solid objects such as Crates (or traffic cones) hitting you at a high velocity; [[Teleporter]] [[glitches]] (including teleporting outside the map, when the resulting death doesn't count as a fall); and any other unpredictable, random, or bizarre deaths.

While the Guardians' scripted appearances can be overloaded, the Guardians themselves cannot. As an example, overloading Sandtrap will disable the mines whose kills are credited to the Guardians, but the Guardians themselves aren't disabled (inexplicable kills will still be attributed to them), as they don't really exist—the Guardians are not players, characters, or objects. The Guardians are merely a "dummy" name—the phrases "''<Player> was killed by The Guardians''" and "''I have absolutely no idea why <Player> died just now''" are effectively synonymous.

On [[Bungie.net]], individual players have a Service Record; a definitive page for nearly every kind of statistic there is in the game: kills, deaths, ratios, wins, etc. On these pages, one can find the Guardians listed as a cause of death under the Deaths section in most games that are tracked by Bungie.net (''Halo 3'', ''Halo 3: ODST'', ''Halo Reach''). The circumstances of the deaths are as they are usually; strange occurrences, explosions, etc. however it is interesting that the Guardian deaths have their own section and ratios as they are more common in the more recent Halo game releases than they were in ''Halo Combat Evolved'' or ''Halo 2''. In ''Halo 3'' and ''Halo 3: ODST'' it is actually possible to ''kill'' with the Guardians, as the circumstances can be initiated by a player, and on the stats pages a player has a kill/death ratio with the Guardians listed as a "Tool of Destruction".

*[[Terminal (map)|Terminal]]: The train.

*[[Sandbox]]: The watchtowers.

*[[Sandtrap]]: The [[Brute landmine]]s outside the level's boundaries.

*[[Snowbound]]: The {{Pattern|Shuku|sentry turret}}s at the boundaries.

*[[Standoff]]: The gate behind one of the bases. (Approaching this gate, or touching it at high speed, can result in death) or going over the side of the cliff.

*[[Narrows]]: Standing on the ring for too long.

*[[Valhalla]]: The giant beam that shoots out of the top of both bases (use caution when flying over the top of the base in a Banshee).

*[[Spartan Ops]]: Any important explosion such the stockpiles in Episode 6, Chapter 4.

*A player falling to their death.

**This does not include objects that are being actively manipulated by a player in Forge.

*Being outside the level boundaries for a short period of time, or touching a kill barrier.

**In some cases, touching the ground outside a level for a ''total'' of between one and five seconds results in a death. The amount of time varies from map to map (and possibly between areas of maps), but it is cumulative—if a total of five seconds can kill a player, then a player can also die by touching the ground outside the level for two seconds, jumping onto a vehicle, and then touching the ground for three more seconds.

*There have been many cases in both ''Halo 2'' and ''Halo 3'' where mysterious deaths have been credited to the Guardians. This is possibly the game's only explanation for being killed by a [[Ghosts of Halo]], as a Ghost of Halo is not an (identifiable) player.

*A glitch in the [[Halo: Combat Evolved Trial|''Halo: Combat Evolved'' Trial]] causes the player to spontaneously die. When this happens, a message appears, saying "You were killed by the Guardians."

*In Bungie's new franchise [[Destinypedia:Destiny|''Destiny'']], the equivalent to this message is "Killed by The Architects".<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T-fQwqCtGw '''YouTube''': Destiny - ''Killed by the Architects'']</ref>

**Player characters in Destiny are also known as [[Destinypedia:Guardians|''Guardians'']].

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