The Guardians: Difference between revisions

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This article is about the gameplay aspect. For the Forerunner machines, see Guardian. For other uses, see Guardian (disambiguation).

"The Guardians" is a 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 for PC, Halo Custom Edition, Halo 2, Halo 2 for Windows Vista, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo 4 and Halo: Reach.

Explanation[edit]

Guardian deaths are caused by the game being unable to explain the death of a player.

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's 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 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[edit]

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".

Scripted Appearances[edit]

The following appearances are "scripted" in the sense that there are specifically coded animations and interactions in the levels; there are no special in-game messages, however, and these are all listed as Guardian kills in gameplay statistics.

Forge mode: Any contact with a Kill Ball.
Terminal: The train.
Sandbox: The watchtowers.
Sandtrap: The Brute landmines outside the level's boundaries.
Snowbound: The Shuku-pattern sentry turrets 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.

Examples[edit]

A player falling to their death.
Being splattered by an object of its own accord, such as a flying fusion coil, or the occasional empty vehicle. These can happen through means of relatively rare circumstances and explosions.
- This does not include objects that are being actively manipulated by a player in Forge.
- In Halo: Combat Evolved, there is a separate message for unmanned vehicle kills.
Being knocked off a ledge by an object.
Forge games often lead to multiple Guardian kills, due to its physics manipulating nature.
Being weakened by enemy forces, only to be killed by something brought about by the above.
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.
Being killed by an AI-controlled NPC (they can be modded into maps in Halo PC).
When two players melee each other at the same time in Halo: Combat Evolved.
When a Ghost of Halo kills a player.

Trivia[edit]

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 causes the player to spontaneously die. When this happens, a message appears, saying "You were killed by the Guardians."
In Bungie's new franchise Destiny, the equivalent to this message is "Killed by The Architects".^[1]
- Player characters in Destiny are also known as Guardians.

Sources[edit]

^ YouTube: Destiny - Killed by the Architects

[1] YouTube: Destiny - Killed by the Architects

[1]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{era|H1|H2|H3}}
+{{Status|Gameplay}}
-==Summary==
+{{References}}
-In both [[Halo 1]] and [[Halo 2]], when a player in [[multiplayer]] is killed inexplicably (i.e. by a physics glitch, by the environment, or by an AI in [[Halo: Custom Edition]]), the message reads "_player_ was killed by The '''Guardians'''". There are also ways to do this among players (guardian glitch). For example, aim at a teammate's head with a [[Battle Rifle]] (or a [[Pistol]] or [[Carbine]]), and press the right trigger and Y simultaneously until he dies. Another way is when a player is killed by a [[melee]] attack from another player who died just as they did the melee attack. Also being killed in & out of maps by unmanned vehicles has been known to cause this and has resulted in an unexplainable maniacal laugh being heard on occasion. Another more simple way to see the message is in the level [[Terminal (Level)|Terminal]]. If you stand in front of the Train and let it crash into you the sign will pop up at the corner of the screen. Also on the level Zanzibar if you can manage to stand on the windmill blades all the way to the top (an easy way to do this is to constantly walk backwards as the windmill blades ascend), you will be caught between the windmill blade and a pocket at the top of the inside of the windmill and you will be killed. You can do this with a [[Warthog]] as well, but no one must be in the Warthog, ways to do this, is to drive a Warthog at top speed and get out before hitting someone.
+{{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]]''.
-There is also a third way, do able in Halo 2. Dual wield [[Plasma Pistols]] and have any weapon on backup. Charge both plasma pistols, and a split second after you release the charge, press B. If done correctly, the second pistol will disappear instead of drop, and you will still be holding the two pistols on everybody else's screen. Pull out your secondary weapon, crouch(to prevent shooting at yourself, sometimes you do that), and open fire on a player. The bullets will seemingly come out of nowhere, and when you kill the other player, it will say "Killed by the Guardians" on their screen.
+==Explanation==
+Guardian deaths are caused by the game being unable to explain the death of a player.
-There is a fourth way as well. Sometimes when doing the superjump on Zanzibar by the windwheel, you will fall through the ground into a ocean underneath the map Zanzibar and once you hit the water, you die and the message says "Killed By The Guardians." This was after the auto-update so [[Bungie]] presumably made it that no one can cheat in matchmaking. But its actually rare that this event happens.
+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.
-A fifth way: In Halo: CE, if you drop the flag in [[CTF]] while you are moving and it kills someone, the message appears.
+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.
-This message also appears in Halo 3. When viewing a Service Record and going into Career Stats, your kills with each weapon and viewable along with an image and description of said weapon. One of these weapons is displayed as a "?", with the tooltip displaying "Killed, once again, by the Guardians."
+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.
-===Notes===
+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.
-*If you do the first method right, it should show the weapon firing, come down, then immediately fire again without seeing the secondary weapon.
-*Friendly fire must be off to do the first guardian glitch on your teammate. [[Shields]] off will produce optimal results, but it is possible to guardian glitch with full shields by doing the glitch repeatedly.
+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.
-*Doing the first method while moving will result in you dying instead of your teammate.
+==On Bungie.net==
+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".
-*The third guardian glitch is only doable on [[Xbox Live]], and you cannot be host.
+==Scripted Appearances==
+The following appearances are "scripted" in the sense that there are specifically coded animations and interactions in the levels; there are no special in-game messages, however, and these are all listed as Guardian kills in gameplay statistics.
-*If you reload your secondary [[weapon]] while performing the third method, you will need to redo the glitch. Press B to get out of it, pick up the second pistol, and repeat the glitch.
+*[[Forge|Forge mode]]: Any contact with a [[Kill Ball]].
+*[[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.
-Also, on the map colossus, if you put a barrel on the ramp leading to the gravity lift, and you go up, if you are hit by it, you will die, and it will say "Killed by the Guardians"
+==Examples==
+*A player falling to their death.
+*Being splattered by an object of its own accord, such as a flying fusion coil, or the occasional empty vehicle. These can happen through means of relatively rare circumstances and explosions.
+**This does not include objects that are being actively manipulated by a player in Forge.
+**In ''Halo: Combat Evolved'', there is a separate message for unmanned vehicle kills.
+*Being knocked off a ledge by an object.
+*Forge games often lead to multiple Guardian kills, due to its physics manipulating nature.
+*Being weakened by enemy forces, only to be killed by something brought about by the above.
+*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.
+*Being killed by an AI-controlled NPC (they can be modded into maps in ''Halo PC'').
+*When two players melee each other at the same time in ''Halo: Combat Evolved''.
+*When a [[Ghosts of Halo|Ghost of Halo]] kills a player.
-===Halo 3===
+==Trivia==
-In [[Halo 3]], the "Guardians" are the objects that keep players from leaving the boundaries of several "open" maps, such as the plasma cannons on [[Snowbound]] or the land mines that surround [[Sandtrap]]. In addition, on the map Narrows, it is possible to fall off the lower bridge onto the structure far underneath. The player will stand there for several seconds before being killed by the "Guardians". On [[Valhalla]], you can use a Banshee to fly up to the top of a tower and drop out of it so you land on a platform inside the top of the tower. Wait a few minutes and the laser that shoots up from the top of the towers will kill you and the message again says "_player_ was killed by the Guardians". Also, on Forge and on [[The Pit]], if you float right up against the wire fence and spawn a Two-way Node, it will spawn outside the map. You can then spawn another Two-way node and enter it, after a few seconds of standing outside, the player will explode.
+*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'']].
+==Sources==
+{{Ref/Sources}}
+[[Category:Halo 2]]
+[[Category:Halo 3]]
+[[Category:Multiplayer]]