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: @@
-{{Ratings}}
+{{Status|Gameplay}}
-{{era|H1|H2|H3}}
+{{References}}
+{{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]]''.
-==Summary==
+==Explanation==
-In ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]'', ''[[Halo 2]]'' and ''[[Halo 3]]'' 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'''". This is sometimes triggered when trying to get out of a map, but it is not limited to that. Things such as scenery, objects, and even teleporters can cause a death by the '''Guardians'''. The same goes for being killed in and out of maps by unmanned vehicles.
+Guardian deaths are caused by the game being unable to explain the death of a player.
-===Basic Theory===
+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.
-It seems to be that the '''Guardians''' are a form of security - that is, they protect the map and the game from the players that attempt to (and obviously accidentally) go past the level boundaries or glitch the map in some way. This, if proven, would confirm a fact that shows that the normal map boundaries are just blocking off the outside edges, and preventing the player from violating the Sealed World Rules (a set of rules dictating level geometry and physics). Therefore, if the '''Guardians''' could somewhat be glitched; removed from active play, then these Rules could be exploited. However, the '''Guardians''' are well designed, in that there are very few manageable actions that a player can do short of hardhacking the game that will disable them.
-Guardians should basically be assumed as a form of A.I. that shows that you were killed when the map stops the players from exiting the map as in [[Sandtrap]] and [[Snowbound]] (''[[Halo 3]]''),or when predesigned part of the map killed you such as the trains in [[Terminal]] (''Halo 2'') or any odd forms of deaths like falling Scorpions, solid objects such as crates hitting you at a high velocity, Teleporter glitches or any other deaths caused by unpredictable events.
+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.
-== Examples ==
+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.
-*When one of the [[Ghosts of Halo]] kills you, it will say, "Killed by Guardians".
-*On the ''[[Halo 2]]'' downloadable level [[Terminal (Level)|Terminal]], if you stand in front of the train and let it crash into you, the '''Guardians''' message will pop up at the near the left corner of the screen.
+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.
-*In the ''[[Halo 2]]'' multiplayer map [[Zanzibar (Level)|Zanzibar]], if you attempt to drive a vehicle up the windmill and you are successful your vehicle will explode and the message "[Player] was killed by the '''Guardians'''" will appear.
-*In the ''[[Halo 2]]'' multiplayer map [[Waterworks]] if a player shoots down a stalactite on the ceiling and the player doesn't move and is killed by it the message "Killed by the '''Guardians'''" will appear.
+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.
-*The turrets in the ''[[Halo 3]]'' map Snowbound count as '''Guardians''' if the player is killed by them.
-*In glitches where a Player falls through the bottom of map, it will sometimes state that death was by the '''Guardians'''.
+==On Bungie.net==
-*In the ''[[Halo 3]]'' map [[Sandtrap (Level)|Sandtrap]], if you travel too far towards the edge of the map, [[Brute Landmine|mines]] launch from the ground and cause your death and the message "[Player] was killed by the '''Guardians'''" will appear.
+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".
-*On the map Snowbound if you overload the map not only will the shields disappear, but the auto-turrets will be disabled. You can do this on maps like Sandtrap, you can disable the mines and explore more of the area without being killed by the "Guardians".
-*In the ''[[Halo 3]]'' map [[Narrows (Level)|Narrows]], if you fall onto the conveyer belt just below the bridge, you will die at an undetermined amount of time and a message will say "[Player] was killed by the '''Guardians'''".
+==Scripted Appearances==
-*If you manage to get out the map on [[Isolation]] and you go out too far, you will die by the "Guardians".
+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.
-*On Snowbound there are large Covenant automatic Turrets on the edge of the map. If you go slightly past these they turn towards you. If you go further they starts to shoot you and can kill you very quickly. They only stop if you go back into the map. If they kill you it reads '''[Player] was killed by the Guardians'''
-*On headlong there are gravity lifts that will sometimes glitch and kill you, saying you were "Killed by the '''Guardians'''".
+*[[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.
+==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.
 ==Trivia==
-*Most equipment/power-up types, including [[Bubble Shield]] and [[Invincibility]] do not apply to the '''Guardians''' and you will continue to take damage as normal.
+*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]]