An elder guardian is a stronger, larger variant of the guardian that can inflict Mining Fatigue. Three of them spawn inside an ocean monument; one in the penthouse room and one in each wing.
Spawning
Three elder guardians spawn naturally during the generation of each ocean monument: one in the top room of the monument and the other two in each wing section of the monument. They do not respawn after their initial spawn, thus there are a limited number of them per world.
Drops
Elder guardians drop the following items:
- 0–2 prismarine shards – always. Affected by Looting: 1 more drop per level, for a maximum of 5.
- 1 wet sponge – when killed by the player. Not affected by Looting.
- One of the following:
- 1⁄2 chance: a raw cod (cooked cod if killed by fire[JE only]). Affected by Looting: 0–1 more drops per level, for a maximum of 4.
- 1⁄3 chance: prismarine crystals. Affected by Looting: 0–1 more drops per level, for a maximum of 4.
- 1⁄6 chance: no drop.
- 2.5% chance: a random fish. Affected by Looting: 1% more chance per level, for a maximum of 5.5% with Looting III. This drop uses the same chances that fishing uses, resulting in a 60% chance for raw cod, a 25% chance for raw salmon, a 13% chance for pufferfish, and a 2% chance for tropical fish.
- 10 – when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
Behavior
The specific instructions are: Animated images of the elder guardian cursing effect, distinct ones for java and bedrock due to animation differences
Elder guardians do not swim around as much as normal guardians. Elder guardians do not swim away when approached by a player it is targeting, unlike regular guardians. Like normal guardians, elder guardians attempt to attack both the player and squid.
The elder guardian's eye follows and stares at any nearby players, and always looks directly at its target. The eye still follows a player under the effects of a potion of invisibility or in spectator mode, but doesn't attack.
Elder guardian are considered aquatic mobs, and thus are affected by the Impaling enchantment. [Java Edition only] [until JE Combat Tests]
The elder guardian has three methods of attacking, including firing its laser, inflicting mining fatigue, and a defensive thorn-like attack.
The elder guardian will pathfind towards an ocean monument if it is not within one.
Elder guardians do not attack iron golems, even if the iron golem attacks it.
Laser
The laser takes several seconds to charge, doing no damage and allowing the player to move away in the meantime. As it charges it turns from purple to bright yellow (thus acting as a warning indicator). Once charged, the beam flashes green, abruptly ends, and deals 8![]()
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damage on normal difficulty. The elder guardian swims around for a few seconds before firing again. The beam cannot be dodged and has a maximum range of approximately 14 blocks. Once the player is out of range, or if the beam is obstructed by solid blocks, the guardian's beam disengages from the player and deals no damage.
Inflicting Mining Fatigue
In Java Edition, once each minute, the elder guardian searches for any player within 50 blocks to afflict with Mining Fatigue III. In Bedrock Edition the elder guardian inflicts any unafflicted player within range immediately.
When afflicted, the player sees a ghostly image of the elder guardian and hears a ghostly noise. The effect decreases a player's attack speed by 30% and decreases mining speed even more, for 5 minutes. The attack targets players through blocks, even underground, and a potion of Invisibility offers no defense. This is not considered an attack in regards to the Thorns enchantment.
The image of the elder guardian is a particle effect that can be recreated by issuing the command /particle minecraft:elder_guardian.[Java Edition only]
In Bedrock Edition, the image is partly considered an entity as it can be summoned using the command /summon elder_guardian_ghost.
Spike attack
An elder guardian deals 2
(3![]()
on hard mode) of damage every time it is hit while its spikes are extended. If cornered, the elder guardian usually extends its spikes and fires at the player, even at point-blank range.
Sounds
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elder Guardian moans | Hostile Creatures | Randomly in water | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 - 1.2 | 16 | |
| Elder Guardian flaps | Hostile Creatures | Randomly on land | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 - 1.2 | 16 | |
| Elder Guardian curses | Hostile Creatures | Elder guardian inflicting mining fatigue | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Elder Guardian dies | Hostile Creatures | Elder guardian dying in water | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 - 1.2 | 16 | |
| Elder Guardian dies | Hostile Creatures | Elder guardian dying on land | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 - 1.2 | 16 | |
| Elder Guardian flops | Hostile Creatures | Elder guardian flopping | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 - 1.2 | 16 | |
| Elder Guardian hurts | Hostile Creatures | Elder guardian taking damage in water | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 - 1.2 | 16 | |
| Elder Guardian hurts | Hostile Creatures | Elder guardian taking damage on land | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 - 1.2 | 16 | |
| Guardian shoots | Hostile Creatures | Elder guardian shooting laser | entity | subtitles | 0.0225 | 0.775 | 16 |
Data values
ID
| Name | Identifier | Translation key |
|---|---|---|
| Elder Guardian | elder_guardian | entity.minecraft.elder_guardian |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elder Guardian | elder_guardian | 50 | entity.elder_guardian.name |
Entity data
Elder guardians have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.
- Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
Achievements
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| Monster Hunter | Attack and destroy a monster. | Kill a hostile mob or one of the following neutral mobs: an enderman, a piglin, a zombified piglin, a spider, or a cave spider. | 15G | Bronze | ||
| Overkill | Deal nine hearts of damage in a single hit. | Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have nine hearts of health overall. | 30G | Bronze | ||
| The Deep End | Defeat an Elder Guardian | — | 30G | Silver | ||
Advancements
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | How Did We Get Here? | Have every effect applied at the same time | A Furious Cocktail | Have all of these 27 status effects applied to the player at the same time:
This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed. | nether/all_effects
|
![]() | Monster Hunter | Kill any hostile monster | Adventure | Kill one of these 34 mobs:
| adventure/kill_a_mob
|
![]() | Monsters Hunted | Kill one of every hostile monster | Monster Hunter | Kill each of these 34 mobs:
| adventure/kill_all_mobs
|
Video
History
| Java Edition | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.8 | 14w25a | ||||
| 14w26a | Guardians and elder guardians are no longer immune to lava and fire. | ||||
| 1.9 | 15w43a | The drop chances for raw fish and prismarine crystals have been changed for elder guardians. Instead of a 33% chance of fish then a 33% chance of crystals only if the fish drop failed with both percentages adjusted by Looting, it's 40% fish, 40% crystals, and 20% neither, with the amount increased by Looting. | |||
| Elder guardians now drop dry sponges (on any kill). | |||||
| 15w43b | The drop chances for raw fish and prismarine crystals have been changed again for guardians. Now, the drop chances are 50% fish, 33% crystals, and 16.7% neither. | ||||
| 15w43c | The sponge drop of elder guardians has been restored to requiring a player kill, but is still dry rather than wet. | ||||
| 1.10 | 16w20a | An elder guardian spawn egg has been added. | |||
| pre2 | The elder guardian spawn egg has been removed. | ||||
| 1.11 | 16w32a | The elder guardian spawn egg has been re-added. | |||
The entity ID has been changed from Guardian to elder_guardian and the Elder tag has been removed. | |||||
| The in-game name of elder guardians is now "Elder Guardian" instead of "Guardian". | |||||
| 16w33a | Elder guardians now drop wet sponges on player kills, rather than dry sponges.[1] | ||||
| 16w38a | Elder guardian's common drop of raw fish now drop as cooked fish, if killed while on fire. | ||||
| 1.14 | 18w43a | ||||
| 1.16 | 20w14a | Elder guardians are now required for the "Monsters Hunted" advancement. | |||
| Upcoming Java Edition | |||||
| 1.17 | 21w11a | ||||
| 21w13a | Now drop cooked cod or salmon instead of raw cod or salmon if on fire when killed or killed by a fire source. | ||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| v0.16.0 | build 1 | ||||
| Elder guardians are considered boss mobs in the blog post for this update,[2] but in-game they behave the same as their Java counterparts. | |||||
| build 5 | An elder guardian spawn egg has been added. | ||||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | The entity ID has been changed from guardian.elder to elder_guardian. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | ||||
| Upcoming Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.17.0 | beta 1.17.0.50 | ||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU31 | CU19 | 1.22 | Patch 3 | 1.0.1 | |
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 1.3.12 | |||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Elder Guardian" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- The elder guardian's eye is the "head" part of the mob's model, giving the illusion of a dynamic eye.
- The elder guardian texture has the name "jeb" on it.
- According to Jeb, elder guardians were introduced to encourage players to solve the temple maze rather than dig through it easily. He acknowledges there are ways around it, but players still have to solve the challenge in a different way.[3]
- Also according to Jeb, the "jump scare" by an elder guardian is unintentional, instead, he added it to provide a visual cue as to why players get slowed down by Mining Fatigue.[3]
- In Java Edition 3D Shareware v1.34, elder guardians drop blue keys.
- In Bedrock Edition, elder guardians make their underwater death sounds if killed on land. They also, like guardians, don't make flopping sounds on Bedrock Edition.
Gallery
Screenshots
A special effect of the elder guardian, which gives Mining Fatigue III for 5 minutes.
An elder guardian spawned inside an ocean monument.
Size comparison between an elder and a normal guardian.
The elder guardian curse ghastly image shows the elder guardian's full model.
A group of axolotls attacking an Elder Guardian.
In Other Media
An Elder Guardian in promotional artwork for the Boss Update.
- Elder Guardian Mobestiary.jpeg
Minecraft Mobestiary's page about Elder Guardians.
Lego Minecraft Elder Guardian.











