Sanctuary Guardian

Sanctuary Guardian (霊廟の聖獣) is a boss and later a respawning enemy in Dark Souls. It is exclusive to the Artorias of the Abyss DLC.

Location[]

In the semi-flooded, enclosed opening in the Sanctuary Garden, guarding the entrance to the Oolacile Sanctuary.

Description[]

Being a hybrid of different creatures, the Sanctuary Guardian possesses various abilities. Its body is part lion, part goat, and has a long, spiked scorpion tail, in addition to two sets of wings.

Its red-eyed lion half has white fur and large paws, which it uses to strike its opponent. Its goat legs have a dark purple color and can perform powerful kicks, and it uses its large set of curved horns to ram its opponent. Its four large wings give it the ability to fly for short periods of time and to release powerful blasts of wind, and its scorpion tail has poisonous properties. In addition to these deadly abilities, the beast can spew lightning projectiles from its mouth.

Lore[]

The Sanctuary Guardians are an amalgamation of traits from several animals like lions, goats, scorpions and birds^[1][2]. They were created by the sorcerers of Oolacile, capable of manipulating the forces of nature^[3] with knowledge and means that not even the sorcerers of Vinheim were able to replicate^[4], to defend the Sanctuary Garden of their country^[5][1]. Although these creatures were not created by the Bed of Chaos and therefore cannot be defined as demons, the process with which they were obtained, mixing characteristics of different animals thanks to the sorcery of souls and life, makes them very similar to the demons of chaos, produced by the Flame of Chaos created in imitation of the First Flame^[6][1].

Strategy[]

The Sanctuary Guardian has a high lightning and magic resistance, as well as a medium fire resistance, but is weaker to physical attacks.

The fight is primarily made up of fast physical combos, lightning projectiles thrown in as environmental hazards, and poisonous attacks. Most attacks can be dodged by rolling, but large stamina depletion will occur if blocking is preferred. The Sanctuary Guardian can easily stunlock and kill low Poise players with its four hit combos. Low Stamina or over-encumbered players may have a tough time enduring hit after hit.

This boss can be bled, but up to four successive hits must land.

It can be tricky to sever its tail, as only two of its attacks bring its tail within easy reach (Head Charge and Swoop).

Should players decide to equip a shield to fight the Sanctuary Guardian, the Eagle Shield is particularly well suited for this battle: it combines 95% physical protection (100% before patch 1.06) and 75% lightning protection, with great stability, all for a moderate weight and low Strength requirement.

It is ill-advised to take on this battle with slow roll: Indeed, the slow roll will not take the player far enough to dodge the "Wave of Water" attack, which otherwise leaves it wide open for a counterattack. If the player cannot dodge then it is better to stagger for a short time than to block this attack as blocking drains large amounts of stamina and will leave the player vulnerable to the Sanctuary Guardian's follow-up charge attack, while absorbing the blow will not damage the player and leaves time to block or roll afterwards.

Guardian Tail[]

To cut off a tail it's necessary to deal a certain amount of damage against it. The HP of the tail increases with higher NG cycles and is based on the HP of the respective enemy. Its tail has 500 health on NG and 785 on NG+.

• Once in a while (could be a very long while) the Guardian will fly high up, then drop down towards you for a powerful melee attack. When the Guardian drops down, roll left and it will miss, that gives you a chance to rush up and attack the tail. You will most likely land one attack on the tail. A more surefire method is to bait out the Guardian's shockwave attack and stand directly in front of him with your shield raised. You will be staggered, but he will not have recovered from his attack, giving you ample time to recover instead. Roll to either side of his charging headbutt and you will find his tail vulnerable for a quick attack (Great Combustion will help shorten the fight).
  • Be careful not to dodge too early; the Guardian spends a good while gaining elevation before diving. If you dodge too early, he will simply dive into your destination.
• He may also charge in and attempt to gore you for a powerful melee attack (be careful not to mistake this for his quick headbutt). Roll out of the way and attack his tail.
• Trying to cut the tail after dodging his attack can be frustrating with melee, using strong ranged or magic attacks can cut his tail even if he doesn't lower it. Wait until he uses the shockwave attack and run to his side, do not use lock on and point your camera manually at his tail.
• If you missed the tail the first time and are struggling with the two Lesser Sanctuary Guardians, you can cut their tails by shooting them with a bow from the tunnel near the Sanctuary Garden bonfire. Be wary, the lesser guardians will still be able to hit you with lightning if you move up in the tunnel to get a better shot but, if you don't move up you will have a hard time hitting the tail because you will hit the elevation instead.

Notes[]

• After defeating Artorias the Abysswalker, two respawning Lesser Sanctuary Guardians will appear, allowing for multiple opportunities to obtain the Guardian Tail whip if the player missed severing the tail in the first encounter.

Boss information[]

Attacks[]

Wild Fury[]

				Attack Type	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
???	-	-	-	Physical	No	Both	Fast

Attacks rapidly in combos of 2 or 4 with its paws and horns. Two sequential paw or horn attacks is a 2 string attack. A paw attack followed by a horn attack, or vice versa, is a 4 string attack.

Pound[]

				Attack Type	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
???	-	-	-	Physical	No	Right	Fast

After rearing on its hind legs, it will proceed to slam its front paws down at the player.

Charge[]

				Attack Type	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
???	-	-	-	Physical	No	None	Fast

Performs a quick charge and then thrusts its head upwards, launching the player into the air if it connects. Its tail will be lowered to the ground for a short time after this attack, providing an opportunity for the player to cut it.

Flying Charge[]

				Attack Type	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
???	-	-	-	Physical	No	Neither	Medium

Gallops into the air and the swoops down to attack with its horns. Its tail will be lowered to the ground for a short time after this attack, providing an opportunity for the player to cut it.

Pounce[]

				Attack Type	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
???	-	-	-	Physical	No	-	Fast

The Sanctuary Guardian will fly up into the air and pause before launching straight at the player with lightning speed. If avoided it will be vulnerable to attack for a short time, however if the attack hits it will instead somersault backwards through the air landing far away from the player.

Wind Blast[]

				Attack Type	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
???	-	-	-	Physical	No	Neither	Medium

Its wings are used to project a wave of water and wind in front of it. If blocked it will consume a huge amount of stamina, or outright break the block of shields without very high stability. If the player can not roll out of the way it is better to take the hit rather than attempt to block.

Will occasionally follow up with a Charge attack if player stays in front of it.

Lightning Shot^{[note 1]}[]

				Attack Type	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
-	-	-	???	Lightning	No	AoE	Fast

Lowers its head to charge, then releases a large ball of lightning at the target. Has an identical telegraph to Lightning Repeater.

Lightning Repeater^{[note 1]}[]

				Attack Type	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
-	-	-	???	Lightning	No	AoE	Fast

Fires four lightning projectiles in moderately quick succession. Can be avoided by strafing to either side. Has an identical telegraph to Lightning Shot.

Lightning Strafe^{[note 1]}[]

				Attack Type	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
-	-	-	???	Lightning	No	AoE	Medium

Strafes around the target whilst flying, firing a heavy lightning projectile.

Lightning Overhead^{[note 1]}[]

				Attack Type	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
-	-	-	???	Lightning	No	AoE	Medium

Flies over the target, releasing a heavy lightning ball at the end of its flight. Can be effectively dodged by rolling backwards after the guardian has passed over the player.

Tail Sweep[]

				Attack Type	Status	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
???	-	-	-	Physical	Poison	No	Right	Fast

Sweeps its tail from right to left, causing medium poison buildup.

Tail Spin[]

				Attack Type	Status	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
???	-	-	-	Physical	Poison	No	Both	Medium

It will spin slightly above ground in 360 degrees, sweeping with its tail, causing heavy poison buildup.

Hind Kick[]

				Attack Type	Parryable	Tracking	Speed
???	-	-	-	Physical	No	Neither	Fast

The Sanctuary Guardian will kick with its hind legs if the player is too close to its rear.

Retreat[]

The Guardian will fly backwards far away from the player, causing them to lose target lock.

Defenses[]

Physical Defenses				Elemental Defenses			Resistances
300	300	300	300	768	480	1056	250	250	100

These stats are sourced from FuturePress's Official Dark Souls Strategy Guide.

Drops[]

Item	Guardian Soul	Guardian Tail
Drop Rate	Guaranteed (Boss)	Sever Tail

Notes[]

• Physical defenses: Regular 100, Slash 100, Strike 100, Thrust 100 (raw entity data, for comparison only)
• Elemental defenses: Magic 256, Fire 160, Lightning 352 (Raw entity data, for comparison only)
• Status defenses: Poison 250, Toxic 250, Bleed 100 (Raw entity data, for comparison only)

Trivia[]

• The Sanctuary Guardian resembles various mythological hybrids, most alike to the manticore from Persian mythology and Chimera from Greek mythology.

Gallery[]

Music[]

Footnotes[]

Bosses

Asylum Demon • Bed of Chaos • Bell Gargoyles • Black Dragon Kalameet • Capra Demon • Ceaseless Discharge • Centipede Demon • Chaos Witch Quelaag • Crossbreed Priscilla • Dark Sun Gwyndolin • Demon Firesage • Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough • Four Kings • Gaping Dragon • Gravelord Nito • Great Grey Wolf Sif • Gwyn, Lord of Cinder • Iron Golem • Knight Artorias • Manus, Father of the Abyss • Moonlight Butterfly • Pinwheel • Sanctuary Guardian • Seath the Scaleless • Stray Demon • Taurus Demon