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“Three ruthless bone brothers with shields. Knock off their shields and all that's left are three ruthless bone brothers.”

The Guards is an Epic card that is unlocked from the P.E.K.K.A's Playhouse (Arena 6). It spawns three fast single-target, ground-targeting, melee, ground troops with low hitpoints and low damage with shields in addition to their normal hitpoints. Their deployment is in a triangle formation. They appear to be somewhat taller than normal skeletons with black helmets with team-colored feathers, and carry spears and wooden shields. A Guards card costs 3 Elixir to deploy.

Strategy

For Battle Decks with this card, click here

  • The Guards function similar to Skeletons with triple the cost, but are more reliable defensively thanks to their shields improving their resistance against enemy spells or any other powerful attack, as any excess damage is negated.
  • Guards are best used as a defensive card, then used in a counterpush with something that can tank for them, such as a Miner.
  • Their defensive potential marks them as a low-risk, high-reward option. They can eliminate ground troops like groups of Skeletons and can distract air troops like Minions, making them a good pick against an incoming enemy push for gaining positive Elixir trades. They don't have much damage or pushing power for 3 Elixir, so they should be rarely used on offense; they could even fail to take out tanky troops like the Royal Giant quickly.
  • The Guards can be used effectively to counter a lone Sparky. With their shield, they can withstand a blow from the Sparky and destroy her before she shoots a second time. For better results, surround her by spawning them directly on her so only one Guard gets hit with the blast. They will quickly destroy Sparky with the help of a Crown Tower, leaving the player two Guards with shields and one without.
  • The vast majority of single-target troops or those with slow attacks can be easily countered by Guards, including Prince, P.E.K.K.A and Mini P.E.K.K.A. Conversely they can be demolished with splash cards as well as aerial units like Wizard and Baby Dragon.
  • The Guards can be countered with area damage troops or buildings. Cards like Fire Spirit, Bomber, and Barbarian Barrel are most effective, while the Wizard, Valkyrie, Dark Prince, Witch, or Bomb Tower are also good, though expensive, alternative options.
    • Ice Spirit can be used to counter them, freezing them and allowing your Crown Tower to finish them off.
    • The Log can make short work of the Guards since it knocks off the Guards' shields, making them weak enough for the Crown Tower to finish them off.
    • Should Guards be used against a push, Poison can be used to completely take them out, due to the 8 ticks of Poison being more than capable of taking their shield out first and finishing them off second.
  • Guards cannot target air units, so cheap air troops like Bats can quickly defeat them.
  • The Fire Spirit, Ice Spirit, Heal Spirit, and Electro Spirit do not deal enough damage to take out the Guards' shields but they do deal enough damage to finish off the Guards themselves. Knowing this, you can combine either of them with The Log to fully counter the Guards for a neutral Elixir trade, however that requires precise timing.
  • The Guards are a good alternative to Barbarians if the player needs to keep their deck cheap as they cost 2 less Elixir. The trade-off is that the Guards have all-around lower statistics except for speed.
  • Guards' shields can survive a Zap up to 2 levels higher.
  • Guards are great for defending against the Graveyard, since they are more durable than regular Skeletons and have a longer range. For similar reasons, they are also effective at countering the Miner, capable of tanking multiple hits from him.
  • When the Three Musketeers are coming to a Crown Tower without support, once the player's Crown Tower targets the Three Musketeers, they can do a quick drop of Guards and then Ice Spirit. The first Guard can negate three simultaneous hits and then the Ice Spirit will freeze them for 1.2 seconds which is enough time for the 2 remaining Guards and Crown Tower to finish off the Musketeers.
  • Guards are actually able to slightly outrange some troops because of their spears, similar to the Prince. Because of this, they can poke at a distracted Valkyrie without taking any damage, setting you up for a counterpush.
  • The Guards' shields allows them to be a great meatshield against an Inferno Tower or Inferno Dragon. These two cards will reset their charge after they destroy a shield, being distracted for longer.
  • Due to the Guards' shields having high hitpoints than the shields of Royal Recruits and Dark Prince, the Guards can survive equal level Arrows with the shield being knocked off in the process.

Statistics

Cost
Elixir
Hit Speed
Damage Speed
Speed
Speed
Deploy Time
Deploy Time
Range
Range
Target
Targets
Count
Troop Count
Transport
Transport
Type
Type
Rarity
Rarity
3 1 sec Fast (90) 1 sec Melee: Long (1.6) Ground x3 Ground Troop Epic
Level
Level
Hitpoints
Hitpoint
Shield Hitpoints
Shield Hitpoints
Damage
Damage
Damage per second
DPS
6 51 160 76 76
7 56 176 83 83
8 61 193 91 91
9 67 212 101 101
10 74 233 110 110
11 81 256 121 121
12 89 281 133 133
13 98 308 146 146
14 108 339 161 161
15 118 372 177 177

Card Mastery

Type Level/Tier Objective Reward
Damage Dealer
Damage Dealer
1 Deal a total of 105,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings 20 Guards cards
75 XP
2 Deal a total of 310,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings 6,000 Gold
75 XP
3 Deal a total of 520,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings 150 Gem
75 XP
Pain's An Old Friend
Pain's An Old Friend
1 Receive a total of 495,000 Damage from enemy Troops or buildings 9,000 Gold
125 XP
2 Receive a total of 1,420,000 Damage from enemy Troops or buildings 20 Epic Wild Card
125 XP
3 Receive a total of 2,480,000 Damage from enemy Troops or buildings 15,000 Gold
125 XP

History

2016

  • The Guards card was added to the game on 3/5/2016, in the May 2016 Update.
  • On 18/5/2016, a Balance Update, increased the Guards' hitpoints and damage by 8%.
  • On 21/6/2016, a Balance Update, removed the pushback when their shields break.

2017

  • On 9/10/2017, the Epic Quests Update, fixed a bug where the Inferno Tower's and Inferno Dragon's damage did not reset after breaking the Guards' shield. This change was reverted on 11/10/2017, in a maintenance break.
  • On 12/12/2017, the Electrifying Update, increased the Guards’ hitpoints and damage by 5% and decreased their attack time interval to 1.1 seconds (from 1.2 seconds). It also made it so that the Inferno Tower's and Inferno Dragon's would now reset after breaking the Guards' shield.

2018

2020

  • On 2/6/2020, a Balance Update, gave the Guards a new 0.1 seconds deploy stagger from each other.
  • On 9/12/2020, a Balance Update, decreased the Guards' attack time interval to 1 second (from 1.1 seconds) and decreased their hitpoints by 26%.

2021

  • On 7/6/2021, the Summer 2021 Update, moved the Arena to unlock the Guards from Royal Arena to Spooky Town.
  • On 2/9/2021, a maintenance break, added a card render to the Guards' card info screen.
  • On 6/9/2021, the 2021 Quarter 3 Update, increased the Guards' damage by 12%.
  • On 27/10/2021, the Champions Update, increased the Level cap of all cards to 14 (from 13).

2022

  • On 26/10/2022, the 2022 Quarter 3 Update, moved the Arena to unlock the Guards from Spooky Town to P.E.K.K.A's Playhouse.

2023

2024

  • On 3/1/2024, a Balance Update, increased the Guards' shield hitpoints by 7%.

Gallery

Trivia

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