Guard

Guard

Information
Full name	Guard
Affiliation	Sangvis Ferri
Released on	CN (护卫者), TW, KR, EN, JP
Chibi animation
Variant: Default SWAP Guard Gingerbread Guard Click the marked area to switch between animations. For details regarding animations, please see Animations on the Wiki.

High-end Sangvis Ferri combat doll, equipped with a shield and short-ranged weaponry. As their appearance suggests, they are high-defense vanguards, typically used to screen for important and/or damaging units or to serve as an offensive line for aggressive pushes into enemy formations.

Stats / Data

• Classification: Humanoid
• Damage: Low
• Accuracy: Moderate
• Attack range: Short
• Health: Very High
• Armor value: N/A
• Evasion: Low
• Movement speed: Slow
• Skill/Passive: Yes
  • SWAP Guard: "When unit stops advancing, deploys a damage absorbing shield equal to their TOTAL HEALTH POINTS for a few seconds, cannot attack while shield is active."

Appearances

Guards first appear as the boss of chapter 3-3 and become an increasingly common sight as the game progresses. They become extremely common starting around Chapter 5.

Gameplay

The bodyguard of the Sangvis Ferri regulars, Guards are among the toughest Sangvis units in common circulation, with the exception of the Aegis or Dragoon units. Their damage output is extremely low, barely the equivalent of Handgun T-dolls. However, they boast heightened durability, equipped with composite armor shields and their bodies reinforced with extensive subdermal plating and redundant survival mechanisms. The role of Guards is painfully simple: Advance forward, soaking otherwise-lethal damage and drawing attention away from their allies, allowing heavy hitters such as Jaegers to bring their weapons to bear. If a corridor opens up in the player's lines, Guards will, like Dragoons, attempt to force their way through the breach and force an allied retreat; thankfully, Guards' sluggish movement speed pales to the Dragoon's.

Guards do not rely on armor like the comparable Aegis unit, instead tanking through sheer health capacity, frequently having more HP per individual doll than entire low-level squads have per echelon. While their high health pools makes Guards extremely difficult to focus down, their lack of armor allows AR and SMG-type T-dolls to fare equally well against Guards as MGs and Rifles. While Guards carry ranged weapons (unlike the melee-centric Aegis), Guards suffer from low range and damage, allowing even the weediest of T-Dolls to easily weather their attacks.

Instead, the problem with Guards is who they are accompanying - traditionally, Guards act as screens for Vespids, Jaegers, Dragoons, and Strikers, and can even serve as bodyguards for Sangvis Ringleaders. By protecting these units, they can ensure that Vespids can always get in a few volleys, that Jaegers can get into position to cause big damage, that Dragoons can survive long enough to engage the front line, and that Strikers can set up and begin spinning up the guns. By far the worst unit they can be teamed with is Brutes, who will rush your line while your forces are busy with the guards and can do enormous damage to your T-Dolls if they get in range.

Rifles are your best counter to Guards - because Rifles prioritize the back lines, they'll go after the units that actually matter, and not waste time on the meat walls. Failing this, high burst damage T-Dolls and AOE effects are your friends; Abilities like Antipersonnel Grenade, High-Explosive Grenade, Frag Grenade, and Incendiary Grenade are actually extremely helpful against Guards, because while they will tank the bulk of the damage from all but Antipersonnel Grenade with ease, Guards have a notorious tendency to bunch up, which means one grenade can often hit a bunch of them (even more if a Dragoon unit or the like is trying to slip past).

In the later stages of Isomer players will encounter SWAP SF units for the first time, and Guards are one of the units that received an upgrade, increasing their base HP and granting them a skill which deploys a damage absorbing shield when the SWAP Guards stop advancing.

Lore / Story involvement

Guards are one of the youngest Sangvis regular-types, having been produced specifically to counter opponents that had determined (correctly) that Sangvis Ferri's more critical units were rather vulnerable if isolated. In particular, Sangvis hit upon the idea of fielding them alongside Jaeger units immediately, and completely changed how the latter was used by Sangvis in the process - moving from isolated sniper teams to dedicated hunting packs in urban and rough terrain designed to eliminate pockets of resistance.

Gallery

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  Christmas variant.

Trivia

• Their brightly-colored, purple dyed hair is intended to help Sangvis Ferri commander dolls quickly pinpoint the location of their lead units, and also the fastest direction to the frontline.
• Despite their shields, Guards are one of the lightest-dressed Sangvis dolls, wearing what can charitably be called a plated bikini, owing mostly to their subdermal plating and internal defenses.

References