This article is about the Real World

Guardian is a gametype in Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3, Gears of War 4, and Gears 5. It is a remake of the gametype Assassination from Gears of War.

Rules and Gameplay

To win the round, you must eliminate the opposing team as in Warzone and Execution, but in order to do so, teams must first eliminate the opposing leader. When chosen to be the leader, the character skin of that leader will replace your current skin. Teams get infinite respawns while their leader is alive. After eliminating the leader, all other enemies must be killed. Should a player be dead and awaiting respawn at the time their leader is killed, they get one last respawn. Any person who dies after their leader will not have the aforementioned privilege; only if their death on the notifier appears above the death of their team's leader do they respawn.

While non-leader players follow Warzone rules for kills, the leaders follow Execution rules, meaning they must be finished by a one-shot kill or up close.

At the start of the game, the leaders are picked randomly. For the next round, whichever player on each team eliminated the other team's leader becomes the new leader. If a team does not kill the other leader, then the player who scored the most points on the team that round becomes leader. However, a player cannot be leader more than one consecutive round; in this case if that such player would be leader twice in a row, the player who scored the most points on the team that round becomes leader, or if the team did not kill the other leader (or if the leader both killed the other leader and scored the most points), the player with the second most points that round becomes leader. The leaders will be automatically marked on your screen so it is easier to track and kill the enemy leader. If the leader is seen and you use your TAC/COM, the leader will have a star and that bot/player's name.

In this gametype, you're unable to play as Hoffman or Skorge in Gears of War 2, or Marcus or the Scion Elite in Gears of War 4, since it may confuse other players. In public games, team with 3 round victories wins. As in Warzone and Execution, if only one player is remaining on each team with no leaders left, a 60-second sudden death round will ensue.

Leaders

Leaders in Guardian are always the same characters, depending on the game. In Gears of War 4 and Gears 5, Leaders use a unique gold skin to distinguish themselves.

• COG Leaders
  • Victor Hoffman (Gears of War 2)
  • Richard Prescott (Gears of War 3)
  • Marcus Fenix (Gears of War 4)
  • Jinn-Bot (Gears 5)

• Locust/Swarm Leaders
  • Skorge (Gears of War 2)
  • Myrrah (Gears of War 3)
  • Speaker (Gears of War 4)
  • Speaker (Gears 5)

Tactics

• While it may be protective for the leader to hide somewhere protected by any of the three types of grenades, doing so leaves them vulnerable to outnumberment, especially from respawning enemies, they will eventually get overrun by the use of Smoke grenades and weapons, unless the leader picks up the fallen weapons for himself.
• Getting kills on enemy players is important even if they are going to respawn. The more enemy players that are dead at once, the easier it will be to kill the enemy leader during that window before respawning.
• A more effective strategy is to down every player on the opposing team and NOT kill them, as they wont be able to respawn, but be incapacitated as well. This makes the leader an easy target.
• Every player starts off with one Smoke Grenade, a Hammerburst or Lancer, a Gnasher Shotgun, and a Snub Pistol. Use the weapons to your advantage.
• Always use weapons to your advantage. Anti-camp weapons like the Hammer of Dawn or Mortar can kill enemies too far away or hiders quickly. Close range weapons like the Grinder can be used to effectively camp a spot. Grenades can be used to flush out enemies from a camping spot.
• AI always use the captured leader as a meatshield, which is helpful when defending yourself should you do this.

Multiplayer modes
Annex · Arcade · Arcade (Gears 5) · Arms Race · Assassination · Beast · Breakthrough · Capture the Leader · Dodgeball · Domination · Escalation · Escape · Execution · Guardian · Horde · Horde 2.0 · Horde 3.0 · King of the Hill · Master at Arms · OverRun · Submission · Survival · Team Deathmatch · Warzone · Wingman