Treasure guardian

A list of ground human Treasure guardians

A list of ground animals, including Treasure guardians

A list of sea manned Treasure guardians

“	Defeat this guardian to collect its Treasure.	”
—In-game description

Treasure guardians are special units in Age of Empires III that watch over Treasures on a map.

Guardians are not hostile until attacked, and will retaliate towards the first attacker. In groups, all respond at once. If units damaging a guardian are then moved further away, the guardian will return to guarding its treasure and instantly heal to full hit points.

All Treasure guardians are incredibly fast and move with at least six speed. Guardians can range from human units to Orca Whales on the water. The more difficult a Treasure is to claim, determined by the number and types of Guardians, the greater its reward.

General information

Treasure guardians are infantry, cavalry, or naval units that stand in a map guarding Treasures of all types, including resources, free units, and unit improvements. They have to be killed or converted in order to claim Treasures. In the early stages of the game, some Treasure guardians can prove a challenge and should not be fought by civilian units, as high losses will result. Renegade units, rather than animals, are much tougher to defeat, and should be dispatched with military force, or by use of the Explorer's abilities. Most Treasure guardians are wild animals or renegade men, both of which are from the Mother Nature faction. Some of the Treasure guardians are superficially similar to Outlaws, with the same model and profile picture. They differ in their names and stats. Unlike Outlaws, Treasure guardians can be sniped by Heroes, even if they have been converted and are under the control of a player.

Treasure guardians are their own class of unit and do not inflict or receive counter bonuses when fighting normal military units. However, after being converted, they all receive a 0.1x multiplier on all their damage actions against villagers, making them ineffective for early harassment. Explorers, War Chiefs, Monks, and tame animals all have attack bonuses against Treasure guardians. In addition, Explorers can use their Sharpshooter ability to kill a single Guardian; War Chiefs can convert a single Guardian to fight for them; and Monks can stun a single Guardian for a few seconds. With these abilities, explorer upgrade cards, and any tame animals the player finds, trains, or ships, even the best guarded Treasures can be gathered more quickly.

Tactics

Treasure guardians vary greatly in power and determining this is key in deciding how to best approach the fight. The weapon wielded by the player's hero character will also influence fighting style. Heroes wielding melee weapons (Brahmin, Shaolin Master, Aztec War Chief, Lakota War Chief, and Inca War Chief) are generally forced to take on fights head-on, whereas those wielding ranged weapons hold a unique ability to "kite" guardians.

Melee Heroes

Melee heroes are generally better suited to fight guardians directly, due to their greater hand damage and often higher hit point total. They also have stronger abilities, such as recruiting human guardians (Native American War Chiefs), stunning units repeatedly (Brahmin) or dealing critical damage (Shaolin Master). It's best to stay away from treasures with many guardians. Melee guardians may surround the hero, dealing too much damage to deal with while preventing escape. Ranged guardians can shoot at the hero as they make their way towards them, which deals much more damage than their hand attacks. Ranged guardians with a secondary hand attack (such as the Bandit Rifleman or Bandit Blowgunner) make for the best targets; these often deal very little damage and go down quite fast while not requiring any ability. Groups of melee guardians with low hit points (such as the Lion-Tailed Macaque or Snow Monkey) are also easy to clear without taking too much damage.

Ranged Heroes

All ranged heroes (except for the Sohei Archer) possess some form of Sharpshooter ability that allows them to kill any guardian (except the Beast of Gévaudan) in one hit. This makes them exceptional at clearing treasures with a single guardian with any number of hit points. For larger treasures they are able to kill a high-priority target and run away to safety, only to later return and repeat until the treasure is cleared. For fighting with ranged weapons, there is a basic tactic, as well as an advanced tactic.

Basic tactic

Although the ranged weapon allows players to damage targets from afar, many guardians are melee and rush towards the hero resulting in only about 2 hits to be from range. By then the guardian is in range, forcing the hero into their hand attack. Although all guardians have the same speed, some guardians (such as the Coyote or Black Bear), may still allow the hero to perform a ranged attack. To do so, the player must run from the treasure guardian once it is in melee range and wait for it to attack. This animation causes the guardian to stand still for a moment, allowing the hero to step out of melee range and shoot them, also referred to as kiting.

Whether this is possible, is determined by 2 factors: the unit's obstruction radius and its attack animation's damage delay. The obstruction radius defines how much space a guardian takes up, thus how close they can be to the hero. The greater the obstruction radius, the larger the distance from the hero so more space between the hero and the guardian when running away. The attack animation damage delay defines the delay between a unit's attack animation start time and the time at which the damage is dealt. Guardians must stand still while attacking until this time is reached, which gives the player time to move their hero away from the guardian. Some guardians (such as the Tiger and Jaguar) have too low values for both these factors, making them impossible to kite. Examples of guardians which are easy to kite are:

• Black Bear: Has a relatively large unit obstruction radius and large attack animation damage delay.
• Coyote: Has a very large attack animation damage delay, causing them to stand still for a long time.
• Mad Dog: Has one of the largest attack animation damage delays.
• Wolf: Uses the same animation as the Coyote.

Another trick is to shoot the guardian and run away until it starts moving back to their treasure, at which point the hero must shoot the guardian. This will cause some form of confusion, temporarily moving the guardian away from the hero without attacking. This time may be used to get an extra shot in before the guardian attacks again.

Advanced tactic

The previously explained trick is not limited to the border of a treasure's radius, although this trick is required to start the following sequence. When a guardian becomes confused, the hero may take a free shot at it, after which it attacks again under normal circumstances. However, if the player moves the hero during the animation of shooting (without canceling the animation), the guardian will become confused again. This does not only happen for moving, but any other ability the hero may take besides attacking, such as using their Sharpshooter ability on another approaching guardian. This process can be chained infinitely as long as the player times their actions well. However, if the guardian reaches the border of the treasure's radius it retreats and regenerates to full health. The guardian always runs in the opposite direction of the shot, so properly maneuvering the hero can prevent this from happening. A gif of this method is shown here, slowed down at points of interest.

List of Guardians

There are many types of Treasure guardians:

Animals

Land animals

• Alligator
• Baboon
• Black Bear
• Black Panther
• Beast
• Beast of Gévaudan
• Brown Bear
• Cougar
• Coyote
• Crocodile
• Elephant
• Ethiopian Wolf
• Grizzly Bear
• Hippo
• Honey Badger
• Hyena
• Jaguar
• Leopard
• Lion
• Lion-Tailed Macaque
• Mad Dog
• Monitor Lizard
• Orangutan
• Panda
• Polar Bear
• Rhinoceros
• Snow Leopard
• Snow Monkey
• Tibetan Macaque
• Tiger
• Warthog
• White Tiger
• Wild Boar
• Wolf

Water animals

• Crocodile (water)
• Great White Shark
• Hippo (water)
• Orca

Infantry

• African Vagabond
• Ambushing Shongo Thrower
• Bandit Blowgunner (Outlaw Blowgunner*)
• Bandit Gunslinger (Outlaw Pistolero*)
• Bandit Rifleman (Outlaw Rifleman*)
• Blind Monk
• Buccaneer Captain (Campaign only)
• Colonial Gunslinger
• Colonial Looter
• Colonial Officer
• Colonial Swashbuckler
• Corrupted Watchman
• Delinquent Thuggee
• Deserted Pikeman
• Deserted Skirmisher
• Fugitive Dacoit
• Gunman
• Haramija
• Klepht
• Marauding Cossack
• Marauding Musketeer
• Marauding Landsknecht
• Marauding Highlander
• Marauding Janissary
• Marauding Jaeger
• Masterless Samurai
• Outlaw Musketeer (Campaign/Unknown only)
• Pirate
• Plague Doctor
• Reckless Knife Thrower
• Smuggler
• Witch Hunter

* - Before update 38254.

Cavalry

• Bandit Rider (Outlaw Rider*)
• Brigand
• Caravan Bandit
• Colonial Oppressor
• Deserted Hussar
• Mongol Rider
• Missionary
• Marauding Crabat
• Repressive Cuirassier
• Robber Knight

* - Before update 38254.

Naval

• Bandit Catamaran
• Marauding Junk

Changelog

• Update 38254 changed the word "Outlaw" to "Bandit" in the names of the three Wild West Treasure guardian units to avoid confusion between them and the trainable outlaws. In the name of the Treasure guardian version of the Carib Blowgunner, the word "Outlaw" was changed to "Bandit" to avoid the misinterpretation that this unit is tagged as outlaw.
• The different Treasure guardians were introduced in different expansions:
  • The Asian Dynasties: Black Panther, Lion, Lion-Tailed Macaque, Monitor Lizard, Orangutan, Panda, Rhinoceros, Snow Leopard, Snow Monkey, Tibetan Macaque, Tiger, White Tiger, Great White Shark, Orca, Blind Monk, Delinquent Thuggee, Fugitive Dacoit, Masterless Samurai, Smuggler, Mongol Rider, Bandit Catamaran and Marauding Junk.
  • The African Royals: Baboon, Crocodile, Elephant Guardian, Ethiopian Wolf, Hippo, Honey Badger, Hyena, Leopard, Warthog, African Vagabond, Ambushing Shongo Thrower, Colonial Gunslinger, Colonial Looter, Colonial Officer, Colonial Swashbuckler, Reckless Knife Thrower and Colonial Oppressor.
  • Knights of Mediterranean: Beast, Mad Dog, Gunman, Plague Doctor, Witch Hunter, Marauding Muskeeter, Marauding Hussar, Marauding Landsknecht, Deserted Pikeman.

Trivia

• Outlaws and Treasure guardians have different themes from popular culture: pirates, Wild West, Indian bandits, desert warriors, Japanese Jidaigeki, African natives, Victorian era colonial explorers, European deserters, European religious people, and East European outlaws.