Guardian Scout IV

Guardian Scout IV

Games	Breath of the Wild
Location	Shrine of Trials
Rewards	Ancient Spring Ancient Screw Ancient Gear Ancient Core Ancient Shaft Guardian Spear++ Guardian Sword++ Ancient Battle Axe++ Guardian Shield++
Threat
Effective Weapons	Any Guardian or Ancient weapons
Related	Guardian Scout I Guardian Scout II Guardian Scout III Test of Strength

"An ancient civilisation originally designed Guardians to combat Ganon but then scaled them down to place inside shrines as part of the trials. This model is very resilient and has been outfitted with triple-blade functionality, allowing it to wield three weapons. This will put any would-be hero to the test for sure. A great deal of strength and confidence alike are required to contend with one of these."

— In-Game Description

The Guardian Scout IV is an enemy that appears in Breath of the Wild. It is the most powerful of the four types of Guardian Scouts found in the game and they can be found exclusively within shrines. Along with one appearing in the DLC-exclusive Ruvo Korbah Shrine, Link will encounter these Guardian Scouts only when exploring Major Test of Strength shrines.

Guardian Scout IVs have 3,000 HP and wield either a Guardian Spear++, Guardian Sword++, and Ancient Battle Axe++, or any two of these weapons alongside a Guardian Shield++, depending on the shrine in which Link encounters this foe.

Combat

The Guardian Scout IV will, throughout the battle, use a wide variety of attacks. Firstly, throughout the near entirety of the fight, the scout will make substantial use of its weapons. The guardian may attack Link laterally with its battle axe, vertically with its sword, or head-on with its spear. The former can be backflipped over to initiate a Flurry Rush, in which Link can unleash a volley of melee attacks upon the scout. The latter two can be exploited by performing a side hop, for the same effect. When and if it uses its laser ability, Link can parry the pulse with his shield using a Perfect Guard to reflect the projectile back at the Scout. If Link is using the Guardian Shield (or its variants), or the Ancient Shield, the pulse will automatically be reflected back at the enemy. Link must also be prepared to find a stone pillar, create a pillar using Cryonis, or raise a pillar using Magnesis, depending on the shrine's configuration. The reason for which this is necessary is because the scout will sometimes extend its weapons, and charge a powerful spinning attack that will damage Link, and that he can use these pillars as a barrier. It can also be stopped from spinning before it hits him with a precise shot into the eye with an Arrow, or by performing a perfect guard. Once the scout has stopped spinning, it will take a moment to regain itself, leaving itself weak to attacks.

Once the guardian's life is at less than half, it will stop charging at Link with its spin attack, and will instead sometimes retract its upper part into its body and spin its eye around, charging a laser. This renders a sizeable circle of the battlefield harmful and will knock Link back if he gets hit by the laser. However, the spinning motion also creates an updraft that can be used by Link to get some height above the circle and attack from above with a melee weapon. Another way of stopping the scout spinning is by firing any elemental arrow at it, stunning it for a short while.

When the scout drops to very low health, the scout will become stationary on the battlefield and will charge up a volley of four powerful beams to fire all at once at Link, similar to the attack of a Guardian Stalker. Nothing can be done to stop or stall this attack, and it will continue charging up these beams until its death. A well-timed perfect guard can reflect the beams back at the scout but if not timed correctly, then the beam will either hit Link's shield, likely destroying it in one shot, or the beam will hit Link, causing a large amount of damage. The two outcomes will depend on whether he parried too late or too early, respectively. Fortunately, the scout can only aim so fast, so running around the scout in circles while it is firing will usually cause the scout to miss because it cannot turn fast enough to aim at Link properly. While the scout is charging, it is open for attack, so make use of that time. If the scout is about to shoot, then you can run around it to dodge, find something to hide behind (it will break stone pillars after the first shot, leaving you open to be hit on the consecutive shots), or be prepared to parry its beam.