If the shield is destroyed, the Guardian will use two moves every turn: Hatred Beyond Time, a permanent damage buff that gets higher and higher every turn, and Annihilating Gaze, an AoE damage nuke that hits every party member. It does not have much HP, so when the shield is down, focus it, it's easy to quickly collapse it, and this would depreciate the damage suffered during the rest of the fight. It will strike with a move that induces bleed, stress and moderate damage on two of your heroes (Feed the Soil). The Shield will come back down with another attack that strikes one or two heroes with heavy damage, stun, and move. Once the Shield uses 'Skyward Shield', you may attack the Guardian. It will alternate between guarding him and charging its attack. The shield will guard the Guardian every other turn. For this reason, it is strongly recommended to not destroy it. The Garden Guardian, his shield, and his spear, are all separate with their own actions and life bars, but the Guardian himself will not take any actions unless his shield is destroyed (if this occurs, he will use Hatred Beyond Time and Annihilating Gaze). If the player has collected all Set Trinkets, the quest's trinket reward will instead be a random Very Rare trinket. Shieldbreaker Set Trinkets, being exclusive to Shieldbreaker nightmares, cannot be obtained this way. This quest allow the player to earn 2 trinkets from a Trinket Set - one is obtained from defeating the Garden Guardian itself, and another from completing the quest. It is the objective of a renewable quest called 'Defeat the Fallen Guardian', which becomes available after the defeat of the Countess. It is a giant statue made up of three enemies the Garden Guardian, the Blood Fount and the Stone Shield.

The Garden Guardian is a Boss found within the Courtyard.

A deep-rooted evil, a cosmic hatred beyond time for all that thrive beyond its tainted grasp. This hateful guardian is less of a creature, and more of a simple manifestation of the corruption that's tainted the Estate as a whole, and the Courtyard in particular. So much so, that a once innocent statue of a warrior has gained unnatural life, striking down any and all trespassers into the Old Gardens, and feeding their blood to the cursed soil. Such is the strength of the Curse, and the Evil in the land, that the very ground itself is tainted and hateful. The very grounds themselves are animated by a deep-rooted evil, a cosmic hatred for all that thrive beyond its tainted grasp.

Darkest dungeon head trinkets