What is a Guardian?
A guardian is when you control a portal for a specific number of consecutive days. In other words, you have at least one resonator on it, it doesn't get smashed by the other faction and it keeps accruing days toward specific badges.
From Decode Ingress:
A Guardian badge is achieved by protecting and maintain control of a Portal for an extended period of time.
Guardian badge has 5 tiers and each tear has a required number of days to achieve it.
- Bronze – 3 days
- Silver – 10 days
- Gold – 20 days
- Platinum – 90 days
- Onyx – 150 days
How Does one Establish and Nurture a Guardian?
When you look at your Agent Stats for All Time, under the Defense section, you can see the first line: Max Time Portal Held. If the number of days keeps growing, you have yourself at least one guardian.
When I first started playing I didn't really think much about getting a guardian. I live in a fairly large, urban area and the chances of establishing and keeping one here was pretty much Nil. When I selected a couple of portals in my area and they promptly got smashed and taken out, I realized I had to put more effort into this whole Guardian thing if I wanted to be a successful Guardian badge hunter.
I then scoured the Intel map and found some places that would coincide with a visit to particular areas.
What makes for a good Guardian portal?
1. They were off the beaten track, so to speak. Not usually in high traffic areas. This is harder for some of us than others, depending on the area we play in.
2. They did not have a lot a other portals nearby.
3. They were not owned by anyone else at the time.
4. We have to be able to charge them from home. Depending on our Level in the game, if the Guardian is far away (really far) we may not be able to recharge it.
5. The more remote the better. These stand a really good chance of ticking through the days, since few people will get there and cell service is often very dicey once out in the back-a-beyond.
6. The time of year and weather might be your best friends. If you find a remote guardian and nurture it well, this could last enough time to get you your badges because the Guardian is so remote it is inaccessible at certain times of the year, or the weather just makes it really hard to get to it.
Other important stuff about Guardians?
How many resonators does one put on a Guardian - Most people put a single, or couple of resonators on their Guardian. That's how people often determine it is your Guardian. Its sitting quietly somewhere, with one or two resos on it and some mods.
Be discreet - When Guardian hunting, you may want to keep it on the down low and not announce to the local faction on the other side that you've been in the area. In other words, do not smash and wage war in the area you're establishing your Guardian. Quietly visit a particular area. If it is an unclaimed portal, even better. Sometimes we do smash and take a portal over, but if we do this, we should expect someone else is going to come and reclaim the portal, or take it away from us at some point.
Burn that Guardian portal out - Get as many portal keys as you can at the time you claim it. Almost everyone I've talked to has a story about deleting their portal key(s) at some point. I did it, but had backups. This is especially important if you have a remote Guardian you can't easily get to. If someone else has accompanied you on your Guardian expedition, get them to keep a key, or two for you. They may also help with your recharging.
Linking and Fielding from Your Guardian - It is often quite annoying when someone in our own faction links and fields from our Guardian. And making it an anchor is the fast-track to losing our Guardian. Some of us go out looking to smash people's Guardians for sport/fun. Others take them out while badge hunting for uniques. We want our Guardians to be out of the way, unobtrusive and just keep ticking and earning us badges.
What does one do when a team member links, or fields, from our Guardian? Well, some of us might Jarvis portals that have been linked to our Guardian so they can go back to being the anonymous little portal off in the distance. Its your call.
Don't get heartbroken, or angry if you lose your Guardian - This is easier said, than done. Your heart will most likely sink, or for some of us more aggro folks, our blood boil when we go to recharge and find our Guardian has been taken out/taken over. This is part of gameplay.
Keep it alive - I've heard stories about people thinking they had lost their Guardian due to decay, but when they visited it again and popped a resonator on it, or recharged it the portal caught up in terms of time, or just kept ticking along toward a badge.
No comments:
Post a Comment