The Borderlands games have provided many challenging enemies in the series’ history, but outside of typical raid and story bosses, or the odd exception, most players can agree the trickiest foes to deal with are the guardians.
These mysterious creatures were created by the Eridians, an ancient, advanced alien race canonically responsible for a lot of the more terrifying things players encounter and serve the purpose of guarding vaults. They have made appearances in all but one of the main series games, Borderlands 2, and appear in various forms whether that be generic mobs, or even vault and raid bosses.
10 Low-Level Guardians (Spectres, Wraiths, Sera, Opha, Putti, Revenants, Reapers, Diadems, etc.)
The guardians come in many forms and it does seem unfair to group many of them together, however, these mobs are ultimately fodder and have to be ranked as the least powerful of all the guardians, not only due to their abundance but also how quickly the player can dispatch them.
By no means are guardians weak; they were the more challenging enemies in the original Borderlands, and they are usually reserved as late-game opponents for the games they appear in. Unfortunately, on this list, both in terms of abilities and feats, they rank last.
9 The Berserker
This strong mini-boss encountered in Borderlands 3 blocks the vault of the Serpent, the monster sealed on Nekrotafeyo and defeated by Typhon DeLeon and his wife, and is a fair bit stronger than the average guardian.
This is unsurprising considering its apparent role as the guardian of a vault monster, and it is an adept fighter, engaging players with close-ranged attacks and long-ranged projectiles. Like the other unique non-respawnable guardians fought in this game, it is noticeably stronger than your basic version.
8 The Summoner
Another unique non-respawnable guardian, fought just before entering the dwelling of the Rampager on Promethea, this foe possesses the ability to not only engage the player from distance with ranged attacks but can also buff its allies.
If not dealt with quickly, the fight can become very challenging, and this ability alone ranks it higher than the aforementioned low-level guardians.
7 The Watcher
This strange being appears sparingly throughout the events of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, working alongside General Zarpedon to prevent Handsome Jack and the vault hunters from accessing the vault on Elpis. It seemingly displays knowledge of future events at the end of the game, having warned Zarpedon of the destruction Jack and Helios would bring, as well as warning the characters of the original Borderlands about the events of Borderlands 2.
This entity also possesses strong telekinetic powers, utilizing them to help Zarpedon fight Jack, as well as save Athena from a hailstorm of bullets courtesy of Lilith's firing squad in the game's ending.
6 The Seer
Found residing in the Scryer’s Crypt on Nekrotafeyo, this character was added in the Director’s Cut of Borderlands 3 as part of Ava’s set of side missions and is shown to have a big influence on the series, having manipulated many characters within the Borderlands universe to achieve a greater goal.
From a gameplay standpoint, the boss is extremely tough to defeat, boasting a health pool to make a raid boss blush and the ability to turn invisible, release electric shock waves and effectively render the player blind during the fight. Along with its arsenal of tricks, the Seer’s role as a shadowy manipulator within the series establishes it as one of the game’s strongest guardians. Players will need lots of firepower to bring down this opponent.
5 The Traveler
This giant rock creature, introduced in the Tales from the Borderlands games, guarded the secret to another Pandoran vault, one which has yet to be revealed and boasted abilities such as teleportation, super-durability, and super-strength.
Only through the combined efforts of Gortys’ final form and the rest of the TFTB crew were players able to defeat it. Despite this, The Traveller proved difficult to deal with and easily held its own against Gortys, a weapon designed to be its countermeasure. When matched up with the other guardian vault bosses, The Traveller didn’t seem to possess the same level of sheer power as other entries on this list.
4 The Graveward
A hulking ancient golem-like monstrosity powered by two guardian souls, it dwells underneath the Jakobs Estate on Eden-6. As one of the six known vault bosses seen so far by players, the Graveward is certainly imposing in its appearance, a mix of organic material and absorbed technology towering over the vault hunter, causing the platform they reside on to violently move while delivering hammer blows, corrosive bombs and calling upon other enemies to take down the player.
Powered by two guardian spirits, Grave and Ward, this creature is extremely powerful from both a gameplay and story standpoint and acts as the second big hurdle players must tackle within Borderlands 3.
3 The (Empyrean) Sentinel
The final story boss of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, an artificial Asura-esque figure, protects the vault of Pandora’s moon, Elpis, and the Eridian secrets lying within. Players were met with a fearsome firefight when tackling the four phases of this boss, as it utilizes different elements, energy bolts, close combat, and possesses attacks that will wipe out the player character’s shield if they hit.
As the being which guards the secrets to Pandora’s vault and the location of The Warrior; the warden of the series’ galaxy-wrecking big bad, The Destroyer, and the foe who serves as the player’s final test, its position as one of the strongest guardians left behind by the Eridians is well deserved.
2 Anathema The Relentless
Players found out midway through Borderlands 3’sTakedown at the Guardian Breach mission when tackling Anathema that they truly live up to their name, with three health bars and 12 immunity phases in which the player has to dodge exploding platforms, deal with lesser guardians and avoid its blade charges.
Anathema is the penultimate boss before taking on Scourge, who ultimately caused the events of the mission, but despite being used by this guardian Anathema is still a force to be reckoned with and can easily down the player if not approached cautiously.
1 Scourge The Invincible Martyr
The worst of the worst and with a health pool befitting a raid boss, Scourge is just a pain, especially at the higher Mayhem levels. While the Graveward is strong enough the Eridians saw fit to lock it away, and Anathema exhibits many dangerous abilities, Scourge is a raid boss.
As such, he possesses a giant health bar, multiple immunity phases, devastating attacks, and the ‘invincible’ moniker (a title reserved for end-game bosses in the series); defeating this angel-demon hybrid is a serious undertaking both in-universe and for the player. Seemingly the leader of a rogue guardian faction, this figure imploded a planet (for reasons unknown) and clearly holds a great deal of power.