Guards

The prison is watched. Guards are posted throughout the world, and they don't take kindly to inmates attacking each other on their watch. This section covers the three guard ranks, healing at a post, what turns you into a villain, getting caught (and losing your gear), the followed status, and how to stay clean.

If you keep your hands to yourself, guards are a benefit — stand by one to heal. The trouble starts the moment you raise a weapon against another player where the watch can see it.

The three ranks

Guards come in three ranks by threat, each with a ❤ health bar floating above it:

A guard standing at its post can't be attacked — it's just scenery. Only a guard that is actively hunting you becomes a valid target, and only for you. Nobody else can hit your pursuers, and you can't hit theirs.

Season 2 look: guards now go bare-headed. Sentinels, Guardians and Archons no longer wear a helmet, so you can see their face and skin. The rest of their armour is unchanged.

Healing at a post

The watch isn't all stick. Stand right beside a guard at its post and you'll slowly recover health — higher ranks heal faster, so an Archon patches you up quickest. It's a courtesy reserved for clean-record inmates only: villains and followed players get nothing from a guard until their mark clears.

Becoming a villain

Attack another player within a guard's awareness and you're instantly branded a VILLAIN — the label appears above your head for everyone to see. Roughing up someone who's already a wanted villain doesn't count.

Guard awareness is directional: they see much further ahead than behind, they need line of sight to witness a fight, and they can also hear a scuffle that breaks out close by — even behind their back. Don't assume you're safe just because a guard is facing the other way.

While you're marked

The mark lasts 15 minutes, and it follows you:

• Guards are dispatched to hunt you down — one per rank that spots you — and every hit they land keeps your timer running, so you can't just tank them until it expires.
• You can fight back against the guards hunting you. But killing them has a price: while you're a villain, every guard you cut down makes the rest hit noticeably harder, and guard kills are announced to the whole server.
• Logging out doesn't clear it. Your record is remembered and the hunt resumes when you return.

Getting caught

If the guards bring you down — or anything else, like a fall or a mob, finishes you off while they're hunting you — your gear is confiscated: everything you would have dropped goes up in smoke instead of hitting the ground. That's the real cost of getting caught.

The one exception is a kill by a real player: that does not burn your gear. Your loot drops as normal, with killer-priority pickup so your killer gets first claim. Dying to a player in a fight is a normal death; dying to the watch is a loss.

The followed status

Dying as a villain — to anyone or anything — clears the villain mark, but the guards don't forget. You're marked FOLLOWED for the next 5 minutes: a guard escort shadows you, and if you attack anyone while your escort is watching, you're a villain again on the spot — no guard post required.

Staying clean

Two ways to keep your record clean:

• Survive the full 15 minutes as a villain without being caught and the mark clears on its own.
• Don't start fights where the watch can see you in the first place.

The overworld zones have their own rules of engagement, with no guards looking over your shoulder — see PvP Basics for where fighting is fair game and where it brands you. Guards patrol the cellblocks and the mines; note that cell raiding and boss arenas (with their own fight mechanics) play by separate combat rules from the watch.

Version history

v2.0.0

• Guards now go bare-headed — Sentinels, Guardians and Archons no longer wear a helmet, so you can see their face and skin (other armour unchanged).