How to find & beat Ruin Guards in Genshin Impact: best strategy

Meg Bethany Koepp
genshin impact ruin guard

If you’re not prepared, Ruin Guards in Genshin Impact can mess your day up. They’re enormous, intimidating, and shoot homing missiles at you to boot. So, how do you defeat them? We’ve got everything you need to know so you can get the upper hand on these ruthless giants.

Genshin Impact is the latest craze to sweep 2020 by storm. First, we had Fall Guys, then Among Us, and now it’s miHoYo’s free-to-play action role-playing title. Fans are transported to the realm of Teyvat where they meet a whole host of characters who they can recruit to their team via gacha mechanics using real money.

The game is heavily inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in its design, with players exploring its vast open-world to discover new locations, defeat enemies, find treasure, and more. One such foe you’ll encounter is the Ruin Guard – a scary-looking mechanical monster who can cause devastation if you don’t know what you’re doing. But that’s where we come in to help.

genshin impact open world
The action RPG has a massive open world with lots to see and do.

Where to find Ruin Guards in Genshin Impact

If you haven’t come across one on your travels yet, you’re lucky – they’re terrifying. It’s self-explanatory, but they can be found guarding ruins and treasure. This means if you want to get your hands on the goods, you’ve got to go through them first! Their loot can be pretty good though, so if you’re up for the challenge, it’s worth seeking them out.

The first Guard you’ll probably find yourself up against is the one at the Thousand Winds Temple in Mondstadt. The RPG’s story takes you there in the first couple of hours, so you don’t need to go out of your way to find it.

Once you’ve conquered that one, there’s another at Brightcrown Canyon – which is on the northeast coast of Cider Lake – and also one in the Stombearer Mountains. There are likely more in other regions of the world, but they’ve not been discovered yet at the time of writing.

amber in genshin impact
Amber is one of the characters you should use to defeat Ruin Guards.

How to defeat Ruin Guards in Genshin Impact

So, you’ve found yourself in a Guard’s path, whether that’s deliberately or not. It locks eyes with you, and starts to chase you down, sending homing missiles your way as you try and dodge the carnage… What do you do?! There’s actually a specific method to the madness, but we suggest you’re at least level 18 before taking it on.

If you look at the giant’s head, you’ll see a glowing orange eye – that’s where you want to strike. There’s also a similar area on its back as well, which is revealed when it stops to ready the explosives it sends your way. In this case, you’ll want to play as an archer character to make hitting those critical spots a lot easier.

Amber is great for this, and you get her early on in the main story campaign so there’s no worries about not having someone on hand who can wield a bow and arrow. Fischl and Venti can also be used if you’ve been lucky enough to recruit them via the Wish mechanic.

fighting a ruin guard in genshin impact
Ruin Guards put up a fight, so make sure you’re stocked up with healing items.

Once you’ve struck the monster at its weak points enough times, it’ll fall to the ground and this is when you’ll want to switch to a melee fighter and hack away at it with your sword or claymore. It’s also a good opportunity to unleash special attacks for maximum damage.

Do this enough times, and you’ll eventually win the battle. A nearby treasure chest will unlock too, handing you some sweet items as a reward. The mechanical beast might seem intimidating, but with some patience and a good battle strategy, you’ll soon reign victorious.

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About The Author

Meg was Weekend Editor at Dexerto before leaving us in April 2022.