Guard

The Guard is one of the most common enemies, and appears in the Survival, Story, and Challenge gamemodes. It attacks using Ranged weapons and throwables. Some may spawn with a Protection Helmet, making them appear with a visor like face plate, a Riot Shield, which protects from frontal attacks, and/or a Protection Shell which protects them from rear attacks. They drop a multitude of loot.

The Guard can spawn wielding many different weapons, ranging from the simple Slugger Pipe to the intimidating Missile Launcher. Should you get into range, the Guard will automatically begin aiming in your direction, most likely firing. This is preceded by a small grunt-like electro-dialogue, then the firing starts. By themselves, guards have a reasonable health quota, showing damage through facial cracks and chassis faults. A Protection Helmet on a guard will protect it from a strong front shot (such as a Matter charge or a particularly powerful slug) once, and about three "weak" bullets. The back shell removes the vulnerability that most enemies have when being attacked from behind, similar in protection to the helmet. A Guard's energy shield will stop any attack from harming them, except explosives. Guards usually come equipped with one Stick Grenade, a Flashbang, and an Energy Baton.

Guards have a medium-slow movement speed, in a slight waddle as they walk. When holding a weapon that isn't prepped or aiming, Guards swing their arms up and down as if they are running. A Guard can jump, about the same height as a Metalface, though they can not double jump. When holding a throwable that is charged, the Guard's throwing arm is held back away from the body, ready to lob. When a Guard is equipped with a shield, they hold out in front of them, moving it out of the way to fire (making them vulnerable) and sometimes ducking into it.

Strategy
Guards are fairly straightforward to destroy, only needing extra care if one has a particularly weak gun (such as the base Pipegun or Revolver). If a Guard spawns without a shield, you can easily chip away at its front section and destroy it within a small enough time frame. The Matter Prototype, which is the starting pistol in Story Mode, is often enough to destroy Guards with a single hit, but chance can make them survive and require a second shot. Weaker weapons will still do and show damage, just having to fire more shots. When a Guard is hit, they often get slightly launched away from the shot and will flinch, succession sometimes causing them to get flipped around.

When a Guard is equipped with a shield, it is a matter of waiting for it to begin firing and exposing itself, or getting around. To do this, it's easy enough to simply run up to the Guard and jump over their heads, rolling so your gun points at the top of the head or their back. This shot is usually fatal, once again a weaker gun may not prove enough. Occasionally, aiming at a shielded Guard will let you fire into the top of their head poking out. It should be noted that the run, jump, roll strategy will work even when they don't have a shield, and may be handy to avoid fire.

Of course, shooting a Guard from the back is highly advised as this will do much more damage. Spawners can sometimes be hidden behind, causing each Guard that spawns to be oriented correctly for a back shot. Some players may view this option as cheap, but the results are too good to ignore. Explosives of any type will destroy a Guard in one hit, even when fully armoured (minus a Shield Belt), and if a group is clustered together you can perform multiple kills with the one shot.

A Guard's shot can easily be redirected back at it with a roll, as they aren't particularly mobile nor are able to roll themselves. This is not advised when facing a Guard with a Slugger Shotgun or the Missile Launcher, though a rocket may be punched back. Always be wary when doing so.

Bugs
Sometimes, the guards have a gun with a smaller range than their range, resulting in them looking in your direction, but not firing.

Waves spawn
In Survival House (Classic Survival), Guards will spawn to the far right of the map from on high and each booth you can see. If left long enough, they can gather into a veritable swarm, throwing seemingly everything at you. It is advised to not let this happen, but may be inevitable due to returning for repairs or supplies.

In Safest Gate, they spawn at the far left of the map behind the destructible wall during every wave. When the wall is destroyed they can traverse the entirety of the map, but rarely wander past the main station.