Crystal Guardian

Behaviour and Tactics
Crystal Guardian has two attacks:


 * Laser Beam: Crystal Guardian will shoot a beam of crystal energy from their hand. They target The Knight with the beam, firing it where the Knight was when they started their attack. The beam is dangerous for only about half a second.
 * Sky Beam: Multiple beams of crystal energy will simultaneously shoot down from the sky. These beams become dangerous at different times and each beam stays dangerous for about half a second. These beams will appear throughout the arena. Each beam can be at a different angle, though, the angle will always be between plus and minus 15 degrees of vertical. This attack can happen in conjunction with Crystal Guardian's Beam attack.

First Encounter (Crystal Guardian)
The Crystal Guardian telegraphs every attack with a thin beam of light (or multiples in the case of the Sky Beam Attack). Pay attention to where the lasers are going to be during the Sky Beam Attack. A combination of the Sky Beam and Laser Beam Attacks limits safe movement the most.

The spells Desolate Dive/Descending Dark and Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul are useful. The spell Howling Wraiths/Abyss Shriek is less useful because the Crystal Guardian is rarely above The Knight. One strategy is to slash at the Crystal Guardian with the Nail a few times in between Laser Beam Attacks. Another strategy which is not mutually exclusive to the previous is during a Laser Beam Attack, jump and dash over the Crystal Guardian to avoid their attack and to safely strike the Crystal Guardian.

Second Encounter ( Enraged Guardian)
They appear in the room above the bench where they were first defeated. They have the same attacks as before but are more aggressive; their attacks deal two masks of damage instead of one; and the Sky Beam Attack beams appear one after the other rather than simultaneously. Visually the beams are now orange instead of a pale pink.

The strategies discussed for the First Encounter work for the Second Encounter too. In addition, when standing on the far right of the room, most of the beams from above will not hit the player, so they only really have to watch for the Guardian's Laser Beam Attack. When the Crystal Guardian jumps close to the player, they tend to shoot backwards giving the player time to land multiple hits during each backwards Laser Beam Attack.

Locations
Crystal Guardian can be encountered for the first time in the bench room in the center of Crystal Peak.

Its second encounter is directly above the original room, and is only able to be encountered if the first encounter has been cleared.

Trivia

 * The first time the Crystal Guardian is encountered, it's seen sitting on a Bench. It only engages in combat once attacked.
 * The Crystal Guardian's battle theme is the Crystal Peak theme with an added instrumental layer.
 * If the player dies during the second fight with the Crystal Guardian, their Shade will appear in the boss room, and they'll likely have to fight the Shade and the boss at the same time.
 * It is possible to draw the Shade out of the room and avoid getting locked in by staying close to the doorways and jumping to get within the Shade's engagement range or using Vengeful Spirit.
 * Along with Hornet, the Crystal Guardian is one of few bosses that is fought twice.
 * If the player happens to be standing close to the Crystal Guardian, it will sometimes shoot a laser straight into the ground, but this is most likely a targeting glitch.

Кристаллический страж