New World provides you with exciting PvE challenges through Expeditions, Elite Arenas, and other content. However, in the final stage of the main quest, you will face the so-called Source Guardian, which can be very frustrating. We at MeinMMO will show you in this guide how to best deal with him.
Who is the Source Guardian? In one of the last main missions “A selfless Nature” in New World, you must defeat a mutated creature named “Source Guardian” to achieve an important goal and complete the mission.
Why do players struggle with this monster? Normally, you can handle the opponents you need to defeat for the main quests without any problems alone. However, the Source Guardian is so strong that it is impossible to manage him solo without resorting to unconventional tricks.
Furthermore, the boss itself is bugged, making the fight even more tedious. For instance, the monster sometimes starts running around at high speed, and its HP suddenly resets. The hitbox is also inconsistent, making life especially difficult for melee fighters.
A major problem is the lack of players who can assist you in this quest. Anyone who has not accepted the mission or has already completed it cannot reach the Mother Source, where the Source Guardian awaits you. Thus, you can only look for allies who are also sharing your progress.
How to defeat the Source Guardian with other players
Find a group: You can use the global chat in the game to find players who still need to defeat the Source Guardian or who simply want to help you. You generally need 5 to 10 companions and various roles to avoid difficulties.
- Group setup
- 1 Tank – To maintain the boss’s aggro
- 1-2 Healers – To keep the group alive
- At least 2 DPS, who deal enough damage
The boss has around 560,000 HP. The more DPS you can bring along, the faster you can defeat the boss.
What strategy makes sense? Your tank should naturally draw the aggro of the Source Guardian. The rest of the group can climb the rocks on the left and right of the gate and attack the boss from above with ranged weapons. The healers can also heal anyone from this position and are safe from attacks.
Players use tricks to defeat the Source Guardian solo
How does this trick work? Melee monsters in New World always seek physical contact with the player they want to attack. Accordingly, the Source Guardian always looks for the (shortest) way to you.
At the beginning of the entrance, there are 2 rocks that you can easily climb. With the height advantage gained, the boss starts to take a long route to reach the new position. If you now jump down again, he starts running the long way again.
You can thus keep the boss running back and forth without taking damage, dealing damage over time. However, you need a bit of patience and stamina, as the boss has a lot of HP.
The trick has been refined over time: Players have even discovered that the left rock at the entrance has a spot that the Source Guardian cannot reach, yet he does not lose aggro and his HP resets.
Thus, they can calmly deal damage to the boss from this spot with a ranged weapon without taking damage themselves.
Here you can see a video of a player standing in this position and taking hardly any damage while his team deals damage from behind.
Potions and food make the fight easier. You can also buy Anti-Pollution potions to avoid damage from the plague debuff.
Additionally, you can bring food to strengthen your attributes, thus dealing more damage.
In this cooking guide, you will learn which foods are powerful and provide you with immense advantages:
How is Amazon currently responding to this strategy? At the moment (as of November 2021), there has been no official statement from the developers regarding this tactic. There are differing opinions ranging from “bug abusing”, meaning consciously exploiting flaws, to “legitimate strategy”.
Proponents argue that the Source Guardian still has too many flaws, and even groups of 5 to 8 players can be defeated by the boss. Moreover, such a monster is far too strong outside an expedition, leading to great frustration, and unconventional tricks are joyfully used.
What do you think about this? Legitimate, or morally wrong? Share your opinion with us!
You can find all guides to New World in our overview:
