Forgotten Guardian Boss Guide: the 'Deep Down' Prologue Tomb Fight

What Is the Forgotten Guardian?

The Forgotten Guardian is an armour-clad humanoid boss in The Blood of Dawnwalker, fought inside a torch-lit tomb during the prologue side quest “Deep Down”. The quest sends you searching for a farmer’s brother who was trapped by wolves and fell into a cave; you find him cowering in the cavern, and the Guardian is the thing standing between you and the exit — and its loot.

This page is built from a single clean capture by Gaming with Zero. The creator’s narration covers the quest (why to do Deep Down, what it rewards) more than a move-by-move counter list, so the tactical notes below describe what the frames actually show, and the undocumented details are flagged at the bottom.

Why the Quest Is Worth Your Prologue Time

The creator’s headline point is that the prologue forces you to pick and choose: “You only get a certain amount of time in both the prologue and the regular game to do a certain amount of quests.” Deep Down is one he explicitly recommends, because the cavern holds “some really cool items” and the Guardian drops its weapon on top of the rescue reward. That same fixed-budget logic is unpacked on /guides/30-day-time-system/ and the missable list at /guides/prologue-missable-quests/.

The pre-fight cutscene drops you into the tomb with the torch-bearing captive — and Coen’s reaction tells you the Guardian is already awake.

The rescue and the boss share one beat: you find the captive, then fight what guards him. The tomb cutscene at 0:31

The Fight — Dodge the Red Telegraph

The boss bar reads “The Forgotten Guardian”, split into three segments with the game’s skull marker at the left. The Guardian is a heavy, armour-clad humanoid that swings a hooked blade, and like the Ravenous Bear its danger comes down to reading the red telegraph.

The red marker on the Guardian is the unblockable tell — the same language the game uses on every heavy boss. Fight start at 0:46

When the marker is not lit, the Guardian is open: it’s a slow, deliberate enemy you circle inside the burial chamber’s light shafts.

Between telegraphs, the Guardian is just a heavy melee enemy — get in, get hits, get out. The Guardian model at 1:02

When you do land hits, the red skull hit-marker flashes on the boss as damage numbers pop — the feedback that you are chipping the right way.

The 19-damage hit and red skull marker show the exchange you want: strike, then reset. The punish hit at 1:20

The Late Game of the Fight

As the bar drains, the Guardian keeps cycling the same two states — a winded stance between swings, and the red-skull unblockable you sidestep. Nothing in the capture shows a phase change; it is the same read from full bar to the kill.

Two-thirds of the bar gone, same rhythm — the fight does not escalate, it just repeats. The Guardian at 1:40

Even at low health the red skull is the only thing that can end you — keep dodging it. Late fight at 2:00

The Reward

The creator states plainly that “when you defeat the Forgotten Guardian, you do get his weapon as well”, on top of the cavern’s other items and the rescue payoff. That is the confirmed reward type — a Guardian weapon.

The Blood of Dawnwalker — Forgotten Guardian boss fight, 'Deep Down' quest (Gaming with Zero) — YouTube

The Blood of Dawnwalker — Forgotten Guardian boss fight, 'Deep Down' quest (Gaming with Zero)

Sources & Verification

• The Blood of Dawnwalker — Forgotten Guardian / “Deep Down” boss capture by Gaming with Zero — the sole source for this page. It supplies the “Deep Down” quest context (farmer’s brother trapped by wolves), the tomb arena, the three-segment Guardian bar, the red unblockable telegraph, and the “you get his weapon” reward statement. All six screenshots are captured from this video (see the fight start at 0:46 and the late-fight telegraph at 2:00).

More The Blood of Dawnwalker Boss Guides

• The prologue bear hunt that drops the Epic Bear Liver: /bosses/ravenous-bear/
• The Cursed Chasm wraith that guards Durandal: /bosses/echo/
• Every documented encounter, indexed: /bosses/
• Which prologue quests and bosses you can miss: /guides/prologue-missable-quests/