Vanguard

The Vanguard is a monster encountered in Dark Chronicle. It makes its debut in the Underground Channel on the floor Steve's Battle, and resembles a large wooden robot with two sewer pipes on its side, and a Baron Balloon at the controls.

It is the first wind-up monster encountered in the game, and the first non-boss monster to be designed to fight the Ridepod. It has a boss variation, the Nail Burst, encountered in the first dead end of the Zelmite Mine.

For quotes, see Monster Quotes.

Battle Tactics[]

This monster has three attacks, two of which can pierce through your guard: The first is where it tries to impale your character with both of its arms. This attack is somewhat fast and will more than likely catch an unprepared or unfamiliar player off guard. The second is where it extends both of its arms and spins rapidly after your character. This attack can be blocked safely, so if you see it coming, don't hesitate to raise your defenses. The third, and probably the most annoying, attack is where it uses its arms like supports, lifts itself off of the ground and quickly slams back down, generating a small shockwave. This attack is easy to evade, but if you try to block it, you'll end up flat on your back.

For all Vanguards, it is recommended that you gain access to a very powerful grenade-based gun, with a high smash stat, along with a high flame stat, or lightning for its later variations. Or, use the Ridepod with either arms that have a high smash stat, or strong ranged arm such as the Barrel Cannon or Nova Cannon.

The Vanguard is interesting because it will only move in to attack if the player gets close enough. You can attack this monster, even put the Vanguard into rage mode, but as long as you're far enough, he will not move to attack you. If you have a powerful gun, and a fair bit of patience, you can defeat these enemies with no problem at all. This applies to ALL of the Vanguard variants as well as the Vanguard itself.

Scoop[]

This monster can give you the scoop, "Baron's Hangin' On". To obtain it, take a photo at the moment the Vanguard performs its jumping attack (when it tries to make a ground wave by stomping on you with its "feet"). You must be quick and target of the Baron ballon for the picture.Note that this scoop can only be obtained from the first variation of the Vanguard, and cannot be earned from any variation afterward.

Monster data[]

Dark Cloud 2	Vanguard	Neo Vanguard	Vanguard Mk. 2
Habitat	Underground Channel	Ocean's Roar Cave	Moon Flower Palace
Type	Windup	Windup	Windup
Hit Points	200	500	2000
Attack/Defense	13/5	45/35	110/70
ABS/Gilda	16/14	72/81	190/135
Weakness	Flame (125%) Smash (125%)	Lightning (200%) Smash (150%)	Lightning (250%) Smash (150%)
Effective Weapons	None	None	None
Ineffective Weapons	Wrench (50%) Sword (10%) Gun (10%) Beam (50%) Magic (50%)	Wrench (50%) Sword (10%) Gun (10%) Beam (50%) Magic (50%)	Wrench (50%) Sword (10%) Gun (10%) Beam (50%) Magic (50%)
Item Inventory	Repair Powder Power Crystal Hunk of Copper	Repair Powder Power Crystal Hunk of Copper	Repair Powder Power Crystal Hunk of Copper