Highguard is a free‑to‑play PvP raid shooter where two teams of three battle across large maps. You start by collecting resources, completing objectives, and ultimately using the Shieldbreaker to raid enemy bases. Surviving and working with your team early in the match is often more important than hunting kills.
1. Warden Classes & Abilities
Wardens are your heroes in Highguard, each with unique magical and tactical abilities. Picking Wardens that complement each other’s roles can make the difference between winning and losing.
Highguard has five main Warden classes: Assault, Defensive, Destruction, Recon, and Support. Each Warden has a Passive, Tactical, and Ultimate ability.
- Assault – Frontline damage dealers that excel at pressure and close-range combat.
- Defensive – Tanky Wardens focused on protection, shields, and holding objectives.
- Destruction – High burst or sustained AoE damage, ideal for clearing enemies quickly.
- Recon – Mobile scouts that specialize in vision, mobility, and enemy disruption.
- Support – Utility-focused Wardens that provide healing, buffs, and team sustain.
1.1 Atticus Abilities
Atticus is a frontline Assault Warden who uses electrified attacks to control fights and deal damage.
- Supercharged Axe (Passive): Axe explosions damage nearby resource nodes to gain useful items.
- Shockspear (Tactical): He throws a lightning spear that shocks enemies in an area.
- Supercell (Ultimate): Rise into the air and rain lightning spears on enemies and buildings.
1.2 Condor Abilities
Condor is a Recon who focuses on tracking enemies and gathering information. She uses her bird to reveal enemy positions and help her team to control the map.
- Hunter’s Instinct (Passive): Condor’s bird warns her when enemies are nearby.
- Eyes in the Sky (Tactical): Send her bird to scan and reveal the movement of the enemies.
- Soaring Guardian (Ultimate): Launch smoke clouds that reveal enemies in their wake.
Condor
1.3 Kai Abilities
Kai is a Defensive Warden who uses ice to close the area and protect the teammates. He can destroy the walls and transform into a more powerful defensive form.
- Frozen Repair (Passive): Allows you to repair the broken walls in your base.
- Ice Wall (Tactical): Create an ice wall to block enemy movement.
- Frost Giant (Ultimate): Transform into a powerful ice demon for extra defense or offense.
1.4 Mara Abilities
Mara is a Support Warden who provides overshield to her teammates and creates spawn points. She sacrifices the souls of downed enemies give power to the allies.
- Sacrifice (Passive): Sacrifice downed enemies to help charge your Tactical.
- Soul Armor (Tactical): Provide an overshield to nearby allies, increasing their survivability.
- Immortal Coil (Ultimate): Create a team spawn point, allowing your team to get into action quickly after death.
1.5 Redmane Abilities
Redmane is a Destructive Warden who smashes the walls and excels at breaking enemy defenses. This hero is best suited for an aggressive and disruptive playstyle.
- Enraged (Passive): Gain extra movement speed and reload buffs after killing enemies.
- Pounce (Tactical): Charge and smash through breakable walls to create a new path for the team.
- Beast’s Roar (Ultimate): Roar to destroy walls and damage enemies.
1.6 Scarlet Abilities
Reinforce Walls
Scarlet is an Assault Warden who can hide from distant enemies and reposition quickly to overwhelm the enemies.
- Shifting Sands (Passive): Turn the destructible walls into sand to pass through.
- Sandstorm (Tactical): Turn on the stealth mode to approach or escape from the enemies.
- Whirling Blades (Ultimate): Throw up to 6 deadly daggers at the enemies, and killing them allows you to reset cooldowns.
1.7 Slade Abilities
Slade is also an Assault Warden who uses fire and magma to control space and damage enemies. His abilities make him an absolute beast in close‑quarters combat.
- Firebomb (Passive): Explosive fire spreads magma on the ground, dealing massive damage to enemies.
- Heatwave (Tactical): Send out a wave of molten fire to take down the health of enemies.
- Firestorm (Ultimate): Call down a powerful firestorm in a targeted area to deal area damage.
1.8 Una Abilities
Una is a Defensive Warden who summons spirits that help in combat and can call a powerful forest spirit to dominate enemies.
- Helping Hand (Passive): Summon the spirit that drops loot for her.
- Forest Wisps (Tactical): Summon spirits that throw the grenades at the enemies to deal massive damage.
- Tree Walker (Ultimate): Summon a large spirit that throws explosive, smaller spirits at enemies.
2. All Weapons in Highguard
You carry two combat weapons, a raid tool, and a melee axe. Choosing a weapon that suits your role pays off — SMGs for close flankers, assault rifles for objective fighters, Big Rig for siege focus.
- Corsair (SMG): A rapid-bursting submachine gun for close fights.
- Kraken (Shotgun): Powerful pump shotgun with massive damage at very close range.
- Paladin (Shotgun): This is a fully automatic shotgun for sustained close-range combat.
- Viper (SMG): Fast‑firing SMG that excels in close‑range gunfights during a raid.
- Vanguard (Assault Rifle): The most balanced and accurate AR that can deal massive damage in close to mid-range fights.
- Dynasty (Assault Rifle): Fully automatic rifle with excellent performance in mid-range combat.
- Saber Rifle (Assault Rifle): This is a burst-fire with high precision, allowing you to kill enemies quickly.
- Big Rig (LMG): Heavy support weapon with a huge magazine, and is obtained from care packages during the match.
- Longhorn (Revolver): High‑accuracy revolver with strong stopping power, and is effective only at close range.
- Ranger (Sniper Rifle): Long-range sniper that can take down enemies from a safer distance.
- Rocket Launcher (Raid Tool): Destroys walls and structures and deals damage to enemies if hit directly.
- Blast Hammer (Raid Tool): Hits walls with explosive force to break base defenses, but is less effective against players.
- Zipline Gun (Raid Tool): This weapon fires a cable to rapidly reposition or traverse to another terrain.
3. How to Play Raid Mode
Two teams of three players compete against each other in Raid Mode. The objective here for you is to destroy the enemy base, but you must complete certain objectives first to get inside.
- Make sure to secure the Shieldbreaker before the enemy team.
- Carry the Shieldbreaker safely to the enemy base.
- Planting it at the base allows you to start the raid phase.
- Break through defenses using the tools and sabotage the generators or destroy the Anchor Stone.
- You need to defend while playing as a defender.
3.1 Gear Up Phase (Early Game)
Vendor
At match start, you spawn at your base with minimal gear. The world outside is large, with scattered points of interest and the Vesper currency hidden in crystal nodes and chests.
- Vesper Mining: Use your axe to harvest glowing crystal clusters. These give Vesper — the economy fuel for buying gear and upgrades.
- Loot Chests: Around the map are chests containing weapons, armor, and utility items. You should search every chest you can safely reach.
- Vendor Purchases: With Vesper, visit vendors to buy or upgrade weapons and armor — prioritizing survivability and utility over raw firepower early on.
- Mounts: You can ride Horse, Panther, or Bear mounts to traverse quickly, but they make noise and can be destroyed. Use them to rotate, not to sneak up on enemies.
Tip: Don’t hunt kills right away — fighting before you’re geared is risky. Instead, focus on the economy and positioning. A well‑equipped team wins engagements more consistently than a team looking for early eliminations.
3.2 Mid Game – Shieldbreaker Contest
Shieldbreaker Forming
Once both teams have looted and geared up, the Shieldbreaker appears somewhere on the map — glowing and contested by both sides.
The objective here is not to kill enemies endlessly — it is to secure the Shieldbreaker first and deliver it to the enemy base. This shifts the match into the next phase.
- Carrying the Shieldbreaker makes you a priority target. The enemy team will funnel resources and firepower to stop you, so positioning and teamwork matter.
- Communication is key: Call out enemy positions, threat directions, and rotations before challenging for the Shieldbreaker.
- Don’t rush alone: Group up — if one teammate dies carrying it, it drops, and the other team can pick it up.
Tip: Spread out rather than clustering on the Shieldbreaker carrier — this creates multiple threats and keeps defenders guessing.
3.3 Raid Phase – Attack & Defense Mechanics
Raid Siege
Once the Shieldbreaker is placed into the enemy’s base, Raid Mode begins. This is where Highguard’s siege mechanics kick in.
3.3.1 Attacking a Base
- Generators: Bases have internal generators that power defenses. Damaging these weakens the base and opens pathways.
- Iron Walls: These are the strongest obstacles — they can only be broken with heavy weapons (like Big Rig) or explosive abilities. Target them methodically.
- Breach Points: Look for weak points or use coordinated fire to force entry and spread defenders thin.
3.3.2 Defending Against Raids
- Wall Repairs: Use repair kits and abilities to fortify walls and slow attackers. Some Wardens (like Kai) can repair walls proactively.
- Protect Generators: These are key to holding territory — if both are destroyed, the base takes heavy damage.
- Overtime: If attackers don’t fully destroy the base before time expires, Overtime begins. A full team wipe during Overtime gives defenders a win, meaning clutch plays can turn matches around.
Tip: Coordinate ultimate abilities during base pushes — well‑timed ults can wipe defenders or secure the final generator.
4. How to Summon Mounts
Mount
Horse, Panther, and Bear are the three different types of mounts in Highgaurd. Each one of them helps you travel faster and gives you mobility advantages. They help you traverse the map, rotate to objectives, and sometimes reposition during combat.
- Press ‘X’ to summon your mount by default. You can remap the summon key in settings if you accidentally summon during jumps or combat.
- Instant Mounting: Once summoned, you automatically hop on the mount — no delay.
- Firing Weapons: You can fire while riding, but movement makes aiming and recoil harder.
- Sound & Detection: Mounts are very loud, making stealth impossible. Enemies can detect you from far away.
- Health & Destruction: Mounts have their own HP bar. They can be destroyed by enemy fire, environmental hazards, or explosives. If your mount dies, you are dismounted, and the mount goes on cooldown.
5. Maps in Highguard
Generator
There are a total of five maps in Highguard at the moment. Each one has its own base and resources to loot.
- Dustline: A desert ruin map set among abandoned industrial sites and open terrain, featuring areas like the Radar Center, Mine, and Furnace.
- Kingdom: Kingdom is a large ruin of an ancient coastal city filled with castle remains and towers, including Whitevale Castle, Central Belltower, and Dungeon.
- Rivermark: This map is an abandoned industrial town with water channels and points like Geothermal Station, Vesper Mines, and Water Pumps.
- Summit: A mountainous and snowy region with high ground, deep trenches, and ancient sites like Queen’s Crypt, Golem Forge, and Frozen Shine.
- Vesper City: A sandstone canyon city once central to trade and arcane knowledge, and includes zones like Warden’s Treasury, Sunken Archives, and Royal Gardens.
6. Bases in Highguard
Bases in Highguard are the fortified strongholds that your team defends or attacks during the raid phase. Bases are separate from the open‑world maps, as they are specific structures that get placed into the world once a match begins. There are six bases in the game right now, each with unique architecture. Each base’s layout affects how fights play out once the raid starts.
- Wellspring: Has good long‑range vantage points and zip lines for repositioning and offers wide sightlines.
- Smuggler’s Den: This is a desert fortress centered around a tall tower with high platforms and zip lines.
- King’s Lair: This is underground and has narrow passages and terrain cover. Less vulnerable to direct rocket fire.
- Hellmouth: Defended by a molten moat that forces attackers across tight bridges. The narrow checkpoints can be deadly, but also exploitable.
- Frosthold: This base has a snow‑covered lodge with tiered vertical chambers.
- Bellringer: This base has three massive bell towers, each with objectives that defenders protect.
7. How Soul Orbs Work
Souls Orbs
In Highguard’s PvP Raid Mode, Soul Orbs are a unique objective‑impacting mechanic tied to player eliminations. They aren’t just visual effects — they can significantly influence the tempo and outcome of engagements, especially around key objectives like Shieldbreaker races and base raiding.
7.1 What are Soul Orbs
- Whenever a player is eliminated, they drop a Soul Orb at their death location.
- These orbs remain on the ground until they are either collected or destroyed by any player.
- Soul Orbs are tied to the eliminated player’s respawn mechanics.
7.2 Respawn Delay
- If a Soul Orb is destroyed before the player’s teammates can revive them, it significantly delays that player’s respawn or makes it impossible to revive them immediately.
- This delay gives the killing team a short but meaningful numerical advantage, especially near objectives like generators or Shieldbreaker spawns.
In objective fights, even a few extra seconds without a teammate can let your team secure or defend a generator, win a fight near the Shieldbreaker, or burn down base defenses with fewer counter threats.
7.3 How to Revive Teammates
- Your own team can touch a Soul Orb dropped by your ally to revive them.
- Reviving while moving is possible, but you should only do it where you have team cover, otherwise you expose yourself to enemy fire.
8. Beginner Tips For Playing Highguard Raid Mode
Defending Generator
Highguard isn’t a typical deathmatch shooter — objective control matters more than kill count. Eliminating enemies helps, but winning comes from securing places like the Shieldbreaker and damaging the enemy base.
- Focus on objectives, not just kills – secure the Shieldbreaker, attack or defend generators, and help your team control key areas.
- Collect and spend Vesper wisely – mine crystals, open chests, and upgrade your weapons and armor early to survive fights.
- Stick with your team – coordinate, support teammates, and use abilities together; solo plays often fail.
- Use Soul Orbs strategically – destroy enemy orbs to delay respawns and collect friendly orbs to revive teammates.
- Stay alive early – survival gives your team numbers advantage and lets you reach objectives more safely.
- Choose Wardens that complement your team – balance Assault, Defense, Recon, and Support for effective fights.
- Use mounts wisely – rotate to objectives faster, but dismount before tight fights as mounts are loud and vulnerable.
