Guard

Prison guards are one of the first types of enemies encountered in Fear & Hunger. They are formidable opponents, greatly representative of the dangers one might expect deeper in the dungeons. The elite guards and the Moonless guards are stronger variants of the prison guards.

Location & Behavior
The guards are usually the first enemy encountered after entering the main gates to the dungeons, on the Level 1 Entrance, which is filled with them. More are featured in the Level 3 Prisons and Level 7 Catacombs. Guards encountered at level 7 may be pollinated.

Upon seeing the player, he will instantly give chase at a great pace, and is very likely to catch up to the player unless player has other means of escaping.

If the player wears a guard disguise (able to be crafted after reading Assassin's Handbook I and killing and skinning two guards) all regular and elite guards will ignore them. If the player becomes the Abominable Marriage, the guards will also ignore them. Neither of these conditions apply to pollinated guards, who are always hostile.

Strategy
The Guard either wields a meat cleaver (leaving one of his hands free) or a ballista, and is found in early areas such as the Prison.

The Guard wielding the meat cleaver will use its free hand to attempt the ability Mad Dash on its second turn - a coin flip ability, which, if successful, unleashes a series of high damage consecutive hits on the player character and is likely to kill them.

The best way to avoid this is to guard after cutting off the meat cleaver arm - the coin flip attack will be completely avoided. The Guard will attempt to use this attack every third turn after its initial use (if his empty arm is still intact). It's best to NOT cut the empty arm off, but instead remove the stinger and then attack the body (or legs then head). If the empty arm is still intact, this prevents Tackle. You will take substantially less damage if you simply guard the coin flip every time.

The Guard wielding the ballista uses both of his hands to hold the weapon and thus will not use Mad Dash. Instead, he spends the first turn loading a bolt to shoot, giving the player time to outright kill the Guard by attacking and killing the head before he can get a shot off. The ballista variants are much more dangerous, and should be avoided if at all possible. It is typically not possible to see if a Guard is a meat cleaver or ballista variant without engaging (with the exception of the guard in the Level 3 Prisons who stands behind a model of his weapon, who is consistently a ballista wielding guard), however the ballista variant is often around the bridges in the Prison. Given that your party has more than one member (not counting The Girl), you should be able to do decent damage and kill the ballista variant in the first or second turn without much struggle.

If your damage is not enough to deal ~500 damage in two turns (around the health of the body), it's best if you run away as soon as you spot a ballista Guard and return once you've found a Bear Trap, so you can take out the head instantly.

The Guard will occasionally use Stinger Thrust with his stinger, which deals moderate damage.

Obviously, the player always has to account for misses. No strategy is 100% guaranteed. It's advised that if you miss on the first turn, run away and attempt the battle again. Arm Guards are also extremely valuable, as they make meat cleaver Guards much safer in the case of a turn 1 miss.

After both the hands and the stinger have been cut off, he will attack by tackling the player, which deals relatively low damage, but is entirely avoidable.

Another way to take him down is by using the Kiting strategy.

Death Sequence
If the player is defeated by a prison guard, there is a chance that the player will survive at the cost of their legs being disabled. They will either be thrown into the flesh piles of the blood pit or carried into a cell in the prisons. In the case of the latter, they will be raped by the guard if his stinger is still intact and left with the Severe Anal Bleeding status effect.

Loot
There are the various sets of items dropped by the melee variant:
 * Meat Pie and Moldy Bread
 * Meat Cleaver and Loincloth
 * Small key
 * Arm, Leg, and a Skeletal Arm

The ballista variant usually carries arrows.

If you have the Assassin's handbook and Skinning knife, you can also skin the guard to obtain a Guard skin.