When exploring we all have come to recognize the red-colored versions of the monsters to be Guardians who block the path to treasure chests. Through my experience I have to witness some odd phenomena happening with these Guardians. I am curious as to how often these situations happen and if they are meant to occur. How many other have had these happen to them, and does it happen a lot?

What Usually Happens::
Normally one will spy a Guardian blocking the path. Once defeated you can explore the area behind where the Guardian stood and find a treasure chest which can be collected for materials + silver, or blueprints, invites, or items as a replacement for the materials. Such a scenario looks like this.

Sharing::
Now, what will sometimes happen is that 2 Guardians can be found protecting the same treasure. Each is blocking their own path but these paths merge to form the area where a single treasure can be found. This can be helpful if you're having trouble beating one because you can then go to fight the other to reach the treasure. Take a look.

Protection::
Protection involves 2 Guardians down a single path. The first is found off of the main part of the island. Once you beat it you can collect its treasure as you would normally. Down this isolated path you find a second Guardian blocking an extension of it. Beating this Guardian lets you go down the rest of the path to collect a second chest. You can see this here.

Double or Nothing::
Similar to Protection, the Double or Nothing instance involves 2 Guardians down a single path. Beating the first allows you to continue down the path to the treasure, but instead of finding a chest you come across the second Guardian. Only after beating this Guardian do you get to collect both chests. I'm not a fan of this as it means you only get the chests if you manage to beat both rather than getting an award after defeating the first Guardian. If you run out of energy on the second one you get nothing. See what I mean?

Guarding a Friend::
Guarding a Friend is like Double or Nothing, but even worse. When coming across the first Guardian you beat it to find there isn't a chest behind it. You see the second Guardian, do battle, and when exploring behind you are rewarded with a single chest. The first Guardian was simply a road block protecting the Guardian behind it, not guarding its own chest. I don't like this.

Treasure First::
This one and the 2 after are Tundra only. Treasure first is a variation of Protection. You find a Guardian, beat it, collect its treasure, fight another Guardian. Behind the second you find the portal. The portal Guardian had the extra protection of the one in front of it. This can be an inconvenience for those wanting to explore deeper into the tundra if they are unable to beat the first Guardian in this roadblock.

Portal First::
Portal First is the reverse of Treasure First. If I am to come across either of the two this is the one I prefer since beating the first grants me access to the Portal while the second one can be optional if I want to go after the treasure chest. Here's what it looks like.

Overlapping::
In the tundra when faced with a Double or Nothing scenario involving the portal and a chest the 2 will be overlapped on the explore map with the chest sitting on top of the portal. It's a bit odd seeing this.

Fake Guardians::
Fake Guardians doesn't happen often but when I come across this I get kind of irritated. Beating the Guardians can be a challenge that is made worth it for the treasure chest you receive as an award. However, these "fake" Guardians do not have chests! They block paths like they're protecting something like the others but they have nothing behind them. Take a look.

I apparently found out that I more often than not have the Sharing, Double or Nothing and frustratingly enough, the Fake Guardian occurence e.e

I`m not sure if it's another weird behavior or just my messed up RNG luck, but sometimes many times I get a Guardian down to like 2hp, and it goes nuts and hits 2 crits in a row, or somehow manages to bring down 90% of my pet's life, sometimes even killin it, dodging like 6 attacks in a row with 2hp left!

Nicely done, but you should get Angel or one of the mods to move this over to the guide forum because it's kind of off topic here.

I didn't mean for this to be used as a guide, but if it'd be more appropriate as one I could ask to have it moved. I was more curious as to how many people experience these situations too. I see that the overlapping is listed as a glitch, and I wonder if the "Fake Guardians" as I called them are too.

While it works as a good guide I agree with Sylviianel. We have spoke about this topic before and it was posted here to see what other people thought. Both her and I think the last two are glitches on some level. This post is looking for user feedback and similar instances. Good thought though! This would be a great guide in the future! :)

I could go ahead and copy everything down into a User Guide if it'd be useful. The overlapping is a verified glitch, so I can include a Glitch section to the guide, and if the "Fake Guardians" is confirmed to be a glitch I can put that down as well.