How to find and defeat Ruin Drake: Earthguard in Genshin Impact

Travelers in Genshin Impact might have seen dangerous-looking automata while exploring Sumeru. These dangerous mini-bosses will require a mixture of player skill and good composition to defeat in order to get their loot. These so-called Ruin Drakes have two known types, the winged Skywatch and the ground-bound Earthguard. In the following guide, we will provide all the necessary information on where to find Ruin Drake: Earthguard and how to defeat them.

Related: How to find and defeat Ruin Drake: Skywatch in Genshin Impact

Where to find Ruin Drake: Earthguard in Genshin Impact

Both kinds of Ruin Drakes share the same spawn points, and you can never know which type has spawned until you go there yourself. These locations are in general large fields and ruins of Sumeru, which gives a nice arena to fight them in. The default spawn locations for Ruin Drakes are shown on the map below:

How to defeat Ruin Drake: Earthguard in Genshin Impact

Ruin Drake: Skywatch is a large bipedal automaton that fights like a mini-boss despite being classified as an Elite Enemy type. They have the ability to deal damage of all types, which makes them very dangerous foes to face. Meanwhile, they have 50% physical damage resistance and 10% damage resistance to all other damage types. Their stats scale with their level and they grow progressively stronger, with prodigious HP and DEF stats, and a very strong ATK stat.

Players fighting them should take note that they will have to juggle damage types, as the Ruin Drake: Earthguard will gain a huge amount of resistance to the last damage type that has been dealt to it. Therefore, avoid stacking the same damage types in your roster if you plan on fighting one. 

There is a weak spot in the center of its body mass that you should try to hit as often as you can. Getting hit there will temporarily disable the Ruin Drake, leaving it vulnerable to further attacks.

Ruin Drake: Earthguard abilities and attacks

• Tail Sweep: Swings its tail around 360 degrees, dealing 60% ATK as AoE Physical DMG.
  • To avoid this attack, make sure to watch for the animation. You have to run away from the mob, and not to the side, as this attack hits all around it.
• Charge: If the player is far away, it charges at the player, dealing 80% ATK as Physical DMG on hit. If it successfully hits a player, the Drake follows up with a Tail Sweep. During this attack, the Ruin Drake exposes its weak point at its head and will be paralyzed if it is hit.
  • You can try to find a sweet spot of distance to keep from the Ruin Drake so that this attack doesn’t trigger. However, it might be better to bait it to do it, and then dodge to the side at the last moment, followed by your own attacks before dashing away.
• Melee: Attacks twice with its nose, dealing 60% ATK as Physical DMG with each attack.
  • This is an easy attack to avoid by simply weaving in and out from range. Pair it up with sidesteps to target the weak spot.
• Confetti: Charges before scattering a great number of bombs into the air, dealing 100% ATK when they land as AoE Physical DMG or AoE Elemental DMG matching the Ruin Drake’s currently absorbed element. Hitting the Ruin Drake’s head while this attack is charging will paralyze it.
  After this attack, the Ruin Drake will absorb the element that it has received the most amount of DMG from since the beginning of the battle or the last time it performed this attack. The absorbed element will be used the next time it performs this attack. It also gains 40% Resistance to the absorbed element.
  If the Ruin Drake has not received any Elemental DMG at the beginning of the battle or the last time it performed this attack, it will stay in or return to its Physical state.
  • This is the Ruin Drake’s strongest signature ability. The best bet is to watch for the color of the attack so that you know which element it’s using (and prepare your defenses accordingly) and to save some stamina to sprint away from it.

Ruin Drake: Earthguard item drops

Both types of Ruin Drakes drop the same kinds of loot once defeated. This means that you can farm both types for the same loot. By default, they will drop a variable amount of Mora and Character XP, but they also have a chance to drop:

• Chaos Storage (Ruin Drake level 1+)
• Chaos Module (Ruin Drake level 40+)
• Chaos Bolt (Ruin Drake level 60+)