Guardians of the Wall Weapons, Essences, and Raid Loot

Guardians of the Wall is a loot game with a hard split. Some things are weapons you bring from the Bastion. Some things are modifications you only get while the bells are ringing. Steam names the ingredients — resources, essences, rare materials, crafted weapons, ability upgrades, temporary upgrades, weapon modifications, session-based perks — without publishing a spreadsheet. This page is the inventory guide we can write without inventing item IDs.

For how those items feel in a swing, use combat and controls. For which gun to prefer in a first playtest, use the weapon tier list.

The three things you hold in your hands

Melee. Blades, heavy swings, and whatever the frontliner is using to keep undead off a caster. Screenshots show a sword or similar long blade on the horned Guardian’s back and close-range cuts in the torch village. Melee is not a backup; it is half the pitch. If you never unholster it, you are playing a different game than Boiling Bits is making.

Firearms. Shotguns are the public star. Trailer comments called out a “shotgun viking,” and the burnt-forest screenshot is literally that look: fur, horns, pump gun, muzzle flash. Steam’s tags include third-person shooter for a reason. Expect other ranged options in the full roster, but do not list rifles Boiling Bits has not shown.

Grenades. Named on the store page as part of the seamless mix. They are your density button. In a palisade alley they are also your friendly-fire lawsuit. Call the throw in co-op.

Abilities sit next to those three as a fourth hand: the blue energy lash, the elemental kits, the hero ultimates Steam promises without naming. Those are not vendor items. They unlock with the Guardian. See the Guardian roster.

Bastion currencies and crafting

Steam’s progression blurb is short and useful. You collect resources, essences, and rare materials to unlock new weapons, upgrade abilities, and awaken new heroes. Read that as three sinks:

• Resources — the bulk crafting pile. Spend on the weapon type you actually used in the last raid, not on a vanity skin.
• Essences — the rarer sink. Ability upgrades and hero awakening likely live here. Do not awaken a third job if you still fumble dash on the first.
• Rare materials — the gated pieces. If the playtest shows a specific component on a boss, bank it for a weapon you will still want in Q1 2027 only if Boiling Bits confirms carry-over. Until then, spend it in the playtest economy. Access rules are on the playtest guide.

Crafting is listed. A full recipe book is not. When a workbench appears in the Bastion, screenshot the costs and we will transcribe them here. We will not fill this page with “iron ×12, void ash ×3.”

Raid-only modifications

This is the part people will argue about in Steam discussions.

During a raid you can find temporary upgrades, weapon modifications, and session-based perks. Steam even gives examples of the fantasy: stack bonus damage, elemental effects, or defensive boosts, and “transform your hero” before the run ends. Then: when the raid is over, only permanent rewards carry back.

Practical translation:

• A shotgun that suddenly throws fire is still a shotgun when you extract, unless the fire is a Bastion craft.
• A perk that doubles dash charges is a raid toy. Enjoy it. Do not build your identity on it.
• If a pedestal offers a slow heavy melee on your mobile frontliner, skip it. The raids and bosses greed policy exists for this moment.

Elemental language in the store copy is generic: elemental effects, elemental casters. Screenshots add fireballs of grenade-scale and a blue lash. That is enough to plan around fire for packs and arc-like control for single targets. It is not enough to publish a hidden-element chart.

What to upgrade first

After your first extract, spend in this order:

1. The weapon you fired when you were scared. If that was the shotgun, the shotgun. If it was the blade, the blade.
2. Dash or block, whichever actually reduced damage. Verbs beat cosmetics. See combat and controls.
3. Grenade count or cooldown if villages are wiping you.
4. A second Guardian only after you can finish a raid on the first. Hero builds explains why a second job is a luxury in a short playtest window.

If the Bastion offers a vendor that sells raid-only looking mods, read the tooltip twice. Session language in the description means it will not be there tomorrow.

Inventory manners in a four-stack

Need-or-greed if the client has it. If it does not, the loot caller on co-op assigns essences. Do not vacuum rare materials “for later” while your caster is still on the starter kit. Later might be Q1 2027, and this playtest might not carry.

Mark a weapon mod as team property when it changes the raid plan. A defensive perk on the frontliner is a team perk. A damage perk on a player who already one-shots chaff is a vanity perk. Say that without being cruel, then move.

What this page will become after launch

Launch will add named weapons, rarity colors, and a crafting tree. We will split this article if the list gets long. Until Boiling Bits publishes those names, the useful inventory skill is classification: Bastion-permanent versus raid-temporary, melee versus gun versus grenade, essence versus bulk resource. Learn that split and every later patch note will make sense.

For a ranked opinion of those categories as they stand in public footage, open the weapon tier list. For the loop that produces the loot, stay on raids and bosses.