Guard Armor

The Guard Armor is an Emblem Heartless that is found in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. It is one of the bosses at Traverse Town and Olympus Coliseum. The various pieces of the Guard Armor, known as "Armored Torso", "Gauntlets", and "Hammerlegs", are able to move independently, and by rearranging its pieces, the Guard Armor can transform into the more powerful Opposite Armor.

Kingdom Hearts
''Leader of the Heartless in Traverse Town. It falls apart when it receives damage, but each part attacks individually. Sora meets Donald and Goofy for the first time just before fighting this Heartless.''

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
A Heartless that haunts Traverse Town. It appeared when the bells rang to wreak havoc on the town.
 * Sora's Story

''A Heartless that haunts Traverse Town. It appeared before Riku as a token of the indelible darkness in his heart.''
 * Reverse/Rebirth

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Large and heavily armored, these Heartless will jump and then crash into the ground, creating a powerful shockwave. ''They drop their heads after landing, however; strike then and the body will eventually fall to pieces, with each piece acting autonomously. Start with the limbs and take them all out.''

Kingdom Hearts
The first Guard Armor attacks Sora right after he meets Donald and Goofy and they slay a gang of Soldier Heartless. It is the leader of the Traverse Town Heartless, and after it is defeated, the local Heartless temporarily calm down.

Later, Sora tests the legend about the Second District bell by ringing it three times, and the world's Keyhole is revealed within the district's fountain. However, as the group goes to seal it they are attacked by a second Guard Armor, and though they defeat it, it transforms itself into the stronger Opposite Armor and attacks again. After it is destroyed, they are able to seal Traverse Town's Keyhole.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Sora explores the memory version Traverse Town within Castle Oblivion and meets Cid, who warns him that a giant Heartless is said to appear when the Second District bell rings. Just as it did before, the bell rings, and the Guard Armor suddenly appears. Sora defeats it, and Leon, Cid, Yuffie, and Aerith see him off to the exit.

Another Guard Armor appears in Riku's version of Traverse Town, but this one is simply a manifestation of the darkness in his heart, and is quickly defeated.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Roxas is dueling Xigbar in the Olympus Coliseum Games when a Guard Armor interrupts. Xigbar steps out to let Roxas defeat the Guard Armor on his own, and while fighting it Roxas has flashbacks to when Sora fought the Guard Armor in exactly the same manner. However, the Guard Armor is soon defeated, and Roxas "wins" the Games.

Kingdom Hearts coded
When Data Sora opened the Data Keyhole of Data Traverse Town, he fought Data Guard Armor, which happened to be the source of Block corruption in Data Traverse Town.

Design
The Guard Armor's body is divided into several pieces—a body, a head, two arms, and two legs—none of which are directly connected to each other and all of which can act independently of the other. The Armored Torso is vaguely hour glass-shaped, violet with a lilac, diamond pattern around its waist, and has light black additives on it. The Heartless emblem is emblazoned on the center of the armor. Its head is violet, spherical, and sports three silver spikes and a silver faceplate with several holes in it. Both of the Gauntlets are violet with wide wrists and three lilac, segmented fingers. The Hammerlegs are short, violet, and ends in large, hammer-like, black feet. All of the pieces of the Guard Armor seem to be hollow. In Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, the violet sections of the Guard Armor are silver, its torso gains red, yellow, and blue stripes on its upper half, its head becomes red with yellow spikes, and the additives on its top and upper rims become blue and yellow, respectively. Its fingers become grey, while its feet become red.

The Guard Armor's name references its armored body and the fact that it first protects the Heartless in Traverse Town, and later guards the Traverse Town Keyhole.

Kingdom Hearts
The Guard Armor utilizes its size and strength in battle. Each part attacks individually. The Torso and Gauntlets attack by spinning, while the Hammerlegs attack by stomping. It may also jump in the air and crash down, creating a shockwave.

This Boss has a torso and four limbs, all of which act as targets. Remember to watch over your new teammates, since this is your first time controlling a party. Lock onto its torso and attack with combos, since your attacks will most likely strike the limbs as you go past them. Hitting the torso also keeps it from launching its main attack. Just remember to destroy the limbs before you actually finish off the torso. Guard Armor will also throw himself up in the air and come crashing down near Sora's position. The player must try to dodge this as it will take away half of their HP. To dodge, simply jump out of the way.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
The strategy for the Guard Armor is slightly different in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories due to the fact of not having unlimited attacks. Using the Green Mickey card will make the Guard Armor collapse and this allows you to attack the limbs respectively. Then when the Guard Armor is only the torso and head, attacking the head is simple but one must dodge the attacks quickly as Sora does not have that much HP.

In Re: Chain of Memories using a Goofy Friend Card and one Attack card to use Goofy's strike limit attack works wonders in this battle.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
The Guard Armor is extremely resilient against all forms of magic, so use melee attacks to overcome it. Jump and attack its head, then move away when it begins to march and swat at the ground, then circle it to continue attacking its head.

Sometimes the Guard Armor leaps into the air and crashes to the ground, releasing a mild shockwave that causes minor damage. When this happens, its head falls off! While it scrambles to recover its head, run up and melee attack the helmet on the ground.

Afterwards, the Guard Armor reattaches its head, but the damage inflicted causes its arms and legs to separate from the torso and act independently. Lock on to the arms and attack them fiercely, using Limit Breaks if possible. The idea is to destroy both limbs before the Guard Armor reassembles itself. Otherwise, if you destroy one limb and not the other, the missing limb regenerates after the boss reassembles. The Guard Armor also regains some HP during this regeneration process.

Eliminate both arms, then do the same thing with the legs. When the legs and arms are gone, the floating torso becomes helpless. Continue smacking the helmet until the Guard Armor collapses.

Trivia

 * In the original version of Chain of Memories, the Guard Armor was incorrectly fought in the Third District, where the first Guard Armor appeared in Kingdom Hearts, even though the previous scene was set in the Second District, where the ringing bell summoned the second Guard Armor. This was corrected in Re:Chain of Memories.