Guardians also drop 10 when killed by a player or tamed wolf. This drop uses the same chances that fishing uses, resulting in a 60% chance for raw cod, a 25% chance for raw salmon, a 13% chance for pufferfish, and a 2% chance for tropical fish. This chance is increased by 1% per Looting level, for a maximum of 5.5% with Looting III. When killed by the player Guardians have a 2.5% chance of dropping a random fish as an extra drop in addition to the normal fish drop. An additional 0-1 drops are added per level of Looting for a maximum of 4 prismarine crystals with Looting III. 40% chance of dropping prismarine crystals.

An additional 0-1 drops are added per level of Looting for a maximum of 4 cod with Looting III. 40% chance of dropping a raw cod ( cooked cod if killed by fire‌ ).Looting increases the maximum prismarine shard drop by one per level, for a maximum of 5. When killed, guardians always drop 0-2 prismarine shards. Guardians will spawn even if the monument has been destroyed by the player. The guardians spawn at the northwest corner of a spawning column block, which can be helpful for some guardian farming mechanics such as causing them to spawn inside of a portal where they are immediately sent to the nether.

For example, the bottom of the most northwest column is at (X+2, 39, Z+2) and the top block belonging to the southeast corner column is at (X+55, 61, Z+55). The coordinates of each spawning spot are in a grid at X+2, X+13, X+29, X+45, and X+55, combined with Z+2, Z+13, Z+29, Z+45, and Z+55. That is, standing on the furthest corner prismarine block with the smallest X and Z coordinates, let's say (X, 41, Z). To find the X and Z coordinates of the columns, start counting from the northwest corner of the monument. Guardians can spawn between Y=39–61 (inclusive, from the monument floor to one block above its highest point). This means that guardians don't spawn inside an ocean monument until most or all of the spawning column blocks above it are unavailable (i.e., no longer water source blocks). Also, guardians seem not to spawn below solid blocks such as the prismarine blocks of the monument unless there are no water source blocks available above the solid blocks. Guardians usually do not (or possibly never) spawn near a player. In Bedrock Edition, guardians are structure spawns, spawning in water source blocks in 25 pre-determined spawning columns. They can spawn only if the spawning block and the block below the spawning block are both water. Specifically, spawning fails 95% of the time if the spawning water block is below sea level (Y=63 by default), all blocks between the spawning water block and sea level are liquid or fully transparent, and the block at sea level has a view of the sky. In Java Edition guardians spawn less often in ocean open to the sky than they do in covered areas (such as inside or underneath the monument). They require water, flowing or stationary, to spawn. Guardians spawn naturally in ocean monuments.

Water warden pool fence