The Guardian is the first outfit you unlock in the Chapter 7 Season 3 Battle Pass, and its standout feature is the tiny pilot sitting inside the mech. You can seat one of 20 Sprites in that cockpit, turning the Guardian into a rolling showcase for whichever creature you like best. Out of the 117 Sprites in the game, only these 20 are eligible, so it helps to know exactly which ones count.
Quick answer: Extract any variant of one of the 20 eligible Sprites during a match. The base version is added to your collection and becomes a selectable Guardian pilot right away. You do not need Mastery Level 5.
How Guardian pilots unlock
Unlocking a pilot comes down to a single action. Find an eligible Sprite on the island and extract it before the match ends. Extraction adds that Sprite to your collection, and the base model immediately becomes available as a Guardian pilot in the Locker. Mastery Level 5 is not required, which means you do not have to keep a Sprite alive long enough to fully level it.
Only the base rarity works as a pilot. If you extract a special variant such as a Gem Zero Point, it unlocks the base Zero Point model, but the Gem version itself will not appear in your collection or on the Sprite Pod Mastery Back Bling. In short, chase the plain versions when you want to fill out your pilot roster.
All 20 Guardian Sprite pilots and where to find them
Every Sprite below can pilot the Guardian once you extract it. Spawn points vary, but most of the harder-to-reach ones show up inside Sprite Chests.
| Sprite pilot | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| Water Sprite | Near water sources |
| Fire Sprite | Near urban areas |
| Earth Sprite | Near forest areas |
| Demon Sprite | Sprite Chests |
| Dream Sprite | Storage Units in Battlewoods |
| Punk Sprite | Sprite Chests |
| Duck Sprite | Sprite Chests |
| King Sprite | Sprite Chests |
| Ghost Sprite | Wandering the map at night |
| Burnt Peanut Sprite | Sprite Chests |
| Zero Point Sprite | Sprite Chests |
| Boss Sprite | Dropped after defeating any boss on the map |
| Fishy Sprite | Fishing Spots |
| Seven Sprite | Sprite Chests |
| Striker Sprite | Score goals at Soccer Pitches |
| Aura Sprite | Sprite Chests |
| Air Sprite | Sprite Chests |
| Grim Sprite | Sprite Chests |
| Peeky Peely Sprite | Sprite Chests |
| Lootin’ Llama Sprite | Sprite Chests |
To confirm a pilot is yours, open the Guardian in your Locker and check the Sprite style option. The extracted Sprite appears in the pilot list and can be equipped in the cockpit. If it is not showing, the Sprite was likely knocked out before you extracted it, or you only collected a non-base variant.
Sprites that cannot pilot the Guardian
That leaves 97 Sprites locked out of the cockpit, and no amount of extracting or mastering changes that. Two rules explain every exclusion. Collaboration Sprites are barred, and any special coloration variant is barred, so every pilot must be the base rarity.
| Excluded type | Sprites |
|---|---|
| Collaboration Sprites | Batman, Vini Jr., Pollo, John Wick, Ironmouse |
| Variant Sprites | Gold, Gummy, Galaxy, Holofoil, Cube, Quack, Gem |
The licensed and real-person Sprites, such as Batman and Vini Jr., are held back by their outside deals rather than any gameplay rule, which is why they behave differently from a base Sprite like Burnt Peanut. The variant colors are simply not enabled as pilots, even though they would only change the Sprite’s coloration.
Do your pilots carry into Chapter 7 Season 4?
Yes. The Sprites you collected in Season 3: Runners stay in your Sprite Collection, remain as styles on the Sprite Mastery Pod Back Bling, and continue working as Guardian pilots into Chapter 7 Season 4: Override. They also move into the new Sprite Garden, a separate space for showing off your full roster. Older Sprites are not dropping in Battle Royale on day one of the new season, though Epic has said past generations may return later for another shot at collecting them.
If you are still missing a pilot, the window to grab it is while Runners content is live. Focus your runs on Sprite Chests for the bulk of the roster, and target the location-specific spawns for the rest, since those are the ones you cannot pull from a chest.
