The Guardians
A Guardian is basically a more powerful version of a creature that already exists within the clockworks. They have the ability to spawn three random versions of itself upon being alerted by a knight. For example, if you happen to stumble across a Greaver Guardian. First off, good luck. Second, when you're knight gets near it, it will spawn three different types of normal Greavers for you to battle along side the Guardian. In this case we will say a Vile Greaver, a Ruby Greaver, and a normal Greaver will assist the Guardian. These will all be as strong as they would normally be at the depth you are on. They will also drop a normal amount of loot/materials. Back to the Guardians. A Guardian will have a slightly altered appearance of a monster that is already within the clockworks. They will always be larger than a normal creature and will take up the element of the level they are found on. Guardians can be any creature found within the clockworks except: bosses and Toxilargo (Note that I say clockworks, this does not include missions, or the expansion). They will have a moderate increase to their damage, life, and attack speed, but will use they same attacks as their clockwork counterparts.
The odd thing is the cores energy seemed to have make the Guardians fertile. They will only lay one egg, and therefore, only one Sprite. These Guardians will protect their Sprites/eggs with their life. They will never leave the area near the Sprite/egg (the nest), but their summons may. The nest will have a defensive ability (like a shield) and will block any attacks coming from beyond the nest. So, you will have to get close to hurt a Guardian.
The odd thing is the cores energy seemed to have make the Guardians fertile. They will only lay one egg, and therefore, only one Sprite. These Guardians will protect their Sprites/eggs with their life. They will never leave the area near the Sprite/egg (the nest), but their summons may. The nest will have a defensive ability (like a shield) and will block any attacks coming from beyond the nest. So, you will have to get close to hurt a Guardian.
White Egg
There are two reasons why a knight may come across an egg rather than a sprite. First, it may have been recently hatched. If this is the case, it just hasn't had enough time to hatch and guardians never force open their eggs (they like surprises [unless that surprise is a knight attacking them in the clockworks]). Second, some guardians do not have enough heat to hatch their eggs. A knight who has spent his/her whole life gathering the heat of other monsters should do the trick.
The white eggs will be very slightly less common than a common battle sprite. Similar to a sprite, a knight must defeat the guardian to obtain the egg. An egg will automatically hatch after three days of possession. However, they can also be opened immediately without altering the sprite inside. Eggs will be put in a knights inventory unbound. They can be sold, but must be done so before the egg hatches. After hatching, the knight will have a new, bound battle sprite in their inventory (whether it was forced opened or waited). If the knight already has the sprite, the duplicate will return to the clockworks.
The rarity of the sprite within the egg will follow the same odds as finding one within the clockworks. Also, there will always be a healthy T1 sprite within an egg.
The white eggs will be very slightly less common than a common battle sprite. Similar to a sprite, a knight must defeat the guardian to obtain the egg. An egg will automatically hatch after three days of possession. However, they can also be opened immediately without altering the sprite inside. Eggs will be put in a knights inventory unbound. They can be sold, but must be done so before the egg hatches. After hatching, the knight will have a new, bound battle sprite in their inventory (whether it was forced opened or waited). If the knight already has the sprite, the duplicate will return to the clockworks.
The rarity of the sprite within the egg will follow the same odds as finding one within the clockworks. Also, there will always be a healthy T1 sprite within an egg.
Golden Egg
Very rarely (like 1% of the nests found) there will be a golden egg where a battle sprite or white egg would normally be found. These will come unbound, but will be useless except for selling. Apparently, strangers love gold and any vendor will take a golden egg off your hands, and give you 10k cr for the exchange. However, don't think the guardian will just give it to you...these eggs will be protected the same way as the others.