Defender

Defenders are small masked enemies found in the Astrolab that carry a Protector with their hands and move around to shield other enemies. They are exclusive to the Rise of the Giant DLC.

Behavior
Defenders mostly run around to avoid the player's attacks and keep the force field active on the enemy they are shielding, as they can only shield one enemy at a time. When shielding another enemy they gain a damage reduction buff. They follow one enemy in particular, which is usually the one they will be shielding, but their force field can sometimes apply to a different enemy nearby, including through the walls. When the player is within close range and has killed the main shielded enemy, they lose their damage reduction buff, but can now attack by swinging the dummy downwards.

Trivia

 * The name Defender was previously used by the Protectors, which these enemies carry around.
 * Defenders were added with the v1.2 update, aka Rise of the Giant DLC in March, 2019.