Wonder Mountain's Guardian

The layout of the ride once inside Wonder Mountain leading up to the drop track. The graphics are those from the Wonder Mountain's Guardian version.

In the ride's narrative of events preceding those that occur during the ride, King Adelsten entered the mountain to fight a dragon called Ormaar. During the battle, the king lost his crown. Stansein, one of the king's servants, guides riders through the mountain to find and retrieve the crown.^[24][25] Throughout the ride, riders can score points by hitting objects on the screen with their light guns. At the end, the highest scores are placed in the 'Wonder Mountain's Guardian Hall of Fame'.^[26]

After the train leaves the station, it turns 180 degrees right and exits the mountain, leading into a 18.3-metre (60 ft) chain lift hill.^[8] Once at the top, the train enters a shallow, right-hand drop, crossing over Vortex's first drop as it runs along the side of the mountain. It makes a banked right turn back into the mountain, then a tarpaulin drops, blocking the entrance to prevent light from entering. The train slows and the cars rotate 90 degrees to face the screens. Stansein tells riders to prepare to battle the enemies. The first scene takes place in forest environment where riders fight Sneaky Spiders and Beasty Bats. At the end of the first scene, riders who began the ride facing forward see Stansein's first appearance, in which he points in the direction riders should go next. Backward-facing riders do not see this transition. In the next scene, riders—who are surrounded by a lake inside the mountain—battle Wet Ones and Crazy Crabs. The scene starts above the surface of the water but later moves downwards. As the scene ends, the train passes two waterfalls; this transition is absent for backward-facing riders.

Riders then arrive in an underground city named Draconian City, where they battle against Draconians and Archers. Nearing the finale, forward-facing riders see Stansein making his final appearance, following the train. Riders are then confronted by more Draconians and Archers before entering a gold-covered area where King Adelsten's crown is found. Soon after, Ormaar arrives and breathes fire toward the ground. After a few seconds, the drop track releases the train into a 9-metre (30 ft) free fall, escaping from Ormaar. As the train leaves the drop track, the trains are rotated to their original positions and all of the riders' scores are displayed on both sides of the track. After turning left into the station, riders disembark and the next riders board. One cycle of the ride lasts approximately three-and-a-half minutes.^{[4][22][23][25][27][28]}

Zombies 4D

In the ride's Zombies 4D version, riders score points for shooting zombies and police badges found throughout the ride, but lose points if they shoot civilians.^[29][30]

After the train is dispatched and enters Wonder Mountain, riders find themselves in a graveyard where zombies are roaming. At the end of the scene, riders who began facing forward see a survivor directing them to the next scene. Riders who were seated backwards do not see this transition. The next scene takes place in a house overrun by the zombies and large spiders. At the end of the scene a truck crashes into the house. Riders then leave the house and pass the survivor; this transition is again absent for backward-seated riders. The train continues to a road with zombies, where three cars with zombies on them join the riders. Two of the cars crash at the end of the scene. The train then passes through a tunnel with abandoned cars; this scene is absent for riders facing backward. Riders then battle the zombies for the final time before entering the drop track sequence.^[31] The names of the highest-scoring riders are displayed on a leader-board for this version of the attraction.^[30]

Trains

Ride trains at Wonder Mountains Guardians station, situated inside the mountain

Guardian operates with five trains, each containing two cars that were manufactured by Art Engineering. Each car seats four riders back-to-back in seated rows; each train can seat eight riders. Every seat has a lap-bar restraint, a light gun, and a loudspeaker that provides sound during the ride. This configuration allows the ride to theoretically carry 650 riders per hour.^[8][28] The cars can rotate 90 degrees in both directions. The trains' light guns are programmed to display a unique colour on the ride's screens to indicate where each rider is shooting and to distinguish between shooters.^[23]

Track

The steel track of Guardian is approximately 304.8 metres (1,000 ft) long and the lift is about 18.3 metres (60 ft) high; it was manufactured by Kubes Steel located in Stoney Creek, Ontario.^[28][32] The outside portion of the track is grey and has beige supports; indoor portions of the ride's infrastructure are painted black.^[13] When the train is inside the mountain, drive tires move the trains along the track.^[8][13][33] The drive tires and other moving parts within the track system were manufactured by Art Engineering.^[33]

At the end of the interactive part of the ride, there is a 9-metre (30 ft) free-fall drop track, a movable piece of track that can be released into free fall. As of 2019, this roller coaster element has only been used on eight coasters in the world. Once the train exits the drop track, the track returns to its starting position for the next train.^[34][35] Both Polar X-plorer at Legoland Billund Resort and Thirteen at Alton Towers have vertical drop tracks that release riders into a 5-metre (16.4 ft) drop. Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg has a drop track measuring 5.5 metres (18 ft). Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure also contains a drop track measuring 5.1 metres (17 ft). While only a few roller coasters contain this element, the drop track used on Guardian is the largest one of its kind.^[34]

Screens

Guardian uses 64 720p projectors to display interactive content on the ride's screens.^[1] As the train enters the mountain, the cars rotate to face the screens. Because riders are seated both forwards and backwards, two sets of screens—one for each side— are required. Because Guardian makes tight turns, only the screen on the right-hand side of the track continuously shows content until the end. This screen holds the record for being the longest continuous interactive screen in the world, with a length of approximately 152.4 metres (500 ft) and a height of 4 metres (13 ft).^[8][22] The other screen is set up so that as one scene finishes, the transition scene that is seen on the continuous screen is skipped and the next scene begins soon after, keeping both screens in synchronization.^[22] Because no physical sets are used in the attraction, the park management can change the film and theme of Guardian at any time.^[1]

Characters

The Wonder Mountain's Guardian version of the attraction features eight characters. Stansein is the riders' guide who leads them through the mountain. Crazy Crabs are characterized as attractive but dangerous. Beasty Bats are recognizable by their oversized fangs compared to those of regular bats. Sneaky Spiders have the ability to ambush riders and their bites contain venom. Archers fight with bows and arrows, and can move around quickly. Wet Ones are reptilian creatures similar to fish but they can walk on land. These reptiles are most dangerous when they are in the water. Draconians protect Draconian City and carry swords and shields. Ormaar is the dragon that lives inside the mountain and confronts riders at the end of the ride.^[25]

In the Zombies 4D version of the ride, a survivor of the zombie apocalypse replaces Stansein as the guide character; zombies are the enemy.^[31]