Zelda - Blood Moons

Spoilers for mechanics only, no story.

Bloods moons are probably one of the coolest mechanics in Zelda Breath of the Wild. A Blood Moon happens at night where a normal moon is replaced with, you guessed it, a blood red moon. The closer you get to the midnight hour little flecks like embers start floating in the air until finally midnight strikes. As midnight strikes you get a quick cut-scene where you hear Zelda explain to link that the power of Ganon is bringing enemies back to life. Cut scene ends and then everything you just killed a minute ago is back and staring at you because you were busy staring at the sky. You commence button flailing until you go full ninja with a skeleton arm and beat the crap out of them. And yes, you can knock the arms off skeletons and beat them with it.

The Blood Moon is a respawn event. All minibosses, enemies, fruit, mushrooms, guardians, everything respawns. This can be inconvenient if you are not prepared to re-fight everything near you, or it can be an advantage. For instance when the blood moon happens for me I instantly start my rupee run. I have a path I typically run in the volcano area for breaking mining points for gems, killing two miniboss lava rock golems, and general murder/looting of baddies. After that if I need guardian parts I head towards very guardian populated areas and commence striking them down with the fury of a thousand suns. That can also be referred to as Ancient Arrows, which if aimed correctly can drop a guardian in a single shot (aim for the eye). After that if I am still feeling spunky I will start heading for other minoboss spawn sites, as they always hang out at their spawn location. Some of them include Hinox, a skeletal version of the Hinox, and rock golem creatures. If you manage your time correctly, meaning being less distracting by murdering of the baddies and not as necessary shiny objects, you can pound out a good murder/farming run in just over an hour.

I find the visual effects of the blood moon to be pretty nifty, I love getting the respawns because I can never have enough monster parts, it's simple a great time to be had by all. There is even a shrine in the game that you can only access when a blood moon is in the sky, which I find to be pretty cool. Also the half hour before it strikes midnight any cooking you accomplish are critical successes, meaning that you will get the maximum out of the food or elixer plus a bonus, which is also nice.

Well that is blood moons explained. Just a neat mechanic that makes the game even more fun and keeps the thrill alive as you progress through the open world. Thanks for tuning in, hope you enjoyed the read!