The Blood Moon is a mysterious phenomenon experienced inThe Legend of Zelda:Breath of the Wild. During certain nights,Calamity Ganon’s power reaches its peak, allowing his evil magic, or Malice, to cover the moon in a crimson glow and turn it into the Blood Moon. The Blood Moon then bathes the land of Hyrule in an evil aura that resurrects Ganon’s fallen minions.
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Though it may seem to appear only at random times, the Blood Moon does serve a specific, technical purpose. The Blood Moon refreshes the game’s memory when it becomes full. Due to this function, the player can perform certain actions that will tell the game to schedule the appearance of a Blood Moon.
Edited on Jun 01, 2025 by Renan Fontes:The Blood Moon is one of the most unique concepts Breath of the Wild introduced to The Legend of Zelda. The Blood Moon is an unnatural phenomenon that revives any deceased demons throughout Hyrule. Contextually, the Blood Moon is a result of Calamity Ganon’s takeover of Hyrule and lends an oppressive atmosphere to Breath of the Wild’s otherwise idyllic open world. While the Blood Moon is mainly relegated to gameplay sequences, it does pop up during one of Breath of the Wild’s most important narrative set pieces.
12Defeating Common Enemies
The first and primary reason a Blood Moon appears isso the game can revive any common enemiesthat the player defeated while exploring Hyrule. A set number of enemies populate the game’s various locations, and the game’s memory is required to prevent slain monsters from respawning sooner than desired.
This ensures that a balance is kept between how many enemies the player will need to fight and how much time they will have to peacefully explore the environment. Routine revivals also offer the player additional chances to collect more items that enemies typically carry. If the enemies remained dead for too long, players would risk quickly running out of the finite resources they drop.
11Defeating Overworld Bosses
Similar to the case with common enemies, overworld bosses, such as the Hinoxes and the Moldugas, can only be revived by a Blood Moon. They are a different class of enemy compared to other monsters and even the story bosses such as theones found in the Divine Beasts(which are never revived by a Blood Moon).
Regardless of their classification, the game still needs to return them to the overworld for the same reasons as the basic enemies. The revival of these enemies is even more important than the common monsters, to an extent. The overworld bosses are rarer to encounter, and many high-value items can only be collected by defeating them.
10Collecting Materials
The Blood Moon does not restore certain materials, such as insects or vegetables, but one is needed to restore materials that cannot logically replenish themselves. These types of materials primarily include the likes of gemsand Guardian parts. These are the materials that the player needs to collect if they wish to upgrade most weapons and gear.
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The gems, (such as rubies, sapphires, and Luminous Stones) typically reside in ore deposits, which the player must destroy to collect the precious resources. Players can only find the Guardian parts by either salvaging them from decayed Guardians or by destroying active ones.
9Collecting And Breaking Weapons
Swords, bows, shields, and other combat tools will eventually need to be replenished once the player has either broken too many of them thanks toBreath of the Wild’s weapon stamina system or discarded them to make room in their inventories. Weapons are not sold by merchants either, so it is essential that the player can find a constant supply of new gear.
Most weapons are found by defeating monsters, though some can be found scattered in select areas such as ruins and battlefields. Regardless of how they are collected, they have a set number, so their depletion creates the need for a new Blood Moon once their quantities are low.
8Traveling Across Many Areas
The Blood Moon clears the game’s memory cache, so eventually the game will need to reset how much of the overworld has been loaded. Travelling across awide expanse of Hyrulecauses the game to populate the regions with the monsters, animals, materials, foliage, and people that inhabit them. All of this activity will eventually force the game to refresh everything loaded.
Defeating enemies and collecting weapons and materials are the primary ways to summon a Blood Moon, but the player can speed up this process if they explore multiple locations rather than staying in the same spots. To make the most of this method, The player should visitareas bustling with activity.
7Passing Time At A Campfire Or A Cooking Pot
A Blood Moon will inevitably need to appear as the game is played. The player can wait out the timer for the moon by sitting near a campfire or cooking pot until morning. Sitting until morning will allow the player to transition past midnight, which is the time-frame when a Blood Moon is meant to appear. Doing this multiple times will speed up the game’s countdown to the next Blood Moon.
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If this trick is done on the night when a Blood Moon is scheduled, the player can avoid the entire sequence (though the cutscene will still play). Being able to skip the Blood Moon by resting is an important gameplay option. When the player waits out a Blood Moon, they are able to bypass the time when monsters are stronger and more dangerous. This makes it easy to avoidfrustrating fights.
6Sleeping At Inns
Sleeping at an inn is the same situation as sitting at a campfire or cooking pot. Making Link sleep past midnight moves the game clock forward, allowing the player to cause a Blood Moon while also avoiding stronger enemies. This tactic can keep the player safe, but it and the tactic of resting by a fire come with some disadvantages, however.
Players can earn certain benefits only during a Blood Moon. The best example is the ability to cook food and materials to create powerful dishes and elixirs. This is why players need to be cautious. If they make Link sleep for too long, they can skip the Blood Moon hours accidentally and miss the chance to take advantage of them.
5Playing The Game For Three Hours
The game automatically triggers the need for a Blood Moon once the player has played for nearly three hours. The time counted for these three hours are those spent actively moving within the game world. It excludes time spent doing other activities, such as looking through the game’s menus or watching cut scenes.
This trigger is tied closely to most of the previous ones listed, but it also an important safety measure. The Blood Moon ensures that the entire game refreshes itself, which needs to be done even if the player has not been consuming resources. A player could potentially prevent the Blood Moon from ever appearing if the game relied on them to first use a certain amount of memory.
4The Time Of Day
Time of day is extremely important when it comes to the Blood Moon. After all, a moon can’t rise if there’s no night. While you can manipulate the time of day to trigger a Blood Moon, you need to make sure you do so during a very specific time frame. The Blood Moon only rises at midnight, but its effects last from around 11:30pm to 12:15am – giving you less than a full hour to make use of the Blood Moon’s unique cooking effects or complete any Blood Moon centric side quests.
3Triggering A Glitch During The Game’s Daylight Hours
Though it is very rare to encounter, a glitched Blood Moon can appear during the game’s daytime hours. As of now, the exact reason that the glitch happens is unknown, but the cause is commonly attributed to when the game faults and reads the in-game clock incorrectly.
The game will read the a.m. hours and p.m. hours as being reversed. This essentially tricks it into thinking that a Blood Moon needs to appear immediately. Unfortunately, this glitch can be very frustrating for players, as it can leave them in dangerous situations if they are in a location that was home to slain monsters.
