The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Enemies

Monsters run rampant in Hyrule after the Great Calamity, terrorizing travelers in formations from small camps to massive colonies. They are Link's most common obstacle that he must overcome in his quest, either through stealth or combat. Enemies in this game come in a variety of forms, from intelligent humanoid beasts to hostile ancient machines.

Blood Moon
Any monsters you vanquish stay dead if you revisit the area afterward. However, every so often Ganon's dark magic will spread across the land in an event called the Blood Moon, resurrecting all of your fallen foes. On the night of the Blood Moon, you will see a full moon glowing a bright red, and the atmosphere becomes sinister, before the Blood Moon officially occurs at midnight. Blood Moons aren't all bad, as they also respawn most overworld chests and items, while enhancing any food and elixirs you cook on a Blood Moon night.

Enemy levels
Most enemies have various levels of danger denoted by their skin color. In ascending order of difficulty, these are red, blue, black, and silver. Higher leveled enemies have more health, deal more damage and have more advanced combat tactics, but drop more valuable items when killed. Enemies will get steadily stronger as you progress through the game. You will mainly encounter red enemies early on with rare blue and black enemies sprinkled in, but by the end of the game silver enemies are commonplace. However, some areas have enemies locked at a constant level, such as the Bokoblins and Moblins of the Great Plateau and around Dueling Peaks.

An enemy's difficulty also depends on the quality of their gear. A Black Bokoblin with a Royal Broadsword is going to do a lot more damage than the same Black Bokoblin holding a simple Boko Bat. Monster weapons scale differently depending on the region; in some places you'll see Black Moblins wielding simple clubs, other times you must fight elite Lizalfos with lethal boomerangs.

Monster loot
Upon killing a monster, they will often drop monster parts, as well as any weapon they were using to fight. Monster parts don't have any immediate purpose, but they have a lot of uses for recipes and equipment. The main use of monster parts are for elixirs, with the quality of parts used for elixirs determining the strength and duration of the elixir you produce. Certain parts are also needed to enhance your gear or dye them in select locations, or to complete some sidequests. Low leveled monsters usually drop horns and claws, while higher leveled enemies may drop their guts, the rarest type of monster part. Silver enemies may even drop gemstones when defeated.

In addition to individual monster loot, there are also treasure you can get from pillaging enemy camps. Any large monster encampment is a good sign that they are guarding valuable treasure, whether it's powerful weaponry or pricey gems. There is a certain type of chest that only unlocks when you defeat every monster in that camp, denoted by a skull-like shape and glowing purple eyes. Items you get from treasure chests don't scale with the enemy's strengths, so they are much more valuable to steal early in the game than later on when you're much stronger.

Elemental affinities
Certain monsters can be empowered with one of three elements: fire, electricity, or ice. Fire enemies can burn away your wooden gear with their attacks, while ice enemies can freeze you, making you vulnerable to other enemies. These two enemy types are weak to the opposite elements and will die in one hit to said elemental attacks; fire enemies crumble from ice attacks and ice enemies get vaporized by fire. Electric enemies have no elemental weaknesses and they can make you drop your weapons with a stunning shock, and they only get stronger around water and in the rain. Fortunately, you can cook items or wear gear to reduce damage or become outright immune to specific elemental attacks.

=Monster species=

Strategy
Chuchus exist in three sizes (small, medium, large) though they pose little to no challenge. These enemies are mere nuisances. They are weak, slow and can usually only sustain a single hit. The only problem you may face while fighting them is if they are elemental. When they hit you, they will infuse you with their element, and when they die, they will explode in a sphere of their element. To avoid said blast, either take them out with an arrow, or use a long weapon such as a spear. Remote bombs also work well. When Chuchus die, they drop the jelly of their element. This jelly is very useful, as it can reproduce the very same explosion that Chuchus employ when they die if the jelly is attacked. You can use the red jelly to start fires, the normal jelly to extinguish fires, freeze enemies with white jelly, or electrocute enemies with yellow jelly. Note that normal Chuchu jelly can be transformed into any other type of Chuchu jelly if exposed to the corresponding element.

Strategy
Bokoblins are very basic enemies with a basic strategy. When alerted to your presence, they will grab the closest weapon to them and attack at close range. If you are above them, however, the Bokoblins will throw rocks at you, dealing small amounts of damage. The Bokoblin's most dangerous attack, however, is its charged attack; the Bokoblin will attack, and if it hits, it will do a large amount of damage. This can be countered with a block if you are unable to dodge.

Strategy
The Lizalfos is a very agile opponent. They dash towards you to attack, then withdraw, giving you little time to attack with melee blows. The best strategy for defeating a Lizalfos is letting is attack, and then blocking and counter-attacking. The Lizalfos also has a weak spot: its horn. If you hit a Lizalfos's horn with an arrow, you will cause critical damage and knock the Lizalfos down. If you hit an Electric Lizalfos on the horn, this will also create a spherical blast around the Lizalfos. In close proximity, a multi-arrow bow can cause enormous amounts of damage, and make it easy to follow up with a melee combo.

Stal-enemies
Stal enemies only appear at night and act almost identically to their living conterparts. They do not take fall damage and will continuously revive themselves so long as their head is still intact.

Wizzrobes
Wizzrobes are cloaked humanoid figures.

Molduga
Molduga are giant worm-like enemies. They are very sensitive to sounds and will eat just about anything. By defeating all four molduga and speaking with Kilton, he will award Link a Medal of Honor.

Lynels
Lynels are centaur-like enemies, with the body of a horse, and the face of a lion. They are among the toughest enemies in the game, so before facing against one, make sure you are well prepared.