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.