What is the Blood Moon in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom?

The Blood moon that terrified everyone Breath of the Wild one enters The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It can be incredibly intimidating if it’s your first time seeing one. All that hard work, killing Bokoblins, and for what?

Coincidentally, despite the creepy music and ominous vibes, the Blood Moon is actually a net benefit. This page covers what the Blood Moon is and how to make the most of Hyrule’s recurring event.

How does the Blood Moon work in Tears of the Kingdom?

The Blood Moon is an event that triggers every 168 minutes of gameplay and acts as a reset button for many of the things in Hyrule, reviving weapons, shields, monsters, and loot points. When it activates, you’ll be shown a cutscene explaining what’s going on.

The specificity of 168 minutes may seem strange, but that’s how long it takes a week to go by uninterrupted in Hyrule!

This reset button is extremely useful, especially if you want to farm a certain item, such as If not (for additional battery cells), bomb flowers (for all your explosive needs), or underbosses like the Stone talus, Flux construction, Niceor – for the phenomenally brave – the King Gleek (for rare monster parts).

Note that treasure chests you open don’t magically refill, but weapons you find on the ground do. If you find an item you like as part of the terrain, pin it to your map to collect a new item within a week!

Can you trigger a blood moon in Tears of the Kingdom?

If you want to trigger a blood moon, just play the game – after 168 minutes of play you will see another blood moon.

So the obvious question becomes if you can force a blood moon. While you might be tempted to sleep for the better part of a week to activate it, the game knows what you’re doing and will wait for it.

What is Blood Moon Cooking?

You could easily play the whole game, from start to finish, without even realizing it Cooking blood moon mechanic exists, but it’s a handy one worth knowing.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

It’s always wise to keep an eye on the in-game clock, as different monsters appear at different times of the day (hint: or at night). If it’s the night of the Blood Moon, you’ll see the big, red astral body creep up, which is a good hint to stop what you’re doing.

Go to the nearest cooking pot (stables all have one, along with a variety of other places, or you can get one Zonai jar) and get ready to start cooking. Once the clock reaches 11:30 PM, a short animation starts playing and the eerie music begins – this is your signal, maestro. If you do it before the music changes, you don’t get the bonus. This is what five boiled apples grants when cooked before 23:30:

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

And here’s after that:

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Anything you cook during the next 30 in-game minutes will be a guaranteed critical success, enhancing the bonuses of whatever you cook. For items with double bonuses, such as when you cook with mighty bananas – which bonus you get is seemingly random, about 50%.

Unfortunately, of course, you won’t get these visual cues if you’re in a cave or otherwise unable to see the sky. If so, listen for the change in music and the telltale vapor trails.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

As long as you’re not otherwise engaged (usually in combat), you can drop a Zonai Pot from your device section of your item bag to cook yourself a meal. These jars are only good for a single use, but it’s better than nothing and, let’s face it, when else are you going to use them!

What is the story behind the Blood Moon?

[Ed. note: The following section covers spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.]

Tears of Kingdom explains the origin of the Blood Moon in one of the flashbacks you get when you track down Dragon Tears. “Birth of the Demon King (Memory 10; Tear of the Dragon #8)” can be found at the Geoglyph in the North Tabantha Snowfield.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Watching this shows Ganondorf stealing a Zonai Secret Stone and using it to transform himself from a mere mortal into the Demon King that plagues the entire Legend of Zelda timeline.

As part of his metamorphosis, he awakens the Blood Moon and brings this foul plague upon the land of Hyrule. Little did he know that 10,000 years later we would be using this to breed Stone Talus Hearts and Flame Gleeok Crowns. Fool him more…