Wizrobe

The Wizrobe is one of the more commonly recurring The Legend of Zelda enemies, known for teleporting randomly and throwing fireballs. Wizrobes usually have the appearance of a colorfully-robed wizard wearing a pointy, wide-brimmed hat.

The Legend of Zelda
Two varieties of wizrobe appeared in the sixth dungeon of the first The Legend of Zelda. The more common orange wizrobes set the trend for later incarnations by teleporting and firing magic beams. The more durable blue wizrobes would stalk about a room until they lined up with link, when they would charge launching a stream of beam attacks.

The Adventure of Link
The wizrobes continued to appear in most of the Zelda games. In The Adventure of Link the wizrobes were impervious to Link's sword, and could only be defeated by using the Reflect Spell to turn their magic against them.

A Link to the Past
In A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening and the Oracle games, wizrobes were largely identical to their original appearance, though they became more durable.

Majora's Mask
Though wizrobes did appear in Majora's Mask (pictured, bottom of page), though it was significantly different in appearance from previous wizrobes. It would transport itself to different pads across a room. Each time it would appear with illusionary copies and dance briefly before attacking with either fire or ice. To defeat it, the player had to guess which of the dancing spirits was the real wizrobe and attack before they teleported away. (if standing in a good spot, Tatl would zoom over to the real one).

Four Swords
In Four Swords, and The Minish Cap, Wizrobes returned to their classic appearance, and used their trademark tactics once more. In addition, fire and ice wizrobes appeared who would attack with their elements to deal lasting harm to Link. Also in Four Swords Adventures there is a green Wizzrobe that absorbs your Force Gems from afar.

The Wind Waker
For some unknown reason, the spelling of "Wizrobe" changed to "Wizzrobe," either starting in the Oracle series, or The Wind Waker.

In The Wind Waker, the Wizzrobe is a wizard-like enemy that shoots fireballs. While there are many ways to defeat a Wizzrobe, the easiest is to shoot a Fire Arrow at it for a one-hit kill. Another method is to freeze it with an Ice Arrow, then slash at it with your sword. However, the more basic method (and the better one if you don't have fire or ice arrows) is to shoot it with your normal arrows. A Wizzrobe now would make an alarm sound.

Most Wizzrobes Link encounters wear a dark cloak with a red hood and wear masks shaped like toucan heads. There are three teams of wizzrobes, however, that wear white cloaks. These are found on top of the three triple-platforms in the Great Sea. There is a more powerful version of the Wizzrobe called a Red Wizzrobe, the mini-boss in the Wind Temple, who has the sole power of summoning other Wizzrobes. The Red Wizzrobe may be based on the Inca emperors. A 1-hit kill, even for Red Wizzrobe himself, is to freeze it with an Ice Arrow and toss it at a wall. A more comical 1-hit K.O. would be to freeze it, then crush it with the Skull Hammer.

Phantom Hourglass
Wizzrobes return in Phantom Hourglass after their drastic change in The Wind Waker. They retain the bird masks, but are slightly smaller and carry large scythes instead of wands. In spite of the aesthetic similarities, they take on a completely new role in this game. They appear only in The Temple of the Ocean King and do not use their traditional magic. Instead, they are invisible until right before they attack, and will sneak up on you to steal your time away. They appear as skulls on the map on the top screen, which is the only way to track them without coming in range of their attacks. They can be useful, though, because beating one gets you 30 more seconds while they can only steal 15 at a time.

In Other Games
While Wizrobes were not present in Twilight Princess, Zant's Masks used the same attack strategy as the Wizrobes from The Wind Waker, teleporting back and forth and firing magic blasts at Link.

Quote from The Minish Cap Wizzrobe figurine: "Appears in the Palace of Winds & Dark Hyrule Castle. They fire magic bolts from afar. Hit them when they appear so they don't cast another spell!"

Quote from The Minish Cap Fire Wizzrobe figurine: "Appears in the Palace of Winds & Dark Hyrule Castle. They wield fire magic. Hit them when they appear so they don't cast another spell!"

Quote from The Minish Cap Ice Wizzrobe figurine: "Appears in the Palace of Winds & Dark Hyrule Castle. They wield ice magic. Hit them when they appear so they don't cast another spell!"