Blood Moon

, also known as Red Moons, Nights of the Red Moon, and The Hours of the Blood Moon are a recurring event in.

NaN Blood Moons occur at midnight on nights when BotW:'s power reaches its peak and escapes from BotW:'s control within BotW:, dyeing the night sky and the Moon red with BotW:. The effects of this BotW: revive any fallen monsters and enemies, returning them to where they once were prior to being slain.

The effects of the BotW: begin around 11:30 PM, though the BotW: itself can usually be seen as early as 10:00 PM when the BotW: rises into the sky. At 11:30 PM, BotW: will rise from the ground, like when Link is aboard a corrupted BotW:, around NaN Pool of Malices, or on the grounds of BotW:. At 11:50 PM, the sky will turn red, and the clouds will begin to fly by very fast. When midnight hits, a cutscene begins where the Blood Moon has risen, and monsters are seen respawning across Hyrule. Princess Zelda telepathically informs Link that the Blood Moon has risen and urges Link to be careful. After that, the Blood Moon dissipates.

BotW: of the BotW: is the primary source of information on NaN Blood Moons, and can be seen acting strangely during the time period that it affects the overworld. Link can determine if that night will be a Blood Moon, as if he asks Hino what moon will be out tonight, he'll say; "I'm getting that feeling again... Something is going to happen tonight. I can taste it."

For the time from 11:30 PM to 12:15 AM when BotW: lingers in the air for, certain other effects of the Blood Moon can be seen. Hino will seemingly be inflicted with lunacy and begin to run in circles shouting. BotW: during this time gives BotW: an effect boost, as noted in Chef Aurie Taamu, Vol. 2. This time period is also when standing on the BotW: at BotW: will allow Mijah Rokee Shrine to appear. These effects wear off at 12:15 and will not occur again until the next regular Blood Moon.

NaN Blood Moons are always represented by a full BotW: regardless of which phase the BotW: is in.

Mechanics

 * For an even more technical explanation of the Blood Moon mechanic, see ZeldaMods wiki's pages on the Blood Moon, Time and WorldMgr.

The function of the Blood Moon is to revive slain NaN Enemies and respawn NaN Weapons. Contrary to what it may seem, the Blood Moon does not act as a "world reset" mechanic (NaN Materials and other objects are not respawned), nor does it serve to clear the game's memory. (The statuses of slain enemies and obtained weapons are always kept in memory.) However, if certain, specific conditions are met regarding memory usage, a "Forced Blood Moon" (see below) can occur to reload the game world in order to clear the game's memory. The Blood Moon is simply the game mechanic used to execute this.

Scheduling
The Blood Moon is not dependent on in-game days such as the BotW:'s cycle nor the amount of enemies killed, but rather a running timer of real time spent in-game (not in menus or loading screens) that begins upon leaving the BotW:. This timer is checked every night at midnight, and if it has reached 2 hours 48 minutes (7 days in-game), a Blood Moon is scheduled for the next midnight. This is why the Blood Moon can occur if Link passes the night using a BotW: or BotW: on such a night; but continually doing so will not speed up the arrival of the Blood Moon if one is not scheduled– in fact, this only serves to effectively delay it since the timer does not run during cutscenes.

The Blood Moon cannot happen until Link has left the BotW:, i.e. when "Hyrule Kingdom" appears on screen. If certain conditions are met on a night when the Blood Moon is scheduled, it will be pushed to the next night. This includes if:
 * Link is not in the main overworld (i.e. inside an BotW:, a BotW:, or the BotW:)
 * Link is in BotW:
 * The story events battling BotW:, BotW: or BotW: are ongoing
 * Link is in the BotW:
 * BotW: is being fought
 * The BotW: section of the "EX The Champions' Ballad" Quest is active
 * Saving and warping are disabled: i.e. Link is in a cutscene, a BotW: is active, or the BotW: in "The Stolen Heirloom" BotW: is being fought

Note that unlike with the other three Divine Beast battles, Blood Moons can occur during the BotW: battle with BotW:. If this happens, the NaN Sentries will not be revived, but the NaN Black Moblins in the area will.

Taking advantage of these conditions every night means that a Blood Moon can technically be indefinitely postponed, unless one is forced.

Function
On the night of a Blood Moon, a 45-minute "relief" period occurs from 11:30 PM to 12:15 AM. It is during this period that the Mijah Rokee Shrine for the "Under a Red Moon" quest can appear, BotW: will become incensed, and BotW: will receive critical boosts (with the chance of a boost increasing the closer it is to midnight).

Once midnight falls and a Blood Moon is allowed, the cutscene of Zelda warning Link will play, and monsters and weapons are respawned. The following are revived by a Blood Moon:
 * Nearly every BotW: killed, even including the non-malicious NaN Guardian Scouts in NaN Ancient Shrines, and the NaN Guardians in BotW: for "EX Champion Mipha's Song" and in the BotW:
 * Weapons that lie in the overworld or are held by Enemies, as long as they are not in Link's BotW: or on a BotW: in BotW:
 * NaN Pool of Malices which have been disintegrated and their associated NaN Glowing Eyeballs
 * Disguised BotW: NaN Travelers
 * BotW: on the campfires in NaN Monster Strongholds

The following are not affected by the Blood Moon:
 * NaN Materials, NaN Ore Deposits, or other sources of materials (each has a 1% chance of respawning when Link is not in the same map area)
 * NaN Wooden Boxs, NaN Barrels or NaN Pots (respawned randomly)
 * Objects such as NaN Trees, rocks or metal crates (always respawn when reloaded)
 * Wildlife and Creatures (spawned dynamically)
 * Story Bosses such as the NaN Phantom Ganons or BotW:
 * NaN Yiga Blademasters within the BotW:
 * The blue BotW: used for practice in BotW:
 * The BotW:
 * BotW:'s NaN Sentries
 * Searchable locations such as inactive NaN Decayed Guardians or NaN Wagons
 * Obstacles such as breakable rocks or ice barriers

The Blood Moon also does not replenish enemy health, unless it is a Forced Blood Moon. Certain enemies can technically be revived by the Blood Moon but will never do so given other restrictions, such as the mounted NaN Bokoblins at BotW: once the quest "The Horseback Hoodlums" is complete, or the Yiga Blademaster who threatens BotW: as part of the quest "The Stolen Heirloom."

After the Blood Moon cutscene occurs, the Blood Moon timer is reset and the cycle starts over.

Forced Blood Moons
If certain conditions are met in regards to the game's memory allocation, a so-called "Forced Blood Moon" (also known as a "Panic Blood Moon", and internally referred to as having the reason  as opposed to  ) may be induced regardless of the usual timer and time of day. This is not influenced by killing enemies, postponing regular Blood moons, or any other player actions, nor is it a generic fallback mechanic for errors; it simply occurs because something in the current game state is causing trouble with certain subsystems for loading and handling resources.

Forced Blood Moons reset the entire "game scene", effectively the same as when going through a loading screen (e.g. when warping, or going from a Shrine to the overworld). This is why certain objects' positions are reset, and notably enemies will regain any health they lost. Because a Forced Blood Moon uses the normal cutscene, it will revive Enemies and Weapons. However, this has no effect on the regular Blood Moon timer, and does not have the other properties of regularly scheduled Blood Moons, such as cooking boosts, affecting Hino, or enabling Mijah Rokee Shrine to appear.

While Forced Blood Moons do not rely on the prohibitions that apply regularly, Link still must be in the overworld with no event in progress, as well as several other technical checks. However, this does allow for a rare chance for a Blood Moon to occur in places it normally would not, the most notable example being a Forced Blood Moon occurring while Link is battling BotW:, replenishing the Boss's health.

NaN Blood Moons appear to cause showers of TotK: in which NaN Monsters are born. NaN Boss Bokoblins are shown to appear during NaN Blood Moons, commanding groups of NaN Bokoblins with their blowing horns.

During the Scenario "All Hyrule, United", a Blood Moon rises following the Divine Beasts bombarding Calamity Ganon with their lasers after Zelda banished the protective barrier, reviving all monsters that were slain during the course of the battle, then revived half of the monsters after they were re-killed by the Warriors. After the united forces of Hyrule broke through the Calamity's forces, the Blood Moon remained in the sky until Calamity Ganon was sealed again.

Following the completion of the last Scenario and the start of the postgame, Blood Moons start appearing. They turn Scenarios into Blood Moon Battlefields. These Blood Moon Battlefield events enhance the enemies of past Scenarios, one Scenario per waxing, changing the icon of the boosted Scenario into a Blood Moon icon, raises the recommended levels by up to sixfold, and colors the map with a red filter. It also improves the quality of Weapon drops, and increases their frequency.

When a Blood Moon rises, it changes the map theme to its "Amid the Calamity" version. Other than doubling the Rupee counts after completing the Scenario battles, including the Divine Beast combat segments, nothing else changes.

It is up to random chance which Scenarios becomes a Blood Moon Battlefield, and the frequency of the Blood Moon waxing is erratic, ranging from a Blood Moon rising immediately after clearing a Blood Moon Battlefield to after several battles. Potentially, a Blood Moon could rise over the same Scenario twice in a row. If players go to Challenge maps or other Scenario maps, it resets the Blood Moon Battlefield.

Trivia

 * The sky turning red as happens during a Blood Moon also occurs when BotW: reveals its core, allowing Link to deal the final blow.