Blood Moon

, also known as Red Moons, Nights of the Red Moon, and The Hour of the Blood Moon is a recurring event in The Legend of Zelda series.
==Overview==
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 occur at midnight on nights when 's power reaches its peak and escapes from 's control within , dyeing the night sky and the Moon red with . The effects of this revive any fallen monsters and enemies, returning them to where they once were prior to being slain. In addition to reviving enemies and Overworld , are replenished, and ranging from plants and trees, to gear left lying in the field, effectively respawn, allowing to collect them again if the ones he took before the broke in the interim period. do not start occurring until obtains the and leaves the .
Mechanically, are a way to restore enemies and weapons to the world of to keep the difficulty from dropping permanently as enemies are exterminated, and to ensure can still find resources such as weapons and food ingredients as the game goes on. Data stored within the game's long-term memory is reset, including the presence or lack of and . do not affect things handled through short-term memory, such as , , , and . also do not affect storyline progression, side quests, or major bosses such as and the inside the .
 most commonly appear once every 2-3 hours of continuous gameplay and, under normal circumstances, will trigger at midnight in-game. However, in situations where the game is running out of memory or assets are not loading correctly, a will be triggered, even during daytime. When this occurs, the game does a harder reset of the game state, attempting to clear memory and go to a known, possibly less buggy state, in order to prevent a crash or game-breaking glitch. This extended reset usually causes the cutscene to be unskippable, and the loading screen afterwards to take tens of seconds. If Link is in a battle with Calamity Ganon or another area where saving is disabled and a appears, the game will revert its state to the most recent save data. can be interrupted by entering specific areas such as and before midnight, and mini-games though the game will simply try to spawn one the next night. This also occurs if Link is doing the challenge on the . are always represented by a full moon, regardless of which phase the moon is in.
The effects of the begin around 11:30 PM, though the itself can usually be seen as early as 10:00 PM when the moon rises into the sky. At 11:30 PM, will rise from the ground, similar to the interior of a or on the grounds of . At 11:50 PM, the sky will turn red, and the clouds will begin to fly by very fast. At midnight, a cutscene begins, depicting the Blood Moon in the highest point in the sky as 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. If Link attempts to skip the night by resting at a Campfire or sleeping in a Bed, the cutscene will still play if a Blood Moon is scheduled to trigger that night. During a Panic Blood Moon, these effects play much quicker than they do under normal circumstances and the soundtrack that plays leading up to the cutscene is omitted.
 of the is the primary source of information on , and can be seen acting strangely during the time period that it affects the overworld. During the day, Link can ask if the following night will contain Blood Moon. If there is, he will say, "I'm getting that feeling again... Something is going to happen tonight. I can taste it." 
 during this time gives an effect boost. This time period can be easily identified, as specks of linger in the air for those 45 minutes, or by determining if Hino is still acting strange. If he has returned to normal, the effect has worn off, and Link must wait for the next Blood Moon.
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The purpose and mechanics behind the in are largely identical to their function in . The only key differences are that they do not begin until after leaves the Great Sky Island and the cutscene is different, featuring disguised as as he narrates the effects of the Blood Moon in a far more bleak, ominous tone. After defeating , the narration during the cutscene no longer plays and the fake Zelda is not present.
A Blood Moon occurs in the memory "Birth of the Demon King", which is heavily implied to have been caused by Ganondorf's usage of Queen Sonia's Secret Stone. After assuming his new form as the Demon King, he utilizes his newfound magic to summon monsters all across Hyrule in a similar manner to the Blood Moon respawning them.
==Other Appearances==
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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 Link goes to Challenge maps or other Scenario maps, it resets the Blood Moon Battlefield.
==Trivia==
*An exception to the failing to trigger at midnight while in is during the first fight against . If midnight strikes on a night during this first battle, 's health will refill to maximum as if neither nor the had done him any damage. This exception does not apply to the battle against .
*An early indicator that a Blood Moon may occur is that the night sky will be devoid of stars.
*Another glitch can occur if Link is able to open his map within a few frames before 12:00 AM strikes, and warp. It does not matter if, for example, Link is already standing on a warp arrival point when he does this. When the game drops Link at the location, the game will have entered its post-Blood Moon state without having done the reset, and will have even reset the wait time before the next Blood Moon as if the scheduled one had successfully occurred.
*The effect of the sky turning red associated with Blood Moons also occurs when reveals its core, right before Link delivers the final blow.
*Blood Moons do not occur when Link is in The Depths. Upon returning to Hyrule or the Sky, if a Blood Moon is pending, it will appear the following night. Despite this, all enemies found in the Depths will still be reset after the event.
*The effect of the sky turning red associated with Blood Moons also occurs when the Demon Dragon's Secret Stone becomes vulnerable.
==Nomenclature==
==Gallery==
File:BotW Blood Moon 2.png|The beginning
File:BotW Blood Moon Monsters.png|The reviving various enemies
File:HWAoC Blood Moon Icon.png|Blood Moon icon from Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
File:BotW Calamity Ganon Blood Moon Artwork.png|Artwork of Calamity Ganon with a Blood Moon
==See Also==
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Category:Mechanics in Tears of the Kingdom