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Do Guardians Respawn in Breath of the Wild?

Do Guardians Respawn in Breath of the Wild?

Guardians are one of the tougher enemies you must fight in Zelda: Breath of the Wild. These hulking mechanical opponents can be very bulky and hit incredibly hard. And after beating them, you could still be afraid that they might come back. This article answers whether Guardians respawn in Breath of The Wild.

Yes, Guardians do respawn in Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The Guardians respawn during an in-game event called the Blood Moon which occurs after every 3 hours of game time.

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Keep reading to learn more about Guardians and the Blood Moon event that can trigger their respawn.

Guardians in Breath of The Wild

Fighting Guardians - Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Yes, Guardians in Zelda: Breath of the Wild can respawn, similar to many other enemies in the game during the Blood Moon event. It can thus be quite useful to spawn camp at certain locations on the map where you know Guardians will respawn to farm their ancient material drops.

Materials, items, weapons, and enemies are all limited in Breath of the Wild. To ensure that you never run out of important items the game has the Blood Moon event to respawn all major enemies and resources. These allow you to collect more items, defeat more enemies and retain the tension of traversal.

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So, like other enemies on the map, Guardians do respawn. If you’re confused if only Corrupted Guardians respawn, then don’t be. All guardians found in the overworld, including Stalkers, Decayed, Skywatchers, and Turrets, respawn. Guardians in Shrines, especially the “Test of Strength” shrines, also respawn during the Blood Moon event.

When Does the Blood Moon Occur?

Blood Moon Cinematic - Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Since the only time that defeated Guardians respawn is when the Blood Moon event happens. It can be useful for you to know when the event might take place.

This can be useful if you’re trying to gauge whether a guardian has spawned in a dangerous area or want to farm them for materials.

Blood Moons do not begin until Link receives the Paraglider and you reach the Great Plateau. You’ll know when you get there since Link will be introduced to the Hyrule Kingdom with some pretty interesting flourish. The Blood Moon itself begins at midnight on special nights when Calamity Ganon’s power is at its peak.

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In terms of actual gameplay, the Blood Moon will typically occur after approximately 3 hours. So while you normally play through the game, you might experience several Blood Moons.

They will mostly occur during midnight; however, if the game detects it’s running out of memory or has loading issues, it might cause the Blood Moon to occur during Mid-day as well.

At the end of the day, the Blood Moon is a way for the game to hard reset the game state, and it attempts to clear the memory. This removes the buggy state of play with a less buggy version and will prevent Zelda: Breath of the Wild from breaking down, glitching, or crashing.


Guardians can be extremely tough opponents, but defeating them can be quite gratifying. Yes, they can respawn, but that just means you can farm them up for better weapons, items, and materials once you’ve got the hang of facing them.