Zelda Breath of the Wild Lynel spawn and farming locations
Lynel is an open world mini boss in Zelda: Breath of the Wild and also one of the toughest opponents in the game. Their greatest value comes from the fact that they drop parts that are used to upgrade several armor sets. Barbarian set requires a ton of Lynel parts and you need them to even upgrade to one star version. Soldier’s Armor and Radiant set also require some parts for the four star upgrade. If you need Lynel Hoof, Guts or Horn read this guide and we’ll show you several locations that Lynel frequent as well as some tips on how to defeat them.
How to Kill White Lynel in Master Mode
Lynel spawn locations in Zelda
They are scattered sporadically throughout Hyrule. We found several spots where you can find more of them close by. I’ll also mark on the map all the other spots, so you can fight them as you do other stuff. There are three flavors of the mini boss in the world of Zelda: Red, Blue and Silver. Silver are the toughest, with the widest variety of attacks, but drop the best weapons and shields. For farming materials best face the red ones, because they are the easiest of the bunch (but drop the lowest level loot). We found three silver ones in the snowy region north of Hebra tower, just west of the Qaza Tokki maze. Two red ones are roaming the canyon southwest of the Lake Tower. There are others around the world and you can see them on the map bellow:
Gold Lynel Locations
Gold Lynels are introduced in the first Zelda BotW DLC – The Master Trials. You can find them only in new hard difficulty mode named Master Mode. Before you decide to kill a golden lynel you have to know that your task is not easy at all. They spawn only after certain conditions are met, and they’re really rare. Check out our guide Gold Lynel Locations in Master Mode if you don’t know where to find them.How to fight Lynel?
All Lynels have similar attacks. They have an AOE fire attack you will recognize because of it doing a roar first (run away from it). They charge you and swing a weapon (backflip dodge this). They charge without their weapons (hold your shield up to not get damage, or just move out of the way). At 50% and 10% health they do a roar fire AOE so watch out for that.
You will have to master the art of Backflip. This is essential. You need to backflip right at the moment Lynel does his weapon attack. If you time it just right you will get a time slowdown and a chance to do a flurry attack. This is how you beat down these enemies. Avoid all their other attacks and prepare for their weapon swings that you can backflip out of and do a counter attack. You will probably go through a lot of weapons when fighting silver mane ones, while red can be killed with one or two weapons.
Recommendation: Skip Lynels that have two handed clubs. They are the only ones I have a very tough time with. They do an overhead attack with their two-hander and have very few swinging attacks that trigger backflip/flurry attack opportunities
There is also a trick to glide into the Lynel and start aiming your bow, slowing time in the meantime, and hitting him with the arrows into the head. Up to three hits should stun him. You charge your attack than and do the heavy charged combo attack while spinning around him. This is a tough to master technique, but isn’t every Lynel fight like that?.
You can also instant-kill a Lynel with an ancient arrow, but they do not drop any parts or weapons this way and you lose a very valuable weapon for nothing. Here’s a video showing how to kill them:
Just hit one with an ancient arrow from Robbies Research. Instant kill. My colliseum lynel is still red. Im either lucky or a beginner.
I have bean playing Zelda botw for a couple years and i have always chickened out of the fights (never beat one) i have the right gear, and equipment almost the exact same as the video but not as advanced, right know i have the master sword and 3 divine beasts. I realized how experienced i am because he defeated that lynel with three hearts, and he had no perks (Divine beasts). Like Woah.
Im on my way to beat a red one as you read this
The best way to kill lynels requires just a single weapon and some arrows. When you shoot a lynel directly in the face (from the eyes to on the mouth not one of the extra furry spots) it opens a large stun window where you can mount the lynel,this gives you 5 hits to the beast where no duribility damage is done to your weapon,so pull out your best. To maximize this damage you should consume a level 3 attack dish,simply made by plopping 3 mighty bananas easily aqquired from the faron rainforest in a pot. Lynels drop some of hyrules best weapons for just a bundle of arrows,good luck in the hunt.
I found a trick to defeat a Lynel, and it’s a lot easier. It is just very tedious and time consuming. It’s quite entertaining to watch sometimes too. The trick is to find a Lynel surrounded by rocks and tall grass, like the one west of Hyrule Castle, south of Tabantha Bridge Stable. Just crouch behind some rocks, use a bow and arrow, wait until the Lynel is facing the opposite direction, and shoot him. But remain behind the rocks at all times, and crouch in the grass after every hit. He may look your direction, but just remain still. He will then begin to panic, and move around. If the question mark appears, make sure it stays white. He will then walk away after a minute. The whole trick is to wait and remain unseen. It will take a while to destroy him, but you will defeat him without the risk of dying and losing all of your weapons.
Another technique is to hold a one handed weapon with shield up for most of the fight, and then when triggering a flurry rush prompt, switch to your most powerful weapon (even if it’s two handed), then after the flurry rush, immediately either run away and then switch back to a one handed, or switch right after and put your shield up, or immediately backflip to dodge an incoming attack. Don not try this against crusher Lynels, because in my experience he will immediately spin and hit you, or trigger a small shockwave which will still kill you if you have low hearts/armor
i beat a silver lynel with just solder stuff whoo
Whenever you kill a lynel, I think they respawn a rank up
no they do not i tried at shatter back point it does not i killed it like a million times bruh
Alright, so this is a very helpful guide, and helped me farm Lynel parts and weapons, also got me my first savage lynel crusher! ?????? But in all seriousness STAY AWAY from lynels until further in the game. Also, GET STASIT PLUS. It helps a lot!!!
You can just upgrade your stasis, freeze the lynel, launch a few arrows in its face, and climb onto its back by pressing a. then, deliver some sword slashes. Repeat this until it’s dead. This is super useful. I did it with two lynels and only had to eat three or four hearts.
U can easy kill them by using Naboris ability if I remember it dide in 3 shots
Pretty much every Lynel is silver now for me except for the red one near Zora and the blue one in hurtle castle also friendly advice if you’ve searched up how to beat the Stalnox for the hylian shield and are kinda scared it’s really easy I shot his eye with a bomb arrow and I used a SPIKED BOKO CLUB when his eye popped out killed him one try no hearts lost he’s easier then a white bokoblin in my opinion and you get really good crap and if you do kill him take the royal broadsword it has attack up +22
U are correct I defeated no hearts lost to it and the weapons it drops are O.P
Once I was fighting a Lynel, and I wasn’t far from it, and it started shooting arrows at me. I shot an arrow at him previously. But I don’t think they shoot while in melee range. Anyone know why that Lynel shot at me?
Ps. It was a silver Lynel
If you had triggered his bow, he will still shoot you at melee range if he doesn’t get his shot off and it’s charged while you are near it, or possibly you using your bow activates his bow
Hey you missed a red one on ploymus mountain?
Call me Lazy….. I literally run around the map for just the Lynels. I hide where they can’t see me, and fire a $hit ton of arrows to kill them. I was spotted a couple of times so I got scared and ran away.? All you have to do is run out of sight, and sneak back…
There’s actually a really easy way to farm Lynels if you have the weapons. Get a two handed weapon(I suggest farming the Colosseum) and buff up with atk up food and a set of Barbarian armor. The armor triples your atk iirc. Stun the lynel with a arrow to the face(or stasis them) and do a charge atk in front of him. Keep hitting him and circling around him as you do your charge atk, the lynel will keep trying to turn to face you, but can’t catch up. Once you run out of stam bail and repeat. A royal broadsword is enough to kill a white lynel. If you plan to do the mounting strat, you can get in a few hits before mounting for maximizing dmg.
Attack up food and the attack up from barbarian armor do not stack as they are the same exact same buff, only 1 of them buffs you giving +50% and the other is canceled. Only ancient armor buff (+80% dmg with ancient and guardian weapons) and attack up from food (+50% all dmg) can be stacked as they aren’t the same buff.
How do I get the ancient armor? I have many sets of armor, and was once given a gift of an ancient arrow, yet would love to be able to get/make more ancient arrows, or find out how to get the ancient armor set?
U can get ancient armor at the akkala ancient tech lab it’s not to far from the east akkala stables
gt akkala lab, very northeast of akkala/the whole map, light the furnace, bring a million rupees and ancient cores/giant ancient cores, make ur ancient weapons
when a bow has 2,3,4…it shoots 2 3 4 arrows at once. but i believe your count only reflects 1 shot
There are also two Red maned Lynels near taoba grasslands, where you also get the giant horse quest.
There is a white maned with stripes Lynel in the Coliseum Ruins near Outskirts Stable. There’s also a treasure chest at the top of the ruins and there are a few bokoblins and moblins as well. Also watch out for the Ganon goo (which I’ve taken to calling it) and it has no eyeball to shoot.
I’ve gotten all four Divine Beasts and defeated Ganon, however the one by the Lanayru Road gate is still white. Am I missing something?
Who else has a lot of fun trying to take a good picture while that centaur on steroids runs around like a maniac?
I noticed some people are confused about silver and white. White have zebra stripes and white mane. Silver have black mane and zebra stripes.
After all lynels upgrade to silver as you progress you can only find lower ones in 3 places.
Red – Zora area because it’s attached to a side quest
Blue – gatehouse one of hyrule castle (west side)
White – gatehouse two of hyrule castle (east side)
If you are looking for weapons picks though you might have trouble. The hyrule castle ones don’t drop weapons most of the time. I tested and you can get a guaranteed drop if you die during fight and then beat him. I did get a drop from the white one once without dying but I don’t know what triggered it. I can’t remember if Miphas power triggered during that fight. Maybe I’ll test purposely using Mipha to see if that can trigger it.
When the Lynel does the roar followed by the Fire Blast (3:20 in the video up top), as long was you are right next to the Lynel (literally right up next to it’s flank), and have your shield up to block both, you can get 4 hits in between the roar and blast, and 4-8 hits in after the blast, depending on how fast the Lynel hops back to charge again. Of course, this requires you to be very up close and personal in the Lynel fight, so the battle tactic that the guy in the video used would not work in this situation.
Hey everyone, I’m wondering if anyone can help me. While doing my Album, I realized I had missed the Blue Lynel’s. I’m now on the Fourth Divine Beast, having beaten the Elephant, Bird, and Camel, so I only have one left, and now, I can’t find any blue Lynel’s. Are there any that still spawn blue after this many beasts down? Thanks for any help you might have.
I don’t believe that you will easily find Blue Lynels in the wild anymore. Have you tried talking to the guy in the Hateno Research Lab? You should be able to buy the Blue Lynel picture from him.
my method maybe a bit cheap but i don’t use flurries or parries. I use stasis+, my strongest weapon, savage lynel bow (5x is better, and lots of arrows) and high level attack power boost (bananax4+monster extract), max ancient armor for insurance.
save and load in front of his spawn point, stasis, arrow to the head, mount attack, slow-mo arrow as you get off, after you land then try another head shot, stasis when he charges, repeat.
There’s also a Lynel at Lanaryu Road – East Gate.
The best method I’ve used (for red anyway) is stasis+. Let him charge you. Freeze him right before he gets to you. Wack him 3 /4 times and run away. Repeat. I never get hit by him this way
Good tips here, but I’ve actually found using a 2H weapon to be the best method to kill them (currently using a 2H mace from a silver Lynel).
As mentioned before, start with a gliding descent so you can shoot him in the face with an arrow. You know an arrow will stun when you hear the “ping” associated with a headshot. Unload as many arrows to the face as possible during slow-mo without depleting your stamina wheel.
When you land – and this is critical – I start charging up my swing with the 2H weapon. I let Urbosa’s fury charge up, but I don’t release it just yet. Continue swinging in circles with your 2H weapon until the stun from the headshot arrow wears off.
Right as the Lynel stands up (the stun wears off), release your charged attacked. Urbosa’s fury will do a good bit of damage and re-stun him. You can get a few good whacks off before mounting him.
If you do this cycle correctly, a silver Lynel should be at half health after the first dismount. I’m also wearing full barbarian set with the set bonus, so that definitely helps expedite things along.
After this, all you need is 1 or 2 more stuns coupled with perfect dodges, and he’s dead.
When I started farming Lynels, I had to use all 3 charges of Urbosa, but using the rotation above, it’s pretty easy to kill them with 1 Urbosa and a few skilled dodges / arrow stuns.
As mentioned above, always have stasis+ on standby for those “oh crap” moments where you panick. Don’t underestimate the efficacy of a savage bow with the x5 stat. They can shave off 100HP per shot and can definitely carry some weight if you are smart with your shots and have decent aim.
Good luck.
-Gonlulator
Just a note. The further in the game you are. The harder the lynels. Ones marked here as red show up as white for me. But I do love your map of the locations. At this point I just assume they are all going to be hard lol
I’ve completed the game and all the lynels I’ve met are silver. The one in the north next to the North Lomei Labyrinth, the one at the Lanaryu East Gate, and the one in the Coliseum were all silver.
I think it depends on how many Divine Beasts you have beat, but the one at Shatterback Point is always red. Because I beat 1-2 Divine Beasts and the Lynel at Coliseum was blue
i defeat a white in a easyl way, i just backflip when he attack in meele and shoot an arrow in the face to stun , than 4 attack + mount and another 4 attacks , if is charging me with the sword i just use parry(parry is great you stop the attack and does not use durability) and quickly an arrow in the face to stun and i repeat the previuso sequence, i used the master sword and it’s last up to the final attack, so i kill him without lose any weapons and i got 3 powerful weapon
Easy way to fight lynel Max out your Hylian Armor to max for 60 DEF, eat some food with triple max attack (mighty bananas) buy many of them, Get some faries (just in case) have plenty of bomb arrows and when you start facing it start out with a surprise glide over its head shoot it in the head, drop down slash with lightning and keep running away using stasis and bomb arrows, get near strike then mount switch to big sword or axe, strike repeat will work on all lynels and you wont take much damage if you have 60 DEF
Ancient Armor (from the Akkala Lab) is much better. Maxed out, it will give 28 defense per armor piece (so 84 total defense), and once the whole set is upgraded twice (and worn together) it will give you Ancient Proficiency, which is an 80% boost to Guardian Weapon attack power (compared to 50% from the Barbarian full set). Plus, you’re able to drink an attack enhancing elixir (as the Ancient Set does not boost the base attack stat, but only the Guardian Weapon attack stat). Even without fully maxing Ancient gear, it will give you 18 defense per piece (54 defense). This is barely less than the Hylian armor defense (when the Hylian Set is maxed), and it gives a damage boost. Plus, if you go farm weapons from “x tests of strength” you can infinitely have weapons that deal 80+ damage (in the case of Guardian Sword++ with a damage perk of around 10+ attack damage, bringing it to around 50 damage, and then adding the 80% boost.)
Where can I find the ancient armor set? I have gone to the lab, I believe anyway. Where I get the stasis and others upgraded correct? After those I also was given an ancient arrow after some mission or side quest that I don’t remember. I am very curious how to get this other ancient armor, and how to get or make more of the ancient arrows? Please help a confused older dad who plays way too many games?
You need to go to the Akkala Research lab which is up in the NE corner of the map. It involves a sidequest (similar to the Hateno Research lab sidequest but more dangerous) before you can access the Akkala lab.
You can buy ancient armor, and weapons and ancient arrows there, for a price.
To the north west is the akkala tech lab. There you can get the armor once you have lit the ancient furnace
its northeast bro. northwest is hebra
barbarian armor is better if u don’t wanna upgrade the ancient armor, it doesn’t need to be enhanced to have the attack up bonus, can be further enhanced with 3 tier attack up food. the attack boost is fr all weapons, not just the ancient/guardian weapons. fr all i know the guardian n ancient weapons arent that durable, but that can probably be fixed using durability transfer
You forgot the red lynel up in shatterback point, east of Zara’s domain
Other than the fighting tips mentioned, I have here 5 tips for you to keep in mind for facing lynels.
1: When you try and dodge his sweeping attack when he trots at you, don’t be discouraged if you don’t get the flurry rush. He’ll circle around you, and that will be your chance to slash at his legs with your sword. This will make him stop and fight you in close range; lynels are extremely predictable in close range combat.
2: Club lynels don’t have attacks that can’t be flurry rushed, unlike spear or sword lynels. Some might complain about the resulting shockwave from the overhead attack, but it can be flurry rushed with a side-hop, as long as you aren’t too close to the lynel. Try staying close to the tip of the club, and then side-hop. The results won’t disappoint.
3: Spear lynels have 1 attack that can’t be flurry rushed. And that is when they back up and jump at you with their spear. My advice? Inch forward, and then shield bash him once he gets to you. Then slash at him with your weapon, or if you have a stasis rune+ prepared, pop him in the face with a few arrows.
4: Never use heavy type weapons. When using a heavy weapon, your shield is de-equipped. Your shield is your last assurance for stupid mistakes, and even a single slip up can be fatal against lynels. Plus, lynels have a ton of health and won’t be affected by the greatest asset to a heavy type weapon, knock-back. Using a heavy type weapon cripples your offense and defense, so you would be better off only using it if it does less than double the damage of a sword or triple the damage of a spear. Honestly, spears aren’t that great against them either, but the range is helpful against sword type lynels.
5: Prioritize attack over defense when considering your player stats. Lets be honest, most lynels will one shot you when you’re at the early to mid stages of the game, and boosted hearts don’t help much. And even in the late stages of the game, lynels will shave off huge portions of your health at a time, and it’s heartbreaking to use up all of your heart recovery items. So to effectively kill a lynel, one must avoid getting hit.
His attack strategy is predictable, but the longer things drag on, the more likely you will make a mistake. A good offense therefore, is the best defense. With a percentage boost of attack of say 20%, you will kill the lynel 20% faster. It’s just that simple.
I personally don’t have trouble with food (i have a full page off full recovery foods) and i normally get hit only once or twice during a savage lynel fight(w/ claymore)
so i think royal claymores are the best option for lynels since royal claymores have pretty good durability, do decent damage, but they aren’t really a good weapon you would wanna save.
also spin attack has insane dps…
I’d say for when facing a Club Lynel, you should try to chip it down with Bomb Arrows (preferably using a Savage Lynel bow for the x3 or x5 shot enhancements). However, try to stay barely beyond the range you would take when fighting melee. Just far enough that you won’t explode yourself (done that a few times), and close enough that he won’t bring his bow out and absolutely wreck your chance to win.
For me I just make a 3 teir/max defence up food with a long duration and eat that red Lynel you can just stand still as he charges you best part only does 1/4 a heart to you 🙂 btw this works with all Lynel types but each type requires better gear
Odd you don’t have the lynel near the Zora kingdom where you get all the shock arrows for entering the divine beast
I didn’t do the Zora questline at the time the article was written. Found the others while hunting for shrines *shrugs*
Use the updrafts from the fires he creates to use slo-mo.
The two in the southwest canyon are both silver for me.
If you’ve completed a sizable chunk of the game, then the Lynels will automatically become a higher difficulty (i.e. resulting in some Blue, Red, and White Lynels perhaps becoming Silver).
Thanks for pointing out several locations I hadn’t found yet! There’s a spot or two also worth mentioning, a blue lynel(some have reported it as silver, maybe it upgrades!) is on the peninsula just northeast of Mount Lanayru, and a red one where you have a star marked on that map, just east of the Lanayru Road – East Gate.
As a quick correction, there are FOUR lynel types. Red(2000HP), Blue(3000HP), White(4000HP) and Silver(5000HP). I think Silver Lynels only have a chance to show up later in the game, perhaps triggered by collected hearts? The Lynel at Colosseum Ruins is Silver for me, not Red for instance. If you’re not sure if you see a white or silver lynel in the distance, use your camera rune! They have different torso/horse coloring, with purple stripes.
Other tips for combat: Sidehops! Backflip practice is super rewarding, but so is the sidehop! All lynels have an attack where they sheathe their weapon and rush you with their arms on the ground. A well timed sidehop to the left of right will trigger a perfect dodge here. Sidehops are also how you trigger perfect dodges from the scarier club-weilding lynels who like to smash from overhead more often than not (their clubs are some of the absolute highest attack weapons in the game, along with their beastly bows and savage shields!)
Also: Mounting! Whenever you get a stun off by accurately shooting a lynel in the face(Tip, you’ll have a great opportunity after they finish shooting fireballs at you), you can run towards it and press A to mount! Sadly, it’s not like taming a horse(how awesome would that be?) but you’ll get the opportunity to mash your melee attack button for up to five hits while he tries to buck you off. It adds up to some pretty hefty damage, and the best part? It doesn’t use up any durability on your weapons!
As a last tip: DO NOT TRY TO FIGHT LYNELS AT LONG RANGE WITH YOUR BOW. They have deadly aim with their elemental arrows, and will even fire into the sky if you try to take cover behind objects, raining pain from above.
Good luck and have fun, future lynel hunters! Bring plenty of fairies and recovery food if you’re just starting out– they pack a serious wallop!
These are some fantastic tips on top of the awesome guide! Thanks for taking the time to share!
I beat a white label with just arrows
THE lynel was in the north of of hyrule near the shroud of darkness i hid on top of a rock and used all different arrows and when he did the ball of energy and moved I dropped back so he would not see me and kept doing it till he was dead just did the same with a Red lynel
Was he firing arrows at you? Because Lynels have the most aim-bot arrow shots, so I haven’t been able to slay any Lynels this way. Not to call you a liar, jus wanted a little clarification.
If you have shock resistant rubber suit you can defeat lynel that shoots electric arrows using fire arrows. I have done so several times.
When I first started fighting Lynels, I was too scared to go near them lol. I just stayed further and killed a lot of them with arrows. They will shoot shock arrows back, but I think it’s really easy to just dodge those arrows. It took more time of course. Now I just fight with stasis and swords haha.
The reason your lynel is white in the colloseum is cause it upgrades later on! I dont know What causes it but i fought a red twice there but it turned into a white!
I had a blue lynel once, then it changed silver
this is for BoTH master:that is because you got another devine beast or just have defeated a lot of things
Looking into the games’ files, theres a hidden exp system that causes certain monsters to grow in ranks, however the colosseum completely ignores this, and the lynel, aswell as all of the monsters on the upper floors, will grow stronger with more divine beast you have freed.
Actually, the colosseum ranks are based on divine beasts. 0-2 beasts is red, 3 is blue (or white I forget) and 4 is silver. The other enemies in there level up the same way, and most notably at 4 beasts, they all wield elemental weapons.
The lynel I fought in the colliseum had a black mane.
That’s a silver one
To add to your mounting technique, once the Lynel bucks you off quickly pull out your bow to trigger slow motion, then L-Target and unleash some arrows in the back of his head! My stamina is full, and I usually use a Savage Lynel Bow. From that range all three arrows will hit and you’ll deal some massive damage!
Another good tip is to wear the Barbarian Armor for 1.5x damage! If you don’t have the Barbarian Armor you can cook 5 Mighty Bananas together. You can farm about 80 of them per blood moon, south of the Faron Tower. Take a picture of one to add your compendium, and once you’ve upgraded your Sheikah Slate and added the Sheikah Sensor +, you’ll stock up on Mighty Bananas in no time!
well i mean you can kinda get tons from the yiga clan hideout but yeah
Another easy way to kill lynels is having the ancient armor upgraded and using ancient/guardian weapons with an attack boost. Ancient weapons do extra damage and stack with the attack boost to deal insane damage
An easy way to beat lynels is to just keep on fighting them until you get an understanding of what attacks will be used: when, which are easiest to flurry rush, which to dodge, and which ones leave an opening for a headshot.
Also, know which lynels you’re ready to fight. the one near zoras domain is quite an early game fight, as it will never change from a red lynel, but the one near kakoriko village will just get stronger and stronger the more you wait. Know when you’re ready and fight it then, don’t wait for it to just get stronger
Do not kill Lynels with bow? I always kill them with bow and fire, bomb or lighting arrows its easy when they shot fire use the air from the fire to fly up and use your bow and let it rain down they won’t even know what hit them lol, for the Lynels that fight with sword and shield I use one handed swords and shield but for the ones with spears or the giant hummers (Those gold big hummers dont know the name of those weapons) I switch between swords and bow ?