If you’ve spent any time adventuring in Breath of the Wild, you’ve probably encountered the centaur beasts known as Lynels. They come in a few different varieties and their weapons will vary according to what type of Lynel it is, but they all have one thing in common: they can kick your ass if you’re not careful.
You’ll want to be prepared before you get snared into combat with one of these big beasts, so here are a few tips on how to do just that.
1. Always have some extra heart food.
Lynels have a few basic attack patterns that can be learned pretty quickly, but you have to survive those hits you don’t dodge. The best way to do that is to always have some food that gives you temporary hearts so you’re not one-shot when you accidentally dodge into an incoming swing.
Some foods that grand extra maximum hearts include Hearty Truffles, Big Hearty Truffles, Hearty Radishes, Big Hearty Radishes, and Hearty Bass. Pretty much anything with the prefix Hearty will increase your maximum health until something hits you to take those hearts away. The effect you get depends on how well you cook.
3 Hearty Items X 2 Gourmet Meats = Full Recovery + 16 Hearts
You can find hearty items all over the world, but we recommend pulling out your camera and taking a photo of the items before you use them. That way you can use your Sheikah Sensor to track them on the map. This is especially useful for tracking truffles in a large forest when you go gathering for ingredients.
2. Always have enough weapons and arrows available.
Fighting a Lynel is a pretty grueling fight and you’re guaranteed to lose at least a few weapons during the process. We recommend you keep a short sword and shield available for blocking attacks, but also have a nice ranged weapon for stunning the Lynel by shooting it in the head.
If you can start the fight by sneaking up on the Lynel, you should always do that to get in some free attacks. If he’s already seen you, try shooting him in the head to stun him and buy you some time to get your armor and health situation sorted before you start the fight.
3. “Git gud” at doing a Flurry Rush.
A Flurry Rush is a free attack you get when you time a dodge to perfectly avoid an enemies attack. They’re a great way to get free hits on a Lynel with no chance for him to reciprocate because you’re given a bullet time animation to get off your hits. Lynels have a charge attack that is really easy to activate a Flurry Rush from.
From there, it’s just a matter of making sure you have enough materials and dodging the right attacks. Never try to fight a Lynel at range as they all have a bow with elemental arrows according to their type. At most, you can use your bow to stun them and swoop in for some quick damage as you time your flurry rushes and avoidance.
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