Yiga Blademaster
Race | ||
Gender | Male | |
Games | ||
Location | Yiga Clan Hideout | |
Rewards | ||
Threat |   | |
Effective | Any | |
Health | 400 HP | |
Related | ||
"These are the elite soldiers of the Yiga Clan. They favor the windcleaver blade and are extremely agile despite their bulky build. At this Yiga Clan rank, they have mastered a technique that allows them to manipulate the very earth. By striking the ground, they can create stone pillars and blasts of air."
The Yiga Blademaster is an enemy in Breath of the Wild, Age of Calamity, and Tears of the Kingdom.
Breath of the Wild
They are a part of the Yiga Clan, and occasionally teleport close to Link after he has defeated Master Kohga in the Yiga Clan Hideout. They have an affinity for Mighty Bananas, so Link can use this to his advantage during combat, but this is mainly used as a way of distracting the Blademasters inside of the Hideout.
The Blademasters at the Hideout during the infiltrations of the Divine Beast Vah Naboris quest and Kihiro Moh Shrine discovery in The Champions' Ballad DLC can kill Link with a single strike, though those encountered in the overworld afterwards are less powerful. Just as much as these Blademasters can single-strike Link, they can be single-hit killed with basically any weapon when performing successful sneakstrikes.
Unlike the Yiga Footsoldiers, they carry a Windcleaver and are very passive and methodical fighters that make Link keep his distance from them. They can also alter the ground to attack Link, which creates an updraft that, by using the Paraglider, and is a way to get into the air and get in an attack on the Blademaster.
It's assumed that Yiga Blademasters don't die once defeated, but rather, teleport away to flee. However, shooting them with Ancient Arrows effectively vaporizes them, implying that they indeed die if this weapon is used against them.
Yiga Blademasters cannot be disarmed using Perfect Guards regardless of the Shield Guard of the particular shield used. As such, they have to be slain to obtain their weapons.
The Stolen Heirloom
A Yiga Blademaster is the main antagonist of The Stolen Heirloom Shrine Quest to unlock the Lakna Rokee Shrine. He is shown to have stolen the Sheikah Heirloom from Lady Impa's Hall, as Dorian, one of Impa's guards, is a former Yiga Clansman who defected to the Sheikah Tribe thanks to his wife, who was previously assassinated by the Yiga Clan when Dorian was sniffed out by the Clan. Recovering the Heirloom involves fighting and defeating said Blademaster.
Given the possibility that the player hasn't gone to the Yiga Clan Hideout as part of the quest to board Vah Naboris, the extorting Blademaster is likely to be the first encounter the player would have with one of these towering shrouded warriors.
Age of Calamity
The Yiga Blademasters are treated as sub-bosses in the early stages of the game that involve the Yiga Clan, and have mostly the same moveset as their counterparts in Breath of the Wild, only that they are more numerous. They are also considerably more resilient than in Breath of the Wild.
Sooga has a more expanded moveset than the Blademasters, employing more varied attacks while wielding two Swords of Devotion.
Tears of the Kingdom
Like in Breath of the Wild, they are a part of the Yiga Clan, and occasionally teleport close to Link after he has defeated Master Kohga in the Depths at the Abandoned Hebra Mine. They have an affinity for Mighty Bananas, so Link can use this to his advantage during combat. Blademasters are often encountered at various Yiga branches across Hyrule, notably at the former Akkala Ancient Tech Lab, the cabin on the Great Plateau, and the Yiga Clan Maritta Branch Cave next to Irich Plain, where they are each guarding a piece of the Yiga Armor Set. They will also disguise themselves as trees with Mighty Bananas laid out as bait, appearing if Link attempts to collect the bananas or if he directly attacks the trees instead.
The Yiga Clan Hideout no longer has any Yiga Blademasters that will attack, but rather a Yiga Blademaster NPC standing atop a high platform that Link can interact with once he has all pieces of the Yiga Set and wears them to infiltrate the hideout. This Blademaster will not recognize Link but assume him to be a new recruit, and put him through trials that involve him defeating progressively larger groups of Yiga Footsoldiers that attack him at once. When Link clears all of the trials, the Blademaster rewards him with the Lightning Helm and the Earthwake Technique, allowing Link to use the same ground-altering attack as Blademasters if he isn't holding a weapon. Another Blademaster NPC can be talked to in the treasure room, and the pit where Link fought Master Kohga in the previous game is now a chasm leading to the Depths. There are no Yiga Blademasters that are encountered below the surface of Hyrule.
They will now carry and attack with a decayed Eightfold Longblade, which functions similarly to the previous game's Windcleaver. They remain very passive and methodical fighters that make Link keep his distance from them. They can also alter the ground to attack Link, which creates an updraft that, by using the Paraglider, and is a way to get into the air and get in an attack on the Blademaster. Upon completing The Yiga Clan Exam sidequest, which also requires Link to disguise as a Yiga soldier, another Yiga Blasdemaster NPC will reward him with a rare Eightfold Longblade✨, an undecayed variant of the Eightfold Longblade.
It's assumed that Yiga Blademasters don't die once defeated, but rather, teleport away to flee. However, shooting them with arrows fused with Ancient Blades effectively vaporizes them, implying that they indeed die if this weapon is used against them.
Yiga Blademasters cannot be disarmed using Perfect Guards regardless of the Shield Guard of the particular shield used. As such, they have to be slain to obtain their weapons.
Gallery
A close-up of a Yiga Blademaster
Trivia
- The Yiga Blademasters are the largest Sheikah shown in both games, standing at twice Link's height and with a width similar to a Goron.
- As they are more difficult to beat than the Yiga Footsoldiers, they can drop Gems as opposed to Rupees in Breath of the Wild, though this is notably less common. In Tears of the Kingdom, they drop Sundelions and Mighty Bananas along with more valuable Rupees.
- The Blademasters are given to pick up melee weapons that they find lying on the ground in a similar fashion as they do with bananas. However, they don't use these weapons, and once it happens, the picked-up weapon is effectively unrecoverable even if the Blademaster is slain.