Blood moons, or lunar total eclipses, take on a distinct red hue during total lunar eclipses. In 2014-2015’s lunar tetrad some speculated it could be seen as a portent for end times or signposting events to come.
Blood Moons occur every full moon night at midnight (in-game). They trigger enemy horde waves to appear, while minibosses and bosses gain health back.
1. Frequency
“Blood moon” typically refers to a total lunar eclipse that appears coppery red as the light from all Earth’s sunrises and sunsets is dispersed across its face during totality, however there may also be non-scientific explanations why a full Moon may be called such.
Biblical scholars refer to lunar eclipses which coincide with Jewish holidays such as Passover or Sukkot as “blood moons”, occurring every two years approximately. Though rare, four consecutive blood moons could potentially appear within that two year span.
Predicting when a blood moon will happen can be done several ways, with the most obvious sign being when both sky and water appear a darker, reddish-pink shade than normal during one. There will also be audible signals when one approaches; when close to passing through its shadow center.
As an additional indicator of an impending blood moon, its day before will usually be stormy or rainy (or snowy if occurring in winter) with dense cloud cover or at least very stormy weather. Furthermore, lunar eclipses often take place when the Sun is closest to horizon at dusk.
At a Blood Moon, all horde waves will have shorter durations than usual – this means that regular waves may only last several hours instead of an entire day! As such, it is imperative that horde settings be increased whenever an approaching Blood Moon occurs.
On days when there is a Blood Moon, it is wise to scout at least one portal so as to be prepared for an attack. Portals will produce Blood Moon waves at roughly the same time they normally would produce regular ones; however, their maximum Spawned Zombies limit will restrict how many waves can spawn simultaneously.
2. Range
Blood moons only appear during lunar eclipses when the Moon passes entirely within Earth’s umbra, often turning it a coppery red hue. Some religious groups saw these four consecutive blood moons that occurred between 2014-2015 as signs of impending doom or signs that it is time for Armageddon.
Multiple factors impact how many zombies appear each night, but one of the key ones is your game’s “Blood Moon Enemy Count” setting. Raising it will increase zombie horde size and difficulty; generally it should not exceed 250 as this value may become overwhelming and difficult to deal with.
If a Blood Moon event occurs, its duration will make the sky, water, and rain appear red for its entirety, providing a visual cue that indicates when an invasion force will arrive; players should then immediately start gathering food and ammunition to prepare a defense strategy against its arrival. Furthermore, sleeping speeds up during this period.
Hordes will appear near the player, leaving no place for them to hide! These zombies won’t fearlessly charge towards you like other hordes would, making their presence known by attacking bases and upgrading weapons without fear. Just one horde could easily bring it all crashing down.
As part of a Blood Moon event, enemies may drop KO Cannons during combat and goldfish and bunnies spawned from statues will multiply exponentially, making hunting resources and gathering resources during such nights more challenging than usual.
As with anything in the Wild West, blood moons vary greatly across centuries and time periods; some go without any, while other centuries may experience several consecutive ones. Over the next 250 years alone there will be 17 consecutive tetrads of four blood moons!
Blood Moons occur between 6pm and 9am in-game and can be distinguished by the Day Number turning red, faster game performance and female NPCs speaking more irritably or aggressively than usual – this may be a reference to menstruation cycle symptoms and premenstrual syndrome that may trigger this reaction in some women.
3. Base
At a total lunar eclipse, Earth positions itself between the Moon and Sun to shield it from direct sunlight. When this happens, only indirect light reflects off air molecules in Earth’s atmosphere to reach the surface of the Moon causing its surface to illuminate with reddish hue. Thus giving birth to its common name: blood moon. While some might interpret a lunar eclipse as sign of impending doom or destruction due to Earth’s shadow passing over it; instead it’s simply another natural event which takes place when Moon passes through our shadow during passage through Earth’s shadow.
A lunar eclipse also triggers what’s known as “supermoon”, in which the Moon appears up to 7% larger due to being closer to Earth than usual. Although many have used the term, supermoon is not an official term used by astronomers.
Blood Moons in the game are indicated by the status message “The Blood Moon is rising…” All water in the world (excluding rain) turns red for the duration of this event and even the Moon itself has its face turned towards us with an increasingly red hue while our screen gets an increasingly red filter applied to it. Furthermore, regular nighttime enemies as well as new more dangerous ones increase significantly in number.
This increase is limited by a maximum number of enemies set globally for both single-player and multiplayer gameplay, known as Max Spawned Enemies. This limit exists regardless of Blood Moon settings – even if someone sets their Blood Moon spawn rate to 100, their enemy count cannot go beyond this cap.
Blood Moons not only increase spawn rates, but they can also bring about the appearance of an unusual foe known as the KO Cannon. This powerful tool can make Hardmode much quicker as it revives dead bosses back to life more efficiently than usual.
Calamity Ganon’s malice activated by a Blood Moon also affects both sky and moon in red hue, giving rise to new Overworld Bosses to revive, rewards from Challenge maps to replenish, as well as materials ranging from plants to ore deposits restocked.
4. Random
Some players assume Blood Moons appear at random times, but this is far from accurate. A number of factors can trigger such events – overusing your engine and creating large explosion chains being two prime examples.
Use of large numbers of blocks, items and monsters in one chain can quickly fill up system memory and lead to the Blood Moon effect – sometimes known as panic blood moon triggering – which may help clear some space if your game keeps crashing.
There are various other factors that could cause a blood moon, including certain mods and your current game stage. For instance, having the “Devil’s Hand” mod installed increases zombie spawn rates so it could increase the frequency of Blood Moons occurring more often.
Chances of seeing a blood moon depend heavily on player location and time of day. For instance, such events won’t occur if playing on a server which uses daylight as part of its in-game day; also fast travel cannot be used; or when at dusk.
The term ‘blood moon’ refers to four total lunar eclipses that take place within two years – known as lunar tetrads in astronomy – which often hold special religious significance for people and are rare events that often make headlines in newspapers around the world. 2014 and 2015 eclipses are often referred to as blood moon prophecies.
Another way to increase the odds of a blood moon occurring is using the ‘blood moon Enemy Count’ modifier found in the game options menu and which adjusts the maximum number of blood moon zombies that can spawn at one time. Raising this value will have an immediate impact on horde battles at higher game stages; however, doing so could result in significant performance impacts both on clients and servers alike.