Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Muwo Jeem Shrine Guide

When you get to the Muwo Jeem shrine in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you will be pitted against a Guardian in a combat trial. As the only real objective within the Muwo Jeem shrine, this guide covers tactics to defeat the Guardian and claim your prize.

The Muwo Jeem shrine is located in the southeastern tip of Hyrule, moderately close to Hateno Village. From the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab, you can reach the Muwo Jeem shrine by heading due south along the coastline and traversing the mountains. You can actually see the shrine from the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab if you look south.

Once you’re inside the Muwo Jeem shrine, move toward the center of the large room and the Guardian will appear to engage in battle. The Guardian has an Ancient Battle Axe+ and a Guardian Shield+ to use in this battle.

At the beginning of the battle simply wait for the Guardian to attack. It only attacks with two back-to-back horizontal swipes using the axe. These are fairly easy to dodge if you watch for the weapon to spin. As soon as it spins the Guardian is about to swing.

If you time your dodge to evade just as the attack is about to hit you, Link will earn a Perfect Dodge and be able to follow with a Flurry Rush barrage of attacks. However, even if you don’t get a Perfect Dodge, you still have plenty of time to attack the Guardian between swings. If you get impatient you can use a charge attack to knock the Guardian’s shield back so you can attack. If you don’t knock the shield back before attacking, most of your attacks will be blocked and not inflict any damage.

Periodically the Guardian will hop back and pause its melee attack pattern. When you see this, move around so that one of the large pillars in the shrine is between you and the Guardian. The hop back telegraphs that the Guardian is about to use a damaging spin attack. However, if you make sure there’s a pillar between Link and the Guardian, the spin attack will hit the pillar, incapacitating the Guardian for a short time. If you’re close enough you can run up for a few attacks before the Guardian recovers.

There are times when the Guardian will stop using melee attacks and instead fire off a few blasts of its laser. You can use the pillars to avoid the blasts, or simply make sure you have a shield at the ready. Fighting the Guardian with a single-handed weapon so you can always have a shield up is generally a good idea. Just make sure you lock-on to the Guardian with the ZL shoulder button so your shield remains up as often as possible.

Once you have the Guardian down to about 50 percent health, it will hop back and create a spinning laser on the ground. When this happens an upward gust of wind is generated. This allows you to jump into the air and glide over the laser to reach the Guardian. Come down with an attack to stop the laser spin and the Guardian will return to melee attacks until the next spinning laser segment.

When the Guardian’s health is very low it will hop back again, but this time a bubble of energy will form around the Guardian and it will fire off a charged blast from its laser. This is similar to the Guardians you may have encountered roaming the fields of Hyrule. Astute players can use a Perfect Guard to deflect the laser back at the Guardian, but the timing is extremely strict. It’s far safer and easier to simply run up to the Guardian and attack it before the laser is fully charged. The Guardian won’t have much health so finishing it off shouldn’t take much.

With the Guardian down, collect the Ancient Battle Axe+ and Guardian Shield+ as well as the various Ancient Screws and other crafting parts that are left behind. This also opens the doorway to the final chamber where you will find a chest that holds a powerful Knight’s Bow (attack 26). Continue up the stairs to the monk to claim your Spirit Orb and be on your way.

For more shrine guides and strategies be sure to check out our Zelda: Breath of the Wild game hub!