How to find and beat White-Maned Lynel in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (TotK)

Anyone who has played Breath of the Wild for a decent amount of time remembers the Lynel. These fearsome centaur-lion hybrids functioned as easily the most dangerous enemies as well as the most enjoyable once learned. As one would expect, Lynels have made their grand comeback in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, although they show up here noticeably less frequently than in the last game. And even if you do find one, it won’t always appear in its White-Maned form. If you would like to find out how to both locate and defeat the White-Maned Lynel in Tears of the Kingdom, then take a look at our guide below.

White-Maned Lynel locations

To have a chance at meeting the White-Maned Lynel, you will have to engage with the enemies’ “level up” system, so to speak. As you defeat more enemies across the land of Hyrule, foes will generally spawn in different colors, which signals a more powerful variant. Despite this, the first Lynel you meet will probably come in its base red-maned form. But if you beat that Lynel and continue to defeat other enemies, the Lynels will eventually upgrade to their blue form and then further into their White-Maned form. White-Maned Lynels are not the most powerful variation—that honor goes to the Silver Lynels—but they can still easily overwhelm you if unprepared.

As for specific locations where you can find the Lynels’ different variants, I have only managed to come across two so far as of the time of this writing. I managed to find one of them directly east of Rito Village and shortly to the southeast of Tama Pond.

Screenshot via PC Invasion

Later on, I found another Lynel in Rabia Plain, located to the northeast of Kakariko Village.

Screenshot via PC Invasion

In all, Tears of the Kingdom features a total of 12 Lynel locations, around half of the total in Breath of the Wild. Notably, the Hyrule Compendium entry for the White-Maned Lynel states that you can find it both in the Faron Grasslands Depths and the Central Hyrule Depths. So you can also try and explore those locations to see if you come across one. But if you would like a rundown on the exact coordinates of all 12 locations, you can visit our Silver Lynel guide here.

Fighting the White-Maned Lynel

The White-Maned Lynel and its three other variants boast a wide arsenal of attacks, each of which can devastate you if not careful. Additionally, the Lynel’s moveset changes based on whether it wields a sword and shield, spear, or club. Here are the moves that you can expect from the sword and shield Lynels specifically.

Sword and shield moves

• Three-hit combo – When up close, the Lynel will usually rear up its right arm and come at you with three swipes of its sword. As soon as its arm begins to come down, you can time your backflip and trigger a flurry rush for a decent amount of damage. If you dodge too early on its first swipe, immediately backflipping again can still activate the flurry rush on the second swing, although it’s safer to learn the timing of the first swing. Additionally, you can parry this attack to briefly stagger the Lynel, providing another opening to take advantage of. You can parry nearly every attack the Lynel has, so if you prefer parries over flurry rushes, feel free to rely on those instead.
• Double-arm attack – In close quarters, the Lynel can also bring both of its arms up before swinging them down in a hug-like motion. The timing of this is slightly delayed compared to the three-hit combo, so wait ever so slightly before backflipping or parrying.
• Running slash – When at a distance, it can occasionally rear back with its sword up, run straight at you, and swing right when it gets close to you. This attack has a rather specific timing for the flurry rush and parry. Try and hit the button right when the Lynel comes into melee range to land the counter. Just like with the previous two sword attacks, a well-timed backflip will activate the flurry rush.

Spear moves

So far, I have only come across the sword and shield-wielding Lynels in Tears of the Kingdom. Having said that, the spear and club variants undoubtedly carry over their movesets wholesale from Breath of the Wild much like the sword and shield ones do. So here are the remaining weapon-exclusive moves based on my experiences with Breath of the Wild.

• Jumping spear slam – This serves as the only spear-exclusive move that the Lynels have. The creature twirls its spear before leaping high into the air and slamming its spear on the ground once it lands. Simply running away from the attack will easily allow you to avoid it, but you also have the option of parrying it right when the Lynel lands. If you parry from a short distance away, you will deflect the small shockwave emitting from the spear, but nothing else will happen. However, if you stand close and parry the spear directly, you will stagger the Lynel for a brief opening.

Club moves

• Basic vertical slam – The Lynel will lift its club up high and slam it down, which can occur once or three times in succession. Although you can sidestep the attack for a flurry rush, doing so leaves you at risk of getting hit by the follow-up shockwaves. There is a variation of this attack without the shockwave, but the difference in telegraphing is subtle, so it’s best to either run to the side or parry the club right when it comes down.
• Spin attack – For this move, the Lynel will wave its club around in the air before spinning it on the ground. Running away from the move or parrying it will serve as your best course of action here.  The hitbox of the club while it spins is fairly accurate to the model, so press the parry button right as the club is physically about to hit you to successfully deflect it.
• Running slam – When far away, the Lynel may bring its club up high before sprinting at you and slamming the weapon down. This move always leaves behind a shockwave when the club hits the ground, making sidestepping for flurry rushes completely unviable. You should instead parry this move right when the Lynel enters melee range.

Miscellaneous moves

The White-Maned Lynels can perform all of the below moves no matter what weapon they wield, so always look out for them.

• Jousting attack – After running around a bit from a distance, the Lynel will come toward you with its weapon in the air and swipe you. You can anticipate and time your dodges or parries much more easily here than with the quicker running attacks for both the sword and the club, Just remember to backflip for the flurry rush.
• Charge – Another long-distance option, the Lynel will get on all fours and charge quickly at you. You can parry this, of course, but the timing window for the flurry rush is actually extremely generous here, so stick to sidestepping it.
• Bow and arrow – When you are far away or up in the air, the Lynel can draw its bow and fire either directly at you or toward the sky so they rain down on you. This attack seems a bit easier to dodge than it was in Breath of the Wild, so simply running or gliding to the side will do the trick.
• Fireballs – The Lynel jumps back, charges up fire in its mouth, and breathes three fireballs in your direction. Running to the side will work, although doing so up close is a bit easier than doing it at a distance. The leadup to the attack also leaves the Lynel perfectly vulnerable to a quick headshot. If you fight the Lynel in a grassy area, the fireballs will burn the grass and cause an updraft, allowing you to glide up and land some easy headshots. Parrying the fireballs also serves as an effective strategy, although you should mainly do this up close, as that will stagger the Lynel and interrupt the attack.
• Horn attack – This is a new attack exclusive to Tears of the Kingdom. At melee range, the Lynel will lean its head back and swing it to the side to attack with its horn. The move functions similarly to the double-arm attack that the sword and shield variants have, as it has a somewhat delayed timing and can be dodged with a backflip.
• Explosion – This attack is exclusive to the White-Maned and Silver Lynels, at least in Breath of the Wild. They seem to perform it less frequently here, and I never got it to trigger during my sole fight against the White-Maned Lynel. But I assume that the White-Maned variant still has this move, so here’s how it works. The Lynel will belt out a powerful roar, bring its weapon up, and slam it down, causing a massive explosion to trigger within the creature’s vicinity. Either run far away as soon as the Lynel roars or interrupt it with headshot to deal with this move. Believe it or not, you can actually parry the explosion by timing the button a split second after the weapon hits the ground. Of course, only do this if you feel confident enough to try it.

Other things to note

In general, landing headshots will serve you well during Lynel fights, as they leave the creature open to a unique interaction. Once the headshot stuns the Lynel, you can run up to the sides or the back and mount it much like you can a horse. Although you obviously can’t ride it around, this does serve as a perfect opportunity to take out your most powerful weapon and hit the Lynel with repeated strikes before it flings you off. In Breath of the Wild, doing this completely maintained the durability of your weapon, although I have not yet figured out if this remains true in Tears of the Kingdom.

Either way, after it flings you off, you can enter bullet time and land even more headshots while you still have stamina remaining. Other methods for mounting the Lynel include gliding on top of it from an updraft or a high-up place and sneaking up behind it before the fight starts, although note that the Lynel has exceptionally good hearing compared to other monsters.

Defeating the White-Maned Lynel will drop some of the best items you can find in Tears of the Kingdom. The Savage Lynel Shield can damage enemies through parrying without needing to fuse first, and the Savage Lynel Bow can simultaneously fire three or even five arrows at the cost of one. Additionally, the horns it drops give extremely high attack boosts to weapons once fused, which should help immensely when fighting other tough enemies. But although these awards are great on their own, the ones offered by the Silver Lynel are even better.