Hinox

Hinox
Artwork of a Hinox for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
First appearance	The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991)
Latest appearance	The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)
Notable member(s) Hinox Brothers
Variant(s) Electric Hinox Fire Hinox Ice Hinox Malice Hinox Stalnox
Comparable Avalaunch

Hinoxes are large oni-like cyclopses. Typically, they specialize in using bombs, but are often weak to them as well.

History

The Legend of Zelda series

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Hinoxes, also known as Bombclopses, are found throughout the Dark World, alongside enemies like Moblins, Moblin Pikemen, and Snap Dragons. Due to one appearing right in front of the pyramid, they can be one of the first Dark World enemies Link meets. They throw green bombs at Link when they see him. Link can use his own bombs to deal large amounts of damage to them. Otherwise, they are extremely durable.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Hinoxes are larger and found as mid-bosses in various dungeons, first appearing in Bottle Grotto. While they still throw bombs, they now more commonly will charge at Link, pick him up, and throw him. Additionally, they are still weak to bombs, but take a bit more hits to defeat than before regardless. In Link's Awakening DX, they appear in varying colors depending on location. The one in Bottle Grotto is orange, the one in Eagle's Tower is red, and the one in Turtle Rock is blue. The one in Turtle Rock can respawn, much like the other returning mid-bosses found throughout the dungeon. The Nintendo Switch remake keeps these colors, and adds black overalls to each.

In the Player's Guide of the original game, the section for Turtle Rock has an error where a description for a Hinox is used as a caption for an illustration of an Eye Guard.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, Hinoxes are found in Death Mountain Foothills and the Palace of Winds and now throw boulders at high speeds, dealing half a heart of damage if successful. However, they are still weak to bombs. Damaging them with other items will anger them and prompt them to charge while flailing their fists, though they sometimes also do so without provocation. Getting hit by this attack will fling the Links a great distance and deal a full heart's worth of damage. Occasionally when a Link gets close, a Hinox will grab him and hold him over its head while shaking, causing him to drop a pile of Force Gems of various types.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

In The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Hinoxes, referred to as Eye Brutes in the Prima Games guide, appear in a few locations such as the Goron Temple and Dee Ess Island. They are now dark blue and their eye takes up their entire face. Their bombs now look and work just like Link's, even having the same amount of time until exploding. They are no longer weak to bombs, and will in fact bat them away if they are thrown near them. Instead, they are weak to arrows shot into their eyes, which stun them. As usual, they take a very large amount of hits from the sword. If Link is close to a non-stunned one for too long, it will whack him away.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

In The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Hinoxes appear as they do in A Link to the Past, where they can now be damaged by their own bombs. However, they are no longer weak to bombs, and may charge into Link as well. Additionally, there are blue-garbed ones in Lorule's Death Mountain that throw snowballs, though they have the exact same direct attack power and durability. A passive one can be found behind a waterfall. If Link visits him, he will be scared of Link, and bribe him to leave with Rupees. Taking advantage of this too much will cause him to become hostile, however.

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes

In The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, Hinoxes appear as uncommon enemies in the Volcano. They act mostly like they do in A Link Between Worlds, though they are weaker and they charge more often. Dark-colored ones also appear in the Den of Trials, which are stronger and have bombs that curse the Links into being unable to use their gear. Additionally, a group known as the Hinox Brothers appear as mid-bosses on two occasions, first as a duo, then a trio.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Hinoxes are revised in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in both appearance and behavior. They are now fat, hunchbacked giants that have a vertically-opening eye on a face otherwise resembling a Bokoblin's. They come in three colors, being red, blue, and black, each one getting progressively stronger. A mission involving three Hinox brothers implies that this may change with age. There is also a skeletal type known as a Stalnox. Hinoxes appear as mini-bosses across the overworld, and are always found fast asleep. They carry equipment and sometimes shrine orbs on a necklace. If Link is sneaky enough, he can softly land on a Hinox's belly and take the items without waking it. Like other enemies in the game, established Hinox colors sometimes change the more enemies the player has defeated.

If awoken, Hinoxes will pursue Link and attack directly. Aside from just using their fists, they can uproot trees to use as weapons and use their own weight to create a shockwave. Similar to Bokoblins and Moblins, they can pull rocks out of the ground to throw at Link if he is too high up, with the rocks being substantially larger. Instead of rocks, Black Hinoxes pull up bomb barrels, likely as a stand-in for bombs. Due to their large size, Link can hide under or inside structures such as short bridges and abandoned houses, and they will be unable to effectively attack him and may lose track of him entirely. In this game, their weakness is arrows being shot in their large eye; doing so will cause them to fall down and rub their eye for a bit, giving Link time to attack them without danger. After being hit in the eye enough, they will sometimes use a hand to cover their eye as they run. Black Hinoxes may do this almost immediately. Blue Hinoxes wear a wooden greave on one ankle that is weak to fire, while black ones have a metal one weak to electricity. When defeated, they will drop all the equipment on their necklaces, as well as food depending on their color. Red Hinoxes drop fruit, blue ones drop fish, and black ones drop roasted meat cuts.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (comic)

In the comic adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past by Shotaro Ishinomori, a Hinox appears at the end of Chapter 6, where it leads a group of smaller monsters, which appear to be a Moblin, a Dragonman, and a Pick. It is mostly true to its artwork, though it is a light blue color and its bombs are replaced with two rows of hand grenades known as Firecorn. Its group is looking for a faerie that had just zoomed by Link, and incorrectly assume he was lying and hiding her when he told them he did not know where she was. They start to attack, with the Hinox throwing a barrage of Firecorn, though Link manages to throw one back into its mouth, exploding the creature.

Later, a tan one is seen in a hallway of the Palace of Darkness. Link is wearing Zora's mask and a robe, so while it is visibly confused by his presence, it wordlessly passes him. After Rocklops #1 discovers him, the Hinox dashes back in, trying to stop Link from detonating the Firecorn stockpile, but Link manages to evade it. Shortly after, Rocklops #1 is shown pursuing with a group of Hinoxes and Gleeocks, but all are destroyed when Link successfully blows up the Firecorn.

At the end of Chapter 8, a Hinox and a Moblin Pikeman corner Link in the dried-out Swamp Palace. However, due to one of Link's friends in the Light World accidentally activating a fountain statue at Watergate Prairie, the chamber is quickly filled with water and the three are swept away. The Moblin Pikeman reveals it cannot swim and clings to the Hinox in a blind panic, dragging them both under.

In Chapter 10, a Hinox appears among other monsters frozen in the Ice Tower as Kholdstone's "wall decorations."

Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda

In Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda, Hinoxes appear as enemies and minibosses. They resemble their traditional 2D design except blue and use bombs, though upon being damaged enough, they turn red, their hair catches fire like a bomb fuse, and they begin aggressively attacking directly. In addition to the standard blue Hinox, there are a Purple Hinox and a Black Hinox variant.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Hinoxes appear as bosses and minibosses using their appearance from Breath of the Wild, coming in red, blue, and black. Only the first Hinox encountered is shown sleeping. Hinoxes can use a variety of attacks, such as slapping or punching at the ground repeatedly when the player is near, running up to the player and jumping to slam down with their weight, and rolling before belly flopping. Higher level Hinoxes may also pull logs out from the ground to attack with them or throw metal crates. The game also introduces three elemental varieties, being Electric Hinoxes, Fire Hinoxes, and Ice Hinoxes, as well as a malice-infused black Hinox called the Malice Hinox.

Gallery

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  The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

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  The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

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  The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

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  Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda

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  Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda

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  Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda

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  Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda

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  Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ヒノックス Hinokkusu	Hinox
Spanish	hinox	-
French	Hinox	-
Dutch	Hinox	-
German	Hinox	-
Italian	hinox	-
Russian	хинокс khinoks	Hinox
Korean	히녹스 hinogseu	Hinox
Chinese (Simplified)	西诺克斯 Xīnuòkèsī	Hinox
Chinese (Traditional)	西諾克斯 Xīnuòkèsī	Hinox

Trivia

• In the internal files for Breath of the Wild, Hinoxes and their colorations are called Enemy_Giant, Enemy_Giant_Middle, and Enemy_Giant_Senior, with Stalnox being FldObj_Giant_Bone, suggesting that they were not intended as Hinoxes until later in the development period, explaining their relative lack of behavioral similarities to typical Hinoxes.