TotK Keese: All 4 Kinds, HP, Drops and Where They Spawn

The game files Keese as a “nocturnal, bat-like species” that is a nuisance to fight but “weak enough to fell with a single strike”. There are four kinds in Tears of the Kingdom, and each one has the same 1 HP. This page covers what tells them apart, what they drop according to the game’s own drop tables, how to deal with a swarm, and where the 435 placed Keese are. The Breath of the Wild version is on the Breath of the Wild Keese page, and the other small monsters are in the enemy overview.

What kinds of Keese are there?

The HP comes from the game’s parameter files, and the effects from the Hyrule Compendium: each elemental Keese is “engulfed” in fire, frost or electricity and passes it on to “anything they touch”. That is what makes them dangerous, not the bite.

What does a regular Keese look like?

The plain Keese has dark wings and a single eye in the middle of its head. The game says it flies with an “unpredictable flight pattern”, likes to form packs and has “been seen swarming out of caves together”. On the surface it mostly shows up after dark; in caves and the Depths, where it is always dark, you meet it at any hour.

What does a Fire Keese look like?

A Fire Keese is wrapped in flame and glows orange, so you can spot one from far away in the dark. Its touch sets Link on fire, and since it sets fire to “anything” it touches, it can light the grass around you as well.

What does an Ice Keese look like?

An Ice Keese has pale blue wings and gives off frost. If one touches you, you freeze. Fire is the answer: the damage files give Ice Keese 9,999 damage on catching fire, so a Fire Fruit kills it outright.

What does an Electric Keese look like?

An Electric Keese has yellow wings and crackles with electricity. Its touch shocks Link. It is also the only Keese that shrugs off lightning: the damage files set lightning damage to 999,999 for the other three and to 0 for the Electric Keese.

How do you beat Keese fast?

• Any hit is enough. With 1 HP, a Keese dies to one swing, one arrow or one thrown item. Arrows do triple damage to every kind on top of that.
• Use reach. Spears and arrows let you kill elemental Keese before they touch you. Keese dart in and out, so wait for one to dive at you and hit it as it comes.
• Bomb a swarm. A Bomb Flower fused to an arrow clears most of a swarm in one shot.
• Fire for Ice Keese. Fire is fatal to an Ice Keese, so a Fire Fruit thrown into a group of them works too.
• Mind the weather. In a thunderstorm, lightning kills Keese, Fire Keese and Ice Keese, but not Electric Keese.

What do Keese drop?

Rates are from the game’s drop tables. Every kill gives the eyeball, then the game rolls twice for the wing, so you end up with zero, one or two wings. In Tears of the Kingdom each elemental Keese drops its own colored eyeball.

• Fuse to arrows. Any Keese Eyeball gives an arrow “a homing quality”, in the game’s words. That makes Aerocudas and other flying targets easy. A Keese Wing makes “arrows and thrown weapons fly farther”. The elemental wings release a blaze, a shock or frost “when stimulated”, so they put their element on the arrow. Fuse attack power: Fire Keese Eyeball 8, Electric Keese Eyeball 6, Ice Keese Eyeball 4, Keese Eyeball 1, Keese Wing 1, the elemental wings 2 each. See bows and arrows and the Fuse guide.
• Armor upgrades. The Climbing set needs Keese Wings at one star, Electric Keese Wings at two, Ice Keese Wings at three and Fire Keese Wings at four. The Glide set takes Keese Wings at its first two stars, the Soldier’s set 5 Keese Eyeballs per piece at two stars, the Snowquill set Fire Keese Wings and the Desert Voe set Ice Keese Wings at three stars. Full lists in upgrade materials.
• Elixirs. Keese parts are monster parts, so they go into an elixir with a critter. See best recipes.

Where do Keese spawn?

These counts are the game’s placement data. Keese are placed in small groups, so the 435 sit at about 208 spots, and 43 of the Keese entries are whole swarms (36 on the surface, 6 in caves, 1 on a sky island). With this many points the page gives the totals rather than a map. Some patterns worth knowing:

• Keese are everywhere. Hyrule Field has the most on the surface (32), the caves of Necluda the most underground (34), and all 8 sky-island Keese are on the Great Sky Island.
• Fire Keese keep to heat: 15 of the 18 surface spawns and all 14 cave spawns are in Eldin.
• Ice Keese keep to cold: 10 of the surface spawns are in Hebra, and in the Depths they cluster below Hebra (36) and Gerudo (18). The two in Hyrule Castle are Ice Keese too.
• Electric Keese are a Depths monster: 81 of the 100 are down there, most below Hyrule Field (25) and Gerudo (20).

For a Depths spawn, the region is the one on the surface directly above.

For Hyrule’s other monsters see the enemy overview; the Depths and caves where most Keese live are also home to the bigger fights on the Hinox and Frox pages.