How to Farm Giant Ancient Cores Quickly

This is a guide to farming Giant Ancient Cores, a material in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (BotW). Learn the fastest way to get Giant Ancient Cores, its buy and sell prices, as well as what you can do with this item.

Giant Ancient Core General Info

Giant Ancient Core
Item Type	Spoils
A giant energy crystal made using lost ancient technology. Cores this large are an extremely rare find. A researcher would probably know how to use this.

Giant Ancient Core Buy Prices

Buy Price	- / -

What To Do With Giant Ancient Cores

Sell for Rupees

Giant Ancient Core can be sold for 200 Rupees. However, we recommend looking into other uses instead.

Item	Sell Price
Giant Ancient Core	200

Use It for Cooking

Giant Ancient Core can be used to whip up the following recipes and elixirs.

There are no entries for this item.

Use It for Armor Upgrades

Giant Ancient Core can be used to upgrade the following armor through Great Fairies.

Ancient Cuirass	Ancient Greaves	Ancient Helm

Purchase Items from the Akalla Ancient Tech Lab

Giant Ancient Cores are also used to purchase the following items from the Akalla Ancient Tech Lab.

Ancient Bladesaw (×1)	Ancient Bow (×1)	Ancient Shield (×1)

Where to Get Giant Ancient Cores

Giant Ancient Cores can be found in chests in the overworld or sometimes in Shrines.

You can also get them as rare drops from the following enemies:

Giant Ancient Core Locations and Sources

Sources
Monster Drop
Dropped By
Guardian Turret	Guardian Skywatcher	Guardian Stalker

Methods of Farming Giant Ancient Cores

The fastest way to find Giant Ancient Cores is to seek out Guardian Stalkers and get them as drops. These are some of the strongest enemies in the game so you need to prepare a lot of food and wear strong armor if you're seeking them out.

Although you can find Guardian almost all over Hyrule, there are two places where you can find a lot of them: Hyrule Field and around Hyrule Castle. You can also find two roaming Torin Wetland west of Tarrey Town.

Here are some methods and tips to farm Giant Ancient Cores from Guardian Stalkers:

Deflect Guardian Stalker Attacks

It is possible to defeat Guardian Stalkers early in the game by parrying their lasers back at them, though this takes some practice.

This method requires a shield. You can use any shield, even the Pot Lid, but it's best to use tougher ones made of metal so that the laser doesn't instantly destroy it just in case you miss the parry.

When you find a Stalker, they will aim at you with their lazer.

Once you find a Stalker, they will start aiming at you with their laser. Hold your shield to block and take note of the ticking sound they make. Guardians fire their laser once they stop making their ticking sound.

As soon as you see the Guardian Stalker fire its laser, press the X button to deflect the attack with your shield. The timing for the deflection is important as the window of opportunity to deflect the attack is very tight. It takes two to three laser deflects to bring down a Guardian Stalker.

Fight Guardians Up Close

You can also engage the Guardian Stalkers up close. This method requires you to have stronger weapons and at least one or more upgraded armor. You also need a good stock of food and healing elixirs.

It's possible to fight Guardian Stalkers early in the game, but you are limited to weaker weapons that may break in less than three hits.

Combat Tips

Guardian Stalkers will walk up to you at a very close distance, circling you as it charges its laser. It will also back up quickly if you run too close to them. They can only attack you with their laser beam and they'll often back off a short distance before they fire it at you.

If you're having a tough time hitting the Guardian, you can use Stasis to freeze them in place. Once they're stunned, quickly run to one of its legs and hit it repeatedly with your weapon.

Breaking their legs limits their movement, making them easier to chase after. This may also cause them to roll over, exposing a weakspot that you can attack. It's also possible to destroy all of their legs, rendering them completely immobile.

Fighting from a Distance

You can also engage Guardian Stalkers at range by targeting their eye. A successful hit always stuns the Guardian for a couple of seconds, allowing you to fire another arrow quickly.

This requires a bit of practice as the eye is a rather small target. For this method, it's best to use a bow that can fire multiple arrows in one shot to increase your chances of hitting the eye.

Fighting Guardians at range isn't the best method for farming Giant Ancient Cores in the early game. Once you have a stronger bow or more powerful arrows, it becomes a safer method to engage and farm Guardian Stalkers from a safe distance.

Giant Ancient Core Farming Tips

Use the Master Sword

The Master Sword does extra damage against Guardian-type enemies and, unlike other weapons, only needs to recharge instead of breaking. If powered up to its full potential through the Master Trials DLC, the Master Sword is the best weapon to use for farming Guardians!

Shields and Durability

The Guardian Stalker's laser attack can quickly whittle down the durability of lesser shields. Ancient Shields and the Hylian Shield can withstand their lasers for longer but will still eventually break.

Fortunately, shields don't take durability damage when you deflect their laser beam.

Giant Ancient Core Drop Rates

The drop rate on Giant Ancient Cores are quite low. Saving just before you're about to defeat a Guardian allows you to relead the game over and over again until it drops a Giant Ancient Core.

Zelda: BotW Related Guides

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BotW Items
Materials	Creatures
Ores (Treasure)	Spoils (Monster Parts)
Food	Elixirs