You saw a giant hole oozing red smoke and thought, “Sure, I’ll jump in.” Bold. Also how most of us ended up lost in pitch darkness with half our hearts cracked.
Let me break this down for you. The Depths reward the prepared and punish the curious. Here’s how to be both, with the numbers that actually matter.
What the Depths Are and How You Get In
The Depths are a huge underground map that sits beneath the whole of Hyrule. You reach them by diving into Chasms, the black pits with red Gloom haze around their edges. Once you find a Chasm it stays marked on your map.
- Size: the Depths cover roughly the same footprint as the Surface above them.
- Light: none by default. It’s pitch black until you bring or create light.
- Gloom: the red sludge on the ground and on Gloom-covered enemies. It damages you and breaks your hearts.
- Lightroots: 120 of them, your fast travel points and safe zones down there.
The Math: Gloom and Why It Hurts
Normal damage takes hearts away. Gloom damage breaks them. A broken heart can’t be refilled by regular food or a fairy until the Gloom is cleansed, so every hit shrinks your effective health bar for the rest of the trip.
Think you can just eat through it? Think again. Here’s what actually fixes it:
| Method | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Activate or stand at a Lightroot | The Depths | Its light works like daylight and repairs broken hearts |
| Return to the Surface | Anywhere above ground | Gloom damage clears on the Surface |
| Sundelion meals | Cooked anywhere | The Sunny effect repairs Gloom broken hearts; add other ingredients for actual healing |
(yes, really) Sundelion by itself doesn’t heal you. It only fixes the broken hearts. Pair it with something that restores health if you want both. Sundelions grow mostly on the Sky Islands, so stock up before your big dives.
Your Depths Starter Plan
Here’s what to actually do, in order.
Step 1: Finish the Great Sky Island and get to Lookout Landing. You need the paraglider for any Chasm dive, and the Depths questline starts in Lookout Landing.
Step 2: Start Camera Work in the Depths. After you activate the Lookout Landing Skyview Tower, talk to Josha and Robbie on the ground floor of the lab. Josha hands you Brightbloom Seeds and arrows for your first trip.
Step 3: Dive into the Chasm just south of Lookout Landing. Free fall, then open your paraglider before you hit the ground. Scan the dark below as you drop so you know where you’re landing.
Step 4: Light your way to the first Lightroot. Throw Brightbloom Seeds or fire them on arrows to see the ground, avoid Gloom pools and head for the nearest Lightroot. Activating one lights up the area, fills in part of your map and gives you a fast travel point.
Step 5: Follow the quest. Camera Work in the Depths walks you across the first stretch of the Depths to meet Robbie and photograph a statue. It’s a great guided tour before you go freelancing.
Three Ways to Light the Dark
- Lightroots: permanent light, map progress and fast travel in one. They also cleanse Gloom damage.
- Brightbloom Seeds: found in caves and wells on the Surface. Throw them, or Fuse them to arrows to light distant ground. Arrows are the better deal: farther reach, less walking into Gloom.
- Bright Elixir: cook Deep Fireflies with a monster part. Link glows and lights the area around him for the duration.
New to Fuse? Our Fuse guide explains seed arrows and everything else you can stick on a bow. For the cooking side, see how to cook meals and craft elixirs.
Here’s the Thing Most Guides Won’t Tell You: Shrines Are Your Map
Every one of the 120 Lightroots sits directly below a Surface shrine, at the same horizontal coordinates. Even the names match: a Lightroot’s name is its shrine’s name spelled backward. The 32 Sky Island shrines are the only ones without a partner.
That means your Surface map is a cheat sheet. Every shrine you’ve found tells you exactly where a Lightroot is waiting, and the reverse is true too. Plot both on our Tears of the Kingdom interactive map.
Why Bother Going Down There?
- Zonaite: mined from deposits in the Depths and turned into Crystallized Charges at the Forge Constructs in the Mines. That’s how you upgrade your battery.
- Poes and Bargainer Statues: Poes are a Depths currency. Bargainer Statues trade them for gear, including armor you can’t get anywhere else.
- Main story: several key moments happen underground, including where you pick up Autobuild. See our Autobuild guide.
- Bosses and treasure: tougher enemies, rare chests and plenty of secrets that make the trip worth the broken hearts.
Pro Tips for Your First Dive
- Hoard Brightbloom Seeds: fill up before every trip. Running out of light in the dark is a very specific kind of embarrassing.
- Light before you land: fire a seed arrow at the ground below you mid fall. Knowing what’s down there beats guessing.
- Respect Gloom enemies: their hits break hearts. Fight at range when you can.
- Hop between Lightroots: treat each one as a checkpoint. Heal, plan your next route, repeat.
- Leave when it goes wrong: warping to a Surface shrine gets your broken hearts back once you are above ground. No shame in a reset.
Hot Take: diving in with three hearts and no seeds is not brave. It’s just a slow way to read the game over screen. Get a few heart containers from shrines first.
Lore Drop: The Upside Down Hyrule
Lore nerds, this one’s for you: the Depths roughly mirror the Surface. Where Hyrule has mountains, the Depths tend to sink, and where the Surface dips, the Depths rise. Add the reversed Lightroot names and it’s clear the designers built this place as Hyrule’s shadow, not just a cave system.
Depths FAQ
How do you get to the Depths in Tears of the Kingdom?
Dive into any Chasm on the Surface and use your paraglider to land. The first one most players use is just south of Lookout Landing.
How do you heal Gloom damage?
Stand at a Lightroot, return to the Surface, or eat a meal cooked with Sundelion. Regular food won’t fix broken hearts.
How many Lightroots are there?
There are 120 Lightroots, one below each Surface shrine. Their names are the shrine names spelled backward.
When should I start exploring the Depths?
Do Camera Work in the Depths early for the tour, then push deeper once you have a few extra hearts and a stack of Brightbloom Seeds.
Actually Do This: grab the paraglider, talk to Josha and Robbie, pack seeds and a couple of Sundelion meals, and jump. Light the first Lightroot and let the rest of the map unfold. For everything else in the game, start at our Tears of the Kingdom hub.
