You’re strolling across Hyrule, minding your own business, when a puddle of Gloom bubbles up and five red hands come sprinting at you. They’re fast, they grab, and they delete hearts in a way food can’t fix.
Here’s what actually happens under the hood: Gloom Hands run on simple, fixed rules. Fixed spawns, fixed group size, one attack, one big weakness. Rules can be exploited. Science time.
What Gloom Hands Are
Gloom Hands (the game calls them Gloom Spawn, players call them red hands) are a group enemy in Tears of the Kingdom. A Gloom pool forms, five hands crawl out and they rush you. Their whole kit is one move: grab Link and drain him.
- Group size: always five hands.
- The grab: a held hand drains your hearts with Gloom damage, which also shrinks your maximum hearts until you heal it.
- Chain grabs: breaking free can drop you straight into another hand’s reach. That loop is what kills people.
- Regeneration: leave stragglers too long and the group starts respawning hands.
- The follow-up: clear all five and Phantom Ganon appears in their place.
(Warning sign: the music. When the horror score kicks in out in the open, a Gloom pool is close.)
Gloom Hands Locations
Spawns are fixed, and so is the Phantom Ganon variant each spot produces. That makes them predictable, and predictable means farmable. Surface spots by region:
| Region | Locations |
|---|---|
| Central Hyrule | Passeri Greenbelt, Water Reservoir, West Hyrule Castle, North Hyrule Castle, Hyrule Castle Town Ruins, Hyrule Forest Park |
| Hyrule Field | Great Plateau East Chasm, Kolomo Garrison Ruins, Hopper Pond |
| Hyrule Ridge | Marrita Exchange Ruins, Lindor’s Brow, Seres Scablands |
| Faron | Taobab Grassland, Ibara Butte, Deya Lake, Deya Village Ruins, Rassla Lake |
| Akkala | Tempest Gulch, Lomei Labyrinth Island, Ordorac Quarry, Akkala Citadel Ruins |
| Mount Lanayru | Lanayru Road East Gate, Lanayru Range, Fir River |
| Lanayru Great Spring and Wetlands | Tabahl Woods, Sahasra Slope |
| Gerudo Highlands | Great Cliff, Laparoh Mesa |
| Other | North Lomei Labyrinth (Tabantha), Mekar Island (Great Hyrule Forest), Darunia Lake (Eldin) |
There are a few more in the Depths too, including the Great Hyrule Forest Depths. Kolomo Garrison Ruins in Hyrule Field is a classic first encounter for a lot of players. For route planning, our TOTK interactive map is the fastest way to line these up.
Prep: The Anti Gloom Loadout
Armor
The Depths set (Hood, Tunic and Gaiters of the Depths, bought with Poes from Bargainer Statues) is the tech here. Each piece gives Gloom Resistance, and the full set adds a bonus that reduces damage from Gloom attacks. For the tech nerds: the resistance mostly protects you from Gloom on the ground. A grab still hurts, so don’t treat the set as immunity.
Food
- Sundelion dishes: they restore hearts that Gloom has damaged. This is the only food that really fixes a grab.
- Big heals: full restore meals to refill after.
- Skip extra hearts: temporary yellow hearts get chewed through fast by Gloom, so they’re bad value here.
Our best TOTK recipes guide has the Sundelion dishes worth cooking.
Ammo
Bomb Flowers are the main event. Fuse them to arrows and you get area damage that hits several hands per shot. Back them up with elemental Chuchu Jelly, elemental Keese Eyeballs and Like Like Stones. Not sure how fusing ammo works? The Fuse guide covers it.
How to Beat Gloom Hands Step by Step
- Spot the pool early. The moment the music shifts, stop and look for the Gloom puddle.
- Get height. The hands are brutally fast on flat ground but can’t climb tall objects. A cliff, a big rock or a ruin wall puts you above them.
- Let them bunch up. From above, the hands cluster at the base of your perch. That’s exactly what you want.
- Fire Bomb Flower arrows into the cluster. Around five or six well placed shots usually clears the group. Use multi-shot bows if you have them.
- Clean up fast. Finish stragglers with elemental arrows before they regenerate the group.
- If you get grabbed, break free and move. Struggle out and immediately put distance between you and the next hand.
- Reset for Phantom Ganon. When the last hand drops, you have a few seconds. Heal, swap to a melee weapon and shield, and get ready.
Exploit Alert: the height trick isn’t perfect. On some terrain the hands still find a way up, so pick a tall, sheer perch instead of a gentle slope.
Strategy Comparison
| Approach | Risk | Reward | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Climb and wait them out | Very low | None | Skipping the fight |
| Run away (ideally on a horse) | Medium, they’re fast | None | Emergency escapes |
| High ground plus Bomb Flower arrows | Low | Phantom Ganon fight and his drops | Most players |
| Ground fight with elemental items | High | Same | Big heart pools, full Depths set |
Phantom Ganon and the Rewards
Kill all five and Phantom Ganon spawns. He’s a duelist: dodge or Perfect Guard his swings, Flurry Rush the openings and shoot him in the head to stagger him. Beat him and he drops the Gloom weapon he was holding (Gloom Sword, Gloom Spear or Gloom Club) plus Dark Clumps, and a Demon King’s Bow every single time.
The numbers are wild on these Gloom weapons, but they cost hearts every swing. Fusing them onto another weapon is the standard workaround. And the hands themselves can be farmed for Dark Clumps, since they keep coming back.
Gloom Hands FAQ
Where are Gloom Hands in Tears of the Kingdom?
At fixed Surface spots across Hyrule, including Kolomo Garrison Ruins, Hopper Pond and Hyrule Castle Town Ruins, plus a few in the Depths.
What is the easiest way to kill Gloom Hands?
Climb somewhere tall, let them bunch up below and shoot Bomb Flower arrows into the group.
Can you escape Gloom Hands?
Yes. Climb out of reach or ride away on a horse. Waiting on high ground also works if you just want them gone.
What heals Gloom damage?
Sundelion dishes, or a night in a bed. Regular food only refills hearts the Gloom hasn’t damaged.
What do Gloom Hands drop?
Dark Clumps. Beating them also spawns Phantom Ganon, who drops a Gloom weapon and a Demon King’s Bow every time.
Test Results: height, Bomb Flower arrows and a Sundelion snack turn the scariest thing on the map into a Dark Clump vending machine. This breaks the game (in the best way). Go farm them.
