How to defeat the Gloom Hands in Tears of the Kingdom (TotK)

1, 2, Ganon’s coming for you

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom can surprisingly be one of the scariest games in the series, in no small part due to the Gloom Hands. These red glowing hands that appear out of the gloom pools throughout Hyrule are some of the freakiest enemies in Hyrule’s complicated history.

How to defeat the Gloom Hands in Tears of the Kingdom

If you wish to defeat the Gloom Hands in Tears of the Kingdom, you’ll want to come as prepared as possible. Otherwise, you’ll be in for a long and arduous fight that could theoretically go on forever. Or, at least until you get a game over screen.

Gloom Hands appear out of gloom pools that are randomly found throughout Hyrule and also during the Lost Woods Deku Tree quest. You can sometimes see these pools ahead of time and avoid them, if you don’t want to fight the red hands. Many times, though, they spawn out of nowhere and start chasing down unsuspecting players.

Your two choices are to run or fight. If you wish to run, you want to get to higher ground as soon as possible or fast travel somewhere else. The Gloom Hands will chase you down for a considerable distance, so climbing up can help you get away. But if you choose to fight, here’s what you should do.

Bomb flowers and elemental attacks

Gloom Hands generally spawn with about five hands in the pool of gloom. While it is generally easy to take out one of these hands, they infinitely respawn if you don’t take them all out at once.

As such, your best bet is to bring as many bomb flowers as possible. What I like to do is quickly equip a bomb flower on my arrow and then shoot it into the gloom pool in the middle of the hands. If you aim it right, you can hit all five of them at once.

This method only takes a handful of bomb flowers (around five or six) to take out all of the hands at once. This method also works with elemental items, such as Chu Chu jellies and the like.

Gloom resistance

In addition, it is best to have as much gloom resistance as possible. It is best to get The Depths armor set from finding all of the Bargainer Statues and trading with them to resist losing your hearts.

If you do lose hearts, be sure to bring some Sundelions, which you can cook five of them together to turn into Sunny Fried Wild Greens.

Boss Spoiler Ahead

Be careful because the fight against the Gloom Hands doesn’t end when you take out all five of them. You’ll also need to, spoiler alert, take on Phantom Ganon after. This is a tough fight where you’ll need to master blocking and parrying to win.

Related: Best Gloom Dishes to Cook in Tears of the Kingdom on Pro Game Guides