How to defeat Gloom Hands in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Venturing down into the depths in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom can fill you with only the dread that a place of horror can. It is filled with poisonous Gloom that can only be cured in a particular way, tons of darkness, and a sprinkle of enemies you won’t find anywhere else like the Gloom Hands.

Of all these subterranean foes, the Gloom Hands enemies by far have been the most annoying to me, especially in the early game when I have little hearts to my name. They attack in paths that are impossible to run away from, and when you feel like you have finally killed them off, they recover a fraction of their health and spawn from the Gloom just to kill you again and again.

They are a pest and seem like they don’t want to stay down. So how exactly do you kill them?

Here’s everything you need to know to defeat these hand enemies in Tears of the Kingdom.

How to kill Gloom Hands in TOTK

The key to defeating Gloom Hands in TOTK is to treat them like a hydra. If you kill one and the other four are still alive, the one you just killed will respawn soon. So, get some arrows and some distance and fuse items with your arrows to create area-of-effect (AOE) weapons like Bomb Flower arrows. You need to take them down all at one time, using AOE to really kill them off.

I found it best to try to get to a high ground spot above a pack of Gloom Hands. While they’ll quickly chase you on flat ground and up slopes, they can’t climb vertical surfaces.

This will give you time and space to take out the pack of Gloom Hands without putting yourself in danger. If you don’t have this option, you should still try to maintain as much distance as you can. And if you have any Gloom Resistant armor, like Midna’s Helmet, be sure to wear it. These things will chip away at your health and inflict Gloom if they get close to you and grab you, so best to be prepared.

Related: How to cure Gloom in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Don’t have a strong bow or many arrows to your name? Don’t fight it. Go out, stock up, and come back later. You’ll likely end up dying over and over again otherwise.

The eyes in the palms of the Gloom Hands are the weak spots, but I found that trying to shoot them individually was more likely to let them spawn again, even if I managed to take a couple out. Instead, aim for the center of the pack and just keep shooting Bomb Flower arrows to damage all of their health equally and simultaneously.

Fusing Bomb Flowers to arrows and shooting them comes with the added benefit of staggering the Gloom Hands momentarily. If you’re having to fight them on even ground where they can get to you, this will keep them at bay long enough to defeat them.

Five or six Bomb Flower arrows should do the trick, although I’d recommend stocking up more if you know there’s going to be a pack of Gloom Hands where you’re going. Also, be ready for a fight after taking these out, too. When you’ve killed a pack of Gloom Hands, a Phantom Ganon will appear and fight you. These phantom versions of Ganon are also tough to beat, but each pack only spawns one, making him much more manageable to deal with.