• Guide

How to heal Gloom damage - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Gloom saps your maximum health and is a constant problem in Hyrule's underground Depths. Make sure you know how to cure and resist it!

TJ Denzer

May 16, 2023 3:30 PM

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Gloom damage is a persistent threat throughout The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, especially if you lurk underground in the Depths. Red and black puddles, fog, and enemies covered in red corruption that make contact with Link will reduce his maximum health, making it difficult to heal without special resources. You’re going to want to know how to counter this dastardly affliction if you want to survive. That’s where we can help! Learn how to cure and resist Gloom damage here.

How to heal Gloom damage

Gloom damage happens over time if you stand in the reddish-black Gloom puddles or if you take hits from enemies with a reddish glow all over. You will see your hearts flash before your max level heart cracks and remains grayed out. This is the indicator that you’ve taken Gloom damage and you can’t heal that heart without special actions and resources. There are a few ways to heal and resist Gloom damage. Here’s what they are.

Get to a Lightroot or above ground

The quickest way to heal and cure Gloom damage is to make tracks for a Lightroot or the surface. On the ground level of Hyrule, your Gloom damage will automatically be fixed. However, Lightroots act as your anchor points underground when you don’t want to leave the Depths. Activating one lights up the surrounding area, reveals it on your map, and heals any Gloom Damage you’ve taken up to that point. As a bonus, you can fast travel there from then on like any Tower or Shrine. Obviously, this method will usually mean cutting and running from a situation to get back to safety, but the fast travel should make that less of an issue if you don’t have other resources to combat Gloom.

Cook meals and potions from Dark Clumps & Sundelions

If you are in a dangerous situation you can’t immediately leave and Gloom is a factor, there are meals and potions you can deploy to resist and heal Gloom before it affects you too much. There are two main Gloom countering ingredients in Tears of the Kingdom: Sundelions and Dark Clumps. Sundelions are a leafy herb that can be found in sunny places. I found quite a few in the Hyrule Ridge region Sky Islands, and specifically Courage Island. When cooked into dishes, Sundelions provide an effect that heals Gloom damaged hearts. You’ll be able to properly heal again after eating a dish with a Sundelion in it.

Dark Clumps don’t cure Gloom Damage, but they provide resistance to it. There are some creatures that drop Dark Clumps, but the easiest way to find them is to offer Poes to the Poe Statues for them. The easiest Poe Statue to reach is in Lookout Landing, just inside the north entrance. For 10 Poes, you can get a single Dark Clump. When cooked into a potion, Dark Clumps will provide Gloom Resistance that grants you blue hearts. When you take Gloom damage, these blue hearts will take the damage instead of your actual health, making it good to keep Gloom damage from affecting you for a short time and allowing you to escape to safety before your real hearts take a hit.

Keeping a good stock of foods and potions created with Sundelions and Dark Clumps should keep you safe from Gloom wherever you go and especially when you can’t easily leave a tough spot.

Get the Tunic of the Depths

As one may expect, there are armor pieces in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that allow you to resist Gloom Damage naturally. The easiest one to get is the Tunic of the Depths. Not only does it provide you with a free blue heart that resists Gloom damage in place of your regular hearts, but the blue heart provided by this armor will automatically recover over time, making it a crucial item if you plan to wade through short stretches of those puddles or battle aggressive and Gloom-infected enemies in the Depths without risking your max health. We have a full guide on how to get the Tunic of the Depths, so be sure to read it if you want this piece of armor.

That covers the entirety of how to resist Gloom in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. If you want to need any assistance on your journeys, our Tears of the Kingdom Strategy Guide is here for you. Stay tuned for more Zelda coverage, right here at Shacknews.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.