Gloom Club
The Gloom Club is a powerful two-handed metal weapon in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that offers high attack power at the cost of gradually draining Link’s health.
Key Takeaways
The Gloom Club is a high-power two-handed weapon whose gloom effect makes it both a potent attack option and a liability for Link. Its value depends on whether its health cost and limited maintenance options fit the encounter.
A powerful two-handed kanabō
The Gloom Club is a metal, spiked two-handed weapon with high base attack power. Its heavy weapon class gives it a distinct role from one-handed weapons and spears, but its main identity comes from its gloom effect rather than its appearance alone.
Gloom drains Link’s health
While Link wields the club, its gloom gradually depletes his health. This makes the weapon a double-edged choice: it can deliver strong attacks, but prolonged use carries a direct survival cost.
Fusion can remove the health drawback
Fusing the Gloom Club to another weapon allows Link to use the resulting weapon without the club’s normal health depletion. This makes Fusion an important part of handling the weapon rather than merely a damage upgrade.
It comes from Phantom Ganon encounters
The club is obtained as a Phantom Ganon drop after defeating Phantom Ganon following an encounter with Gloom Hands. Its acquisition is therefore tied to a dangerous encounter rather than an ordinary field pickup or standard vendor route.
Its power comes with limited maintenance
Gloom Clubs cannot be repaired or upgraded by Rock Octoroks. That restriction makes durability management more important than it is for many other two-handed weapons.
A specialist alternative to ordinary heavy weapons
Compared with a conventional two-handed club, the Gloom Club offers high attack power but imposes a health-management burden and has fewer maintenance options. It suits players prepared to manage those costs, especially through Fusion.
Overview
The Gloom Club is a powerful two-handed metal weapon in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Its high offensive role is offset by a gloom effect that gradually drains Link’s health, making it a deliberately risky alternative to ordinary heavy weapons.
The Gloom Club is a spiked kanabō-style weapon associated with Ganondorf and the various manifestations of Phantom Ganon. Its appearance and description present it as a weapon steeped in madness and doom rather than as a conventional Hylian arm. That identity matters mechanically: when Link wields the club in its unfused form, its gloom gradually depletes his health, so using it is not simply a matter of equipping the strongest heavy weapon available.
That health drain gives the club a different combat role from a typical two-handed weapon. It can deliver substantial offense, but the cost is persistent self-harm while the club remains in its dangerous state. Fusing the Gloom Club to another weapon avoids this health depletion, making Fuse part of the weapon’s practical handling rather than merely an optional way to add power or durability. The result is a weapon whose safest use depends on how the player configures it before a fight.
The Gloom Club is obtained through Phantom Ganon encounters that follow an encounter with Gloom Hands. This places it among the game’s more dangerous enemy-associated rewards and ties its acquisition directly to the same gloom imagery that defines its drawback. It is therefore best understood as a situational heavy weapon: its appeal is its offensive identity and unusual risk-reward behaviour, while its gloom effect makes an unfused copy less straightforward than other strong two-handed choices.
The weapon also has an important maintenance limitation. Gloom Clubs cannot be repaired or upgraded by Rock Octoroks, so the usual method of restoring or improving eligible weapons does not apply to them. That restriction reinforces the club’s status as a distinctive, encounter-linked weapon rather than a routine heavy weapon for long-term maintenance. Its visual association with the Oni and its connection to Ganondorf’s Demon King imagery further support its role as a thematically specific weapon, but the health drain, Fuse interaction, and Rock Octorok limitation are the features that most directly affect play.
Statistics
Attack and durability are the game’s own published values, not a 0–100 scale. Taken from the project’s verified weapons database, not from generated text.
- Attack50
- Durability14
- ClassTwo-Handed
- TraitDemolisher; Gloom Toll
- ConditionUntouched
- Compendium#406
Figures verified against Consolidated Game Weapons Database.
Compared to similar melee weapons
| Weapon | Attack | Durability | Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gloom Club | 50 | 14 | Two-Handed |
| Gloom Sword | 41 | 15 | One-Handed |
| Gloom Spear | 40 | 16 | Spear |
| Fierce Deity Sword | 38 | 35 | Two-Handed |
| Boulder Breaker | 38 | 40 | Two-Handed |
Attack and durability are the game’s own published values. From Consolidated Game Weapons Database.
How to Obtain
- Access to a Gloom Hands encounter and the ability to defeat the Phantom Ganon that follows.
- Because Phantom Ganon encounters can yield different Gloom weapons, confirm that the boss is using the Gloom Club before treating the encounter as the club's acquisition route.
- 01Travel to a surface Gloom Hands encounter and defeat the hands. A Phantom Ganon appears afterward; the relevant encounter is the one in which Phantom Ganon wields the Gloom Club rather than another Gloom weapon.
- 02Defeat that Phantom Ganon. The Gloom Club is obtained as the encounter's post-battle weapon drop; there is no vendor purchase, chest route, or separate quest reward to claim.
- 03Collect the weapon from the dropped items after the fight. The encounter is part of the base game and does not require a DLC, New Game Plus mode, or a special weapon-unlock quest.
Availability
Requires Defeat a Phantom Ganon following a Gloom Hands encounter.
The Gloom Club is not a vendor-stock or priced item. It is obtained as a Phantom Ganon drop; no separate DLC, difficulty, or New Game Plus availability context applies.
Mechanics and Handling
The Gloom Club is handled as a committed two-handed melee weapon rather than a fast sidearm. Its kanabō-style form supports broad, weighty swings that are useful when Link has room to work, but the weapon is less forgiving in cramped spaces or against enemies that punish recovery time. The important distinction is its gloom effect: the club offers strong offensive potential while gradually draining Link’s health when wielded directly, so every prolonged engagement carries a cost beyond ordinary weapon durability.
This health drain is part of the weapon’s normal behaviour, not a temporary attack bonus that Link can activate or deactivate. The supplied evidence does not establish a precise drain interval, damage amount, or trigger timing, so those values should not be inferred from the club’s displayed attack or durability. Treat the effect as a persistent handling risk whenever the Gloom Club is held in its unfused form.
Committed swings and spacing
The club’s two-handed moveset favours deliberate spacing. Its attacks are most practical when Link can begin a swing outside an enemy’s immediate threat range and complete the animation without being interrupted. Broad club attacks can control nearby space better than a narrow thrust, but the commitment makes reckless button presses costly: missing a target still leaves Link exposed during recovery. Use short openings, walls or terrain that limit enemy movement, and stagger windows rather than trying to trade continuously with quicker opponents.
Because the weapon is two-handed, it is not a shield-compatible option while equipped in the normal combat stance. That makes defensive timing more important than it would be with a one-handed weapon: Link must avoid, interrupt, or finish the exchange quickly instead of relying on a shield block between every swing. The weapon’s value therefore depends on whether its damage and crowd-control potential justify giving up that defensive flexibility in the encounter at hand.
The gloom cost while wielded
The Gloom Club’s defining conditional effect is its health drain. While Link wields the club directly, the weapon gradually reduces his health, making extended exploration or routine combat expensive even when enemies are not dealing much damage. This is a meaningful drawback for low-health situations and for fights where the club’s advantage is not large enough to end the encounter quickly. It also means that the club should not be judged only by its attack value; the health cost changes how long Link can safely remain engaged.
The effect does not make the club unusable, but it changes the preferred rhythm. Draw it for a demanding target, exploit a clear opening, and put it away when the immediate exchange is finished. A player already managing gloom damage or operating with limited recovery has less room for error, whereas a player who can secure short, decisive engagements can make better use of its offensive profile.
Fuse as the main workaround
Fusing the Gloom Club to another weapon is the most important handling workaround documented for it. The fused result avoids the club’s direct health depletion while retaining the practical value of using its weapon material in a combined form. This is not the same as removing the gloom property from the original item permanently: it is a way to change how Link is holding and using the material. The resulting weapon should still be evaluated according to its new base weapon, fusion contribution, durability state and any applicable weapon trait.
Fuse also makes the club more flexible than its unfused drawback initially suggests. A player can reserve the original club for a short high-value exchange, or combine it when the health drain would otherwise outweigh the benefit. The exact offensive and durability outcome depends on the chosen base weapon and fused material; no universal fused attack value should be assigned to the Gloom Club itself.
Durability and repair behaviour
The documented Gloom Club has a durability rating of 14 in the supplied stat context, but that figure should remain attached to the relevant base-item state rather than being treated as a universal value for every fused result or condition. Fuse changes how the weapon is used and can affect durability behaviour, so the displayed club durability should not be read as the complete lifespan of a fused weapon. Avoid spending it on minor targets if the club is being saved for a specific encounter.
Unlike many ordinary metal weapons, Gloom Clubs cannot be repaired or upgraded by Rock Octoroks. That restriction makes preservation part of the handling decision: using the club for routine durability loss can remove a strong but difficult-to-replace option from the inventory. Its gloom cost and repair restriction reinforce the same practical conclusion—use it selectively, and consider a fused configuration when the health drain would make direct use inefficient.
Upgrades and Variants
Strengths, Weaknesses and Best Uses
Strengths
- Its high displayed attack makes the Gloom Club effective for burst damage when a two-handed weapon’s slower, committed attacks can be used safely.
- Fusing the club to another weapon can preserve its offensive contribution while avoiding the health depletion caused by holding the unfused gloom weapon.
- As a metal weapon, it can interact with environmental electricity and conduct electricity when used in relevant situations.
Weaknesses
- Holding the unfused club gradually drains Link’s health, turning prolonged combat into a resource-management problem and making careless use especially dangerous.
- Its two-handed class prevents simultaneous shield use, so the wielder gives up shield-based blocking, parries and shield-fused utility while attacking.
- The club has limited durability and cannot be repaired or upgraded by Rock Octoroks, reducing its value as a long-term unfused weapon.
- Its acquisition is tied to Phantom Ganon encounters after Gloom Hands, so it is not a dependable early-game or routine vendor weapon.
Best uses
- Use it for short, high-priority encounters where its attack advantage can end the fight before gloom depletion becomes significant.
- Fuse it to another weapon when the goal is to use the club’s offensive value without continuously holding an unfused gloom weapon.
- Keep it for dangerous targets or late-game combat rather than routine exploration, where health drain, durability loss and the lack of Rock Octorok repair make repeated use inefficient.
Compared With Similar Weapons
| Weapon | Class and role | Displayed attack / durability | Distinctive property | Main trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gloom Club | 53 base attack; 14 durability | High displayed attack; gradually drains Link's health while wielded | The gloom penalty makes prolonged un-fused use costly; fusing it to another weapon avoids the health depletion | — |
| Gloom Sword | Not stated here | Shares the gloom health-drain drawback and benefits from the same fusion workaround | Less committed than a two-handed club, but does not fill the Gloom Club's heavy-weapon role | — |
| Gloom Spear | Not stated here | Extends the gloom-weapon role to safer spacing and thrusting attacks | Spear handling favors reach over the club's close-range heavy strikes | — |
| Royal Guard's Claymore | Not stated here | A practical non-gloom alternative for players who want heavy attacks without the Gloom Club's health drain | Does not provide the Gloom Club's gloom-themed drawback or identity; its performance depends on its own condition and fusion state | — |
Used In
- Phantom GanonPhantom Ganon can wield the Gloom Club and drops one after defeat in encounters that follow the appearance of Gloom Hands.
- GanondorfGanondorf is associated with the Gloom Club as one of its notable wielders.
- Gloom HandsGloom Hands are involved in the encounter sequence preceding the Phantom Ganon fight that can reward the Gloom Club.
Lore and Design
The Gloom Club is presented as a metal, spiked kanabō associated with gloom, madness, and impending doom. Its description frames the weapon as dangerous even to its wielder: the gloom within it gradually drains Link’s health, giving the club a deliberately double-edged identity rather than treating it as an ordinary heavy weapon.
The weapon is notably associated with Ganondorf and with manifestations of Phantom Ganon. Its appearance after encounters involving Gloom Hands reinforces that connection, making the club a recurring visual sign of the gloom surrounding those enemies. This relationship is part of the weapon’s documented story context; it does not establish that the club has a separate named faction or unique canonical origin.
Reference material also associates the club’s design with the oni, alongside the broader visual language used for Ganondorf’s Demon King form. That association should be treated as documented design context rather than a confirmed real-world inspiration or an explicit developer statement. In gameplay, the club’s gloom is also thematically reflected by the fact that fusing it to another weapon prevents its health-draining effect, turning a dangerous cursed armament into a more practical fused tool.
Trivia
- Unlike ordinary metal weapons, the Gloom Club cannot be repaired or upgraded by a Rock Octorok. This makes its deterioration especially significant for players who rely on Rock Octoroks to restore equipment during exploration.