Gloom Sword
The Gloom Sword is a powerful one-handed weapon in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but striking enemies with it drains Link’s health.
Key Takeaways
The Gloom Sword offers high offensive power at the cost of a dangerous drawback, making its handling and use case different from ordinary one-handed weapons.
High-power one-handed weapon
The Gloom Sword is a powerful one-handed weapon associated with the Demon King Ganondorf and his dark servants.
Direct use drains hearts
Each blow dealt while wielding it directly drains Link’s health, so its damage comes with a persistent combat cost.
Obtained from Phantom Ganon
The sword is acquired by defeating Phantom Ganon, who appears after the player defeats Gloom Hands.
Fuse can reduce the drawback
Fusing the Gloom Sword to another weapon allows its offensive contribution to be used while avoiding the sword’s direct health-draining effect.
A situational alternative to ordinary one-handed weapons
Its damage potential distinguishes it from conventional one-handed weapons, but the health drain makes direct use less generally convenient.
Overview
The Gloom Sword is a powerful one-handed weapon in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but its strength comes with a cost: using it directly drains Link’s hearts. It is most closely associated with Phantom Ganon and the Demon King’s forces.
The Gloom Sword is a standard melee weapon with a distinctive risk-and-reward role rather than an ordinary upgrade over other one-handed swords. Its defining property is the gloom effect attached to direct use: attacks can damage Link’s own health while the sword is equipped and used. That drawback makes its practical value depend on whether the player is prepared to manage gloom damage or wants to use the weapon through a safer setup.
Its identity is tied to the enemies who wield it. Phantom Ganon uses the sword, and the weapon can enter Link’s inventory after that encounter, giving it a clear place in the game’s late-surface and Depths-related progression. It is not a separate DLC weapon or a fused combination; the Gloom Sword is the base weapon, while materials attached through Fuse are a separate layer of customization.
The sword’s main alternative use is as a fusion component. Fusing it into other equipment can preserve the weapon’s offensive contribution while avoiding the drawbacks of holding the Gloom Sword as Link’s active weapon in the usual way. This makes it more appealing to players who want to convert a dangerous enemy weapon into a damage-focused build component rather than accept recurring health loss during normal swordplay.
Compared with a conventional one-handed sword, the Gloom Sword is therefore defined less by general convenience than by its unusual trade-off. It offers strong offensive potential, but the health cost limits carefree use and gives healing, gloom resistance, or fusion choices greater importance. Its page matters because the weapon’s best role is conditional: direct combat, careful resource management, and fusion-based use can lead to meaningfully different decisions.
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.
- Attack41
- Durability15
- ClassOne-Handed
- TraitGloom Toll
- ConditionUntouched
- Compendium#370
Figures verified against Consolidated Game Weapons Database.
Compared to similar melee weapons
| Weapon | Attack | Durability | Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gloom Sword | 41 | 15 | One-Handed |
| Gloom Spear | 40 | 16 | Spear |
| Fierce Deity Sword | 38 | 35 | Two-Handed |
| Boulder Breaker | 38 | 40 | Two-Handed |
| Biggoron's Sword | 36 | 60 | Two-Handed |
Attack and durability are the game’s own published values. From Consolidated Game Weapons Database.
How to Obtain
- Access to Hyrule Castle and sufficient preparation to fight Gloom Hands and Phantom Ganon.
- 01Enter the Sanctum at Hyrule Castle in Hyrule Field and defeat the Gloom Hands encountered there. Once the hands are defeated, Phantom Ganon appears in the same encounter; defeat Phantom Ganon to receive the Gloom Sword as a guaranteed drop from this encounter.
- 02The Hyrule Castle encounter is an intended acquisition route rather than a vendor purchase, chest pickup, or quest reward. The sword can be collected during the main game without a DLC, New Game Plus, or special weapon-unlock requirement; no separate mission completion is needed beyond reaching and clearing the encounter.
Mechanics and Handling
The Gloom Sword uses the standard one-handed sword moveset: quick grounded strikes, a normal heavy attack, and the usual mobility options available to one-handed weapons. Its short-to-moderate reach makes spacing important against enemies with longer weapons, but its attack pattern remains flexible enough for shield use, quick repositioning, and ordinary close-range combat.
Its defining handling property is Gloom Toll. When Link directly wields the sword and lands blows, the weapon drains some of his hearts as a gloom-related drawback. This health cost is separate from the sword’s attack power, so its damage advantage does not make the life-drain risk disappear. The effect makes repeated direct use less suitable when Link has limited gloom resistance or cannot safely recover lost hearts.
Gloom Toll and direct attacks
Gloom Toll is conditional on using the Gloom Sword as the active weapon in combat. The danger is greatest during prolonged exchanges, where repeated strikes can accumulate a meaningful health penalty even if Link is otherwise winning the encounter. Treat the sword as a high-risk option rather than a free damage increase: short engagements and controlled hit-and-retreat attacks reduce exposure, while extended sword strings make the drawback more consequential.
The effect does not turn the sword into a status-effect weapon that automatically inflicts gloom on enemies. Its notable penalty is directed at Link, while the sword otherwise behaves as a physical one-handed weapon. No separate weapon skill or special attack is established for the Gloom Sword beyond its normal one-handed moveset.
Fuse handling
Fusing the Gloom Sword to another weapon is the safer way to use its offensive contribution. The fused result can benefit from the sword’s weapon strength without requiring Link to hold the Gloom Sword directly, avoiding the direct-wielding health drain described for the standalone weapon. The resulting attack still follows the base weapon’s handling, so a fused one-handed weapon remains quick while a fused two-handed weapon retains that weapon class’s slower, more committed pattern.
Fuse does not make the Gloom Sword a permanent damage bonus independent of the host weapon. The host weapon, fused material, durability state, and the game’s normal Fuse rules all remain relevant. Use the combination when the extra attack power matters more than preserving the Gloom Sword as a standalone weapon.
Durability and combat commitment
The sword is still subject to Tears of the Kingdom’s ordinary weapon durability behaviour. Its gloom drawback should therefore be weighed alongside remaining durability: spending it directly exposes Link to the health penalty while also consuming the weapon’s finite combat life. Fusing is a practical alternative when the player wants to convert the sword into a component of another weapon rather than commit to its standalone handling and drawback.
Upgrades and Variants
Strengths, Weaknesses and Best Uses
Strengths
- Its one-handed classification preserves the flexibility of a standard one-handed weapon while providing the substantial damage associated with this Gloom weapon.
- As a fusion material, it can contribute its damage to another weapon without making Link suffer the sword's direct-use health drain, according to the documented interaction.
- Its association with Phantom Ganon makes it a repeatable reward target for players willing to fight Gloom Hands and the boss encounter that follows.
Weaknesses
- Using the Gloom Sword directly drains Link's health with each combat blow, creating a persistent survival cost rather than a simple damage tradeoff.
- The health-drain drawback makes direct use poorly suited to prolonged fights unless the player can manage the resulting heart loss.
- Using it as a fusion material avoids the drawback but consumes the sword in that role, so players must choose between its own moveset and its safer contribution to another weapon.
Best uses
- Fuse it to another weapon when you want its damage contribution without accepting the direct-use Gloom drain.
- Use it directly for short engagements when the damage advantage matters more than sustained health management.
- Treat Phantom Ganon encounters as a source of high-value fusion materials if your loadout benefits more from fused weapons than from another standalone one-handed weapon.
Compared With Similar Weapons
| Weapon | Class | Distinctive trait | Main trade-off | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gloom Sword | Gloom Toll; direct attacks inflict gloom on Link | High displayed attack, but repeated direct use can reduce available hearts | Players willing to manage gloom, or users who plan to fuse it rather than wield it directly | — |
| Gerudo Scimitar | Strong Fusion improves the contribution of fused materials | Lacks the Gloom Sword’s self-damaging effect; its value depends more on the chosen fuse material | Fusion-focused builds seeking strong weapon-material combinations | — |
| Royal Broadsword | Improved Flurry Rush | Requires successful flurry-rush timing to realise its main advantage | Players who reliably trigger Flurry Rushes | — |
| Royal Guard's Broadsword | Breaking Point increases its threat as the weapon nears breaking | Its defining effect is tied to the weapon's limited remaining durability | Short, high-risk engagements where a breaking weapon can be used deliberately | — |
Used In
- Phantom GanonPhantom Ganon wields the Gloom Sword and can drop it when defeated after the associated Gloom Hands encounter.
- Demon King GanondorfThe Gloom Sword is associated with and described as the signature weapon of the Demon King Ganondorf.
- Gloom HandsDefeating Gloom Hands causes Phantom Ganon to appear, linking this encounter to the weapon's acquisition.
Lore and Design
The Gloom Sword is presented as a weapon of the Demon King Ganondorf, linking it directly to the hostile forces that spread gloom across Hyrule. Phantom Ganon, one of those servants, is associated with the sword and can yield it when defeated. Its defining narrative idea is that the weapon’s power is inseparable from its corruption: the gloom that makes the blade formidable also harms its wielder during use. This gives the sword a thematic role beyond that of an ordinary high-damage weapon, connecting its combat drawback to Ganondorf’s broader gloom influence.
The sword’s association with Phantom Ganon also places it among the rewards tied to confronting gloom-infested encounters rather than ordinary equipment found throughout Hyrule. Players commonly preserve its offensive contribution by fusing it to another weapon, a practical choice that reflects the weapon’s central fiction: its dark power remains useful, while direct handling is avoided. No separately documented developer commentary or real-world design attribution is established here.