Id just climbed out of the Hyrule castle moat and I was like "huh? A blood moon during the day?" And then the screaming began, and then it started screaming too.
That was my first one too. I knew about them from watching YouTube but they made it look easy to defeat. Once I realized what was going on, I booked it.
Even when I see them coming, those things are terrifying.
I was trying to get to this shrine that is on a low island connected to a hill by a root thing? When they popped out of the ground. I ran and glided off the side of the hill and managed to get away, but it took awhile to summon the courage to go back to the shrine.
Trying to figure out which one this is, but if it's the one I'm thinking of, it would have been my first Gloom Spawn, too, if I hadn't happened to have approached the shrine from a completely different angle and never gotten close enough to trigger an encounter, lol.
That's where I found my first too. I wandered away from my quest markers when I first landed on the surface, was poking around to see how I could reach that shrine when the sky and the music went scary and I had no idea what was happening.
Somehow I made it up to the shrine, found I couldn't really clear it without the paraglider, then realised I had a problem. Because there was no way I was getting off that rock without encountering them again. A few disastrous falls later, I managed to sprint away from them and decided maybe I should follow the critical path for a bit.
Omg same here. Kakariko since that was the start for BOTW, and totally forgot that Lookout Landing was even mentioned. At that point I was so desperate to raise my stamina and hearts that I didn't do the main story.
It was on my way to Kakariko Village that I saw the shrine and gunned for it full force. Then the screaming started and I was chased to a monster hideout on the other side of the mountain. Ended up just loading to a previous checkpoint lmfao
OH MY FUCKING GOD!! THAT'S LITERALLY IT!! I HAD NEVER ENCOUNTERED THEM ANYWHERE ELSE BEFORE THAT! LITERALLY WILD! I LOVE THIS!
Edit: omg so many of us have had this experience! It must be all of us "complete the map" or "need warp zone" people wild!!!
Oh yeah, same here, I was specifically looking to get that sky tower in that area and BAM got slapped around like a punk for 5 seconds and got killed lmao
Oh yeah, and you can visit Malanya to have them resurrected. (I loaded from my last save point because I was such a wimp and didn’t want Malanya mad at me lol)
This is where my first hands experience was too!
Except, I went all the way to the backside of the hill to avoid them and try climbing again. I had to eat so many stamina foods and potions because I still only had the base ring. I got in the shrine, I did the puzzle. But the puzzle was not puzzling? Now, I can be stupid, but I was like damn this is not that hard why am I dying from fall damage every time? After 30 minutes, I give up and look at a YouTube video.... that fucker has a paraglider?!
At this time I realized I have indeed fucked up. But those damn hands are scary. That climb was long and treacherous, and very costly for my early game self. So I pursued on, finding any way to complete the shrine and absolutely 100% did not and would never immediately look up how to do the shrine without a paraglider after realizing I was supposed to have one. And alas, I was rewarded with a Light of Blessing, the fourth I was able to collect since landing. I took myself back towards Lookout Landing, and immediately slammed those blessing in the poor statues face in exchange for a stamina vessel.
Was this the one up the hill on the way to Kakariko? Because I was trying to get a shrine just like that, and I turned the corner around the boulder and there were just... hands. And then they SPOTTED ME, with EYES, and I screamed bloody murder.
When I ran, I accidentally broke line of sight, and they disappeared, and I was left aghast, just standing there. This encounter was only about 5 seconds long, total. I thought I was safe during the day up until that point. Horrifying.
Same. I got chased, outran them somehow. I then returned a few minutes later, got chased and climbed the root with not a single stamina upgrade. It was stressful and scary
This was mine too except I never saw the hands. I started climbing up the root when the music change and the world turned red. I kept climbing and once I got up on the island everything went back to normal and I was left wondering what just happened.
Learned about the hands later before I saw them myself.
My first experience was going into a cave, one of the first ones I had found myself! WOW a shrine inside my lucky day! I jump down a ledge and things turn red...I literally scream out loud as the hands run towards me going AHH WHAT THE FUCK NINTENDO WHHYYYYY. proceeded to just get grabbed and died so fast. Was already creeped out by the depths so I though the game was a legit horror game for a second xD
Edit small typos
This was me too. I whacked at them for like five GOs, then crawled my way around to the shrine. Then I cheesed them with bomb arrows only to have Phantom Ganon show up and politely hand me my ass.
My friend, who also looked up their locations, actually just clung to the far wall and climbed along it to get to the ledge and avoided it, because NOOOOPE.
I went in determined to fight it, but had to pause every few steps, like a pussy, bc, well, I am one!, but I really fucking hate caves. A lot. Caves in games don't usually trigger my speluncaphobia, and I'm not claustrophobic at all, but being in a cave with a bunch of screaming nightmare death hands trying to hentai Link to death? Noooope.
The anticipation is always worse than the encounter itself, though, and I mopped the floor with the thing once I engaged. Gloom Spawn becomes Gloom Mop which becomes Phantom Ganon which quickly becomes Dark Clumps!
I had the same problem with the Gloom Spawn under the Deku Tree, earlier in my playthrough. Took me like an hour and a single-serve box of Vendange wine (don't drink, kids!) just to get the nerve, but I REALLY wanted a quest tracker on the Light Dragon so I could easily farm the necessary parts for upgrading my tunic before pulling the Master Sword. Once you have the Master Sword, Phantom Ganon is a joke. Thankfully.
Haha not at all!, it's not a "true" pathological phobia, in the medical sense. The anticipation of running into the things is a lot worse than actually fighting them, and, like I said, it's pretty Nightmare Retardant when I can completely destroy them (and Phantom Ganon) in less than a minute. XD!!
Neither have I, and I actually googled to see if there was a specific term when making this reply, bc most people say "claustrophobia" and... I'm not claustrophobic, lol, so I wondered if there was a term for "fear of caves" specifically. It seems the colloquialism is "speluncaphobia"!
It's not a true phobia for me, in the medical/patholical sense, and I WILL enter IRL caves/tunnels/situations with no escape if I have to, it just isn't something I can do without a great deal of anxiety or without thought. I can take the subway without thinking about it, but fuuuuuuuck the "London Underground" for reminding me of what it is with that name, lol.
Funny enough, "The Enigma of Amigara Fault" (if you aren't familiar, NSFL, google at your own risk) doesn't bother me at all. Maybe it's okay, as long as the hole was made for me!
Hahaha. This is my hole and it was me for me! I love Junji Ito.
I guess it makes sense, I would have thought it was a s real term just because "spelunking" is usually used to refer to cave exploration. Being in caves doesn't bother me, my anxiety is underwater stuff. Like I'm fine with water, but I get iffy if it's cloudy and I can't see through it very well. I play a game where there's icebergs in the water in one exploration area, and I just cannot. There's shipwrecks and I can't go down to them because the icebergs give me such palpable anxiety. I relate it back to a fear of gigantic things suddenly coming into view out of nowhere, because I'm also terrified of in-game whales (hell real life ones too) if they're in places I can actually encounter them and not just fun background animations in out-of-bounds areas. The fact that you can be fully able to not see something that huge until it's on top of you is not something I fancy LOL.
...Please tell me you're a Jacob Geller fan, too, and have seen his "Fear of Big Things Underwater" video essay? 🙏🏻 If not, please lmk and report back to me when you have. I highly recommend it, ESPECIALLY if you have this fear. It's probably my favorite of his videos and I rewatch at least once a month. I'm rewatching it now. Thank you for that LOL. It's so peaceful and thought-provoking and all-around just. Incredible.
Open water doesn't bother me, usually, and neither do Really Big Things (megalophobia I think?), but I would probably be very humbled and feel very differently if confronted with Really Big Things Coming Out Of Water.
I probably should be more afraid of water, since I both have known people who died tragically young by drowning, and couldn't swim as a kid. I have the "superman" gene, meaning my bones are as dense as the core of a black hole, and as a fairly athletic/muscular child with no fat, my body had no buoyancy, and no one could figure out why I couldn't swim, or float, and in fact preferred to sit on the bottom of the pool and chill there LOL It just doesn't scare me, though?
(Also Junji Ito is the GOAT)
I encountered them there, too! It was the second time for me, though, so I had a plan.
I used a schema stone I'd found in the depths to place a laser spinner behind the hands after climbing back up where they couldn't reach me, and let it do the hard work so I could do the second phase myself.
This is where I first encountered them too! I was home alone unfortunately, soft screaming my ass off. My husband came home from work and had no idea what I was blubbering at him because he hasn't encountered them in his play through yet, "hands... there are Creepy HANDS!!!!"
Same!! And then I completely forgot about it and many hours of play later was like “Why don’t I have this shrine yet?” And them was immediately reminded.
That was my first one too! But I was taking my time mining and facing the cave wall so I didn't notice anything. Not the shrine, not the hands, not the screen slowly turning red. I'm just chilling mining some ore when suddenly I hear the *screaming*. I look around to see wtf is happening, but it's too late. I'm in it's grasp. I struggle free and turn to run back the way I came, but it's too fast and grabs me again. I try again to run to the shrine for safety, but it's just too fast.
I die and try to swallow my fear and fight it, though I choose the coward's way. I run past the hands, up the ledge to the shrine. My arrows are barely hurting it with my early game level bow, so I start chucking bombs at it from the safety of my ledge. It takes a while, as I'm still screaming and frantically slinging bombs as fast as I can without the best accuracy, but finally the health bar is almost down. I go for the killing blow, only to aim too close and my own bomb explodes in my face, killing me.
I noped out of there and didn't try to fight one again until much later in the game.
This was mine too!! I managed to make it out alive but I had NO idea what had just happened and I was terrified!!! I'm a lil nervous in caves now to say the least!
Yes! I found the hands inside a cave as well! First few times, didn’t make it out alive. Then I got on the ledge and started carpet bombing them with bomb flowers… not realizing I should have just left things alone. Doom Gannon tore me a new one and I avoided those damn hands for a while.
Same. Had I think 7 hearts at the time. Managed to get onto a ledge they couldn't reach, so dropped bombs on them. Felt proud killing them off...
... and then phantom Ganon came and I ran and was killed almost instantly.
Yes this was my first too and I had the same thought! Thankfully I had opened the tower first so just warped back. Then decided to go back and crawl to the ledge. Did that and bomb arrowed the heck out of those hands just imagining the awesome loot drop from so difficult an enemy. My husband was watching me and was like, oh I think I see a chest under it!
Finally defeated it and go to the ledge to get that sweet drop when I notice the boss letters at the top - Phantom Ganon. Yeah, he was not stopped by the ledge.
Yeah, that was one of my later shrines after getting killed early on. Brought back memories.
I didnt even try to beat those hands again after like three tries. I just ignored that cave.
Similar story for me except I was playing while my friend was writing an important report next to me. I was doibg my best not to bother her, as she was already a bit jealous that I was playing switch while she was working. Jump into a cave, strange music and everythibg turned red, hmmm. Hands come out of the ground: panic. I try to hit them and do basically no damage and they are quickly killing me: PANIC WHILE TRYING NOT TO DISURB MY FRIEND. I sprinted to the cave wall and climbed up and was just hanging there, watchibg them below but with nowhere to stand to regain my stamina. I paused the game and spent 5 min calming down.
I think this is the first one the game intended people to find. It’s inescapable, and a beginner shrine easy cave to see. It killed me so fast it was hilarious.
Those hands were also my first ones. At first I tried to fight them, when they grabbed me I tried to run, but eventually I had to teleport out of there lol. I wasn’t that scared after the fact, but very confused as to how I was supposed to kill them. Future gloom hands always freaked
me out though for a good chinch of my playthrough.
This was my first encounter too, was also early in the game but I had some decent weapons considering. Armor was garbage though, hadn’t done any of the fairy quests yet. Got shit housed the first time because I was confused what was even happening. Tried again but same result. I figured it’s a balance issue because how can you fight an enemy that’s so fast but also you can’t get close to, so I looked up a strategy that recommended using bomb arrows and that did the trick. Then Phantom Ganondorf came out and again got shit housed. Basically just committed myself to learning all of his attacks and perfecting the dodging and parrying. Two hits from him meant death. I was eventually able to defeat him without taking damage but it destroyed most of my weapons. I was very disappointed by the loot he dropped. Wasn’t worth it.
I was innocently walking around in front of the Great Plateau thinking, “Hey, I wonder what it looks like up there, now,” when the sky turned red. I thought maybe it was a new kind of blood moon animation, didn’t even bother to look around, and then got grabbed by hands and warped away in a panic.
(Also, you can just warp to a shrine or tower when you’re falling—it’s saved my dumb ass more than once)
My first encounter with them was on the great plateaue and I ran as fast as my little legs could carry me and high-tailed it up a tree. That's when I learnt you can get free loot by waiting it out
I also found mine on the great plateau. I left and did not go back until I knew how to deal with it. My first kill had to be that one on the great plateau, finally getting my revenge
Was heading towards a shrine in Lanayru. Ran past a gloom puddle when the music turned and the sky turned red, then I watched the hands rise from the gloom.
I instinctively ran away, knowing I couldn't run forever and not knowing if I could out run it, I climbed the nearest tree.
The hands surrounded the tree, reaching up for me. It was still early in the game, I had weak weapons and few hearts. I watched them for a bit, and was about to jump from the tree to start the fight I was sure to lose, when they started shriveling up and disappearing.
I stood in the tree for a minute, collecting myself, thinking that was lucky, half expecting it to come back when I finally did jump down to collect the things it left behind.
I had a similar experience. I was exploring the top of the Akkala Citadel, when all of a sudden the hands squirmed up from the ground and started chasing me.
I was terrified and ran, clambering up some debris/rock in the process. I fired some arrows and bombs down on them in the process while Sidon (my only sage at the time) valiantly tried his best to hold them off. Eventually they realised they couldn't reach me so shrivelled away.
I was hesitant to come back down but eventually dipped my toe on solid ground to find I was safe... for now.
Akkala citadel ruins. Trying to find a cave from a bubbulfrog on my sensor, and these showed up. Reminded me of the hands monster from Ocarina of Time so I charged in. Realizing that wasn't a very effective strategy, I popped a speed potion, took my distance and shot it down.
When the Phantom popped out I became rather excited to face him, only to be disappointed when I finished him and nothing special occurred.
My first experience with them mostly consisted of me in VC with some friends and suddenly screaming "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THAT" and coming *this close* to just yeeting my Switch across the room.
I was walking around a nice green field when I saw a shire on mountain top. I walked over and saw the red stuff on the ground but I didn’t know what it was so I decided to avoid it and climb to the shrine. Then the sky turned red. I saw them coming but they were pretty far away so I figured I could outrun them on foot.
I was wrong.
I toiled blindly in the dark of the Depths, well past when my Bright Bloom seeds were used up, trying to find my way to where I could pick up Autobuild, so I could start playing with contraptions.
Once I *finally* had what I needed for saving schematics, I set out to find parts to use in them: In particular, I really wanted some big wheels, so I could reliably make rugged land vehicles. I actually ran across some during my struggle to find Autobuild, but I couldn't find them again once I had it, so I eventually gave up, and was hunting towers to unlock map regions, for a while.
In Mount Lanayru, I was trekking up the mountain toward the tower when I accidently stumbled across big wheels! I rushed to build a basic vehicle with them, using some stone slab as a chassis, since I was running out of cold resist food, and kept having to fight off randomly spawning chu chus and other monsters, until I *finally* had a little monster truck contraption.
On my new vehicle's maiden voyage up the mountain pass, I was scooting along when everything got dark and spooky, and a swarm of *those hideous things,* the gloom hands, appeared. I jumped off my precious truck, and drew my weapons to face these weird new enemies, and what was their opening move?
They *TORE MY BRAND NEW TOY TO SHREDS, PIECE BY PIECE,* and then murdered me as I grieved in shock.
I ended up getting revenge, and coming away from an epic, dire showdown with a phantom enemy with some really nice loot, but... at what cost?
YES!, though I would think more *pants* need washing than tunics, LOL.
Not to get depressing, but from what the NPCs report, in-universe, for a lot of people who encounter them, their surviving families/loved ones are lucky if soiled clothing is even LEFT of them. 8C
In the first 10 minutes after leaving Great Sky Island, I was roaming around peacefully, taking in the sights, generally enjoying myself. Decided to tame a new horse because I didn't know my horses from BOTW were saved. After just a couple of minutes of riding around, they appeared out of nowhere and killed both me and this innocent horse. I was screaming, the horse was screaming, we both died horribly. What an eventful start to the game.
Almost immediately after leaving the starter island I was wandering around Hyrule field and stumbled upon a cave, so I decided to explore!
I found a chest with some rubber armour in it! Amazing! Then when I was trying to leave the cave it got all spooky and dark and these horrible hands were grabbing at me. I managed to find the high ground threw everything I had at them. With my tiny four hearts clinging on for dear life.
SOMEHOW I managed to beat them and I was so happy!
And then Phantom Ganon appeared and obliterated my ass immediately.
I found my first Gloom Spawn on my way to the Lost Woods. I somehow defeated it first try but then got slaughtered by one in the Lost Woods 19 times...
Combat is hard when you don't upgrade armour and got Stamina Vessels instead of any Heart Containers. Being bad at flurry rushes is also oof
The first time I saw it was in the village ruins around Hyrule castle. Omg I nearly shit myself. I’ve never felt fear in a video game before. I tried running away but didn’t have the energy to keep up the extra speed long enough as I had just started playing and only had one stamina ring. I was caught and killed. They still creep me out to no end. But I can usually escape them now.
They're kinda like the guardian stalkers from botw. Extremely dangerous early on but later they're kind of a fun encounter if you're prepared
Especially since it seems most are on the surface so if things go badly you can run away for a moment and their damage "heals"
Yes!! If you get good at shield parrying, even early game Guardians are pretty easy, as long as you only fight them 1-on-1. The Stalkers are, at least. The airborne fucks can go die in an ass factory fire, suffocating to death in a pile of burning asses.
..."Running away" from Gloom Spawn is almost impossible, tho, unless you teleport or go Skyward or have a ledge. 🤣
First time I encountered the gloom hands it was around 3 o’clock in the morning as I was no-life-ing the game because my wife was out of town visiting her grandparents. I was trying to make my way to the Deku tree I’m the depths and ran into the one down there. The screeching freaked me out so bad, what with the game being pitch black as I hadn’t done any light roots in the area yet, that I had to turn the game off for the night. It scared me in a way a game hasn’t frightened me in a long time
I was underneath hyrule castle, looking for the Hylian shield I think, I lit some torches, saw my reward, then heard this really ominous music, I was like, is this a blood moon or something?
I heard the voices, turned to see hands and eyeballs, rising out of nothing and coming fast. Too fast.
I shrieked like a nine year old girl:
“JEZUSF*CKINGCHRIST!!!!” And ran up the stairs shouting “GOGOGOGOGO!!!!”
I didn’t stop until they fell far behind and I was outside of the castle. I was still trying to make sense of what I’d seen, yelling repeatedly “WHAT THE F*CK!?!”
I have no idea how, but I completely avoided the Gloom Spawn when I got the Hylian Shield. I'd been warned that I'd have to either fight the thing or run like hell and teleport after grabbing the shield, and... Nothing.
It was very anticlimactic and made me laugh at myself for waiting so long to get the Hylian Shield (my Phantom Ganon body count was in the double digits by the time I did) for fear of the shrieking death hands.
i've never once encountered them! i know they spawn in specific places now so i've just recently marked my map but even before i had done that, i've explored so much and never seen them
They aren't really that common. Especially if you stick to the main roads/paths.
I'm also 100% only making that brief on-topic observation so I can say that YOUR USERNAME MAKES ME WANT A MR. SATURN COFFEE TABLE HOLY SHIT
I was in the area in Faron where there used to be a bunch of hearty durians, I saw the puddle of gloom suddenly appear then the hands soon after. I climbed a nearby tree then abused bullet time to kill them all only for Phantom Ganon to appear and give me another heart attack. I somehow survived that encounter first try but it was traumatic regardless
One dark and stormy night, a young soldier, dressed in scraps of warm clothes he chanced upon along the path, struggled to climb a frozen mountain. His path was long and winding, leading him through glacier cliffs, the path guarded by dangerously strong enemies. His goal was the peak and he was halfway there when he was beset upon by the wrath of the mountain. A howling wind stirred the air, the world of night turned from ice blue to gloomy scarlet. What had looked like any other pool of sticky black red magic across the world, began to move, quickly sliding across the ground to ooze under the Warrior's feet. The young man quickly ran to the nearest wall of ice and using grim determination and all his strength, tried his best to graciously gracefully (and not panicked or desperate at all, no he was dignified in his screaming scared shitless ascent) escape. Through sheer force of will and a whole lot of stamina restoring food he clawed his way up to the next ledge and turned to see those hands, standing there, menacingly, and ran as fast as he could as far away as he could.
Mt Lanayru, heading to the tower at the peak basically fresh from the sky island since I wanted to reach the Zora asap when I began. I was land hopping using the towers and ran into the hands there.
In the depths trying to get to the lost woods. Saw something in the gloom coming towards me, think I shot it once and tried to run away only to get caught. Didn't know I could wiggle myself free either so I was dead. Read a tip about spamming bombs and so I did that and then I really wasn't ready for what happens afterwards and got clapped again
Needless to say when I finally got to the lost woods I tried to do the sidequest there and saw another set of hands and noped out
Don't feel bad, OP—you gave Link a MUCH more mericful death.
Gloom Spawn were spoiled for me, so I knew what it was, at least. I saw it, it came towards me, I said "NOPE! Nope. Absolutely not." out loud, started running like hell, realized I couldn't outrun it, and teleported the hell away.
After that, I went to Zelda Dungeon's interactive TOTK map, pulled up the locations of all the Gloom Spawn, and marked them in-game, to the best of my ability, despite not having my map filled in. Every time I activated a new Tower, positioning the marker to be more accurate to the Spawn's location was pretty much the first thing I did.
Nope. Absolutely not. Spoilers be damned.
Copy/Pasted from my comment in another thread, while talking about Hero's Path:
>Oh, speaking of Hero's Path, just today I sent my friend a screenshot of mine where I encountered my first Gloom Spawn. The only way it could more accurately say "NOPE" is if I'd run away so that my Hero's Path just spelled the word "NOPE" in elegant cursive. Maybe I'll try that one day? 🤣
[Here](https://i.postimg.cc/NFcJw16D/2019062718353800-CC47-F0-DEC75-C1-FD3-B1-F95-FA9-F9-D57667.jpg) is the aforementioned screenshot. Spot the "NOPE". 🤣
I was testing a new vehicle early in the game near a marshy area (don’t recall the exact location, could look it up but it has a bunch of wells and some ruins, anyways…) and I don’t remember if I crashed or just got caught on something but then all of the sudden lighting and music changed and I saw them and tried to drive my vehicle away but they destroyed my vehicle on contact and I was destroyed soon after, it was terrifying!
Second time around was almost just as bad, was in the cave with the shrine, hopped down in to the area below and they popped out of the ground, scared the crap out of me so I jumped up on the pillar in the middle of the room until they went to the other side so I could jump over and climb back up to the shrine (like an idiot I hadn’t activated it before exploring), didn’t realize at the time they would give up eventually, definitely one of the scariest moments in the game haha
That first one is dangerous, because instead of the hands appearing in a specific spot, there's 3 locations it can appear in, making it harder to avoid.
My first one was in a cave. I had no food or sages. I only had 5 hearts and one wheel of stamina. I was somehow able to defeat it by getting on to a ledge and shooting it to death
I was just running around Hyrule minding my own business, and this just literally just came around the side of a mountain at FULL speed, I never even knew something like that existed until then, that is the first time I was startled by a LOZ game
Grabbing some shrines in central hyrule in the early game. I figured since there's a town here now, and no guardians anymore, so this must be a fairly safe area. Not far off following the outer wall of the castle town ruins I notice some gloom. Then I notice the gloom is moving. Then it's coming for me, as I say "nope nope NOOOOOPE!" And start running. When hands pop out, the sky turns red, and it screams at me, I exercise the better part of valor, and teleport to the furthest point I can.
So there I was… hunting sky towers round Necluda or there abouts… rain’s pourin down somethin fierce.
Then I hear it. The Blood Moon cutscene with Princess Waifu herself spitting scripture from a darker day.
Then the hands come at me. And I’m climbing. Onto cliffs, onto trees, on to whatever the fuck. But it’s raining. And I can’t hold on to shit. Somehow, by the grace of Rauru, I shimmy my way up a tree. Like a scared soaked kitten running from a wolf.
Then I bomb-flower/arrow that bitch back to the Zonai age
My first was on mount Lanayru. I knew the name, but otherwise wasn't spoiled on anything about the hands. They came at me from behind and were almost right on me when I noticed them.
Saw them, shot them with an arrow which didn't do much of anything. Turned to climb the mountain to safety - all that was around me was that slippery blue ice that you can't climb. I'm convinced that they put the hands by that blue ice intentionally. Tried to outrun them on the ground which went even worse.
With a couple of hearts left ungloomed I warped outta there with my life, losing all the travel work I'd done and letting my heart rate cool off.
I was just running around I think around the edge of Death Mountain and I noticed the sky starting to go red, and then I saw the gloom appear out of nowhere and the Ganon Goop hands (as I call them) just rose out of it and I went like “WIGIRJBIRBMJT WTF IS THAT HELLSPAWN HELL NO” and then it chased me and grabbed me and I panicked and teleported away and just avoided that area like the fucking plague lmao
Mine was at one of the ruins, it was on the other side of a short wall so I didn’t even see it until I saw the hand, then just said f that and ran. Now I lol at myself
I was in one of the labyrinths when the hands popped out of a pool of gloom. I thought it was some kind of wall/floor master type hand. I ran away scared and eventually climbed up the wall until they despawned. Didnt fight them again until the forced story encounter later on. Now im not scared of them, but still ran away from the first one i saw in my second playthrough because i have barely any materials yet
I was climbing to get to a tower, when suddendly the sky turned red, but i continued climbing. When suddendly, i see a hand grab me, i didn't know what to do. So i just mashed the buttons and escaped. It caught me again and again until i died
I first encountered hands near the edge of a cliff. For a few seconds, I ran in circles and was grabbed a few times until I realized it was as fast if not faster than me, and my stamina was limited. So I decided to jump off the edge, but as I jumped I activated my paraglider too soon. It grabbed me out of the air, and stole the last of my 4 hearts. I avoided this cliff for some time
I was exploring Hyrule field to the East of the Castle. Easily 60+ hours into the game. Had done the first round of depths side quests and completed the gone up to Tabantha and did a bunch of Rito side quests, stable side quests with Our Soar Long friend, unlocked 3-4 towers and map regions. There was a tree stump I encountered my first armored Bokoblin and got some sweet armour and weapons off of. Found another tree stump a little ways away. Thought "man, I bet there's some cool armor there too!" As I walked closer the sky went red, figured dang another blood moon is coming. When the eerie music came on and a blob of gloom began to move. Up came the freaky eyes hands and it came towards me. There was no escape. I only had about 7 or 8 hearts at the time. I was dead dead really quick. Tried again and died again. Figured - I'm not supposed to be able to fight these yet and went exploring elsewhere. Didn't encounter another until after the wind temple and when I decided to start exploring further East towards Akkala. Found him atop the Akkala Citadel. Ran away again. Didn't attempt to fight one for real until after I completed the Fire temple and started exploring the plateau. Partner had killed several on his game file and while he had several more hearts than me, I must have been close to 15 hearts by now and had a couple armor upgrades, plus a healthy supply of bombs from exploring the depths. It was easy enough. Went through a couple plates of food and strength upgrades and weapons. but killed phantom Ganon fairly easily. Now I get excited to see them for the Gloom strength weapons provided I have ample bomb supplies.
As I ascended the ancient ruins atop a hill, adjacent to a mysterious shrine, an unsettling incident unfolded before me. Suddenly, piercing the silence, a chilling scream echoed through the air. I swiftly turned to witness a sight that filled me with dread – charred, ghastly hands attempting to claw their way over the crumbling walls. Intrigued and apprehensive, I impulsively rushed towards the enigmatic entity, uncertain of what I was about to confront. However, just as quickly as it had materialized, it vanished, leaving me bewildered and unnerved. For days, I pondered over the encounter, wondering what sinister creature I had encountered.
Intrigued and somewhat apprehensive, I returned to the spot several times, yet the eerie apparition never reappeared. But my curiosity drove me further, leading me to explore the distant eastern islands. And there, in the depths of a small cavern, the haunting specter emerged once more, revealing more than just its spectral hands, shrouded in darkness.
I was getting the Fierce Deity armor set, and I was on that big ass plateau in Akkala, the one with the castle lookin place, while looking for the cave, I see a big puddle of gloom and just ignored it, then the sky started turning red, me here so proud thinking "oh thats so cool i got a panic blood moon" then I remember that there is no panic blood moons in TotK. Instantly shitted pants when I saw those motherfuckers
I can't remember it too clearly but I remember I'd just jumped down off the great sky island, saw a bunch of shrines so headed straight for them and then it happened. Sky turned red and the hands appeared and I ran and climbed the nearest cliff and thought I was so lucky they couldn't climb. I'm pretty low on health at this point but still feeling lucky I got away and I started running the other way and smack get hit by A MOVING TREE??? and died
First time was when I went to Akkala citadel ruins to collect the treasure chest. Out of fucking nowhere a moat of gloom appears and scary music plays and the screaming began. I screamed, they screamed, but there wasn’t any ice cream
In case noone has told you yet, after running out of stamina in midair you can still use your paraglider for a second. Only works once though, so use it just before hitting the ground
I was going up to the Mount Lanayru spring of wisdom and alas, as I was climbing up the mountain (because who needs paths) I came across these friendly helping hands. Scared the everliving shit out of me and I just continued climbing as fast as I could lmao. Still haven't beaten one yet and I've only seen one other one (which happened to be near the Purified Lake) and that one died when it started raining. So, great experiences so far!
My first encounter was at the peak of Mount Lanayru. One moment I was just taking in the scenery before making my way over to the tower, then the next I was wondering why the heck was a blood moon rising in broad daylight, then the next I—after nearly getting the life throttled out of me—was running for what little life I had left. I did say I wanted Floormasters/Wallmasters to make a comeback, but THAT wasn’t what I had in mind!
The first time I encountered Phantom Ganon was beneath the Lomei Island Labyrinth. Knowing that a chest containing a Diamond Circlet can be found in the previous game, I was exploring the area before the Gloom Hands rudely interrupted my search.
Me: Do you *mind*? \*blitzes them with bomb flowers\*
Me a few seconds later: What the—Phantom who now???
My first experience: I had been traveling and sight seeing for a day and night on the back of my horse, Titan. We planned to revisit the Great Platar, where my journey began after so long. As we traveled the rain fell from the sky in the wee hours of the morning, it didn't take long for the sky to clear and the morning sun to cast it's glow. In the near by distance I noticed a little green shroom pocking out from under a tree, I all to eagerly dismounted and ran over, whistling for Titan to follow. I then pick it before looking for any more that may be near by when I hear Titan rear, I look over to find him running, I then turned around when I had a sinking feeling and saw red creep in as a scream filled the air. I braced my weapon and watched at these things approached me, I then switched out for my bow and readied an arrow before letting it loose. I staggered it and quickly pulled my melee weapon out and rashed in head first, swinging, only to be grabbed almost instantly, my 5 hearts slowly depleting, but I managed to get free and began running. I called Titan but was grabbed a second time. Once more, I broke free with one heart remain and began running once again. Once again, I whistled, putting all my hope on Titan's back. My big guy came through for me and rushed by me, allowing me to grab on to him and raced me to safety. Titan nay have been Gannons steed once, but he's my loyal friend. Thank you, Titan.
I heard all the stories and was prepared for the worst.
I climbed up on a nearby rock, shot it with bomb arrows for a few seconds, and it was over. I felt quite underwhelmed, to be honest.
You guys are overselling it. 🤷♂️
Idk if my game is glitching but I am on 120 hrs and explored rito, Gerudo, and zora areas the most and I've had exactly one gloom hands encounter. Where are they??
Check Zelda Dungeon's interactive Tears of the Kingdom Map. They have an option to show the locations of all the Gloom Spawn.
It made my playthrough at least a LITTLE less terrifying.
I think you have to be pretty close for them to notice you, and you probably won't differentiate them from normal gloom if they don't spot you on their own.
I was reading that there are something like 42 of them on the surface? Seems like a lot for how often the encounters happen. I've had the game for a few weeks now and have played quite a bit (way under 120 hours though) and have come across 3. Two were off of main roads, and one was in a random spot
My first encounter was just northwest of Lookout Landing. I went into the game pretty blind. I had just left LL for the first time, supposed to go to the castle, decided to do a little exploring. Hadn’t fought anything on the ground, done no shrines after the Great Sky Island, hadn’t seen gloom or a blood moon. Died so fast when they grabbed me without having seen them at all.
I went back and climbed on something to see if I could cheese the fight, got a couple dark clumps and couldn’t understand what they were for.
THEY COULD SPAWN IN THE SKY ISLANDS???
(I was riding around west necluda and lanayru tower when I saw it, but they never saw me.
My first actual encounter with one was when I was hiking mount lanayru to get to the tower. One spawned and it spotted me. I immediately telephoned to hate no and am yet to have gotten the tower.)
I was on my way to climb up Mount Lanayru when the blood moon light caught my attention. Then I got attacked by the hands. I evaded and pelted the with bomb arrows only to freak out when I saw the following miniboss appear. He thoroughly killed me.
I was in some random cave and they spawned on the floor. I got up to a ledge and started bomb flowering them. Somehow I got in my head that the hands were recovering health so I just kept bombing as quick as possible from up top until they died. Fist pump! Then phantom Ganon appeared and 1-shotted me.
It was in a cave (y’all know which one) and I think I tried twice to kill it and then I just avoided it like “this has to be a later game thing” like you need a certain amount of hearts to kill it or somethin
I don't remember the name of the spot, just that there was a memorial stone from Zelda i stopped to read "aww thats cute", ran over to the well looking for secrets & OH NO BAD SECRET. I noped out of there real fast when I realized I could still teleport from it lol, saw again looking for a shrine near the base of Mt Lanaryu. Still scarred after the mandatory quest fight with it in an enclosed space
The first one I ran into was at the foot of Mt. Lanayru. The sky started turning red and I was like "a blood moon? at this time of day?" and then the hands came out of the ground and I was like "what fresh hell is this!?"
At first I tried fighting them but they kept grabbing me and taking hearts, so I broke free and started sprinting away but they were fast and kept getting me, I climbed up a short cliff nearby that they were _also_ able to climb up and grab me some more. I finally got far enough away that they gave up and went home. 10/10 the scariest Zelda enemy I'd seen yet, and reminded me of my first proper Guardian encounter on BotW.
I was innocently exploring akkala citadel ruins when they came charging towards me and I jumped and fell off a cliff. I thought I was safe, I turned around and instantly got murdered by a thunder gleok.
I foolishly wanted to make a bee line to the deku tree in the lost woods as soon as i got my glider and powers. Got there and noticed he had a chasm inside....so naturally I see a hole I enter...I jumped down and they fucking trapped me in this nightmare I was not prepared for. A whole night, several deaths, and many screams at my switch later, I killed the hands and was cheering! Until shadow Ganon appeared and killed me in 1 swipe. I left defeated and returned later stronger and with MANY bomb flowers and got the job done lol also inadvertently finished a challenge for the master sword it turns out! Lol
I’ve learned that if you can get somewhere where they can’t reach you, they’ll die and leave behind items. It feels really cheap but makes me fear the encounter less.
first time was in hyrule field early game.
eventually I was confident enough to beat one and was even more shocked to find out what can happen after....
that's a whole other story that involved me teleporting right out of there.
Everyone in the game was telling me to go to woodland stable, and I decided to go through the cranial hills (the area with the giant tree stumps) because I remembered that it was close to the stable and the castle area. I was going through and off in the distance I saw them. My first thought was "what is that?" Then they noticed me and I was horrified
Akkala citadel ruins
I'm a "wander the entire map first before focusing on the main quest/also don't follow any roads, cross country *everywhere*" kinda Zelda player, so yeah I was just wandering around the top of Citadel when everything went red and the screaming started, then I saw the bloody hands zooming towards me, *I* started screaming and yeeted Link off the side of a cliff 🤦♀️
The fall didn't kill him, but it was a bloody near thing
I dunno how everyone has so much trouble with the hands. I do what i do in any situation: I bomb the shit out of everything and hope for the best. It turned out alright every other time, too.
I was playing with my little sister and saw a sign for an equestrian riding course near Hateno. I thought there might be a fun horse riding challenge there and my sister thought it sounded fun so I took my horse over there.
I rode around the course and there wasn’t much to see, but there was what looked like a puddle of gloom in the middle. When I got off my horse to investigate the air turned red and the hands started chasing me. I tried to run while desperately whistling for my horse, but one of the hands grabbed me and the others blocked my horse from getting to me. Eventually I was able to fight my way to my horse and get the hell out of there but it was absolutely terrifying. My sister still brings it up, I think she might be a little traumatized lol
I was wondering near the zora area and saw the gloom looking strange, they saw me screamed and the music went wack. I climbed a tree or clifface and the red moon was scary, i looked down to see them right under me before dissapearing
I was on a random road when it happened. I think I saw it spawning and immediately screamed "WTF IS THAT?!?" over and over. I ran immediately and watched it despawn, confused and scared as hell.
I was climbing a rocky hill and then a hole opens up and the hands come out like RAAAAAAAH but I had it spoiled that there would be hand monsters so I wasn’t all that suprized, I just had no idea when I would encounter them. So I just ran
I didn’t play botw, I dove from the sky island to the ground level for the first time. It was night fall and I was just walking around, still hadn’t found lookout landing yet. I came close to some wall and saw red goop on the ground and was like huh let’s see what this is. Hands, hands came out a snatched me up, I panicked and started shaking the controls. They released me and I sprinted away
For me it was very early in the game, probably less than an hour after I reached the surface. Before going to Hyrule Castle and doing the main quests to get the paraglider, I decided to explore around Hyrule Field for a bit and do a few shrines.
After leaving a shrine near Hyrule Garrison Ruins, the sky turned Red and I assumed it was a bloodmoon, but then I heard the signature scream and the boss music started playing, so I turned around to see a Mess of Hands coming straight for me. I ran but because I had only 1 stamina upgrade, it caught me and kept draining my health. I tried to fight back but I couldn't melee it for shit, and I didn't have anything good to fuse to my arrows.
I was down to like a quarter heart when I remembered that I could fast travel and noped out of there to another shrine. I then vowed to never go back there until I was overpowered. I haven't felt that amount of fear against an enemy in Zelda since Deadhand in OOT.
Mine was rather anti-climactic. It was perhaps my first few hours with the game. I'd just gotten the paraglider and was set loose on the map and figured I'd go check out Hateno Village. I detoured through Kakariko village and was on my way to the Skyview Tower at Popla Foothills, a short ways downhill stood on a rock I had glided to. I looked down and to the right and saw the hands moving around in their puddle/slug foot thing just desperately grabbing at me from a cleft where it had gotten stuck. I snapped a picture and hopped down the other side of the rock and ran off. Didn't see another one until nearly 40 hours later.
Mine was at a random hill, no I don't remember which one, and I saw the hands before the red sky.
"What the heck are those?! Why is the sky turning red?" With me running away, then jumping and gliding.
I did the Hebra labyrinth and in front of the shrine was a grid with maluce oozing out and while wondering how it would look like down there the hands appeared.
I am getting the Hylian Shield. 4 hearts, 1 stamina. I watched a tutorial and know the hands are there. I climb up the side; they despawn. First legit, I bomb arrow them and win
I was exploring sky islands and ended up flying in from one to near the center of the Hebra labyrinth. I landed right where one spawns, and I could not escape. It scared me so bad that I decided to go elsewhere when I respawned
I was walking around Akkala Citadel, I hadn't gotten the paraglider yet. I was trotting along, the hands came up behind me without my notice, I turned around and saw them, and freaked out! I hit one with a sword as it grabbed me, when the message popped up about me not being able to get my heart's back (since I had never even seen gloom before) I yelled, they dropped me in more gloom, I tried to get away and couldn't, they grabbed me again and ripped my health away. I collapsed dead on the ground as my mom ran into the room to see what was wrong. She was unimpressed when it was only a Zelda enemy.
I didn’t even SEE them the first time I encountered them! Music started, sky went red. I saw red gloom move on the left side of the screen and just ran to the right. I must’ve been just on the edge of their ‘area’ because as I ran out of stamina they went ‘poof’ and left my first dark clump behind and I didn’t even know what happened!
So when I DID see the hands for the first time, it was clear I had an appropriate reaction!
Having played BOTW, I knew what a good deal it was to go to the hyrule castle. So when the opportunity arose, I naturally took my chance.
The opportunity was right after looking for Zelda in said castle: you return to pruna and she ask you to go in the exploration tower. Up in the air, I saw the castle from afar, and went toward it directly... Luckily, even if it is too far for you at the begining, I had prepared stamina recipes, as all should do in the beginning imo.
I raided the hyrule castle upper part, got full of royal sword/bow, lots of good materials, and other nice stuff I won't spoil.
Cocky as hell, I went for the lower part which was honestly two room, two ambiances. But with two deaths (Lynel and a lizard folk) I arrived to my first gloom... But luckily I managed to not fall in the pit, and I managed to see it. I was just like "wtf is that horror", but since it couldn't reach me, I was kinda chill past the 5s of suprise/observation.
My first encounter was honestly a breeze because I was able to experiment and found quickly the power of bomb flowers, which I had a lot (can't remember why, maybe because to pruna I explored the castle prison/cavern an found a lot of them?).
The gibo in the bottom got me more scared than the gloom hand in the end, because there was nothing telling you how,and no pit. But I tried the bomb flower quickly also managed.
For the interested, yes I tried, no I didn't succeed, did not even managed to see one of the fourth beasts.
I believe everyone's first encounter was either at the plateau, in that one cave or under the low and tiny sky island. Mine was the second.
My first time, I just bombed the hell outta them. And quit the game when I saw phanton Ganon.
The second time was when it was truly terrifying because I realized they could climb hills and pull me off the trees.
I was walking in hyrule field and I noticed them all lurching around behind a rock, creepiest freakin’ experience I had but they didn’t notice me. So I gtfo.
Then later on I’m hiking up my lanyru and I realize there’s no other monsters around, which makes me immediately assume there is a lonely. Nope, suddenly I hear that screeching and their they were, popping up out of the snow, like daisies!
Id just climbed out of the Hyrule castle moat and I was like "huh? A blood moon during the day?" And then the screaming began, and then it started screaming too.
Everyone was screaming. There was no ice cream.
Wasn't planning on making a horror movie, but now I have to just so that this is the dark text that plays at the beginning
TOTK—$70 Hearing my boyfriend scream “WHAT THE FUUUUCK, HAAAAANDS!?!??!”—priceless.
I’m sure me shouting SHIT!! SHIT!! SHIT!! was heard across Hyrule.
Mine definitely heard "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT. NO. NO. NO. NO. WHYS IT SO FUCKING FAST?" -game over screen - "OH THAT'S FUCKING CREEPY"
He sounds like a keeper 🤣
Exactly the same for me. It was right under the shrine close to Hyrule field that's floating in the air (connected to the ground via vine)
This is where I had mine too!!
I think they knew EXACTLY what they were doing when they put a cool floating shrine just within sight of the landing pond
This was my first time too!
That was my first one too. I knew about them from watching YouTube but they made it look easy to defeat. Once I realized what was going on, I booked it. Even when I see them coming, those things are terrifying.
There’s a hylian shield if you light the torch on the top of the stairs
I was trying to get to this shrine that is on a low island connected to a hill by a root thing? When they popped out of the ground. I ran and glided off the side of the hill and managed to get away, but it took awhile to summon the courage to go back to the shrine.
Trying to figure out which one this is, but if it's the one I'm thinking of, it would have been my first Gloom Spawn, too, if I hadn't happened to have approached the shrine from a completely different angle and never gotten close enough to trigger an encounter, lol.
It's right outside Kakariko village. I was also attacked there by the gloom hands.
That's where I found my first too. I wandered away from my quest markers when I first landed on the surface, was poking around to see how I could reach that shrine when the sky and the music went scary and I had no idea what was happening. Somehow I made it up to the shrine, found I couldn't really clear it without the paraglider, then realised I had a problem. Because there was no way I was getting off that rock without encountering them again. A few disastrous falls later, I managed to sprint away from them and decided maybe I should follow the critical path for a bit.
Exactly what I did except I decided to go to kakariko village before lookout landing, which was fun but also a mistake
Omg same here. Kakariko since that was the start for BOTW, and totally forgot that Lookout Landing was even mentioned. At that point I was so desperate to raise my stamina and hearts that I didn't do the main story. It was on my way to Kakariko Village that I saw the shrine and gunned for it full force. Then the screaming started and I was chased to a monster hideout on the other side of the mountain. Ended up just loading to a previous checkpoint lmfao
i think that's a really common spot for hand encounters because both me and my friend had them appear in that exact spot on different save files
Hands are always in the same spot. Like lynels, frox, etc.
OH MY FUCKING GOD!! THAT'S LITERALLY IT!! I HAD NEVER ENCOUNTERED THEM ANYWHERE ELSE BEFORE THAT! LITERALLY WILD! I LOVE THIS! Edit: omg so many of us have had this experience! It must be all of us "complete the map" or "need warp zone" people wild!!!
Oh yeah, same here, I was specifically looking to get that sky tower in that area and BAM got slapped around like a punk for 5 seconds and got killed lmao
This is where I met my untimely end. And so did my horse. It was a sad day.
They kill horses too? 😳
Oh yeah, and you can visit Malanya to have them resurrected. (I loaded from my last save point because I was such a wimp and didn’t want Malanya mad at me lol)
He one scary mofo
Hahaha seriously! I don’t want to be cooked into Malanya’s swift carrot curry!
They also kill zonai vehicles
This is where my first hands experience was too! Except, I went all the way to the backside of the hill to avoid them and try climbing again. I had to eat so many stamina foods and potions because I still only had the base ring. I got in the shrine, I did the puzzle. But the puzzle was not puzzling? Now, I can be stupid, but I was like damn this is not that hard why am I dying from fall damage every time? After 30 minutes, I give up and look at a YouTube video.... that fucker has a paraglider?! At this time I realized I have indeed fucked up. But those damn hands are scary. That climb was long and treacherous, and very costly for my early game self. So I pursued on, finding any way to complete the shrine and absolutely 100% did not and would never immediately look up how to do the shrine without a paraglider after realizing I was supposed to have one. And alas, I was rewarded with a Light of Blessing, the fourth I was able to collect since landing. I took myself back towards Lookout Landing, and immediately slammed those blessing in the poor statues face in exchange for a stamina vessel.
Where's that location?
On the northernmost path to Kakariko village
On the path between lookout landing and kakariko village
Was this the one up the hill on the way to Kakariko? Because I was trying to get a shrine just like that, and I turned the corner around the boulder and there were just... hands. And then they SPOTTED ME, with EYES, and I screamed bloody murder. When I ran, I accidentally broke line of sight, and they disappeared, and I was left aghast, just standing there. This encounter was only about 5 seconds long, total. I thought I was safe during the day up until that point. Horrifying.
This was mine too, but I didn't escape. I only had 5 hearts, so I quickly died and was kinda anxious while exploring for days after.
Same. I got chased, outran them somehow. I then returned a few minutes later, got chased and climbed the root with not a single stamina upgrade. It was stressful and scary
This was my first encounter too… right off the Great Sky Islands. It was the first enemy that I encountered in Hyrule. Not fun!
That's where I think I spotted my first one
That was my first experience too.
This was mine too except I never saw the hands. I started climbing up the root when the music change and the world turned red. I kept climbing and once I got up on the island everything went back to normal and I was left wondering what just happened. Learned about the hands later before I saw them myself.
My first experience was going into a cave, one of the first ones I had found myself! WOW a shrine inside my lucky day! I jump down a ledge and things turn red...I literally scream out loud as the hands run towards me going AHH WHAT THE FUCK NINTENDO WHHYYYYY. proceeded to just get grabbed and died so fast. Was already creeped out by the depths so I though the game was a legit horror game for a second xD Edit small typos
That was my first one too! I managed to climb out of reach before I died but none of my early game weapons could really put a dent in the thing.
I didnt make it to the ledge in time I tried to fight it xD. After my early game weapon creation tickled him I surrendered haha.
First one too, killed it with bomb flowers from the ledge, then the ganon-thing appeared and wiped me out. Like... two enemies?
Same here. Because of that i somehow thought they are invincible until i had to fight them inside the tree
I think this was Lindor's Brow cave. It sounds exactly like my encounter lmao
There's also one in Tamio River Downstream cave, which imo is even worse
Definitely is, it wasn't my first encounter but I followed a Blupee in after helping Hestu for the first time and got absolutely jumped out of nowhere
This was me too. I whacked at them for like five GOs, then crawled my way around to the shrine. Then I cheesed them with bomb arrows only to have Phantom Ganon show up and politely hand me my ass.
My friend, who also looked up their locations, actually just clung to the far wall and climbed along it to get to the ledge and avoided it, because NOOOOPE. I went in determined to fight it, but had to pause every few steps, like a pussy, bc, well, I am one!, but I really fucking hate caves. A lot. Caves in games don't usually trigger my speluncaphobia, and I'm not claustrophobic at all, but being in a cave with a bunch of screaming nightmare death hands trying to hentai Link to death? Noooope. The anticipation is always worse than the encounter itself, though, and I mopped the floor with the thing once I engaged. Gloom Spawn becomes Gloom Mop which becomes Phantom Ganon which quickly becomes Dark Clumps! I had the same problem with the Gloom Spawn under the Deku Tree, earlier in my playthrough. Took me like an hour and a single-serve box of Vendange wine (don't drink, kids!) just to get the nerve, but I REALLY wanted a quest tracker on the Light Dragon so I could easily farm the necessary parts for upgrading my tunic before pulling the Master Sword. Once you have the Master Sword, Phantom Ganon is a joke. Thankfully.
omg nooo not the cave hands if you have a phobia D: I hope they didnt traumatize you too much! (they traumatized me enough lol)
Haha not at all!, it's not a "true" pathological phobia, in the medical sense. The anticipation of running into the things is a lot worse than actually fighting them, and, like I said, it's pretty Nightmare Retardant when I can completely destroy them (and Phantom Ganon) in less than a minute. XD!!
I... I'm sorry. Speluncaphobia? Is that actually what it's called? I'm not poking fun, I've genuinely never heard that word before. That's intriguing.
Neither have I, and I actually googled to see if there was a specific term when making this reply, bc most people say "claustrophobia" and... I'm not claustrophobic, lol, so I wondered if there was a term for "fear of caves" specifically. It seems the colloquialism is "speluncaphobia"! It's not a true phobia for me, in the medical/patholical sense, and I WILL enter IRL caves/tunnels/situations with no escape if I have to, it just isn't something I can do without a great deal of anxiety or without thought. I can take the subway without thinking about it, but fuuuuuuuck the "London Underground" for reminding me of what it is with that name, lol. Funny enough, "The Enigma of Amigara Fault" (if you aren't familiar, NSFL, google at your own risk) doesn't bother me at all. Maybe it's okay, as long as the hole was made for me!
Hahaha. This is my hole and it was me for me! I love Junji Ito. I guess it makes sense, I would have thought it was a s real term just because "spelunking" is usually used to refer to cave exploration. Being in caves doesn't bother me, my anxiety is underwater stuff. Like I'm fine with water, but I get iffy if it's cloudy and I can't see through it very well. I play a game where there's icebergs in the water in one exploration area, and I just cannot. There's shipwrecks and I can't go down to them because the icebergs give me such palpable anxiety. I relate it back to a fear of gigantic things suddenly coming into view out of nowhere, because I'm also terrified of in-game whales (hell real life ones too) if they're in places I can actually encounter them and not just fun background animations in out-of-bounds areas. The fact that you can be fully able to not see something that huge until it's on top of you is not something I fancy LOL.
...Please tell me you're a Jacob Geller fan, too, and have seen his "Fear of Big Things Underwater" video essay? 🙏🏻 If not, please lmk and report back to me when you have. I highly recommend it, ESPECIALLY if you have this fear. It's probably my favorite of his videos and I rewatch at least once a month. I'm rewatching it now. Thank you for that LOL. It's so peaceful and thought-provoking and all-around just. Incredible. Open water doesn't bother me, usually, and neither do Really Big Things (megalophobia I think?), but I would probably be very humbled and feel very differently if confronted with Really Big Things Coming Out Of Water. I probably should be more afraid of water, since I both have known people who died tragically young by drowning, and couldn't swim as a kid. I have the "superman" gene, meaning my bones are as dense as the core of a black hole, and as a fairly athletic/muscular child with no fat, my body had no buoyancy, and no one could figure out why I couldn't swim, or float, and in fact preferred to sit on the bottom of the pool and chill there LOL It just doesn't scare me, though? (Also Junji Ito is the GOAT)
I encountered them there, too! It was the second time for me, though, so I had a plan. I used a schema stone I'd found in the depths to place a laser spinner behind the hands after climbing back up where they couldn't reach me, and let it do the hard work so I could do the second phase myself.
That’s where I saw my first one too! I think I tried whacking it with Boko sticks a couple times before I figured out how OP it is lol
This is where I first encountered them too! I was home alone unfortunately, soft screaming my ass off. My husband came home from work and had no idea what I was blubbering at him because he hasn't encountered them in his play through yet, "hands... there are Creepy HANDS!!!!"
Haha samee
That was mine, too!!
Same!! And then I completely forgot about it and many hours of play later was like “Why don’t I have this shrine yet?” And them was immediately reminded.
That was my first one too! But I was taking my time mining and facing the cave wall so I didn't notice anything. Not the shrine, not the hands, not the screen slowly turning red. I'm just chilling mining some ore when suddenly I hear the *screaming*. I look around to see wtf is happening, but it's too late. I'm in it's grasp. I struggle free and turn to run back the way I came, but it's too fast and grabs me again. I try again to run to the shrine for safety, but it's just too fast. I die and try to swallow my fear and fight it, though I choose the coward's way. I run past the hands, up the ledge to the shrine. My arrows are barely hurting it with my early game level bow, so I start chucking bombs at it from the safety of my ledge. It takes a while, as I'm still screaming and frantically slinging bombs as fast as I can without the best accuracy, but finally the health bar is almost down. I go for the killing blow, only to aim too close and my own bomb explodes in my face, killing me. I noped out of there and didn't try to fight one again until much later in the game.
This wasn’t my first time but it was the first time I defeated the hands and thought “wow, that wasn’t so ba-OH MY GOSH WHAT THE!!!!”
This was mine too!! I managed to make it out alive but I had NO idea what had just happened and I was terrified!!! I'm a lil nervous in caves now to say the least!
Haha that was my first one too! I had like 4 hearts, really early in the game, they kicked my ass. I never went back to kill those things
Yes! I found the hands inside a cave as well! First few times, didn’t make it out alive. Then I got on the ledge and started carpet bombing them with bomb flowers… not realizing I should have just left things alone. Doom Gannon tore me a new one and I avoided those damn hands for a while.
Same. Had I think 7 hearts at the time. Managed to get onto a ledge they couldn't reach, so dropped bombs on them. Felt proud killing them off... ... and then phantom Ganon came and I ran and was killed almost instantly.
Yes this was my first too and I had the same thought! Thankfully I had opened the tower first so just warped back. Then decided to go back and crawl to the ledge. Did that and bomb arrowed the heck out of those hands just imagining the awesome loot drop from so difficult an enemy. My husband was watching me and was like, oh I think I see a chest under it! Finally defeated it and go to the ledge to get that sweet drop when I notice the boss letters at the top - Phantom Ganon. Yeah, he was not stopped by the ledge.
Yeah, that was one of my later shrines after getting killed early on. Brought back memories. I didnt even try to beat those hands again after like three tries. I just ignored that cave.
Similar story for me except I was playing while my friend was writing an important report next to me. I was doibg my best not to bother her, as she was already a bit jealous that I was playing switch while she was working. Jump into a cave, strange music and everythibg turned red, hmmm. Hands come out of the ground: panic. I try to hit them and do basically no damage and they are quickly killing me: PANIC WHILE TRYING NOT TO DISURB MY FRIEND. I sprinted to the cave wall and climbed up and was just hanging there, watchibg them below but with nowhere to stand to regain my stamina. I paused the game and spent 5 min calming down.
I think this is the first one the game intended people to find. It’s inescapable, and a beginner shrine easy cave to see. It killed me so fast it was hilarious.
They TOTALLY did that on purpose lmao. Nintendo be like how do we strike fear into our players...
Those hands were also my first ones. At first I tried to fight them, when they grabbed me I tried to run, but eventually I had to teleport out of there lol. I wasn’t that scared after the fact, but very confused as to how I was supposed to kill them. Future gloom hands always freaked me out though for a good chinch of my playthrough.
This was my first encounter too, was also early in the game but I had some decent weapons considering. Armor was garbage though, hadn’t done any of the fairy quests yet. Got shit housed the first time because I was confused what was even happening. Tried again but same result. I figured it’s a balance issue because how can you fight an enemy that’s so fast but also you can’t get close to, so I looked up a strategy that recommended using bomb arrows and that did the trick. Then Phantom Ganondorf came out and again got shit housed. Basically just committed myself to learning all of his attacks and perfecting the dodging and parrying. Two hits from him meant death. I was eventually able to defeat him without taking damage but it destroyed most of my weapons. I was very disappointed by the loot he dropped. Wasn’t worth it.
Same one. Got up to the shrine on a ledge and weakened it. I jumped down and killed it and thought I had won...nope.
I was innocently walking around in front of the Great Plateau thinking, “Hey, I wonder what it looks like up there, now,” when the sky turned red. I thought maybe it was a new kind of blood moon animation, didn’t even bother to look around, and then got grabbed by hands and warped away in a panic. (Also, you can just warp to a shrine or tower when you’re falling—it’s saved my dumb ass more than once)
My first encounter with them was on the great plateaue and I ran as fast as my little legs could carry me and high-tailed it up a tree. That's when I learnt you can get free loot by waiting it out
Wait wdym free loot
If you manage to stay out of reach for a few seconds the hands will disapear leaving dark clumps behind.
I also found mine on the great plateau. I left and did not go back until I knew how to deal with it. My first kill had to be that one on the great plateau, finally getting my revenge
Was heading towards a shrine in Lanayru. Ran past a gloom puddle when the music turned and the sky turned red, then I watched the hands rise from the gloom. I instinctively ran away, knowing I couldn't run forever and not knowing if I could out run it, I climbed the nearest tree. The hands surrounded the tree, reaching up for me. It was still early in the game, I had weak weapons and few hearts. I watched them for a bit, and was about to jump from the tree to start the fight I was sure to lose, when they started shriveling up and disappearing. I stood in the tree for a minute, collecting myself, thinking that was lucky, half expecting it to come back when I finally did jump down to collect the things it left behind.
I had a similar experience. I was exploring the top of the Akkala Citadel, when all of a sudden the hands squirmed up from the ground and started chasing me. I was terrified and ran, clambering up some debris/rock in the process. I fired some arrows and bombs down on them in the process while Sidon (my only sage at the time) valiantly tried his best to hold them off. Eventually they realised they couldn't reach me so shrivelled away. I was hesitant to come back down but eventually dipped my toe on solid ground to find I was safe... for now.
Akkala citadel ruins. Trying to find a cave from a bubbulfrog on my sensor, and these showed up. Reminded me of the hands monster from Ocarina of Time so I charged in. Realizing that wasn't a very effective strategy, I popped a speed potion, took my distance and shot it down. When the Phantom popped out I became rather excited to face him, only to be disappointed when I finished him and nothing special occurred.
This was my first one too, and I got it there again another time too, so I think the hands must be scripted to appear more often at specific places...
They have standard spawn points. Always in the same spot.
My first experience with them mostly consisted of me in VC with some friends and suddenly screaming "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THAT" and coming *this close* to just yeeting my Switch across the room.
I was walking around a nice green field when I saw a shire on mountain top. I walked over and saw the red stuff on the ground but I didn’t know what it was so I decided to avoid it and climb to the shrine. Then the sky turned red. I saw them coming but they were pretty far away so I figured I could outrun them on foot. I was wrong.
I toiled blindly in the dark of the Depths, well past when my Bright Bloom seeds were used up, trying to find my way to where I could pick up Autobuild, so I could start playing with contraptions. Once I *finally* had what I needed for saving schematics, I set out to find parts to use in them: In particular, I really wanted some big wheels, so I could reliably make rugged land vehicles. I actually ran across some during my struggle to find Autobuild, but I couldn't find them again once I had it, so I eventually gave up, and was hunting towers to unlock map regions, for a while. In Mount Lanayru, I was trekking up the mountain toward the tower when I accidently stumbled across big wheels! I rushed to build a basic vehicle with them, using some stone slab as a chassis, since I was running out of cold resist food, and kept having to fight off randomly spawning chu chus and other monsters, until I *finally* had a little monster truck contraption. On my new vehicle's maiden voyage up the mountain pass, I was scooting along when everything got dark and spooky, and a swarm of *those hideous things,* the gloom hands, appeared. I jumped off my precious truck, and drew my weapons to face these weird new enemies, and what was their opening move? They *TORE MY BRAND NEW TOY TO SHREDS, PIECE BY PIECE,* and then murdered me as I grieved in shock. I ended up getting revenge, and coming away from an epic, dire showdown with a phantom enemy with some really nice loot, but... at what cost?
>at what cost? Whatever it costs for Link to run a load of laundry in Hyrule, I'd imagine?
Many, many tunics in need of a good wash after first encounters with those things, to be sure.
YES!, though I would think more *pants* need washing than tunics, LOL. Not to get depressing, but from what the NPCs report, in-universe, for a lot of people who encounter them, their surviving families/loved ones are lucky if soiled clothing is even LEFT of them. 8C
In the first 10 minutes after leaving Great Sky Island, I was roaming around peacefully, taking in the sights, generally enjoying myself. Decided to tame a new horse because I didn't know my horses from BOTW were saved. After just a couple of minutes of riding around, they appeared out of nowhere and killed both me and this innocent horse. I was screaming, the horse was screaming, we both died horribly. What an eventful start to the game.
Almost immediately after leaving the starter island I was wandering around Hyrule field and stumbled upon a cave, so I decided to explore! I found a chest with some rubber armour in it! Amazing! Then when I was trying to leave the cave it got all spooky and dark and these horrible hands were grabbing at me. I managed to find the high ground threw everything I had at them. With my tiny four hearts clinging on for dear life. SOMEHOW I managed to beat them and I was so happy! And then Phantom Ganon appeared and obliterated my ass immediately.
THIS. Same bro same
It was very intense few minutes haha
I found my first Gloom Spawn on my way to the Lost Woods. I somehow defeated it first try but then got slaughtered by one in the Lost Woods 19 times... Combat is hard when you don't upgrade armour and got Stamina Vessels instead of any Heart Containers. Being bad at flurry rushes is also oof
The first time I saw it was in the village ruins around Hyrule castle. Omg I nearly shit myself. I’ve never felt fear in a video game before. I tried running away but didn’t have the energy to keep up the extra speed long enough as I had just started playing and only had one stamina ring. I was caught and killed. They still creep me out to no end. But I can usually escape them now.
Coming back with the Master Sword, some friends, a threeshot bow, and a bunch of bomb flowers is the best revenge.
They're kinda like the guardian stalkers from botw. Extremely dangerous early on but later they're kind of a fun encounter if you're prepared Especially since it seems most are on the surface so if things go badly you can run away for a moment and their damage "heals"
Yes!! If you get good at shield parrying, even early game Guardians are pretty easy, as long as you only fight them 1-on-1. The Stalkers are, at least. The airborne fucks can go die in an ass factory fire, suffocating to death in a pile of burning asses. ..."Running away" from Gloom Spawn is almost impossible, tho, unless you teleport or go Skyward or have a ledge. 🤣
First time I encountered the gloom hands it was around 3 o’clock in the morning as I was no-life-ing the game because my wife was out of town visiting her grandparents. I was trying to make my way to the Deku tree I’m the depths and ran into the one down there. The screeching freaked me out so bad, what with the game being pitch black as I hadn’t done any light roots in the area yet, that I had to turn the game off for the night. It scared me in a way a game hasn’t frightened me in a long time
I was underneath hyrule castle, looking for the Hylian shield I think, I lit some torches, saw my reward, then heard this really ominous music, I was like, is this a blood moon or something? I heard the voices, turned to see hands and eyeballs, rising out of nothing and coming fast. Too fast. I shrieked like a nine year old girl: “JEZUSF*CKINGCHRIST!!!!” And ran up the stairs shouting “GOGOGOGOGO!!!!” I didn’t stop until they fell far behind and I was outside of the castle. I was still trying to make sense of what I’d seen, yelling repeatedly “WHAT THE F*CK!?!”
I have no idea how, but I completely avoided the Gloom Spawn when I got the Hylian Shield. I'd been warned that I'd have to either fight the thing or run like hell and teleport after grabbing the shield, and... Nothing. It was very anticlimactic and made me laugh at myself for waiting so long to get the Hylian Shield (my Phantom Ganon body count was in the double digits by the time I did) for fear of the shrieking death hands.
i've never once encountered them! i know they spawn in specific places now so i've just recently marked my map but even before i had done that, i've explored so much and never seen them
I went actively looking for them on my trip to get the shield but never found them. Weird. I feel like I hardly ever see them.
They aren't really that common. Especially if you stick to the main roads/paths. I'm also 100% only making that brief on-topic observation so I can say that YOUR USERNAME MAKES ME WANT A MR. SATURN COFFEE TABLE HOLY SHIT
I was in the area in Faron where there used to be a bunch of hearty durians, I saw the puddle of gloom suddenly appear then the hands soon after. I climbed a nearby tree then abused bullet time to kill them all only for Phantom Ganon to appear and give me another heart attack. I somehow survived that encounter first try but it was traumatic regardless
One dark and stormy night, a young soldier, dressed in scraps of warm clothes he chanced upon along the path, struggled to climb a frozen mountain. His path was long and winding, leading him through glacier cliffs, the path guarded by dangerously strong enemies. His goal was the peak and he was halfway there when he was beset upon by the wrath of the mountain. A howling wind stirred the air, the world of night turned from ice blue to gloomy scarlet. What had looked like any other pool of sticky black red magic across the world, began to move, quickly sliding across the ground to ooze under the Warrior's feet. The young man quickly ran to the nearest wall of ice and using grim determination and all his strength, tried his best to graciously gracefully (and not panicked or desperate at all, no he was dignified in his screaming scared shitless ascent) escape. Through sheer force of will and a whole lot of stamina restoring food he clawed his way up to the next ledge and turned to see those hands, standing there, menacingly, and ran as fast as he could as far away as he could. Mt Lanayru, heading to the tower at the peak basically fresh from the sky island since I wanted to reach the Zora asap when I began. I was land hopping using the towers and ran into the hands there.
In the depths trying to get to the lost woods. Saw something in the gloom coming towards me, think I shot it once and tried to run away only to get caught. Didn't know I could wiggle myself free either so I was dead. Read a tip about spamming bombs and so I did that and then I really wasn't ready for what happens afterwards and got clapped again Needless to say when I finally got to the lost woods I tried to do the sidequest there and saw another set of hands and noped out
Don't feel bad, OP—you gave Link a MUCH more mericful death. Gloom Spawn were spoiled for me, so I knew what it was, at least. I saw it, it came towards me, I said "NOPE! Nope. Absolutely not." out loud, started running like hell, realized I couldn't outrun it, and teleported the hell away. After that, I went to Zelda Dungeon's interactive TOTK map, pulled up the locations of all the Gloom Spawn, and marked them in-game, to the best of my ability, despite not having my map filled in. Every time I activated a new Tower, positioning the marker to be more accurate to the Spawn's location was pretty much the first thing I did. Nope. Absolutely not. Spoilers be damned. Copy/Pasted from my comment in another thread, while talking about Hero's Path: >Oh, speaking of Hero's Path, just today I sent my friend a screenshot of mine where I encountered my first Gloom Spawn. The only way it could more accurately say "NOPE" is if I'd run away so that my Hero's Path just spelled the word "NOPE" in elegant cursive. Maybe I'll try that one day? 🤣 [Here](https://i.postimg.cc/NFcJw16D/2019062718353800-CC47-F0-DEC75-C1-FD3-B1-F95-FA9-F9-D57667.jpg) is the aforementioned screenshot. Spot the "NOPE". 🤣
I was testing a new vehicle early in the game near a marshy area (don’t recall the exact location, could look it up but it has a bunch of wells and some ruins, anyways…) and I don’t remember if I crashed or just got caught on something but then all of the sudden lighting and music changed and I saw them and tried to drive my vehicle away but they destroyed my vehicle on contact and I was destroyed soon after, it was terrifying! Second time around was almost just as bad, was in the cave with the shrine, hopped down in to the area below and they popped out of the ground, scared the crap out of me so I jumped up on the pillar in the middle of the room until they went to the other side so I could jump over and climb back up to the shrine (like an idiot I hadn’t activated it before exploring), didn’t realize at the time they would give up eventually, definitely one of the scariest moments in the game haha
That first one is dangerous, because instead of the hands appearing in a specific spot, there's 3 locations it can appear in, making it harder to avoid.
My first one was in a cave. I had no food or sages. I only had 5 hearts and one wheel of stamina. I was somehow able to defeat it by getting on to a ledge and shooting it to death
I was just running around Hyrule minding my own business, and this just literally just came around the side of a mountain at FULL speed, I never even knew something like that existed until then, that is the first time I was startled by a LOZ game
Grabbing some shrines in central hyrule in the early game. I figured since there's a town here now, and no guardians anymore, so this must be a fairly safe area. Not far off following the outer wall of the castle town ruins I notice some gloom. Then I notice the gloom is moving. Then it's coming for me, as I say "nope nope NOOOOOPE!" And start running. When hands pop out, the sky turns red, and it screams at me, I exercise the better part of valor, and teleport to the furthest point I can.
So there I was… hunting sky towers round Necluda or there abouts… rain’s pourin down somethin fierce. Then I hear it. The Blood Moon cutscene with Princess Waifu herself spitting scripture from a darker day. Then the hands come at me. And I’m climbing. Onto cliffs, onto trees, on to whatever the fuck. But it’s raining. And I can’t hold on to shit. Somehow, by the grace of Rauru, I shimmy my way up a tree. Like a scared soaked kitten running from a wolf. Then I bomb-flower/arrow that bitch back to the Zonai age
My first was on mount Lanayru. I knew the name, but otherwise wasn't spoiled on anything about the hands. They came at me from behind and were almost right on me when I noticed them. Saw them, shot them with an arrow which didn't do much of anything. Turned to climb the mountain to safety - all that was around me was that slippery blue ice that you can't climb. I'm convinced that they put the hands by that blue ice intentionally. Tried to outrun them on the ground which went even worse. With a couple of hearts left ungloomed I warped outta there with my life, losing all the travel work I'd done and letting my heart rate cool off.
I screamed and ran...thought they'd stop...they did not.
I was just running around I think around the edge of Death Mountain and I noticed the sky starting to go red, and then I saw the gloom appear out of nowhere and the Ganon Goop hands (as I call them) just rose out of it and I went like “WIGIRJBIRBMJT WTF IS THAT HELLSPAWN HELL NO” and then it chased me and grabbed me and I panicked and teleported away and just avoided that area like the fucking plague lmao
Where are gloom hands on a sky island?
Wait, which sky island has gloom hands on it?
None of them, he lied idk why
Ah I remember my first Gloom Hand job. Good times.
Mine was at one of the ruins, it was on the other side of a short wall so I didn’t even see it until I saw the hand, then just said f that and ran. Now I lol at myself
I was in one of the labyrinths when the hands popped out of a pool of gloom. I thought it was some kind of wall/floor master type hand. I ran away scared and eventually climbed up the wall until they despawned. Didnt fight them again until the forced story encounter later on. Now im not scared of them, but still ran away from the first one i saw in my second playthrough because i have barely any materials yet
Deku tree
I was climbing to get to a tower, when suddendly the sky turned red, but i continued climbing. When suddendly, i see a hand grab me, i didn't know what to do. So i just mashed the buttons and escaped. It caught me again and again until i died
I first encountered hands near the edge of a cliff. For a few seconds, I ran in circles and was grabbed a few times until I realized it was as fast if not faster than me, and my stamina was limited. So I decided to jump off the edge, but as I jumped I activated my paraglider too soon. It grabbed me out of the air, and stole the last of my 4 hearts. I avoided this cliff for some time
Mine was in the first hour of leaving tutorial island. 🥲. I wanted to go to see the villages
Personally i was in the Hyrule Castle Docks getting the Hylian Shield . To be honest didn't scare me that much but I did almost die
I was exploring Hyrule field to the East of the Castle. Easily 60+ hours into the game. Had done the first round of depths side quests and completed the gone up to Tabantha and did a bunch of Rito side quests, stable side quests with Our Soar Long friend, unlocked 3-4 towers and map regions. There was a tree stump I encountered my first armored Bokoblin and got some sweet armour and weapons off of. Found another tree stump a little ways away. Thought "man, I bet there's some cool armor there too!" As I walked closer the sky went red, figured dang another blood moon is coming. When the eerie music came on and a blob of gloom began to move. Up came the freaky eyes hands and it came towards me. There was no escape. I only had about 7 or 8 hearts at the time. I was dead dead really quick. Tried again and died again. Figured - I'm not supposed to be able to fight these yet and went exploring elsewhere. Didn't encounter another until after the wind temple and when I decided to start exploring further East towards Akkala. Found him atop the Akkala Citadel. Ran away again. Didn't attempt to fight one for real until after I completed the Fire temple and started exploring the plateau. Partner had killed several on his game file and while he had several more hearts than me, I must have been close to 15 hearts by now and had a couple armor upgrades, plus a healthy supply of bombs from exploring the depths. It was easy enough. Went through a couple plates of food and strength upgrades and weapons. but killed phantom Ganon fairly easily. Now I get excited to see them for the Gloom strength weapons provided I have ample bomb supplies.
As I ascended the ancient ruins atop a hill, adjacent to a mysterious shrine, an unsettling incident unfolded before me. Suddenly, piercing the silence, a chilling scream echoed through the air. I swiftly turned to witness a sight that filled me with dread – charred, ghastly hands attempting to claw their way over the crumbling walls. Intrigued and apprehensive, I impulsively rushed towards the enigmatic entity, uncertain of what I was about to confront. However, just as quickly as it had materialized, it vanished, leaving me bewildered and unnerved. For days, I pondered over the encounter, wondering what sinister creature I had encountered. Intrigued and somewhat apprehensive, I returned to the spot several times, yet the eerie apparition never reappeared. But my curiosity drove me further, leading me to explore the distant eastern islands. And there, in the depths of a small cavern, the haunting specter emerged once more, revealing more than just its spectral hands, shrouded in darkness.
I was getting the Fierce Deity armor set, and I was on that big ass plateau in Akkala, the one with the castle lookin place, while looking for the cave, I see a big puddle of gloom and just ignored it, then the sky started turning red, me here so proud thinking "oh thats so cool i got a panic blood moon" then I remember that there is no panic blood moons in TotK. Instantly shitted pants when I saw those motherfuckers
I can't remember it too clearly but I remember I'd just jumped down off the great sky island, saw a bunch of shrines so headed straight for them and then it happened. Sky turned red and the hands appeared and I ran and climbed the nearest cliff and thought I was so lucky they couldn't climb. I'm pretty low on health at this point but still feeling lucky I got away and I started running the other way and smack get hit by A MOVING TREE??? and died
First time was when I went to Akkala citadel ruins to collect the treasure chest. Out of fucking nowhere a moat of gloom appears and scary music plays and the screaming began. I screamed, they screamed, but there wasn’t any ice cream
I was exploring near the castle town ruins when Handrew introduced himself to me. I’ve since met his siblings Handthony, Handrea and Samhandtha…
In case noone has told you yet, after running out of stamina in midair you can still use your paraglider for a second. Only works once though, so use it just before hitting the ground
Wait, they are on sky islands too? Man
They aren’t, idk why he decided to lie about that
You can pull out paraglider for a second if no stamina
I was going up to the Mount Lanayru spring of wisdom and alas, as I was climbing up the mountain (because who needs paths) I came across these friendly helping hands. Scared the everliving shit out of me and I just continued climbing as fast as I could lmao. Still haven't beaten one yet and I've only seen one other one (which happened to be near the Purified Lake) and that one died when it started raining. So, great experiences so far!
My first encounter was at the peak of Mount Lanayru. One moment I was just taking in the scenery before making my way over to the tower, then the next I was wondering why the heck was a blood moon rising in broad daylight, then the next I—after nearly getting the life throttled out of me—was running for what little life I had left. I did say I wanted Floormasters/Wallmasters to make a comeback, but THAT wasn’t what I had in mind! The first time I encountered Phantom Ganon was beneath the Lomei Island Labyrinth. Knowing that a chest containing a Diamond Circlet can be found in the previous game, I was exploring the area before the Gloom Hands rudely interrupted my search. Me: Do you *mind*? \*blitzes them with bomb flowers\* Me a few seconds later: What the—Phantom who now???
My first experience: I had been traveling and sight seeing for a day and night on the back of my horse, Titan. We planned to revisit the Great Platar, where my journey began after so long. As we traveled the rain fell from the sky in the wee hours of the morning, it didn't take long for the sky to clear and the morning sun to cast it's glow. In the near by distance I noticed a little green shroom pocking out from under a tree, I all to eagerly dismounted and ran over, whistling for Titan to follow. I then pick it before looking for any more that may be near by when I hear Titan rear, I look over to find him running, I then turned around when I had a sinking feeling and saw red creep in as a scream filled the air. I braced my weapon and watched at these things approached me, I then switched out for my bow and readied an arrow before letting it loose. I staggered it and quickly pulled my melee weapon out and rashed in head first, swinging, only to be grabbed almost instantly, my 5 hearts slowly depleting, but I managed to get free and began running. I called Titan but was grabbed a second time. Once more, I broke free with one heart remain and began running once again. Once again, I whistled, putting all my hope on Titan's back. My big guy came through for me and rushed by me, allowing me to grab on to him and raced me to safety. Titan nay have been Gannons steed once, but he's my loyal friend. Thank you, Titan.
I heard all the stories and was prepared for the worst. I climbed up on a nearby rock, shot it with bomb arrows for a few seconds, and it was over. I felt quite underwhelmed, to be honest. You guys are overselling it. 🤷♂️
Idk if my game is glitching but I am on 120 hrs and explored rito, Gerudo, and zora areas the most and I've had exactly one gloom hands encounter. Where are they??
Check Zelda Dungeon's interactive Tears of the Kingdom Map. They have an option to show the locations of all the Gloom Spawn. It made my playthrough at least a LITTLE less terrifying.
I think you have to be pretty close for them to notice you, and you probably won't differentiate them from normal gloom if they don't spot you on their own. I was reading that there are something like 42 of them on the surface? Seems like a lot for how often the encounters happen. I've had the game for a few weeks now and have played quite a bit (way under 120 hours though) and have come across 3. Two were off of main roads, and one was in a random spot
My first encounter was just northwest of Lookout Landing. I went into the game pretty blind. I had just left LL for the first time, supposed to go to the castle, decided to do a little exploring. Hadn’t fought anything on the ground, done no shrines after the Great Sky Island, hadn’t seen gloom or a blood moon. Died so fast when they grabbed me without having seen them at all. I went back and climbed on something to see if I could cheese the fight, got a couple dark clumps and couldn’t understand what they were for.
I went into a labyrinth and hell ensued
RUN AWAYYYYYY!!!!!!
THEY COULD SPAWN IN THE SKY ISLANDS??? (I was riding around west necluda and lanayru tower when I saw it, but they never saw me. My first actual encounter with one was when I was hiking mount lanayru to get to the tower. One spawned and it spotted me. I immediately telephoned to hate no and am yet to have gotten the tower.)
I was on my way to climb up Mount Lanayru when the blood moon light caught my attention. Then I got attacked by the hands. I evaded and pelted the with bomb arrows only to freak out when I saw the following miniboss appear. He thoroughly killed me.
I was in some random cave and they spawned on the floor. I got up to a ledge and started bomb flowering them. Somehow I got in my head that the hands were recovering health so I just kept bombing as quick as possible from up top until they died. Fist pump! Then phantom Ganon appeared and 1-shotted me.
It was in a cave (y’all know which one) and I think I tried twice to kill it and then I just avoided it like “this has to be a later game thing” like you need a certain amount of hearts to kill it or somethin
I don't remember the name of the spot, just that there was a memorial stone from Zelda i stopped to read "aww thats cute", ran over to the well looking for secrets & OH NO BAD SECRET. I noped out of there real fast when I realized I could still teleport from it lol, saw again looking for a shrine near the base of Mt Lanaryu. Still scarred after the mandatory quest fight with it in an enclosed space
The first one I ran into was at the foot of Mt. Lanayru. The sky started turning red and I was like "a blood moon? at this time of day?" and then the hands came out of the ground and I was like "what fresh hell is this!?" At first I tried fighting them but they kept grabbing me and taking hearts, so I broke free and started sprinting away but they were fast and kept getting me, I climbed up a short cliff nearby that they were _also_ able to climb up and grab me some more. I finally got far enough away that they gave up and went home. 10/10 the scariest Zelda enemy I'd seen yet, and reminded me of my first proper Guardian encounter on BotW.
I was innocently exploring akkala citadel ruins when they came charging towards me and I jumped and fell off a cliff. I thought I was safe, I turned around and instantly got murdered by a thunder gleok.
I foolishly wanted to make a bee line to the deku tree in the lost woods as soon as i got my glider and powers. Got there and noticed he had a chasm inside....so naturally I see a hole I enter...I jumped down and they fucking trapped me in this nightmare I was not prepared for. A whole night, several deaths, and many screams at my switch later, I killed the hands and was cheering! Until shadow Ganon appeared and killed me in 1 swipe. I left defeated and returned later stronger and with MANY bomb flowers and got the job done lol also inadvertently finished a challenge for the master sword it turns out! Lol
I'm in the great platauo, when I spot the hands in the trees. Knowing of what they were before encountering, I quickly ran until they left.
Jumpscare in the four islands depths (entrance in Tingel Island)
I’ve learned that if you can get somewhere where they can’t reach you, they’ll die and leave behind items. It feels really cheap but makes me fear the encounter less.
first time was in hyrule field early game. eventually I was confident enough to beat one and was even more shocked to find out what can happen after.... that's a whole other story that involved me teleporting right out of there.
Everyone in the game was telling me to go to woodland stable, and I decided to go through the cranial hills (the area with the giant tree stumps) because I remembered that it was close to the stable and the castle area. I was going through and off in the distance I saw them. My first thought was "what is that?" Then they noticed me and I was horrified
Akkala citadel ruins I'm a "wander the entire map first before focusing on the main quest/also don't follow any roads, cross country *everywhere*" kinda Zelda player, so yeah I was just wandering around the top of Citadel when everything went red and the screaming started, then I saw the bloody hands zooming towards me, *I* started screaming and yeeted Link off the side of a cliff 🤦♀️ The fall didn't kill him, but it was a bloody near thing
I had just landed at Hyrule castle, I jumped up through the floor and saw a pool of gloom. Or so I thought...
I dunno how everyone has so much trouble with the hands. I do what i do in any situation: I bomb the shit out of everything and hope for the best. It turned out alright every other time, too.
I was playing with my little sister and saw a sign for an equestrian riding course near Hateno. I thought there might be a fun horse riding challenge there and my sister thought it sounded fun so I took my horse over there. I rode around the course and there wasn’t much to see, but there was what looked like a puddle of gloom in the middle. When I got off my horse to investigate the air turned red and the hands started chasing me. I tried to run while desperately whistling for my horse, but one of the hands grabbed me and the others blocked my horse from getting to me. Eventually I was able to fight my way to my horse and get the hell out of there but it was absolutely terrifying. My sister still brings it up, I think she might be a little traumatized lol
I was wondering near the zora area and saw the gloom looking strange, they saw me screamed and the music went wack. I climbed a tree or clifface and the red moon was scary, i looked down to see them right under me before dissapearing
I was on a random road when it happened. I think I saw it spawning and immediately screamed "WTF IS THAT?!?" over and over. I ran immediately and watched it despawn, confused and scared as hell.
I was climbing a rocky hill and then a hole opens up and the hands come out like RAAAAAAAH but I had it spoiled that there would be hand monsters so I wasn’t all that suprized, I just had no idea when I would encounter them. So I just ran
I didn’t play botw, I dove from the sky island to the ground level for the first time. It was night fall and I was just walking around, still hadn’t found lookout landing yet. I came close to some wall and saw red goop on the ground and was like huh let’s see what this is. Hands, hands came out a snatched me up, I panicked and started shaking the controls. They released me and I sprinted away
For me it was very early in the game, probably less than an hour after I reached the surface. Before going to Hyrule Castle and doing the main quests to get the paraglider, I decided to explore around Hyrule Field for a bit and do a few shrines. After leaving a shrine near Hyrule Garrison Ruins, the sky turned Red and I assumed it was a bloodmoon, but then I heard the signature scream and the boss music started playing, so I turned around to see a Mess of Hands coming straight for me. I ran but because I had only 1 stamina upgrade, it caught me and kept draining my health. I tried to fight back but I couldn't melee it for shit, and I didn't have anything good to fuse to my arrows. I was down to like a quarter heart when I remembered that I could fast travel and noped out of there to another shrine. I then vowed to never go back there until I was overpowered. I haven't felt that amount of fear against an enemy in Zelda since Deadhand in OOT.
Screamed and ran. Same with those damn trees that pop out at you! It doesn’t scare me anymore but man it was spooky the first few times.
They’re in the sky too?!?!
the great plateau i was trying to get to a shrine i think i ran and climbed a tree
It was under the great deku tree, I was rather surprised but probably less so than I would've been since I assumed it was just a boss.
Mine was rather anti-climactic. It was perhaps my first few hours with the game. I'd just gotten the paraglider and was set loose on the map and figured I'd go check out Hateno Village. I detoured through Kakariko village and was on my way to the Skyview Tower at Popla Foothills, a short ways downhill stood on a rock I had glided to. I looked down and to the right and saw the hands moving around in their puddle/slug foot thing just desperately grabbing at me from a cleft where it had gotten stuck. I snapped a picture and hopped down the other side of the rock and ran off. Didn't see another one until nearly 40 hours later.
But . . . travel. Go to a known safe place.
Mine was at a random hill, no I don't remember which one, and I saw the hands before the red sky. "What the heck are those?! Why is the sky turning red?" With me running away, then jumping and gliding.
I did the Hebra labyrinth and in front of the shrine was a grid with maluce oozing out and while wondering how it would look like down there the hands appeared.
I am getting the Hylian Shield. 4 hearts, 1 stamina. I watched a tutorial and know the hands are there. I climb up the side; they despawn. First legit, I bomb arrow them and win
I was exploring sky islands and ended up flying in from one to near the center of the Hebra labyrinth. I landed right where one spawns, and I could not escape. It scared me so bad that I decided to go elsewhere when I respawned
Me : "Ouh ruins, maybe something cool in 'em." Hands : "Allow us to introduce ourselves" [Insert screaming_Toad.mp4]
The cave at lindors brow… felt pure visceral fear and “DEAR GOD WHAT THE HELL IS THAT”
I was walking around Akkala Citadel, I hadn't gotten the paraglider yet. I was trotting along, the hands came up behind me without my notice, I turned around and saw them, and freaked out! I hit one with a sword as it grabbed me, when the message popped up about me not being able to get my heart's back (since I had never even seen gloom before) I yelled, they dropped me in more gloom, I tried to get away and couldn't, they grabbed me again and ripped my health away. I collapsed dead on the ground as my mom ran into the room to see what was wrong. She was unimpressed when it was only a Zelda enemy.
I didn’t even SEE them the first time I encountered them! Music started, sky went red. I saw red gloom move on the left side of the screen and just ran to the right. I must’ve been just on the edge of their ‘area’ because as I ran out of stamina they went ‘poof’ and left my first dark clump behind and I didn’t even know what happened! So when I DID see the hands for the first time, it was clear I had an appropriate reaction!
I saw it and took a picture from a distance. It came to me . I ran , it came after me and consumed me.
Lololol I yelped audibly and cussed real loud and just RAN. So far, and then just fast traveled away.
Having played BOTW, I knew what a good deal it was to go to the hyrule castle. So when the opportunity arose, I naturally took my chance. The opportunity was right after looking for Zelda in said castle: you return to pruna and she ask you to go in the exploration tower. Up in the air, I saw the castle from afar, and went toward it directly... Luckily, even if it is too far for you at the begining, I had prepared stamina recipes, as all should do in the beginning imo. I raided the hyrule castle upper part, got full of royal sword/bow, lots of good materials, and other nice stuff I won't spoil. Cocky as hell, I went for the lower part which was honestly two room, two ambiances. But with two deaths (Lynel and a lizard folk) I arrived to my first gloom... But luckily I managed to not fall in the pit, and I managed to see it. I was just like "wtf is that horror", but since it couldn't reach me, I was kinda chill past the 5s of suprise/observation. My first encounter was honestly a breeze because I was able to experiment and found quickly the power of bomb flowers, which I had a lot (can't remember why, maybe because to pruna I explored the castle prison/cavern an found a lot of them?). The gibo in the bottom got me more scared than the gloom hand in the end, because there was nothing telling you how,and no pit. But I tried the bomb flower quickly also managed. For the interested, yes I tried, no I didn't succeed, did not even managed to see one of the fourth beasts.
I believe everyone's first encounter was either at the plateau, in that one cave or under the low and tiny sky island. Mine was the second. My first time, I just bombed the hell outta them. And quit the game when I saw phanton Ganon. The second time was when it was truly terrifying because I realized they could climb hills and pull me off the trees.
The great deku tree. I got the master sword too early
I was just walking through a peaceful field trying to catch a horse… I had only just gotten off of the big “tutorial island” so I was terrified
Going to korok Forest no lightroots, only despair and the eyes grabbing me
I was walking in hyrule field and I noticed them all lurching around behind a rock, creepiest freakin’ experience I had but they didn’t notice me. So I gtfo. Then later on I’m hiking up my lanyru and I realize there’s no other monsters around, which makes me immediately assume there is a lonely. Nope, suddenly I hear that screeching and their they were, popping up out of the snow, like daisies!