Gloom resistance is a new addition to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, thanks to, well, the addition of Gloom.

Play through the first half-hour of the game and you’ll see that Gloom is no joke — stripping Link of all of his BotW gains and taking him back to n00b town. However, it’s not until you return to Hyrule proper that the spreading Gloom becomes an issue in Tears of the Kingdom, and one that is affecting the population at large.

Fortunately, there are three ways to beat Gloom, including Gloom resistant armor. However, getting the full set is actually fairly difficult, and will take a good few hours of dedicated play to find the Barginer Stones. So, if you’re looking to help Link join the Cult of Nintendo with some fresh new robes, this will get you on the right path.

When do you need gloom resistanceHow to get the Gloom resistant armor setTo see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings 10 Things We Wish We Knew Before Starting The Legend of Zelda Tears of the KingdomWatch on YouTube

If you’d like to learn more about Link’s quest, visit our Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom walkthrough.

When do you need gloom resistance in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

Gloom is easily identifiable by the reddish black ooze patches on the ground. Step in it and your right-most full heart will start to flash purple. You’ve only got a few seconds before that heart becomes petrified and the Gloom moves onto your next heart.

As always, run out of hearts and it’s Game Over.

Image credit: Eurogamer/Nintendo

The long and short of it is don’t step in the gunky stuff, but it’s more complicated than that. Monsters lurking in the depths below Hyrule — which is where the majority of the Gloom is — are covered in the stuff too; if they hit you, you can say goodbye to however many hearts’ worth of damage they caused. Those hearts are locked until you either stand in the light (under a lightroot tree or above ground), or eat a Sunny meal.

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How to get the Gloom resistant armor set in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

As mentioned, there is a set of Gloom-resistant armor in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but it is a serious slog to get it. First, we need to understand two things: Bargainer Statues and Poes.

Poes are lost souls (currency) that you give to Bargainer Statues in exchange for (buy) goods and armor. We will come onto how to find each of those in a moment, but for now, know that you need to find seven Bargainer Statues and hand over a total 650 Poes for the full set.

This is because each time you find a statue, its shop expands a little.

The first Bargainer Statue is in Lookout Landing and opens the shop for you once you have a PoeThe second first Bargainer Statue adds the Tunic of the DepthsThe third Bargainer Statue adds the Dark TrousersThe fourth BS adds Gaiters of the Depths The fifth adds the Dark HoodThe sixth Bargainer Statue adds the Hood of the Depths Image credit: Eurogamer/Nintendo

The intermediary statues add parts of the Dark set — while cool (they make you look like an evil Link with red eyes), they offer no Gloom protection.

Image credit: Eurogamer/Nintendo

Equipping any of these three items will give you a bonus empty heart. While this heart can’t be filled with potions, it does break first when you step in gloom.

Image credit: Eurogamer/Nintendo

More importantly, Gloom resistant hearts regenerate after a few seconds, meaning that if you want to sprint across the Gloom pool instead of meticulously walking around it, you can go for it — especially with the full set giving you a whopping three Gloom-resistant hearts.

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Visit our Tears of the Kingdom Armor guide to learn more about all the different sets. And good luck resisting the Gloom!