How to cure the Deku Tree’s stomach in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

After you enter the Korok Forest in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom after traversing the Lost Woods, you’ll find the ancient Deku Tree struggling in the gloom. That same gloom has infected the entire forest, depressing the Koroks too. (They won’t let out a single “Ya ha ha!”)

In order to cleanse the gloom, and return the Korok Forest’s bright and cheerful character, you’ll need to proceed into the Deku Tree’s stomach, where a chasm and powerful enemy await.

What you’ll find inside the Deku Tree’s stomach in Zelda: TOTK

Once you’re inside the Korok Forest, head inside of the Deku Tree to find the Deku Tree Chasm. Before dropping in, we recommend that you unlock the teleport waypoint at the Musanokir Shrine, and prepare for battle by doing the following:

• Cook a few sundelion dishes to replenish your gloom-afflicted hearts.
• Fuse powerful weapon and shield combinations.
• Bring lots of arrows.
• Grab about eight to ten bomb flowers.

It’s not necessary, but we also recommend you to upgrade your armor at one of the Great Fairy locations before dropping into the chasm. Drop into the chasm whenever you’re ready, and face off against the first group of enemies: Gloom Spawn.

How to defeat the Gloom Spawn

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

After you drop into the chasm, gloom will start to spread across the floor and hands will creep out. Quickly combine a bomb flower to your arrow and shoot it into the middle of the five Gloom Spawn (also known as Gloom Hands). It took us about eight to ten bomb flower arrows to defeat all five Gloom Spawn.

If you run out of bomb flowers, we’ve also found that elemental chuchu jellies work well in dealing AOE (area of effect) damage to all of the hands at once. For those who have completed the “Riju of Gerudo Town” main story quest, Riju’s sage ability can make quick work of the hands, and Riju can distract some of them for you.

Avoid getting too close to the Gloom Spawn as they’ll reach out and grab you from a deceptively long distance. If you do get grabbed, chaotically wiggle your joysticks to escape from their grasp as fast as possible and save your hearts.

Once all five have been defeated, prepare to face off against one more foe: Phantom Ganon.

How to defeat Phantom Ganon

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Once all five of the Gloom Spawn have been eliminated, Phantom Ganon will spawn with a sword in hand. The Phantom Ganon fight is all about shielding, parrying, and dodging to get good damage in. In our playthrough, we had a measley eight-defense armor set, and each hit dealt around six hearts of damage. If you struggle to get that perfect dodge timing, keep your shield up to block the damage. Avoid climbing the walls to run away because Phantom Ganon will take out his bow and knock you down.

Grid View

• Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
• Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
• Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Phantom Ganon has three distinct attacks throughout the entire battle:

1. Phantom Ganon will raise his sword and swing it once at Link.
2. Phantom Ganon will begin charging towards Link and swing his sword once.
3. Phantom Ganon will hold his sword in the air for a moment and then unleash a spin attack, dealing damage twice.

The first two attacks can be blocked by just keeping your shield up, but the spin attack’s second hit will go through the shield and damage Link. Once you see Phantom Ganon holding his sword in the air for a longer period of time, fall back and avoid him altogether. Be patient and wait for Phantom Ganon to swing and miss, then head in and chip away at his health.

Repeat the process until you successfully take down Phantom Ganon. Once he’s been defeated, the gloom plaguing the Korok Forest will disappear and Phantom Ganon will drop a gloom sword, Demon King’s bow, and a few dark clumps.

If you’re looking for more drops (yes, there are more of these mini-bosses out there!) then we have a list of Phantom Ganon locations to find.

Regardless, with the Deku Tree rid of gloom, Link can return to the surface to speak to him. He’ll then allow you to discover the location of the Master Sword…