Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - How to heal Cracked Hearts and get full health back
There’s a nasty new damage format in ToTK - but fear not, for it can be healed, even on the go.
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Cracked hearts in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom can only be healed by eating a "sunny" meal or visiting a Lightroot in the Depths, so watch out if you're afflicted.
There’s a new type of damage in Tears of the Kingdom, and if you’re not careful it can really ruin Link’s day. We’re talking, of course, about Cracked Hearts - damage taken from Gloom and Gloom-infested enemies.
The way this new type of damage works is simple. If you walk on Gloom, you’ll take Gloom Damage which not only lowers your current Health/Hearts, but also "cracks" hearts, rendering them impossible to heal by normal means.
In addition, any enemies that are infested with Gloom also deal this damage whenever they manage to land an attack on you.
For the most part, you’ll encounter the situations where cracked heart damage is dealt to you down in the Depths - but it can happen anywhere, as Gloom enemies are sometimes also found in Hyrule proper and even the sky.
On this page, we’ll explain how to heal cracked hearts in Tears of the Kingdom - both naturally without any cost, and when you’re on the go.
How to heal Cracked Hearts in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Once your hearts are cracked, all of the base healing items will only heal the un-cracked hearts. This can be perilous, especially if you have a low heart counter to begin with, or if you are in a situation where you’re fighting waves of enemies that deal Gloom damage. Quickly, the situation can become untenable, where one hit can splat you.
However, there is help at hand. In fact, there are three ways to restore Cracked Heart damage in Tears of the Kingdom.
The first two ways are actually quite simple. First, you can return to the surface or sky. Once you’re in the open air, Cracked Hearts will naturally heal at quite a quick rate. Once they’re uncracked, you can eat food to heal your hearts up as normal.
Second, down in the Depths you can go to a Lightroot. Interacting with a Lightroot or teleporting to one will restore your cracked hearts to normal, allowing you to heal your hearts without leaving the depths.
There is one more way, however - and that’s through cooking special sunny meals. These are new for Tears of the Kingdom, and specifically exist to heal cracked hearts.
Specifically, you’ll want to look for the Sundelion item - a yellowish, bright plant that grows at high altitudes. It does grow in a few places in Hyrule, but the best place to get Sundelion is actually in the Sky, or attached to pieces of land mass that have tumbled from the sky down to Hyrule.
Sundelion are really common on sky islands - a quick non-exhaustive tour around a few sky islands will easily net you 20 or so, and you can do this every blood moon. Even without doing specific gathering runs, I never had less than around 15 in my inventory from just picking them up as I passed them.
Use Sundelion in recipes to make meals that restore Cracked Hearts. You can mix it with other recipe items to get various effects - but as always the more Sundelion you use, the more cracked hearts the meal will generally restore. Other ingredients may also buff the meal’s restorative properties, just like with ingredients that offer other buffs or protections.
For survival in the depths, your best hope is to cook a bunch of ‘Sunny’ meals, and then take them down with you on your spelunking missions. That way, you can heal up as and when needed. And - no spoilers - but you’ll definitely want a stock of these before the end-game.
For more on Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, be sure to check out where to get the Depths armor as this set of gear can protect you from Gloom. In addition, be sure to pay a visit to each of the Great Fairy Fountains so you can upgrade your armor!