With The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom now in the hands of players everywhere, plenty of new mechanics and ideas have been discovered that differentiate this title from its predecessor. One such mechanic is the new way for Link to take damage. Sure, he can still be set on fire, frozen, and electrocuted, but now his hearts can become cracked. This undesirable side effect of taking damage from the mysterious, glowing, ooze known as Gloom makes it impossible for Link to restore the health of any cracked hearts through traditional means. Don’t worry! There are a few ways to remedy any broken hearts you collect.
First and foremost, broken hearts aren’t really a big deal most of the time. If you wander into a pile of gloom on the surface of Hyrule or even up on a Sky Island, your hearts will naturally heal themselves after a few seconds. Their health won’t return, but they will stop being cracked. Where cracked hearts become a real obstacle, however, is below Hyrule in the enormous area called the Depths.
Down in the Depths, cracked hearts are permanent until you get a Game Over or find a way to restore them. There aren’t any Skyview Towers in the Depths, but there are large, unlockable fast travel points known as Lightroots. Like Skyview Towers, these massive, glowing roots will fill in the map of the Depths, but they will also heal any cracked hearts you may have by virtue of their cleansing light. Nice, right?
While this is handy, the Depths are enormous and filled with Gloom. Baddies in the Depths will crack your hearts simply by touching you, so having to run all the way back to a Lightroot doesn’t help with exploration too much. Luckily, there’s an ingredient you can find back on the surface that will add a cracked heart-restoring property to cooked meals.
Naturally, the plant that will dispel the heart-cracking effects of the Gloom is the Sundelion. While this helpful, little flower can be found on the surface, it is much easier to find in large quantities on Sky Islands. The South Eldin Sky Archipelago in particular is a great farming location for Sundelions, and it’s an easier group of Sky Islands to reach. The Eldin Canyon Skyview Tower (located at coordinates 1637, 1183, 0225) will spit players out within perfect landing distance of these floating hunks of earth.
With Sundelions and a few other ingredients in hand, you can stock up on meals that will restore cracked hearts and make exploring the Depths much easier. It’s worth noting that if a dish says it will restore three cracked hearts, it will not necessarily heal all of those hearts. It simply makes those cracked hearts healable once more. Of course, with some proper experimentation you can easily prepare some meals that will simultaneously restore pools of health and cure those pesky, cracked hearts. Good luck in the Depths, and make sure you take some Brightbloom Seeds to light your way as well!