Gloom Spawn

are NaN Enemies in.

Characteristics
Gloom Spawn are completely hidden until Link gets close enough, then they suddenly appear as a patch of TotK:. After this, the Gloom patch will begin moving and grow five long arms with one-eyed hands, which after a few seconds will search the area. If they spot Link (or they get struck), they will shriek and begin pursuing Link (even when wearing the Majora's mask). The moving Gloom patch drains Link's maximum hearts on contact, and when a hand grabs Link, it will continually drain him until he is able to escape its grasp.

Gloom Spawn will pursue and surround Link quickly such that escape is extremely difficult, though climbing out of the hands' reach can provide temporary respite; the Gloom cannot climb up walls. The hands will also be temporarily stunned if set on fire including from explosions, and will temporarily go limp if hit in their weak point, the eyes. This makes NaN Bomb Flowers and other explosives an effective tool against them, particularly from a high vantage point. They can also be frozen, shocked, or stunned with NaN Dazzlefruits.

If Link does not defeat all the hands quickly enough, they may re-emerge from the Gloom and will not give up until every hand is defeated. At this point the Gloom will coalesce and transform into a TotK:. Unlike Phantom Ganon, Gloom Spawn will not drop any items and does not appear in the TotK:; however, tracking Phantom Ganon on the Sheikah Sensor will be able to track Gloom Spawn. Furthermore, when Link have the Master Sword drawn, it will glow when within range of the Gloom spawn.

In some cases, if it cannot reach Link, Gloom Spawn may suddenly dissipate into several NaN Dark Clumps without transforming into Phantom Ganon, but not every instance of the enemy does this. Additionally, some instances of Gloom Spawn are set only to appear if a "random" flag is set. It should be noted that if they dissipate, it counts as a kill as they no longer respawn until the next blood moon. Some of these "random" Gloom Spawn are in slightly different positions in the same general location, such as three at the TotK: or two at TotK:.

Trivia

 * The eyes seen on the hands of Gloom Spawn resemble the NaN Glowing Eyeballs seen in NaN Pool of Malices in . The arms are also similar to those of TotK:'s mummy in the beginning of the game.
 * If Link is on the TotK: when attacked by Gloom Spawn, the sky will turn red as when the Blood Moon rises. This also causes some behavior related to the dark/nighttime, such as making TotK: glow.
 * Geographically, some Gloom Spawn locations were once of great importance in Breath of the Wild (ie. Akkala Citadel, the location of Akkala Tower). Other Gloom Spawn locations are intricately connected between the Surface and Depths (ie. Gloom Spawn appears at Darunia Lake, which corresponds to the Fire Temple's location in the depths).
 * Gloom Spawn and Phantom Ganon do not hear any noise Link makes, which means that sprinting and whistling will not catch their attention.