Darknut

Darknuts (タートナック), also known as Dark Nuts, are recurring enemies in the Legend of Zelda series. They are slow moving yet powerful knights, best known for their defensive capabilities. Typically, the thick armor and sturdy shield of a Darknut renders it nearly impervious to frontal attacks, forcing its foes to circle around and strike from behind. Their erratic movement patterns also tend to be quite a challenge, one that is only compounded when they appear in groups. Occasionally, their armor may be removed, revealing the creature underneath, which changes from game to game.

The Legend of Zelda
Darknuts resemble caped knights. They come in red and blue varieties and are only a danger when Link comes in direct contact with them. Red Darknuts move slowly, deal one heart of damage if Link has none of the rings equipped, and require four hits from the Wooden Sword to be defeated. Blue Darknuts move much more rapidly, require twice as many hits to defeat, and deal twice as much damage as Red Darknuts. Darknuts are impervious to attacks from the front, which are blocked by their shields, but are easily weakened by Bombs.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Darknuts are heavily-armored soldiers that have guarded the exterior and interior of Kanalet Castle since they chased off their liege, Richard. Due to their more civil-like role, it is unknown whether they are human or monster in this installment.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons
Darknuts come in red and blue varieties. There are two subtypes; some wield a sword, and charge towards Link when they see him, while others throw spears from a distance. These Darknuts do not wield swords, and cannot block attacks from the front.

In Oracle of Seasons, Darknuts can be pushed and pulled using the Magnetic Gloves, their heavy armor reacting to the magnetism. Additionally, a Golden Darknut appears on the Western Coast during spring.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Darknuts appear as mini-bosses in Four Swords. Darknuts are vulnerably only to strikes from the side or rear, as their front is well-guarded. Darknuts tend to be quite nimble, making them considerably difficult opponents.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Darknuts are first encountered within the Tower of the Gods in order to get the Hero's Bow. They are next seen in Hyrule Castle in the sunken land of Hyrule, caught in stasis. Some are armed only with large swords, others bear their trademark shields, and some even wear protective capes that must be burned or cut off. These versions can be stripped of their armor and helmet by parrying. Link can also knock off all their armor at once by hitting them in the back with a counterattack. Once Darknuts have lost their armor, their defensive capabilities are weakened, but allows them more dexterity. The true appearance of Darknuts is also revealed for the first time if Link unleashes an overhead counterattack that removes its helmet; underneath their armor, they bear physical similarities to canine creatures, as a possible reference to the Egyptian god of death, Anubis.

When disarmed, they utilize a simple form of martial arts that includes a straight-palm punch and a roundhouse kick. If given the chance, they will run and pick up the weapons they dropped, the swords of other disarmed Darknuts, or even the weapon of another type of enemy. If a disarmed Darknut has not yet retrieved its sword, Link can pick it up and use it himself. After their armor is gone, a quick way to kill Darknuts is to shoot one with an Ice Arrow and then immediately swing the Skull Hammer sideways, breaking the ice and subsequently defeating the Darknut. This must be done quickly, as Darknuts can break out of ice much more quickly than other enemies. Upon defeat, Darknuts drop Knight's Crests, which they wear as belts. Knight's Crests can also be obtained by using the Grappling Hook, but only after their helmet has been removed. Knight's Crests can be given to Orca in order to learn the Hurricane Spin, or sold for a price of Rupees.

Despite their burly appearance and bulky bodies, Darknuts are astoundingly nimble. Their strength allows them to break the marble pillars found in the Tower of the Gods and the Savage Labyrinth in two with their bare hands, as seen when Link disarms one and lures it towards said pillars. If Link tries to charge up a Spin Attack, the Darknuts will attempt to do the same as long as they are armed. They can even imitate the Hurricane Spin. In fact, Link can exploit this ability by grouping Darknuts together and performing the Hurricane Spin nearby, causing the Darknuts to imitate it in close proximity to other Darknuts, possibly cutting their own capes and armor straps. They are amongst the most deadliest regular enemies in the game, although they are also fairly easy to defeat if Link simply counters their attacks until their armor is removed, at which point any damaging item can slay them. Somewhat humorously, if Link continually retreats from Darknuts, they will never attack but simply follow him around.

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The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Dark Nuts are heavily armored, dwarf Link in size and come in many varieties. They can be stunned with bombs or with a sword hit to their only vulnerable spot, their caped backs. Remote Bombs are especially useful when battling Darknuts; interestingly, Link can throw remote bombs without detonating them to easily inflict damage to a Dark Nut. Dark Nuts can also easily be defeated by utilizing the Dash Attack and running straight through them. The red variety have a powerful sword thrust attack. A special classification of Dark Nut appears only in this game: the Royal Dark Nuts, which are seen only in Dark Hyrule Castle, the strongest of all being the Black Knight. He appears twice, first as a mini-boss and then again in the company of some of the Royal Dark Nuts, trying to prevent Link from interrupting Vaati's ritual.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Darknuts are encountered in the later stages of the game. They wield large swords or maces, and are clad in multi-layered plate armor that must be sliced off, piece by piece, in order to deal any real damage to them. When all of their plate armor has been removed, their true appearance is revealed, resembling decidedly humanoid creatures. Underneath their plate armor, they wear protective chain mail. Darknuts are capable of blocking any attack or weapon that Link uses, and can only be hit directly before or after they attack. For example, if Link L-targets, jumps back while the Darknut performs a vertical slice, and executes a Jump Attack before the Darknut lifts his sword again, he should be able to deal some damage. Once enough layers of armor have been removed, they throw their larger swords at Link and draw a smaller longsword. With this weapon, their defensive power is not as high, but due to wielding a lighter sword, they are allowed more dexterity, surpassing that of Link. This allows them to block almost every attack Link can use, and if no Hidden Skills have been unlocked, it will be almost impossible to beat them; however, they are still vulnerable to the Back Slice and Helm Splitter.

Unarmored Darknuts will typically block a Back Slice, but it knocks them off balance, allowing Link to get in multiple sword strikes. A Jump Attack will generally knock a Darknut off balance. Similarly, a Shield Attack will cause an unarmored Darknut to stumble, allowing Link to attack. After Link learns the Helm Splitter and Back Slice, it can be used to effectively remove Darknuts' armor. If Link fires a Bomb Arrow near it, but does not directly hit the Darknut, it typically does not attempt to block the explosion, which can remove much of its armor. Once all armor has been removed, Bomblings prove effective if thrown at its side, as it will not attempt to block it.

The first Darknut Link encounters appears as the mini-boss in the Temple of Time. After that, several others appear as enemies in some forced battles in the Cave of Ordeals and in Hyrule Castle. They fight in groups of one, two, three, even four. These Darknuts also individually have much less health than the mini-boss, though when they fight together, they become much more dangerous.

Interestingly, the Darknuts in Hyrule Castle and the Cave of Ordeals have different armor and coloring from the mini-boss in the Temple of Time, and the ones in the Cave of Ordeals. This may indicate a higher rank or that the Darknuts guarding Hyrule Castle are set apart somehow.

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Link's Crossbow Training
A Darknut appears as the boss of the Darknut Battle stage. It looks exactly the same as Darknuts from Twilight Princess, but has a different set of attacks. As in Twilight Princess, its armor gradually falls off as it sustains damage. However, it also splits into hundreds of bat-like pieces; some of which seem to be luminous, and give Link more points if he shoots them. Additionally, when in humanoid form, the Darknut has the ability to send bats flying at Link when he slashes his sword; There are also a smaller number of larger flying creatures which are worth 100 points each that he sends at Link.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
A Darknut from The Wind Waker is featured as a sticker. Its sticker gives a +13 bonus to slash attacks, and can only be applied to Link, Toon Link, Princess Zelda, and Ganondorf. A Darknut also appears as a trophey in the same game.

The Legend of Neil
Darknut first appears in The Fairy Strikes Back and is the most powerful enemy that Neil ever fought. Darknut and his friends ambush Neil and he tries to laser them with the sword beams but unfortunately, can't kill them because he doesn't know their weaknesses. When Neil is distracted, Darknut appeared and knocked him out with one single blow. Neil then fights him again and discovers their weaknesses: they have no backside armour, due to budget cuts. Darknut and the rest are killed by Neil. It's revealed that Darknut has a relative that appears in The Gloffice.

Etymology
It is possible that the Japanese for Darknut, タートナック (Tātonakku), was intended to represent the English words "Dark Knight," especially considering the nature of the enemy in question and Japanese conventions for representing English with katakana. The localization team may not have realized what the katakana was attempting to borrow from English, and the series simply recycled the original mistranslation throughout the games rather than correct it. However, this raises the question of why ダークナイト (Dākunaito) was not simply used instead, as it more accurately represents "Dark Knight" phonetically.

It should also be noted that Darknut shares the same katakana ending as Ironknuckle アイアンナック (Aiannakku), so the Darknut should then most accurately be "Tartknuck" or "Tartknuckle." If so, its name was probably meant to relate it to the similar Ironknuckle enemy.