Darknuts are recurring enemies in [[The Legend of Zelda]] series, first appearing in the original The Legend of Zelda. They are similar to the Iron Knuckle, in that both resemble large, heavily-armored knights, but Darknuts are usually more aggressive in comparison to the stoic guardian-like nature of the Iron Knuckle. In addition, Darknuts have appeared in more games than Iron Knuckles, and Darknuts and Iron Knuckles have never co-existed in any of the games.

Darknuts sometimes have differently-colored armor, which may denote ranks, but these are often functionally identical. Twilight Princess also features a single unique-looking Darknut with black armor, found in the Temple of Time. This Darknut's appearance is used for the Darknuts in Link's Crossbow Training and Hyrule Warriors.

Darknuts are highly adaptable to losing their weapons, and much more mobile when their armor is removed, as seen in The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, respectively.

In The Wind Waker, unarmed Darknuts will grab any nearby dropped weapon, or, if there are none around, they will attack with martial arts melee attacks.

In Twilight Princess, once their outer armor is removed to reveal chain mail under-armor, they discard their large heavy sword by throwing it at Link, and then pull out a smaller, lighter longsword, continuing to fight with increased mobility and the ability to dodge certain attacks and weapons.

While most incarnations of the Darknut have their face remain unseen, in The Wind Waker, Darknuts resemble anthropomorphic dobermann pinschers, albeit with more felid snouts and noses.