Hearts

Hearts are Link's health resource in the game.

Heart containers

Link starts the game with 3 heart containers. 11 other containers are available in the game—1 in a chest in the Sanctuary, 3 from beating the pendant dungeons, and 7 from beating the crystal dungeons.

The heart container in the Sanctuary is completely optional, but it's a strong safety item in many of the game's routes. It's also unique in that it refills Link's hearts when he picks it up.

Unlike some other Zelda games, Link must collect the heart containers at the end of dungeons in order for the dungeon prizes to drop. Using ancilla overload, players can prevent a heart container's "item obtained" ancilla from spawning, which allows the player to pick up the heart and not have it added to their inventory. This is slower to setup and execute compared to just grabbing the heart containers though, so it's of no use to runners outside of Low% style speedruns.

Heart pieces

There are 24 heart pieces in the game. Link will get a new heart container each time he collects 4 heart pieces. Unlike some other Zelda games, Link does not necessarily have his health refilled by picking up a heart piece. This will only happen if the heart piece forms a new container.

The 24 heart pieces combine to form 6 heart containers. When combined with the 3 Link starts with and the 11 gotten from the Sanctuary and dungeons, this means the maximum number of hearts Link can have is 20. Reaching this maximum is part of the goal in all 100% speedruns.

A list of the game's heart pieces:

1. Aginah HP: hidden behind a bombwall in Aginah's cave, which is in the northeast section of the desert
2. Blind's hideout HP: behind a bombwall inside the house with the grass covered roof in Kakariko Village
3. Bonk rocks HP: in a cave under the bonk rocks on the west side of the Sanctuary garden screen
4. Bumper cave HP: on a ledge in the northwest section of the Dark World overworld
5. Bush circle HP: in a cave on a cliff overlooking the grove entrance area
6. Checkerboard cave HP: in a cave under a boulder in the northeast section of the desert
7. Chest game HP: won from playing the chest game and opening a chest with the heart piece in it (this is random)
8. Desert ledge HP: standing on a ledge on the west side of the desert
9. Digging game HP: won from playing the digging game and digging it up (this is random)
10. Floating island HP: on an island in the sky on East Death Mountain
11. Flooded HP: in the water around the dam
12. Graveyard ledge HP: in a cave that's on a ledge overlooking the graveyard
13. Hammer peg HP: in a hidden cave on the peg field screen
14. Hylia HP: on an island in Lake Hylia
15. Kakariko well HP: behind a cracked wall in the Kakariko well
16. Lost Woods HP: in a hideout for thieves in the Lost Woods
17. Lumberjack HP: in a cave under the hollow tree adjacent to the Lumberjacks' cabin
18. Mimic cave HP: in a cave on East Death Mountain
19. Mire shed HP: in a cave just west of the entrance to Misery Mire
20. Pyramid HP: standing on a ledge along the east wall of the Pyramid of Power
21. Race game HP: won from winning the race game in the southeast section of the Light World
22. Spectacle cave HP: in a cave system under spectacle rock on Death Mountain
23. Spectacle rock HP: standing on spectacle rock on Death Mountain
24. Zora HP: in Zora's Domain

Link's health mechanics

When enemies damage Link, they'll reduce his currently filled hearts by some amount. The minimum damage dealt is 1/4 of a heart, which the HUD doesn't even draw. The most damage Link can take in one hit is 8 hearts, which comes from bumping Ganon while Link is wearing the green mail. The exact damage Link takes from various damage sources depends on the source that's damaging him as well as the armor he's wearing.

Usually when Link's hearts reach 0, he will die and the player will game over. There are multiple exceptions to this though:

• If Link has a bottled fairy, the fairy will revive him with 7 hearts. This is an intended recovery mechanic.
• If the player performs a death hole, Link will be fairy revived even though he has no fairy. This emerges from game mode conflicts between game over and pit transitions.
• If the player uses the zombie Link (aka 0hp) glitch, then Link will have be able to walk around with no health.