Gel

Gels are enemies that appear in some of The Legend of Zelda series titles, starting with the first game, The Legend of Zelda. They are a smaller variant of Zol, which if attacked, usually breaks into two Gels.

The Legend of Zelda
In The Legend of Zelda, Gels are small droplets of jelly with no facial features, although an artwork of a Gel shows it with blue eyes. Gels are only found in labyrinths and often appear without Zols. Gels move around dungeons in a linear pattern, starting and stopping erratically. They are among the weakest enemies, and Link can defeat them with any weapon, especially the sword and boomerang. Gels do not drop an item if defeated. Like Zols, Gels are colored differently for each dungeon, typically to match the color of the wall, such as blue, green, gray, and dark yellow, though in some they are instead black to blend in to dark rooms. They do not have any color variants, and artwork shows them to be colored turquoise.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Gels look similar to their appearance in The Legend of Zelda, but their sprite shows them with a pair of eyes. Unlike the first game, Gels are located on the overworld and in dungeons. Gels cannot damage Link unlike the first game and instead cling to him and slow his movement. Link can get them off by either moving rapidly or by slashing his sword. They also more smoothly pursue him rather than moving from tile to tile.

In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX and the Nintendo Switch remake, Gels are colored red.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages
In The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, Gels have the same role and appearance as in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. They retain their red color from the Game Boy Color remake. Both games introduce the color-changing Gel variants, which change color as they hop between floor tiles.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, Gels appear in various subterranean locations, and they retain their red appearance. Gels do not appear by themselves, and they are only found if one of the Links slashes a Zol, splitting it into two. Their sprites for this game appear in unused data for The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
In The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Gels appear as small green balls of slime, and are identical in appearance to the Zols in the same game other than size. They act as they do in the Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, hopping at and attaching to Link. To free him, the player must rub the stylus against the screen rapidly. They appear in the Temple of Fire, Temple of Courage, Goron Temple, and the Temple of Ice. Notably, this is the first game to have them alongside Chuchus, which otherwise for the most part have taken their role.

Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring the Legend of Zelda
In Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring the Legend of Zelda, Gels appear in various colors alongside Zols. They use their grid-based movement pattern from the first game, moving every other beat. While they come in a variety of colors based on the Zols they originate from, all Gels act the same in this game. Additionally, another slime-based enemy called the Stalfos Gel appears, and the future Death Mountain has a transparent and colorless type called the Phasing Gel.