Great Fairy

Great Fairies are powerful fairies that appear in The Legend of Zelda series. They first appear in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. After completing a specific quest or reaching a certain area, a Great Fairy can grant Link with a reward such as extended health, magic or upgraded items. Their appearances and personalities vary drastically, but starting with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Great Fairies have often been depicted with a quirky, playful demeanor.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, there are several Great Fairies who restore Link's health entirely. Three of them have a specific role; one is found behind the waterfall near Zora's Lake, one is on an island in the middle of Lake Hylia, and another is found behind a wall outside the Pyramid. The Great Fairies enhance certain items thrown into the Mysterious Pond situated in their respective rooms, or after throwing in Rupees.

Depending on which items Link gives to the Great Fairy of Zora's Lake, she gives him a Red Shield, a Magical Boomerang that travels further than the first Boomerang, and Green Potion refills for any empty Bottles thrown in. The one at Lake Hylia is named Venus, and she allows Link to carry more Bombs and Arrows.

The last Great Fairy is found in the Pyramid of Power. She is obese, and explains that this is a side-effect of Ganon's magic. This Great Fairy gives Link the Golden Sword if he throws in the Tempered Sword or Silver Arrows if he throws in Arrows. Like the Great Fairy of Zora's Lake, she also provides Green Potion refills for any empty Bottles that Link throws in. If Link does not obtain the Tempered Sword before speaking to the Great Fairy, she gives him the Tempered Sword, which Link can take to Kakariko Village and have the Dwarven Swordsmiths forge it into the Golden Sword.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, like in their debut appearance, Great Fairies restore Link's health when visited. In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX and the Nintendo Switch version, the Fairy Queen resides at the end of the hidden Color Dungeon and gives Link either the magical Red or Blue Clothes, which boosts his attack or defense power, respectively. Link can return here at any time to switch the tunic he currently wears.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, there are six Great Fairies: the three Great Fairies of Magic, the Great Fairy of Power, the Great Fairy of Wisdom, and the Great Fairy of Courage, all of whom are found in their own Fairy Fountain. Each type of Great Fairy has a different hair color and differently shaped eyebrows. The three Great Fairies of Magic have orange hair, the Great Fairy of Power has pink hair, the Great Fairy of Wisdom has green hair, and the Great Fairy of Courage has purple hair. Every Great Fairy has their two roles combined from earlier appearances, as they first grant Link a special ability and then heal him and restore his magic power if subsequently visited.

When Link has entered a Great Fairy Fountain, he must play "Zelda's Lullaby" when standing upon a Triforce crest to summon the Great Fairy. The three Fairies of Magic are located near Hyrule Castle, in Zora's Fountain, and near the Desert Colossus respectively, where they reward him Din's Fire, Farore's Wind, and Nayru's Love in the respective locations. The Great Fairy of Power is found in Death Mountain Summit, where she increases the power of Link's Spin Attack. The Great Fairy of Wisdom is found inside the Death Mountain Crater, and she increases Link's Magic Meter. The Great Fairy of Courage is found near Ganon's Castle, and she grants Link enhanced defense, which reduces his damage by half and, on the game's interface, a white lining is added around the hearts.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Great Fairies have a similar role as in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. All four types of Great Fairies return from the previous game, retaining their appearance, although there is only one Great Fairy of Magic instead of three. The game introduces another Great Fairy, who is named the Great Fairy of Kindness, who has yellow hair. The dark power of Majora's Mask caused all of them to split into Stray Fairies, which Link must collect to recover them.

Link first encounters the Great Fairy of Magic in North Clock Town. Link only needs one Stray Fairy to restore her, unlike the other Great Fairies. The Great Fairy of Magic is the only Great Fairy whom Link is required to restore in order to progress, as she rewards him with the ability to use the Magic Meter. Later, if Link returns the Stray Fairy after acquiring the Deku Mask, the Great Fairy of Magic gives him the Great Fairy Mask.

The other four Great Fairies can be restored by collecting fifteen Stray Fairies from each of the temples. The Great Fairies of Power, Wisdom, and Courage are found in Woodfall, Snowhead, and Great Bay Coast respectively, and grant Link the same reward as in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Lastly, Link can restore the Great Fairy of Kindness to receive the Great Fairy's Sword.

In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D, the Great Fairy of Power and the Great Fairy of Wisdom's locations were swapped.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons / Ages
In The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, Great Fairies retain their appearance and role from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Like their previous appearances, Great Fairies appear in select locations, but in Holodrum and Labrynna respectively. If Link is wounded, the Great Fariy restores his health.

The Great Fairy that resides on an island west of the Labrynna library is called the Fairy Queen. Veran traveled into the past to turn her into an Octorok, so Link has to find Fairy Powder to cure her, allowing the Great Fairy to cleanse the poisoned sea.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, there are three Great Fairies: the Great Fairy of Forest, who rewards Link for completing the Sea of Trees, the Great Fairy of Ice, who rewards Link for completing the Talus Caves, and the Great Fairy of Flame, who rewards Link for completing the Death Mountain.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, there are seven Great Fairies, who each appear in their own Great Fairy Fountain at one of the five fairy islands, at Outset Island, and at Two-Eye Reef respectively. At first, Great Fairies appear as ordinary fairies, but whenever Link talks to a Great Fairy, she transforms into her true form. The Great Fairies appear in four different colors — pink, blue, green, and purple — each consisting of two members, except purple, which consists of only one Great Fairy. Their type of reward to Link also depends on their color.

Both of the pink Great Fairies reward Link with a Wallet upgrade. One of them is found in the Forest of Fairies of Outset Island. The entrance to her fountain is blocked by a large boulder, which Link must destroy by using a Bomb so that he can enter. The wallet that Link receives from the pink Great Fairy allows him to carry up to 1,000 rupees. A signpost found outside the pink Great Fairy's Fairy Fountains states that she was present during the time of the "legendary hero" (presumably the Hero of Time.) Anyone who met with the Great Fairy received great fortune, so her place came to be known as the Fountain of the Fortune Goddess. The second pink fairy is found on Northern Fairy Island, and her reward to Link is a wallet that can carry up to 5,000 rupees.

Both of the blue Great Fairies reward Link with a Bomb Bag upgrade. They are found on the Southern Fairy Island and the Eastern Fairy Island respectively. Each island's Great Fairy Fountain is only accessible if Link uses a Bomb to blow up a obstacle in his path: a plank and a rock respectively. In the Southern Fairy Island, Link receives a Bomb Bag that can carry up to 60 Bombs, and in the Eastern Fairy Island, he receives a Bomb Bag that can carry up to 99 Bombs.

Both of the green Great Fairies reward Link with a Quiver upgrade. Their Great Fairy Fountain is located in the Western Fairy Island and the Thorned Fairy Island respectively, and both require Link to use the Skull Hammer in order to enter. In the Western Fairy Island, in order to reach the Great Fairy, Link must hit a switch to put out a fire blocking the entrance. This allows him to enter inside and obtain a Quiver that allows him to carry up to 60 Arrows. In the Thorned Fairy Island, Link can reach the Great Fairy by using his Skull Hammer on three switches, which gets rid of the plants blocking the entrance to the Great Fairy Fountain. Inside, the green Great Fairy gives Link a Quiver that can hold up to 99 Arrows.

The purple Great Fairy can be found at Two-Eye Reef, where she has been ingested by a Big Octo. By defeating the monster, Link frees the purple Great Fairy, who thanks him by doubling his Magic Meter.

There is a Queen of Fairies at the Mother & Child Island, who has the appearance and size of a human child. Her skin is color-shifting, and she has no irises or pupils. She is shown holding a doll that resembles the other Great Fairies.

Figurines of the Great Fairies and Queen of Fairies can only be acquired by purchasing their pictographs from Lenzo on Windfall Island. This is because they only appear in cutscenes, and therefore their pictures cannot be taken otherwise. Their descriptions in the Nintendo Gallery state that they were born on the Angular Isles, the strange man-made islands in the south seas.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, the Great Fairies the player encounters upgrade his items to level two items. They are designed after the Great Fairies from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. In Hyrule Castle, the Links encounter a River Zora, who begs them to find its "other part." They are revealed to be a cursed Great Fairy that resembles the Queen of the Fairies from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
In The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, there are three Great Fairies, who are named the Great Butterfly Fairy, Great Mayfly Fairy, and the Great Dragonfly Fairy respectively. All three of them look alike, and resemble the Great Fairies from The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords.

The Great Butterfly Fairy resides within a tree in the northwestern corner of the Minish Woods, but can only be accessed from the western portion of the Eastern Hills by using the Cane of Pacci. Her fountain can be accessed only if Link has completed the correct Kinstone fusion. She gives him the Big Wallet, allowing him to take up to 500 rupees with him.

The Great Mayfly Fairy lives in a cave on a ledge, on the eastern side of the Crenel Wall at Mount Crenel. She presents Link with the Big Bomb Bag, allowing him to carry 40 bombs.

The Great Dragonfly Fairy dwells in a cave in the Royal Valley. Her gift to Link is the Large Quiver, which allows him to carry more arrows.

Each of the three Great Fairies have their own figurine. In PAL releases, the fairies' figurines falsely state that they are all found on Mount Crenel.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, there is a Great Fairy at end of the Cave of Ordeals. If Link reaches the Great Fairy, she gives him the Great Fairy's Tears. Additionally, for every ten floors that Link completes, the Great Fairy releases normal fairies to each of the Spirit's Springs located across Hyrule. This is the first three-dimensional The Legend of Zelda title in which the Great Fairy does not upgrade any of Link's items or attributes.

In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, the Great Fairy also appears at the end of the Cave of Shadows and rewards Wolf Link with the Colossal Wallet.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there are four Great Fairy sisters: Cotera, Kaysa, Mija and Tera.

Hyrule Warriors
In Hyrule Warriors and its reissues, in certain scenarios of Legend Mode, the Great Fairy can summoned from a Fairy Fountain at certain points to aid the forces of Hyrule via the Magic Circle that appears in each the fountain. Once the magic circle is used a cutscene is triggered where the Great Fairy uses her power to assist the allied forces.

In the first scenario "The Armies of Ruin," Link and Zelda use the magic circle to summon the Great Fairy to help weaken Cia's Dark Forces. She has her fairy subordinates take some bombs provided by Link and a Goron Captain, then use their combined fairy magic to transform the Bombs into a single Giant Bomb which they then drop on Cia's Army, forcing Wizzro to summon King Dodongo.

In "The Sorceress of the Woods," after Wizzro sets the Great Deku Tree on fire, Lana suggests calling upon the Great Fairy to the player. Once she is summoned, the Great Fairy has her fairy subordinates create a rain cloud which puts out the fire, saving the Great Deku Tree.

In "The Shadow King," after several failed attempts to restrain Argorok via Magic Circle, Midna and Lana decide to seek the Great Fairy's aid. The Great Fairy summons another Magic Circle to restrain Argorok, but it also fails, causing the Great Fairy to use one of the magic chains generated by her Magic Circle to pull the Moon down on Argorok who is then weakened after being hit by the Moon's nose. After the Twilight dragon is weaken the Moon is revealed to be made up of the Great Fairy's subordinates indicating it wasn't the real Moon.

In "Land in the Sky," Link and Fi summon upon the Great Fairy to empower Levias in order to weaken an empowered Volga. The Great Fairy has her fairies dangle a giant Pumpkin from a Fishing Rod causing Levias to jump from under the clouds and eat it, empowering the deity who attacks Volga with a powerful lightning attack weakening him.

In "Shining Beacon," the Great Fairy informs Princess Zelda of her plan to weaken Cia's Army via a clever trap. First she has Zelda set up a base inside her fountain, then has the allied forces of Hyrule lure Volga and two of his subordinates near the fountain. If the player manages to successfully lure the dark forces then use the Magic Circle, the Great Fairy will have her subordinates create a giant Hylian Bird Seal in the sky unleashing a cascade of light energy on the Dark Forces, killing a good portion of his underlings and injuring Volga.

Outside of Legend Mode, the Great Fairy appears is one of Link's weapons under his Great Fairy moveset, in which the player can control the Great Fairy while she carries Link around in a Bottle, thus protecting him out of harm's way. Though a powerful weapon, the Great Fairy's power is offset by her running speed. Despite being able to fly, Link is capable of running much faster than her. This is likely due to her size and the fact that Great Fairies hardly ever leave their fountains. This makes her ineffective in scenarios that require haste on the player's part, such as timed scenarios or moving around in large battlefields quickly. Despite this weakness, she has an interesting variety of combo attacks, such as playing a brief game of Dead Man's Volley with Link (letting him out of the bottle) damaging nearby enemies, dropping giant bombs, summoning a fairy fountain and rain, borrowing Link's Knight's Sword to attack enemies with slash waves, or summoning Levias to unleash a deluge of lightning. During her Special Attack she even summons the Moon to crush enemies and during her Focus Spirit attack she blows a kiss which transforms into several multicolored fairies. Tingle is under the delusion that he is the reincarnation of a Great Fairy.

The Great Fairy has three weapon levels, Level 1 is "Great Fountain Fairy" which is modeled on the Great Fairy's Hyrule Warriors design, Level 2 is "Great Forest Fairy" which features the Great Fairy wearing a Bee costume, and Level 3 is the "Great Sky Fairy" which features the Great Fairy dressed as a Loftwing. Her 8-bit weapon is the "8-bit Fairy."

If the Dark Link outfit is worn, then the Great Fairy will become the Dark Great Fairy, sharing the same dark shadowy coloration and red eyes as Dark Link. This effects all levels of this weapon type.

In the Master Quest Pack, Fi's Standard Outfit (Great Sea) is a recolor based on the Great Fairy's design from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, the four Great Fairy sisters from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — Cotera, Kaysa, Mija and Tera — appear as playable characters. They can be unlocked by completing the Akkala Tower scenario.

Physical appearance
In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the Great Fairies are depicted as floating young women with Fairy wings and green clothing resembling a wedding dress.

In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Great Fairies have a much more garish appearance. They are barely garbed, covered only in leaves and vines, have long, colorful hair tied back into flowing sections, and thickly-applied vibrant color eyeshadow. This design is reused in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, and the pink-haired Great Fairy appears in Hyrule Warriors.

In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Great Fairies are large, floating, four-armed women with dark skin, no pupils, and gowns that spiral at the tip. Like in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the Great Fairies still have three flowing plaits of hair.

In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the Great Fairy resembles a young woman with long, green hair and pointed ears. She wears only a small cloth tied around her waist, and her breasts are barely covered by the lengths of her hair. The Great Fairy is most commonly seen as a sparkling cloud of green mist and smoke, which is shown at the Spirit Springs and in the Cave of Ordeals whenever Link does not talk to her.