Heart Container

Heart Container
Artwork from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
First appearance	The Legend of Zelda (1986)
Latest appearance	The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD (2021)
Location(s)	Various
Effect	Represent a unit of Link's life bar
Related items Heart Piece of Heart

Heart Containers, alternatively formatted as heart containers and also known as Container Hearts, are items that represent the units of Link's health on the life bar in every The Legend of Zelda game. They are featured as recovery items in the Super Smash Bros. series. Most of them can be obtained if Link defeats a boss, or if he collects a number Pieces of Heart (usually four), which make up a Heart Container. Heart Containers are optional because when Link collects one, another heart unit is added to his health bar.

Pieces of Heart usually resemble Heart Containers except less of their perimeter is filled red.

History

The Legend of Zelda series

The Legend of Zelda

In The Legend of Zelda, there are thirteen Container Hearts that Link can obtain. The LIFE meter begins with three hearts and can have up to sixteen hearts if Link collects every heart container. Eight Container Hearts are obtained by defeating a boss. The five others are offered by old men in caves, along with a 2nd Potion. Link can only choose one item, so if he chooses the 2nd Potion, the Container Heart is gone permanently.

Link must have at least five Container Hearts for the White Sword and twelve of them for the Magical Sword.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Link's life meter is represented by bars instead of hearts. As such, every Heart Container adds another bar to his life meter. There are four Heart Containers in the game, so Link can have up to eight bars of health.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, there are seventeen Heart Containers. Like the first The Legend of Zelda and subsequent games in the series, Link's life meter is represented by hearts, and every Heart Container adds another unit to his life bar.

The first Heart Container is located inside a Treasure Chest in the Sanctuary. A total of ten Heart Containers are earned by defeating a boss. Six Heart Containers can be each formed by four Piece of Hearts, which were introduced in the game.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, there are eleven Heart Containers. Eight are obtained from defeated bosses, and the other three are obtained by four Pieces of Heart each. In the Nintendo Switch remake, two Heart Containers can be won from Dampé's Shack.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, there are seventeen Heart Containers. Like the previous game, eight are obtained from defeated bosses. The other nine are obtained by four Pieces of Heart each. It is the first game where Heart Containers occasionally appear from the exact location that the boss was defeated.

CD-i games

Link: The Faces of Evil / Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

In Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, there are three Life Hearts that Link and Zelda can obtain. Each Life Heart adds an extra heart to their life bar, up to a maximum of six hearts.

In Link: The Faces of Evil, one Life Heart is obtained by defeating Goronu, while the others are given by the Fairies and Clora. In Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, two are obtained by defeating Iron Knuckle and Hektan, while the last one is given by the Fairies after being freed.

Zelda's Adventure

In Zelda's Adventure, there are four Crystal Hearts hidden throughout Tolemac that Zelda can obtain. In addition, collecting a Celestial Sign adds a heart to Zelda's life meter, resulting in a maximum of fourteen hearts.

Super Smash Bros. series

Super Smash Bros.

In Super Smash Bros., if a fighter picks up a Heart Container their damage is reset back to 0%. Heart Containers are designed after their appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Starting with Super Smash Bros. Melee, Heart Containers only heal up to 100% damage, except the three Heart Containers in All-Star mode, which recover all damage. Heart Containers retain their design from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Heart Containers have the same role as in Super Smash Bros. Melee but are redesigned to match their appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It is the first game where fighters can grab Heart Containers in midair, which is also possible in subsequent Super Smash Bros. installments. Like the All-Star mode in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Heart Containers recover all health in both the All-Star and Boss Battle modes of the game. If either mode is done in co-op mode, there are six Heart Containers instead of three.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U

In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Heart Containers were redesigned to match their appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. In All-Star mode, the fighter starts off with one Heart Container initially, but if all characters are unlocked, they start with two Heart Containers.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Heart Containers retain their appearance and role from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Trophy information

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Image	Game	Description
	The Legend of Zelda 7/87	Heart Containers drift toward the ground slowly and replenish 100 percentage points of health. In The Legend of Zelda, these items beefed up Link's life meter; in most cases, Link found them in the possession of bosses or hidden in secret areas. Heart Containers are often scattered across the land in several fragments.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Image	Game	Description
	NES The Legend of Zelda	The best recovery item! Grab this and heal 100 percentage points of damage. It falls slowly, so it's best to grab it in midair. Damage recovery won't happen instantly, though, so try not to get launched while your damage is counting down. In the Legend of Zelda series, Heart Containers raise the player's maximum health. Bosses always have one in their possession.
	Wii The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U

Image (3DS/Wii U)	Appears in (Wii U version only)	Description
	GBC The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages (05/2001) Wii The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (11/2006)	An important item in the Legend of Zelda series, this item would appear when you beat a boss and increase your life by one when collected. In Smash Bros., grabbing this will heal 100 points of damage. Grab it as it gently floats to the ground! A quintessential item from the Legend of Zelda series that raises your max health. In those games, you have to defeat bosses to get them, but in this one, they'll just fall from the sky, which makes things a whole lot easier. If you see one, grab it quick - in mid-air if you can! Why? To take 100 off your damage - that's why!

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:Heart Container.

• 

  The Legend of Zelda artwork

• 

  Zelda II: The Adventure of Link artwork

• 

  The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past artwork

• 

  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time artwork

• 

  The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess artwork

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ハートの水筒 Hāto no Suitō イノチ　ノ　ウツワ Inochi no Utsuwa ハートの器 / ハートノウツワ Hāto no Utsuwa	Heart Canteen (Zelda no Densetsu manual) Life Container (Zelda no Densetsu in-game; "Container Heart" underneath) Heart Container (Link no Bōken onward)
Spanish	Contenedor de corazón	Heart container
French	Coeur	Heart (The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages)
German	Herzcontainer	Heart Container
Russian	Капсула сердца Kapsula syerdtsa	Heart Capsule
Chinese	心之容器 Xīn zhī róngqì	Heart Container

References

This article is a stub. You can help Triforce Wiki by expanding it.