Heart Container
Link's health is symbolized throughout the The Legend of Zelda series (excluding The Adventure of Link) as a set of Hearts. As Link progresses through the games, he will require more and more health in order to survive the greater challenges. This additional health is acquired in the form of Heart Containers, with each Heart Container adding one whole heart to the amount of hearts Link has (again, excluding The Adventure of Link]] wherein the Heart Container adds an extra block to Link's life bar). A Heart Container is awarded after every major boss in the games. Most games finish with Link having gained a total of 20 hearts.
Piece of Heart
In many games, a Heart Container can be built manually by collecting four Pieces of Heart, which were introduced in A Link to the Past. These are scattered throughout the world, and can be found in treasure chests, won in mini-games, or given as thanks for helping someone. The amount of Pieces of Heart depends primarily on how many Heart Containers are in the game; the Pieces of Heart, combined with the Heart Containers, typically add up to a total of 20 Hearts by the end of a game.
It should be noted that Twilight Princess breaks the tradition by requiring five Pieces of Heart in order to create a Heart Container instead of the normal four. This is likely due to the high number of Heart Containers present in the game, and so more Pieces of Heart were required to keep the number of them similar to previous games. It's also worth noting that Twilight Princess is thus far the only game in the series to have an in-game "guide" showing the player where the Pieces of Heart are, in the form of Madame Fanadi.
Pieces of Heart Location Guides
A Link to the Past
Link's Awakening
- Map at GameFAQs showing locations of both the Pieces of Heart and the Secret Seashells
Ocarina of Time
The Wind Waker
Twilight Princess
Galleries
Heart Container
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Heart Container from the original The Legend of Zelda (note the incorrect word order due to poor translation)
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Heart Container in A Link to the Past
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Heart Container in A Link to the Past
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A Heart Container as seen in Ocarina of Time
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The Wind Waker-style Heart Container
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A Heart container in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Piece of Heart
<gallery> Image:Heart Piece Sprite LttP.gif|A Piece of Heart in its first game, A Link to the Past Image:Heart Piece MC.gif|A Piece of Heart in The Minish Cap Image:Heartpiece.png|A Piece of Heart in Twilight Princess