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 most games. Most games finish with Link having gained a total of 20 hearts. Four Swords Adventures also breaks from the series standard since Heart Containers are not permanent upgrades. Most stages in this title contain Heart Container upgrades, but Link begins the next stage without the benefit. It is possible to finish some games without getting the Heart Containers received from bosses.

Heart Containers can apparently form when people display deep affection for each other, as seen in Twilight Princess where Yeto and Yeta create Recovery Hearts and Heart Containers in their embrace (as a matter of fact, Twilight Princess also considers Heart Pieces to be sources of love, as seen with Madame Fanadi when she asks Link for what type of prediction he wants to see).

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, and have since then have appeared in every other title following it, excluding Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, in which only full Heart Containers could be found. 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. Interestingly, the number of Heart Pieces in a game is inversely proportional to how many dungeons (therefore, bosses with Heart Containers) are available in that adventure. Because of this, Majora's Mask holds currently the record for having the highest number in the series (52, this for featuring only four Heart Containers).

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 higher than in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (which had the same number of Heart Containers, but only 36 Pieces of Heart because of the old four-piece system) and narrowly The Wind Waker (44), having therefore 45 in total.

It's also worth noting that Twilight Princess is thus far one of the two only games in the series to have in-game "guides" showing the player where the Pieces of Heart are, the first game being The Wind Waker thanks to certain Special Charts, then Twilight Princess in the form of Madame Fanadi.

Legend of Zelda

 * ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide

Adventure of Link

 * ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide

A Link to the Past

 * Piece of Heart Location Guide at [[File:Sw_small_logo.png]]StrategyWiki
 * ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide
 * ZeldaInformer.com's Guide

Link's Awakening

 * ZeldaInformer.com's Guide

Ocarina of Time

 * Piece of Heart Location Guide at [[File:Sw_small_logo.png]]StrategyWiki

Majora's Mask

 * Piece of Heart Location Guide at [[File:Sw_small_logo.png]]StrategyWiki
 * ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide

Oracle of Seasons

 * ZeldaUniverse.net's Guide

Oracle of Ages

 * ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide
 * ZeldaUniverse.net's Guide

The Wind Waker

 * ZeldaUniverse.net's Guide

The Minish Cap

 * ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide
 * Zelda Temple's Guide

Twilight Princess

 * Piece of Heart Location Guide at [[File:Sw_small_logo.png]]StrategyWiki

Phantom Hourglass

 * ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide

"Spirit Tracks"

 * ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide

Super Smash Bros. series
In every game of the Super Smash Bros. series, the Heart Container appears as an item that can be grabbed during play. In the first game, it restores all health. In every subsequent game, however, it restores only 100% damage.

Trivia

 * In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, heart pieces are collected in fifths, but ironically, Link still loses health in minimums of fourths.