Heart Container

Link's health is symbolized throughout the The Legend of Zelda series as a set of Hearts, excluding The Adventure of Link wherein his health is symbolized by a life bar. Depending on the game, Link must collect either Pieces of Heart or full Heart Containers to increase his maximum health.

Description
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 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.

Heart Containers Summary
Note that in The Adventure of Link Link's health is illustrated by blocks instead of hearts, and that in Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures Heart Containers are not permanent upgrades.

Description
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 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 The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess is thus far 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, and then Twilight Princess in the form of Madame Fanadi. Although in Twilight Princess heart pieces are collected in fifths, ironically Link still loses health in minimums of fourths.

In the Super Smash Bros. Series

 * See SmashWiki's article on Heart Container for more information.

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. In the original and Melee, the player that grabbed the Heart Container cannot receive any damage from opponents while the item is restoring health, but in Brawl, any damage that is taken will be subtracted from the 100%.

The Legend of Zelda
ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide

The Adventure of Link
ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide

Phantom Hourglass
ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide

Spirit Tracks
ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide

A Link to the Past
Piece of Heart Location Guide at 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 StrategyWiki

Majora's Mask
Piece of Heart Location Guide at StrategyWiki ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide ZeldaEternity.com's Guide

Oracle of Ages
ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide ZeldaUniverse.net's Guide

Oracle of Seasons
ZeldaUniverse.net's Guide

The Wind Waker
ZeldaInformer.com's Guide ZeldaUniverse.net's Guide

The Minish Cap
ZeldaDungeon.net's Guide Zelda Temple's Guide

Twilight Princess
Piece of Heart Location Guide at StrategyWiki