Heart Container

Heart Containers, called Bowl of Hearts in the Official Nintendo Player's Guide for, are recurring items in. They increase Link's maximum health, which is represented by a set of Hearts, excluding The Adventure of Link, where his health is symbolized by a life bar. Collecting enough Pieces of Heart assemble a Heart Container, increasing Link's maximum health.

Location and Uses
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. A Heart Container is awarded after every major boss in most games. Most games finish with Link having gained a total of 20 hearts. It is possible to finish some games without collecting any Heart Containers.

and break from the series standard since Heart Containers are not permanent upgrades. In these titles, stages contain Heart Container upgrades, but the Links begin the next stage without them. also breaks from the series standard as there are no obtainable Heart Containers. Instead, the Links can temporarily increase their total number of hearts by entering a Level while wearing the Jack of Hearts, Queen of Hearts, or Lady's Ensemble Outfits. Both the Jack of Hearts and Lady's Ensemble increase the Links' shared Hearts by one, whereas the Queen of Hearts Outfit increases their Hearts by three.

Heart Containers can apparently form when people display deep affection for each other, as seen in where Yeto and Yeta create Hearts and a Heart Container in their embrace. 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.

Philips CD-i Games
In and, Heart Containers are called Life Hearts. Link and Zelda both start out with three, and gradually earn more as they complete errands and defeat certain bosses. In The Faces of Evil, more Life Hearts can be obtained from the Fairies in Spearfish Falls, by defeating Goronu, and by rescuing the Blacksmith's Daughter in Shipwreck Cliff. In The Wand of Gamelon, Life Hearts can be obtained by the Fairies in the Fairy Pool, by defeating the Iron Knuckle in Tykogi Tower, and by defeating Hektan in Dodomai Palace.

In, Heart Containers appear as heart-shaped jewels called Crystal Hearts. Zelda initially starts out with three, and earns more as she defeats the Shrine Keepers of Tolemac. Four Crystal Hearts can also be found hidden throughout the land, and will increase Zelda's heart meter by one when she finds one.

Super Smash Bros. Series

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In every game within the, the Heart Container appears as a healing item. In, it reduces all damage to 0%. In every subsequent game, however, it reduces only 100% of damage. In Super Smash Bros. and, the player that grabbed the Heart Container cannot receive any damage from opponents while the item is restoring health. In, any damage that is taken will be subtracted from the 100%.

Heart Containers also appear as Trophies.