Red Potion

In all games it has appeared in, Red Potion is used to recover Link's health. However, the amount of health the potion actually recovers varies from game to game.

Inception and Early Usage
In The Legend of Zelda, the 2nd Potion, which costs 68 rupees, is a red-colored potion which works like a Life Potion except that it holds two doses. When used the first time, it turns into a normal Life Potion, which will disappear as normal when it is consumed as well. Both of these can be bought from medicine shops after Link finds the Letter. Life Potion, or Water of Life (命の水), is its blue-colored precedent, found in the original Japanese version of The Legend of Zelda. The Red Water of Life returns in The Adventure of Link, where Link finds it in a cave in the Moruge Swamp. However, instead of restoring Link's health, it is given to an Old Woman in the Harbor Town of Mido who has a sick daughter. In exchange, she invites Link inside her house where an Old Man teaches him the Fairy Spell.

Commonality and Prevalence
It debuted by the name, potion, in A Link to the Past, in which it replenishes all of Link's hearts, a property which it maintains in most subsequent games: Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, and The Minish Cap. However, in Twilight Princess, it only recovers eight of Link's hearts. In Phantom Hourglass, it makes another regression; as it only recovers six of Link's hearts.

Dosage and Pricing
Below lists the relative prices of all Red Potions in the Zelda series, with the exception of those from Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and The Wind Waker, all of which restore Link to full health. All potions are found and can be bought at Potion Shops, the Red Potion of which commonly selling at a price between that of the Green Potion, the cheapest, and the Blue Potion, the most expensive.