Great Fairy

Great Fairies are large humanoid fairies that have appeared in various Zelda titles. Their main purpose is to heal Link whenever he is wounded and will also recover his magic power in certain games. In other titles, they also bless Link with new items, powers or upgrades of his existing equipment. The Great Fairies' appearances differ vastly between games, and most of them can be found living within a Great Fairy Fountain.

The Legend of Zelda
While not referred to as a Great Fairy and are in the appearance of a normal Fairy, there are a few areas in the Hyrule overworld where a pond housing a fairy can be found. These specific fairies have the same role as later Great Fairies: they will only appear if Link approaches their pond with injury and will instantly recover all of his hearts. As such, these fairies are probably what inspired the Great Fairies in later Zelda titles.

A Link to the Past
Several Great Fairies appear in A Link to the Past.

Great Fairy
These Great Fairies are the most common ones out of all the Great Fairies in A Link to the Past, and as such, they can easily be found scattered throughout Hyrule in either caves or holes. When Link approaches her, she will completely heal the young hero's wounds.

Waterfall of Wishing Fairy
At the Waterfall of Wishing near Zora's Lake lives a Great Fairy who is known to be a friend of Venus. She looks identical to Venus with the exception of her wings, which are smaller and greener. The Fairy at the Waterfall of Wishing appears as Link throws various items into the Mysterious Pond and asks him whether or not he dropped them. She will return items dropped by the young hero, but if he drops certain items, she will instead give him better items or upgrades of the item in return if Link answers the questions honestly. These include the Boomerang, which she upgrades to the Magical Boomerang, the blue Level-1 Fighter's Shield, which she upgrades to the Red Shield, and an empty Magic Bottle, which she fills with Medicine of Magic.

Venus
Venus is the Fairy Queen and lives in the middle of Lake Hylia. Throwing money into the Wishing Well allows her to upgrade Link's carrying capacity of Bombs and Arrows.

Fat Fairy
The Fat Fairy can be found within the Pyramid of Power in the Dark World. To gain access to her hidden fountain, Link must use the Super Bomb to blow a hole in the lower levels of the Pyramid. She will grant Link the Silver Arrows required to defeat Ganon, and will also power up the Tempered Sword into the Golden Sword. Incidentally, the Fat Fairy's appearance can be blamed on a curse put on her by Ganon's magic.

Link's Awakening
In Link's Awakening, Great Fairies are in the form of large fairies with bug-like wings and have black hair tied in a ponytail. They are scattered throughout certain areas of Koholint Island, usually in a cave that houses a small pond and two fairy statues. If Link arrives wounded they will appear and recover all of his hearts. Not all Great Fairies in Link's Awakening live in a cave, for one of them lives in a small pond of the Mysterious Woods.

There is also the Fairy Queen who only makes an appearance in Link's Awakening DX, and resides in the last room of the Color Dungeon, a dungeon exclusive to Link's Awakening DX. As thanks for visiting her, she rewards Link with the 'power of color', a choice between the red tunic, which increases the power of weapons, or the blue tunic, which increases Link's defense. Link can visit the Fairy Queen again to swap between the two tunics, but he can never get back his green tunic once he has swapped it for another tunic.

Ocarina of Time
In Ocarina of Time, the Great Fairies are depicted as giant women who wear ivy vines as clothes and leather boots, and have red hair that is tied into three pigtails. This also marks the first time that Great Fairies are seen without wings. Their locations are scattered throughout Hyrule, where they live in certain Great Fairy Fountains that has the Triforce symbol engraved on the floor in front of their pond. By playing Zelda's Lullaby on this symbol, they will be summoned. Great Fairies, when first summoned, will bless Link with either a new item or an upgrade. The color of their fountain's walls will also vary from either blue or red to signify what kind of blessing they will give. The Great Fairies who give out Din's Fire, Nayru's Love and Farore's Wind will have red walls. The Great Fairies who simply upgrade Link's powers will have blue walls instead. The Great Fairies can also be summoned again at their fountains to recover Link's health as well as his Magic Power.

All three of the Great Fairies who give out Din's Fire, Nayru's Love and Farore's Wind refer to themselves as The Great Fairy of Magic, and possibly may be the same Great Fairy. The Great Fairies who bless Link with a magical sword spin attack, a larger magic meter, and a defense upgrade are referred to as the Great Fairy of Power, the Great Fairy of Wisdom, and the Great Fairy of Courage, respectively.

Each of the Great Fairy locations as well as the upgrades received are as follows:

Great Fairy Beta model
During the development of Ocarina of Time, the Great Fairies were not the same ones that appeared in the final version of the game, for they had more of a crystal appearance with long, white wings. Their crystalline appearance is similar to the appearance of the Great Fairies from The Wind Waker. The Beta Great Fairy, surprisingly, shares the same model file as the in-game Great Fairy. Originally uploaded first by Cooliscool, the model was later on restored correctly by Zeth.

Majora's Mask
The five Great Fairies in Majora's Mask have been torn apart into 15 Stray Fairies by the evil power of Majora's Mask. The only Great Fairy that needs to be recovered in order to progress in the game is the one in North Clock Town, which grants Link the ability to use magic, and only one Stray Fairy has to be found for her. For the other four Great Fairies, Link must recover the remaining 15 Stray Fairies scattered around each dungeon found in the four cardinal directions of Termina in order to be rewarded with upgrades and a special weapon.

The Great Fairies have the same in-game model as the ones from Ocarina of Time, with each one of them having a different colored hair. The locations of the Great Fairies as well as the upgrades received are as follows:

Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons
Many Great Fairies appear throughout these games to heal Link at their fountains, and two of them participate in password secrets.

In Oracle of Ages, the Stray Fairies of the Fairies' Woods at first jumble up the topography of the forest and force Link to play a supernatural game of hide-and-seek to be granted access to the Wing Dungeon. Later near the Zora Seas, Link encounters the Fairy Queen, guardian of the seas, who was cursed by Veran into an Octorok shape so that the evil sorceress could poison the seas and kill the Zora without the Fairy Queen's interference. She asks Link to find the Fairy Powder hidden in the nearby Library to heal her, and once he does, she removes all of the pollution from the Zora Sea, returning the sea to its natural beauty and restoring health to King Zora and Lord Jabu-Jabu.

Four Swords
In Four Swords, there are three Great Fairies in total: the Great Fairy of Forest, the Great Fairy of Ice, and the Great Fairy of Flame. After Link defeats each boss, a Great Fairy will speak to him, and if his performance during the dungeon was well enough, she will give him one of the Great Keys. The Great Keys bestowed by the Great Fairies are required to complete the final mission of the game as well as to unlock special bonus content in A Link to the Past.

Each of the Great Fairies greatly resemble the appearances of the Great Fairies in The Minish Cap.

The Wind Waker

 * See also: Fairy Queen

There are seven Great Fairies in The Wind Waker, five of which have their fountain under a giant shell. One of them must be rescued from inside a Big Octo at the Two-Eye Reef. Another one, the Fortune Goddess, lives in the Forest of Fairies above Link's home and gives Link a larger Wallet.

The names of the islands in which the Great Fairies are located are as follows, along with the upgrades received:

Quiver Upgrades
 * Western Fairy Island – The Skull Hammer must be used to hit the nearby stake and remove the thorns blocking the entrance.
 * Thorned Fairy Island v The Skull Hammer must be used to hit the three nearby stakes and remove the fire blocking the entrance.

Bomb Upgrades
 * Eastern Fairy Island – A bomb must be used to blow up the rock blocking the entrance.
 * Southern Fairy Island – A bomb must be used to blow up the wooden wall blocking the entrance.

Wallet Upgrades
 * Northern Fairy Island – A bomb must be used to blow up the boulder blocking the entrance.
 * Outset Island in the Fairy Forest – A bomb must be used to blow up the rock blocking the entrance.

After Link has received the upgrades or power-ups from its respective Fairy Fountain, the Great Fairy will no longer be at the fountain. Instead, fairies will be floating over the pond, ready to heal the young hero or be put in an empty bottle.

Four Swords Adventures
In Four Swords Adventures, Link can encounter a Great Fairy while inside certain dungeons or caves. If Link throws in a certain item into the pond below the Great Fairy, she will upgrade it to a Level 2 item. For example, throwing in the Slingshot will allow Link to shoot seeds from three different directions at the same time. Encountering these Great Fairies is crucial in order to solve various puzzles of the game.

The Great Fairies in Four Swords Adventures have the same appearance as the ones from The Wind Waker.

The Minish Cap
There are three Great Fairies hidden throughout the land of The Minish Cap, all of which give Link special upgrades as well as heal his wounds.

The three Great Fairies featured in this game are the Great Butterfly Fairy, the Great Dragonfly Fairy and the Great Mayfly Fairy. In each case, they possess wings resembling those of the insect from which they take their names.

Great Butterfly Fairy
The first fairy, the Great Butterfly Fairy, is found in the northern section of the Minish Woods. She mentions she is in need of Rupees and asks Link for all of his. If he agrees, she tells Link that she doesn't really need any rupees and rewards Link's generosity with a bigger wallet.

Great Mayfly Fairy
The second fairy, the Great Mayfly Fairy, is found on Mount Crenel. If Link throws a bomb into her fountain, she will ask him if he threw a gold or silver one. If Link gives an honest answer, she rewards him with a bigger Bomb Bag.

Great Dragonfly Fairy
The final fairy, the Great Dragonfly Fairy, is found in the Royal Valley. She asks Link to tell her of his adventures, and asks a series of questions regarding several key details of his journey. If Link answers all of her questions correctly, she will reward him with a bigger quiver.

Twilight Princess
"Welcome, Hero, to the Cave of Ordeals. I am the Great Fairy. I reign over all fairies of this realm as their queen."

- Great Fairy

Unlike previous Zelda games in which the Great Fairies can be found in different caves throughout the overworld, the Great Fairies of Twilight Princess only appear within the Cave of Ordeals in a fountain every ten floors. Each time Link reaches a new fountain, the Great Fairy will send pink healing fairies to the Spirit Springs across Hyrule. The first time Link reaches the fountain of the 50th floor, the Great Fairy will reward him by filling one of the young hero's empty bottles with Great Fairy's Tears. She will also tell him that he can get more Tears by going to any of the Light Spirit's Springs, although Link will only be able to have one bottle filled with Great Fairy Tears at any given time. However, should he complete the Cave of Ordeals again, he will be able to fill another bottle with the Tears, allowing him to have more than one. The Great Fairy can also warp Link out of the Cave of Ordeals if he asks her to.

The appearance of the Great Fairy in Twilight Princess looks younger than the ones seen in previous games. It may also be noted that this Great Fairy happens to be topless, with only her hair covering her body.

Phantom Hourglass
While not explicitly called a Great Fairy, the Secret Island in the Southwest Great Sea in Phantom Hourglass contains a "Shrine of the Sacred Fountain", where the "Goddess of the Servant Spirits" resides and helps to empower them.