Fire Rod

The Fire Rod is a casually recurring weapon in the Zelda series.

Uses
The Fire Rod appears to have replaced a very similar object, the Magic Rod which had debuted in The Legend of Zelda. The Fire Rod is able to fire bursts of energy in the form of fire balls, and thus can be used as an effective weapon or light unreachable torches.

A Link to the Past
In A Link to the Past, Link acquired the Fire Rod in the seventh dungeon, Skull Woods (third dungeon in the Dark World). As with most similar items, the Fire Rod could be used as a weapon to burn enemies or light unreachable torches. However, the Fire Rod uses up energy from the Magic Meter, and thus Link can only use it for certain amount of times before he needs to replenish his magic energy.

Link could use the Fire Rod as a very effective weapon against the Skull Dungeon's boss, Mothula.

Four Sword Adventures
In Four Swords Adventures, the Fire Rod showed up once more. Like many tools in this title, it can only be carried by an empty handed Link and would have to swap their current tool to use another, and could only be acquired and used in certain areas. It was essential to some puzzles and defeating some enemies. At times, the Links' evil counterpart, Dark Link, would even use it against them. This Fire Rod can either shoot fireballs, or be aimed and held for a continuous cascade of flames.

If Link gives the Fire Rod to a Great Fairy to upgrade it, the Fire Rod will act like the Cane of Somaria, creating blocks and, in some cases, platforms. If Link uses the Fire Rod again, the block will explode and send fire in all directions, damaging anything in its path.

Trivia

 * Originally, the Fire Rod was supposed to be in The Minish Cap. However, via a cheat, it can be equipped to the A button. There are also cheats which use the Fire Rod to change tiles on the game and create a "new" dungeon. The item, however, is completely useless and will not do anything. Removing the Fire Rod off the button is impossible unless the cheat is disabled.