The Legend Of Zelda: 13 Best Items In The Series

Summary

• Link's tools, like the Glide Suit and Roc's Feather, have evolved over the years, defining his adventures and character.
• Iconic tools like the Power Bracelet, Bombs, and Boomerang have been essential throughout the series for puzzles and combat.
• The inclusion of innovative tools like the Sheikah Slate and Paraglider in Breath of the Wild redefined gameplay mechanics and world exploration.

With the series being almost 40 years old, it is hard to deny the impact The Legend of Zelda has had on gaming as a whole. The very foundations of the series are elements that still hold weight to this day, and the newest entries have been a reinvention of themselves based on those very humble beginnings.

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Yet, amidst all of that, what has truly defined Zelda games, beyond even dungeons or enemies, have been Link's many tools across the series. It is impossible to envision him without copious bombs or a quiver full of arrows. So let's go ahead and examine some of the best items Link has gathered on his many adventures.

Updated on September 26th, 2024 by Hilton Webster: While there are many aspects of the series that could be seen as its bedrock, from the enemies and dungeons, to the characters and the locales. Yet it is the many tools Link has used that have the most consistent appearances. With boomerangs, bombs, and a bit of everything in between, let's take a renewed look at some of the most iconic tools in the series.

13 Glide Suit

As the years have went on, Link has become all the more aerodynamic. From being firmly boots-in-the-dirt in the original Legend of Zelda, he then gained Roc's Feather in subsequent games, then the Hookshot to bolt him even further, and then the Paraglider in Breath of the Wild. How does one become any more aligned with the wind?

By becoming a bird, naturally. With Tears of the Kingdom, Link's gains the ability to nigh-on fly at will with the Glide Suit. It gives him unprecedented control in the air, letting him finally achieve his ambitions of becoming a Rito.

On a similar note, you could briefly play as a Rito in The Wind Waker.

12 Roc's Feather

While it may not give him the freedom of the Glide Suit, Roc's Feather is the next best thing. After the Paraglider, anyway. For the longest time, Roc's Feather was the primary means Link had of getting his legs off the solid earth beneath him and it's had plenty of appearances.

With the briefest power of flight, Roc's Feather let's Link do a small hop. This can get him to higher locations or even just hop over dangerous holes. With a bit of tact, it can even be used to dodge enemy attacks. It mainly appears in the top-down 2D games, having been usurped by regular old jumping by time Ocarina of Time rolled around.

11 Power Bracelet

Link is a spindly little guy. He's not got the most powerful frame on him, in fairness. Link's not the type of guy you're going to ask to perform long and hard manual labour, not with those twigs fro arms. Lucky for him, there's a shortcut past the daily workouts and the gym while still maintaining his slender physique.

The Power Bracelet. Having a presence in the series since the very first Zelda game, the Power Bracelet has given Link some impressive strength without much effort, allowing him to shoulder the weight of boulders without breaking a sweat. By the time of Breath of the Wild, some of that power even seems to have passed down to him, letting him push some sizable boulders all by himself.

10 Bombs

In the Zelda universe, bombs are not only essential, they are ubiquitous. They are a simple part of life in Hyrule. You see a short fellow in a green tunic dropping bombs everywhere? That is no cause for alarm in Hyrule, no sir. You do need a metric ton of bombs at your disposal at all times.

More than just a tool, bombs have also been powerful weapons since the dawn of the series. They are a powerful weapon against enemies big and small, and can, in many entries, not only be thrown but tossed. They harken back to some of Nintendo's earliest design philosophy — if you have bombs, you should try to blow everything up to find the way forward.

9 Gust Jar And Bellows

Originally appearing in the Capcom-developed Minish cap, the Gust Jar only has two proper appearances, yet is still an iconic weapon of Link's. It appears as a rather simple jar, though with the incredible power to suck in just about anything around it. An item or enemy not big enough to be consumed? Then use the excess air in the jar to shoot it out at lightning speed.

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It also makes an appearance in Skyward Sword, though this time as the Gust Bellows. It's an inverse of the Gust Jar, focused entirely on continuously blowing things away. In this way, it can remove mounds of sand, stun enemies with hurricane winds, or even cause simple items to float. It's a bit more one-dimensional, but still nice to see a version of the Gust Jar in a mainline entry.

8 Bow

Having appeared since the very first entry and just about every game since, the Bow is as much a part of Link's identity as his green tunic, and maybe even more at this point. It can come in many shapes and sizes, and fire off plenty of different types of arrows, but it is always Link's mainstay ranged weapon.

Like the Hookshot before it, the Bow found its mark in 3D. Ocarina of Time even let the bow be aimed in first-person to really line up your aim, with later entries up to this day even allowing the use of motion controls to really get you a precise shot. It is also more often than not the final weapon to slay Ganon. You'd really think he'd have immunity to Light Arrows at this point.

7 Bottle

Bottles are some of the oldest items in The Legend of Zelda series, first appearing back in A Link to the Past. As you would use a bottle in real life, it has consistently been used to store things, from some fresh milk to mystical fairies.

What makes them such an enduring gameplay element is that they're entirely up to the player's choosing. You can (usually) ignore them if you want, or use them as some backup healing. You can typically gather up more bottles to stuff into Link's endless pockets, too.

6 Masks

Majora’s Mask is undeniably the darkest game in the series, one that isn't afraid to feel entirely surreal in its presentation. Stepping away from many of the characters that defined the series, Majora's Mask instead focuses on the land of Termina, and the titular Majora's Mask.

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But they are not the only mask in the game. In fact, there's a massive amount of incredible masks in the game, from ones that let you jump incredibly high, to others that let you spawn bombs and take no damage from them. Some of them even turn Link into entirely different species, each with their own unique instruments.

5 Shield

The humble shield is an item that can almost go forgotten in many Zelda games. In truth, it is somewhat optional in many games. You can go through the entirety of the Oracle games without one, and in Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword, it's incredibly simple for it to just burn away.

Yet, they are still invaluable, appearing in every entry. Many entries even have the mirror shield that adds an extra tactical element. Breath of the Wild also added shield-surfing, a technique that makes shields just as important as your common weapons.

4 Sheikah Slate (And Purah Pad)

In many ways, Breath of the Wild was a reinvention of the series as a whole, but also very introspective. The Sheikah appeared as a mysterious people tied to the Royal Family across many entries, but Breath of the Wild finally gave their own culture and technology a chance to shine.

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In lieu of more traditional items, the Sheikah Slate became one of Link's only tools in Breath of the Wild. Instead, it had a plethora of unique abilities, from picking up anything that was metal to suspending them in stasis and packing them with kinetic energy. Plus a motorcycle, somehow. It even got upgraded into the Purah Pad by the time of Teras of the Kingdom.