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Heart Piece Locations

Total12 Pieces of Heart in the Game Boy Color version (the same 12 as the original Game Boy)
RewardEvery 4 pieces join into 1 Heart Container, so the 12 pieces give 3 extra hearts
Maximum health14 hearts: 3 at the start, 8 Heart Containers from the dungeon bosses and 3 from the pieces. The Color Dungeon adds no heart
NeededSword, Roc’s Feather, Power Bracelet, Pegasus Boots, Bombs, Flippers, Ocarina, Hookshot, Mirror Shield and the Frog’s Song of Soul, plus 10 rupees for the fishing pond

Koholint hides exactly 12 Pieces of Heart. Four pieces make a full Heart Container, so collecting every one raises your health by three hearts. Added to the three hearts you start with and the eight Heart Containers the dungeon bosses drop, the total is 14 hearts. Two pieces are yours as soon as you have a Sword and 10 rupees, the next several open up as the Roc’s Feather, Power Bracelet, Pegasus Boots, Bombs and Flippers arrive, and the last few wait for the Hookshot and Turtle Rock.

Link holds a Heart Container overhead in a grey-tiled arena ringed by green walls.

You never carry a visible half-finished heart: each piece you pick up is stored, and the moment the fourth one is in your pack the game announces a complete Heart Container and your maximum health goes up by one. The new heart is filled at once, which makes the fourth piece a good thing to collect just before a hard fight.

Link holds a new Heart Container over his head as the Heart Container message fills the box

What the hearts are worth

ItemWhere it comes from
Piece of Heart Piece of Heart12 hiding places across Koholint; four make one heart
Heart Container Heart ContainerDropped by each of the 8 dungeon bosses; the Color Dungeon does not give one

Quick reference

#Piece of HeartRegionRequirement
1Piece of Heart Mabe Village wellWest Mabe VillageSword
2Piece of Heart Fishing pondNorth Mabe Village10 rupees, catch a lunker
3Piece of Heart Pit SquareKoholint PrairieRoc’s Feather
4Piece of Heart Toadstool TunnelMysterious ForestPower Bracelet
5Piece of Heart Sealed caveEast of Mabe VillageBombs, Pegasus Boots
6Piece of Heart CemeteryGraveyard, southwestRoc’s Feather (Bombs and Hookshot optional)
7Piece of Heart Lanmola caveYarna DesertBombs, Ocarina
8Piece of Heart Flooded caveTal Tal HeightsFlippers
9Piece of Heart Kanalet moatKanalet CastleFlippers
10Piece of Heart Animal Village caveEast Animal VillageBombs, Roc’s Feather, Hookshot
11Piece of Heart Tal Tal mountain pathTal Tal Mountain RangeHookshot, Bombs
12Piece of Heart Turtle Rock outer stairsTurtle RockMirror Shield, Hookshot, Frog’s Song of Soul

Pieces you can find early

Piece of Heart

Mabe Village well

The well is in the west of Mabe Village, on the screen north of the library. Climb to the ledge above it and cut the three bushes there with your Sword. Step off the ledge into the opening and the Piece of Heart is waiting at the bottom. It is also covered in the Tail Cave chapter.

Link holds up a Piece of Heart in the sunken pool of the Mabe well.
Piece of Heart

Fishing pond

The fisherman’s pond is north of BowWow’s house. Each try costs 10 rupees. Cast, wait for a bite and tap the button rapidly to reel in. The big fish that floats directly beneath where Link stands is the one that carries the Piece of Heart. A small fish is worth 5 rupees and a lunker 20; only the first lunker gives the heart, and after it you are fishing for rupees only.

Piece of Heart

Pit Square

Leave the Mysterious Forest by its northeast exit and you reach a grass field. A small island of grass sits in the middle of a ring of bottomless pits, with a Piece of Heart on it. Equip the Roc’s Feather, face the island and jump the pit between you and it. If you miss the landing you simply fall in and climb back out. The Feather comes from Tail Cave, so you can take this one right after the first dungeon. See the Goponga Swamp chapter.

Pieces that need the next few items

Piece of Heart

Toadstool Tunnel

This is the hollow log tunnel in the south of the Mysterious Forest that you walk through on the way to the Sleepy Toadstool. After Bottle Grotto gives you the Power Bracelet, go back in. The cave has a room of rocks and skull pots with a Piece of Heart in the middle. Lift the skulls and rocks out of the way and walk to the heart.

Piece of Heart

Sealed cave east of Mabe Village

In the forest east of Mabe Village, go to the screen just west of the tree with the beehive. A cracked wall hides a cave. Open it with a Bomb, then dash through the green crystals inside with the Pegasus Boots while holding your Sword out, which breaks them. Continue through the cave to the east wall, where a second crack is hard to spot: tap along the wall with your Sword and bomb the hollow stretch. The small chamber behind it holds the Piece of Heart.

Piece of Heart

Cemetery

In the southwest of the graveyard one screen has four graves in a group. Push the bottom-right grave up and a staircase opens. Go down: the heart sits on a ledge beyond a gap. With the Roc’s Feather you can take it right away by jumping diagonally to the right of the stairs, pushing the rock to the right, hopping to the south-east ledge and then climbing to the upper level. A later visit is easier with the Hookshot: bomb the cracked stone south of the stairs, Hookshot to the rock on the right and jump up.

Piece of Heart

Lanmola cave, Yarna Desert

In the northwest of Yarna Desert is the quicksand pit where the Lanmola mini-bosses burst out. Defeat the Lanmolas, then walk into the middle of the quicksand to be pulled down into a sandy cave scattered with skulls. Set a Bomb against the middle of the north wall to open a passage to the heart. If you would rather not fall, use the east door of the same area, go west and bomb that room’s north wall instead. You need the Ocarina to get this far, since the desert lies beyond Animal Village.

Piece of Heart

Flooded cave, Tal Tal Heights

With the Flippers, swim east from the Angler’s Tunnel entrance. A cave mouth opens in the north wall of the water. Swim in, stay over the dark water in the middle and press B to dive. You come up in a cave pool where the Piece of Heart floats near the centre. The Martha’s Bay chapter covers it as well.

Piece of Heart

Kanalet Castle moat

Swim into the moat around Kanalet Castle with the Flippers. Follow it round to the southwest stretch, press against the south wall and dive with B. The piece lies underwater there, a little north of the second drain hole from the left. Dive again if you surface before you pick it up.

Pieces that wait for the Hookshot and Turtle Rock

Piece of Heart

Animal Village cave

On the east side of Animal Village, just before the path to Yarna Desert, walk north with the fence on your left until you find a cracked wall. Bomb it and enter, push the rock ahead of you and hop both gaps with the Roc’s Feather. In the room beyond, the heart sits across a pit and a cracked block stands at your side. With the Bow, equip it with a Bomb and press both buttons to shoot the bomb at the block. Without it, knock the Hardhat Beetle off its platform, bomb the north wall, follow the passage past the Zols and carry a Bomb back to throw at the block. Then Hookshot across the pit to the Piece of Heart. The full route is in the Ancient Ruins chapter.

Piece of Heart

Tal Tal mountain path

Collect this one on the way to Turtle Rock. On the Tal Tal Mountain Range, follow the mountain path through the caves to the outside stairs, then go west across the gap with the Hookshot. Cut the bush in your way and take the stairs down into the cave. In its first room, bomb the cracked south wall, step through the opening and walk east to the Piece of Heart. See the Turtle Rock chapter.

Piece of Heart

Turtle Rock outer stairs

This is the last piece. Reach Turtle Rock, which needs the Mirror Shield, the Hookshot and the Frog’s Song of Soul to wake the turtle. Inside, head for the northwest part of the dungeon and enter the room north of the one with the arrow-shooting statues. Its stairs lead back outdoors onto a grassy ledge at the top of the rock, where the Piece of Heart sits in plain sight. See the Turtle Rock chapter.

Piece of Heart

Suggested order

Take the well, the pond and Pit Square before Bottle Grotto, then the Toadstool Tunnel with the Power Bracelet. The sealed cave and the cemetery follow once you have the Pegasus Boots and Bombs. With the Flippers, do the flooded cave and the moat in one trip. Finish with the Lanmola cave, Animal Village, the mountain path and, last of all, Turtle Rock. The numbering above is only a suggestion; nothing forces it.

Boss Heart Containers are separate from pieces: one drops when you win the fight in each of the eight dungeons. The boss strategies page covers the fights, and the 100% completion checklist has the full tally.

Link holds a Heart Container overhead in the lava room after Hot Head falls

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