| Quest item | The Letter, from an old man in a cave in the northeast of Hyrule |
|---|---|
| Potions | Red Potion 68 rupees (refills your life fully); Blue Potion 40 rupees (refills once) |
| Sellers | Medicine women in hidden caves, who sell only after you show them the Letter |
You cannot buy potions until you have the Letter. Pick it up from the old man in the northeast cave, then show it to any medicine woman. After that, every medicine woman on the list below sells you the Red Potion for 68 rupees and the Blue Potion for 40 rupees, and the Blue Potion is the one that refills your life only once.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Get the Letter
Find the northeast cave
The Letter is in a cave on O1, in the far north-east corner of Hyrule. Walk in to reach the old man inside. He hands you the Letter and tells you to take it to the old woman.
Carry the Letter
The Letter is a quest item that takes a slot in your item menu, so keep it until you have bought your potions. Do not trade it or drop it, because the medicine women will not sell you potions without it.
Step 2: Show the Letter to a medicine woman
Any medicine woman accepts the Letter. Once you have shown it to one, you can buy potions from all of them. The First Quest map shows seven medicine women by their squares (one of them is a visible cave), and each of the hidden ones sits behind a wall you bomb or a tree you burn. If you meet fewer than seven, the list below is still the place to look.
Medicine woman at N1
Head to N1, the screen next to the Letter cave. Bomb the flat stretch of its north wall, and a cave opens with a medicine woman inside.
Medicine woman at H3
On H3, bomb the north wall all the way to the right. The wall opens onto a cave with a medicine woman inside.
Medicine women at L5 and I8
On L5, near the entrance to the desert, burn one of the trees closest to the desert with your Blue or Red Candle. The tree reveals a stairwell that leads down to a medicine woman. A second one waits on I8: burn the bottom centre tree in the group of trees on the left.
Medicine woman on Death Mountain
On E1, climb up into the heights of Death Mountain. A medicine woman lives on the upper ground there, in the top-left of the mountain, and she sells the same two potions.
Medicine woman at E7
On E7, three screens south of the Blue Ring Armos field and a few screens north-west of the start, walk into the open cave. The medicine woman inside sells the same potions, and this is the nearest one to the start.
Medicine woman in the graveyard
On D4, at the south-east corner of the graveyard, bomb the wall between the two staircases. A cave opens with a medicine woman inside.
Step 3: Buy the potions
| Potion | Price | Effect | After use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Potion | 68 rupees | Refills your whole life meter | Becomes a Blue Potion |
| Blue Potion | 40 rupees | Refills your life, but only once | Used up |
Buy a Red Potion when you have the rupees, since it refills your whole life meter the first time you drink it. After that it turns into a Blue Potion, which you can drink once more. Keep one in your B slot for a dangerous room, rather than using it on the road.
Step 4: Plan the trip
Medicine women sell only after the Letter has been shown, so the Letter is the first thing to get. Once you have the Letter, the medicine women in sections 1 and 3 are the closest ones to the early overworld, and you can buy from any of the six.
The chapter that covers the first potion purchase is the Money Caves and Blue Ring chapter. The later shops are in the Potion Shop and Ring Shop chapter.
The Letter and potion chain in order
The order is always the same: walk into the O1 cave and take the Letter, carry it to any medicine woman and choose it from the item screen to show it, then buy. You only show it once; after that every medicine woman sells to you. Pay 68 rupees for a Red Potion or 40 for a Blue one. The first time you drink a Red Potion it restores all your hearts and the bottle turns into a Blue Potion, and the next drink restores all your hearts again and empties the bottle. A Blue Potion on its own restores your hearts once. A fairy pond also refills your hearts for free, so check the lakes before you spend rupees.
In the Second Quest the Letter is not in the O1 cave. The cave on O1 becomes a shop, and the Letter lies under the left boulder of the pair on B2 in the north-west, down a stairwell. Some medicine women also move in the Second Quest, so confirm each cave on the way rather than relying on the First Quest list.
