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In the Legend of Zelda series, Potions (or Medicines, as they are called in A Link to the Past) are special drinks with magical properties that can heal Link, refill his Magic Meter, or both, although there are also potions with unique effects. In games with bottles, potions are usually kept in them, and Link can't buy or obtain a potion unless he has an empty bottle. In games with no bottles (as items) present, like the original Legend of Zelda and some of the handheld games, potions are stand-alone items that can be used once.
Types of potions
Many different types of potions exist in the Legend of Zelda series, usually differentiated with their color. The three most common types of potion are Red Potion, Green Potion, and Blue Potion. Although Red, Green, and Blue usually correspond to restoring health, magic, and both respectively, this is inconsistent between games. In games that don't use a magic meter, green potion usually doesn't exist and blue potion is usually a stronger version of red potion.
Health Restoring Potions
Health-restoring potions can be divided into two groups: normal ones that must be used manually, and life-restoring potions that will activate automatically upon Link's death, like a bottled fairy does.
[[|]]In all games it has appeared in, Red Potion is used to recover Link's health. However, the amount of health the potion actually recovers varies from game to game.
Life Potion, or Water of Life (命の水), a blue colored potion, in the original Japanese, is found in the original Legend of Zelda. The 2nd Potion, which costs 68 rupees, is a red-colored potion which works like a Life Potion except that it holds two doses. When used the first time, it turns into a normal Life Potion, which will disappear as normal when it is consumed as well. Both of these can be bought from medicine shops after Link finds the Letter.
The Red Water of Life returns in The Adventure of Link, where Link finds it in a cave in the Moruge Swamp. However, instead of restoring Link's health, it is given to an Old Woman in the Harbor Town of Mido who has a sick daughter. In exchange, she invites Link inside her house where an Old Man teaches him the Fairy Spell.
But it debuted by the name, potion in A Link to the Past, in which it replenishes all of Link's hearts, a property which it maintains in most subsequent games: Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, and The Minish Cap. However, in Twilight Princess, it only recovers eight of Link's hearts. In Phantom Hourglass, it makes another regression; as it only recovers six of Link's hearts.
| Image | Game | Doses | Price | |
| File:Wolred-01.png | Legend of Zelda | |||
| File:Mol-01.png | A Link to the Past | |||
| File:TMC - Red Potion.gif | The Minish Cap | |||
| Twilight Princess | ||||
| File:Red Potion PH.gif | Phantom Hourglass |
Blue Potion in Twilight Princess can be obtained in two ways. The first way is to slay a rare Blue ChuChu, found throughout Hyrule and several dungeons, especially the Lakebed Temple, and scoop up its remains into an empty bottle. The remains of a Blue ChuChu act like a blue potion, restoring all hearts. The second way is to simply buy the potion itself from the Goron's son in Kakariko Village, the shop in the City in the Sky, or from Malo Mart in Hyrule Castle at a reduced price. In Twilight Princess however, the Blue Potion only restores hearts, as the magic meter was not part of the game.
The blue potion in The Minish Cap will restore up to 8 Hearts.
Only the original Legend of Zelda featured blue potion as red potion's inferior, not in strength, as they were equals. It costs 40 rupees and restores all hearts when used. After the blue potion is used, the slot in the inventory reverts to the Letter.
Yellow Potions are the most powerful potions and restore all of Link's life hearts. The yellow potion can only be purchased from the Masked Ship for 200 Rupees. This shop ship appears only between 10 a.m. and noon according to the internal DS clock. This variety of potion was introduced In Phantom Hourglass.
Life Restoring Potions
Purple Potion is found in Phantom Hourglass, this potion replenishes eight of Link's hearts when used, but it has the power to automatically revive Link when he falls in battle. It replaces the function fairies occupy in several other games. They can be purchased for approximately 180 rupees and as low as 150 rupees for Beedle's VIP members.
In Link's Awakening, Link can purchase a unique Magic Potion from a woman named Crazy Tracy for 42 rupees (28 rupees the first time). Unlike the "Color" potions, this is rubbed on Link when he purchases it, rather than being drunk from a bottle. This red-colored potion can be found again in both Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. In these games, it can be obtained through purchase from Syrup's shop, by taking it if Maple drops one, or through the contents of a Gasha Nut. In either game, only one of these potions can be held at once. The Magic Potion is consumed automatically when Link would otherwise die, filling all of his lost hearts instantly. Only one Secret Medicine can be held at a given time, so if Link already has one & gets another from a treasure chest, he will still only have 1 Secret Medicine in his inventory.
Magic Restoring Potions
The Adventure of Link introduced the series first magic system and used blue jars to replenish the Magic Meter. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link used red and blue jars, which behaved similar to a potion. The jars refill magic on contact and cannot be saved for strategical use. Link does learn a Life spell, thus negating the disadvantage of not having Health Potions. The jars drop seemingly randomly from defeated enemies. This items works as a contact activated magic restoring potion. Larger orange color potion jars were used to indicate Magic Meter expansions. This item also replenished Magic on contact.
[[|]] (or Magic Medicine, as it is called in A Link to the Past) completely recovers Link's Magic Meter in all games it has appeared in, acting like a portable Magic Jar. It debuted in A Link to the Past, in which it can be bought from Syrup the witch for 60 rupees. It survived the jump to 3D, and — now known simply the "Green Potion" — could be bought in Ocarina of Time, as an adult, in Kakariko Village's Potion Shop. In Majora's Mask, it can be bought from Koume in the Southern Swamp Potion Shop. In The Wind Waker, it can be obtained once 15 drops of Green Chu Jelly were given to Doc Bandam, and can be bought for 10 rupees after that.
Health and Magic Restoring Potions
[[|]] first appeared in A Link to the Past and is used to restore both Health and Magic. Just like Red Potion and Green Potion, Link needs an empty bottle to carry it in. In Majora's Mask Link can either purchase a bottle of Blue Potion from the Ikana Canyon Business Scrub for 100 rupees or give a Magic Mushroom to Kotake at the Magic Hags' Potion Shop who will then use it to create Blue Potions and sell them for 60 rupees each. They cure the Curse status Blue Bubbles inflict. There are two ways to obtain the Blue Potion in The Wind Waker. The first is to collect 4 Boko Baba Seeds from killing Boko Babas and then giving them to Hollo who will mix a blue potion for Link. The second way is to collect 15 Blue Chu Jellys from Blue ChuChus and trade them to Doc Bandam on Windfall Island. He will use them to make a Blue Potion and give Link the first sample for free, and from then on will have it for sale at 60 rupees a bottle. In the whole game, the blue potion is considered the 'ultimate potion' because it can restore Link's magic power and health.
Other Potions
- Gold Potion is only featured in the A Link to the Past Satellaview 'expansion', The Ancient Stone Tablets. As well as replenishing both health and magic, it temporarily allows the hero (not Link in this game) to charge Spin Attacks twice as quickly and makes him twice as strong with sword attacks until the first hit.
Gold Potion is apparently the precursor to the Elixir Soup found in The Wind Waker, Chateau Romani, and the Great Fairy's Tears found in Twilight Princess, which work in a similar manner.
- Purple Potion as found in Twilight Princess, has a random effect, and will either recover or decrease Link's health once ingested. It can be obtained by collecting the remains of a Purple ChuChu. Nasty Soup works in a similar manner.
- Tings are accessible when using the Tingle Tuner in The Wind Waker. Link can purchase three types of these potions called Tings, from Tingle which correspond to the usual effects of red, green, and blue potions for 20, 30, or 60 Rupees respectively. Once bought, Tingle will deliver the Ting to Link by balloon, as seen on the Game Boy Advance screen, which will instantly replenish all his hearts, his magic, or both depending on the color bought. Furthering Tingle's sidequests will cause Tingle to slice his prices.
- Picolyte in The Minish Cap is a kind of potion which will, for a short while, increase the find rates for various items when cutting grass or smashing blocks.
Potion Making
There have been several potion brewers throughout the Legend of Zelda games, and they use different ingredients to create their potions. Syrup, a witch who has appeared in several games, apparently uses mushrooms to create her potions, and so do Kotake and Koume in Majora's Mask. In The Wind Waker, Doc Bandam from Windfall Island uses Chu Jelly obtained from ChuChus to create different potions, while Hollo the Korok uses the magic inside Boko Baba Seeds to make Blue Potion.
In the games in which these characters don't appear, the origin of potions is unknown, although in Twilight Princess, it is possible that at least some of them are made with Chu Jelly as in The Wind Waker. Evidence for this is that the remains of a defeated ChuChu leaves a blob that when scooped into a bottle will act as a potion. However, Trill states that Red Potion is made from a mix of mushrooms and herbs.
Trivia
- In Majora's Mask, Green Potion can be bought at the Southern Swamp Potion Shop for ten rupees. But the Curiosity Shop will buy it for twenty.
- In Twilight Princess, although it doesn't appear in-game, the game's memory retains data for a Magic Potion, since the game was originally meant to have a magic meter, as seen in some screenshots on the back of the Wii version box. It is possible to create green ChuChu jelly by allowing a blue and a yellow ChuChu to merge, creating a green ChuChu, but the jelly Link gets from killing it does nothing.
Gallery
- BluePotionArtwork.png
Life Potion as seen in The Legend of Zelda
- RedPotionArtwork.png
2nd Potion as seen in The Legend of Zelda
- Link's Awakening - Potion.png
Magic Potion from Link's Awakening
- Red Potion PH.gif
Red Potion as seen in Phantom Hourglass
- Greenpotionww.png
Green Potion from The Wind Waker
- Potiongreenmm.png
Green Potion from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask
- Magicmedicine.gif
- Molam-01.png
- Red Potion ST.png
Red Potion in Spirit Tracks
<seealso> Soups in Twilight Princess Milk Picolyte </seealso>