The Three Heart Challenge in Oracle of Seasons
The Three Heart Challenge, known as a Six Heart Challenge in the case of Skyward Sword, is an optional challenge where a game in The Legend of Zelda series is completed without obtaining or forming a new Heart Container, keeping only the starting Heart Containers throughout the game - three. Because of this type of gameplay where players go throughout the adventure at a rather small amount of health for Link, this is widely seen as a major difficulty increase, especially when doing tougher versions of the game such as Second Quest, Hero Mode, or in the case of Ocarina of Time, Master Quest, resulting in an extreme challenge even for experts and achieving a Game Over potentially becomes common. Therefore, on social media, like speedrunning or 100% completion, the Three Heart Challenge is often used for bragging rights, though this is posted less frequently in comparison.
Restrictions and Variations[]
It is possible to perform the Three Heart Challenge in most Zelda games, with only a few exceptions:
- The Adventure of Link, where the game starts with four life bars.
- A Link to the Past, where the Pendants and Crystals will only appear after collecting the Heart Container.
- Link's Awakening, where the boss room door leading to the Instrument of the Sirens will only open after collecting the Heart Container (though the remake allows the door to the instrument to open before collecting the container).
- Hyrule Warriors, where the game starts with more Heart Containers and where hearts will increase over time as Warriors level up.
- Tears of the Kingdom, where you are required to obtain an extra Heart Container to leave the Great Sky Island.
In such cases, players can still pretend that they died the moment 3 hearts got depleted or in The Adventure of Link, 3 bars.
In Hyrule Warriors, avoiding a certain amount of damage is necessary to obtain A-ranks in Adventure Mode.
Tri Force Heroes has no Heart Containers to be gained, but the closest equivalent is having all three Links wear Bear Minimum, leaving them with 6 hearts and double damage taken.
An expansion on the Three Heart Challenge is the Low% challenge, where optional items must be avoided, including upgrades, and collecting Potions, Fairies, and any other health recovering items. There is also the No Damage challenge, where the player avoids taking any damage whatsoever, which is an even more difficult task.
Gallery[]
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Three Heart Challenge in Majora's Mask -
Three Heart Challenge in The Wind Waker
See Also[]
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