With how confusing the Legend of Zelda timeline is, fans can be forgiven for thinking Link is the main character of the series. Actually, Link is about a dozen main characters of the series, and that’s not even accounting for the disastrous Phillips CD-I version. Of course, not every Link has the same skills, weapons, and physical ability. After all, you wouldn’t want the Hero of Spirits, who is basically a train engineer, to face off against Ganon. Here are the 6 most powerful Links, based on how strong they are at peak performance.
The Hero Of Twilight
The Hero Of Twilight, from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, is probably the Link with the best raw physical strength. As a rancher who can win a wrestling match with a Goron, he’s the only Link that you can reasonably call a beefcake. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have that many items past the standard bombs, boomerang, and bow, although his Hawk Eye lets him aim the bow with pinpoint accuracy. He has Magic Armor, like The Hero of Winds, but his version passively drains rupees every second, making it much more expensive to use.
The hero of twilight is incredibly skilled, being trained by the mysterious Hero’s Shade. Also, his resumé speaks for itself, since he not only defeated two different villains, Zant and Ganon, both in a single game. He also is one of the only Links that actually killed Ganon for good, rather than just sealing him away.
The Hero Of Winds
The Hero of Winds, the version of Link found in The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, is just a child when he set off on his adventures. He has the strength of any other child, so he’s probably the weakest Link on this list, although he is fairly acrobatic. However, he has the Power Bracelets and the Magic Armor, which help him with his strength and physical toughness (as long as he has rupees for the Magic Armor to drain instead of life).
His bow can fire a variety of arrows, including the Pure Light Arrows, which are possibly the most powerful arrows in the series, and can annihilate most enemies in a single shot. The Phantom Hourglass even lets him stop time, albeit only in certain circumstances. And since this is the most powerful version of the Hero of Winds, it means that he has collected all of the Spirit Gems, further enhancing his powers.
The Hero Of The Skies
The Hero of the Skies from Skyward Sword is another strong and skilled Link. He can easily climb up cliffs and is trained by an actual knight academy (although this academy also produced Groose, so maybe it’s not as good as it seems). He fights with the Master Sword and the Hylian Shield, and has an upgraded Sacred Bow that can deal some damage from afar. Most of his gadgets increase his versatility rather than his power, but his Fireshield Earrings can protect him from extreme heat that would hurt him otherwise.
While he may not seem terribly impressive on paper, this Link’s ranking comes from the fact that he defeated Demise, demon lord, “source of all monsters,” and arguably the most powerful antagonist that any Link has had to face.
The Hero Of The Wilds
Unlike Skyward Sword’s knight-in-training, the Link in Breath of the Wild is an actual knight, and he lives up to the title. His Sheikah Slate gives him more powers from a single item than many Links have altogether. He also has magical abilities, letting him use spells that heal himself and summon an electrical storm. He has the Master Sword and Hylian Shield as his most powerful weapons, but he also has access to a veritable arsenal. In addition, he has the Bow of Light, the most powerful bow of any Link, and Ancient Arrows, which are almost as powerful as the Hero of Winds’ Pure Light Arrows.
He defeated the incredibly powerful Calamity Ganon, which earns him this place on the list. And for what it’s worth, he also has a motorcycle, which doesn’t make him more powerful than other Links, just cooler.
The Hero Of Legend
This Link has probably the longest career of any of the Links on this list, appearing in A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, and Oracle Seasons/Oracle of Ages. This is another child Link, meaning that other Links might be able to beat him at arm wrestling, but luckily he has plenty of tricks up his sleeve. He fights with the Golden Sword, which is the Master Sword that has been upgraded, making it three times as powerful as the most powerful swords used by the other Links here. He also wields the Mirror Shield, the most powerful shield in the series as well, even better than the Mirror Shields used by other Links.
Throughout his games, he gains the red mail, which reduces damage taken by 75% and the blue ring, which reduces it by half, making him nearly invincible. His multiple games means he has access to a number of items that augment this child’s abilities to go toe to toe with even adult Links. Additionally his magical output is phenomenal, with items that let him summon explosions, thunderstorms and earthquakes.
The Hero Of Time
The Hero Of Time, who appears in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, is one of the few Links that achieves the same power level of the Hero of Legend in his games. Thanks to the power of time travel, the Hero of Time adventures both as a child and an adult. He wields the Master Sword and Hylian Shield, both very powerful items, and has a nice pile of items at his disposal, including the Longshot version of the hookshot, the Megaton Hammer, and a wide assortment of other tools. He has some magic at his disposal too, allowing him to heal and summon fire. His best items are probably his masks, which grant him a wide variety of transformative abilities, including turning into a godlike Fierce Diety.
This is all very impressive, but none of it makes the Hero of Time obviously more powerful than the Hero of Legend. This is because the most powerful version of the Hero of Time doesn’t appear in either Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask. Remember the Hero’s Shade, the mysterious immortal being who trained the Hero of Twilight? That’s the Hero of Time, upstaging the Hero of Twilight in his own game as the best Link of all time.