Somehow, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom feels even tougher than Breath of the Wild did, especially given the new enemy types and the introduction of so many more dangerous areas like the Depths.

So, players are going to need a lot more than just a lot of Stamina to get through their Tears of the Kingdom adventure, at least if they wanna do a bit more than run away from every fight. When it comes to Heart Containers specifically, what's the max Link can expect to obtain?

Updated October 11th, 2023 by Jacob Buchalter: While many people have been eagerly awaiting for some new content, really any new content, to come to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, it hasn't. There's truly been nothing more than some general bugfix updates between the game's original release and now, and usually, these just give out some free items or fix exploits that players were using to duplicate items, money, and so on. So sadly, if ToTK fans were waiting for some update that allowed them to have both 40 Hearts and 3 Wheels of Stamina instead of having to concede a bit on either Stamina or HP, that patch doesn't seem to be coming.

Maximum Amount Of Hearts Possible

Currently, as of October 11th, 2023, the maximum amount of both resources Link can hold at one time is 40 Hearts and 2 and a half full Stamina Wheels or 38 Hearts and 3 full Stamina Wheels. Without sacrificing some Stamina for more Heart Containers trading with the Forbidden Horned Statue underneath Lookout Landing, 38 is sadly the max.

Additionally, while the 'version' of Link in the introduction of the game has only 30 Hearts, this is more of a reference to the fact that the original max HP in Breath of the Wild was only 30 and less of a hint at what ToTK's Max HP is. Thankfully, the max has jumped up by about 10 in Link's newest adventure.

How To Actually Get To 40 Hearts

Here's how players actually supposed to get to 40 Heart Containers. It has a lot of steps and players are going to need to dedicate a good chunk of time to it, but let's go over every source for Heart Containers:

Just to break it all down even more with a bit of quick math; every ring of Stamina requires 5 individual Stamina Upgrades to reach the max of 3 full Stamina Wheels total which means 10 of the 39 upgrade choices between Health and Stamina are dedicated to Stamina.

Then, take the remaining 29 Shrine/Optional upgrades and the 6 Containers gained as part of the story, and that adds up to 38 Hearts since Link starts with 3. After all that's done, simply trade half of a Stamina Wheel for 2 Hearts at the Forbidden Horned Statue and players will end up with 40 Hearts and 2 and a half Stamina Wheels. Thankfully, if a player does trade some Stamina for Hearts and decides they don't like it, it's very easy to switch back at the Statue, and that player can also use the yellow Temp Hearts to substitute the two Containers they're giving up, as Link cannot gain any Temp Health when he's at 40 Heart Containers.

Why The Awkward-Looking 38 Instead Of An Even 40?

A lot of people have been getting confused with the amount of Health and Stamina that Link has at the start of the game. Players have been complaining that it's odd Link starts with 40 Hearts and 3 full Wheels while in under Hyrule Castle with Zelda when that's just not true.

Link has exactly 30 Hearts in this introduction scene, meaning he's actually missing out on 10 whole upgrades at this point in his life.

It's easy to mistakenly misremember this, as most people instantly immersed in ToTK's atmosphere only briefly saw the Link in the intro of the game and they weren't exactly rushing to count how many Heart Containers he had. Plus, by the time players are actually wondering what the Max HP is, they're typically 50 to 100+ hours into their playthrough already. Granted, the 10 extra Heart Containers Link was missing in the intro wouldn't exactly have helped him much against dehydrated Ganondorf's Gloom Attack anyway, but it's worth pointing out.

Temporary Heart Containers & How They Work When At Max HP

Another thing worth pointing out is that the Yellow Temporary Heart Containers function the same way they did in Breath of the Wild when it comes to Max HP. If Link is at 38 Hearts he can, at max, get 2 Temp Hearts on top of it. But, if he's at 40, then any food that would normally give Temp Hearts will have no effect.

So, once players get to the Maximum Amount of Hearts, they may as well throw out or sell any of the ingredients listed above, as their effects will no longer really benefit Link in any way. When this guide was first published, it was speculated that those 8 extra Blessings of Light players are missing out on for Max Stamina and Max HP would come in some future DLC down the road. However, given that it doesn't seem like any DLC for the game is in the works, this is becoming less and less likely.