Top 10 Twilight Princess Items

A staple of the Zelda series, and appearing in absoultely every Zelda title, is the Bomb. The Bomb is used for a multitude of purposes – defeating enemies, blowing up walls, puzzles – you name it. I love that, in Twilight Princess, you have Bombs for land, Water bombs for those treachous depths, and Bomblings that run off in a straight line for attacking at a distance. The game hems your power by not allowing you to mix Bomb types in a single bag, so during the early game, you have to use Barnes’ Bomb Shop to swap out your Bomb type. However, as the game progresses, you can complete sidequests resulting in further Bomb Bags, allowing you to pick ‘n’ mix until your explosive heart is content.

Taking inspiration from the Command Melody in Wind Waker, the next item on this list is the Dominion Rod. Mostly used in the Temple of Time, this rod allows Link to command mammoth stone statues with insanely large hammers. The item is mostly used for puzzle solving, guiding the statue from the top of the temple to its podium on the very bottom level, revealing the boss door. However, the Dominion Rod is also used in the boss fight – which I love. Armogohma, a massive spider, crawls the walls of the boss room but hitting its weak spot crashes it to the floor – it’s here you use the Dominion Rod to take control of a behemoth statue that satisfyingly slams its hammer on Armogohma’s exposed stomach. A few of these devastating crunches thankfully gets rid of the eight-legged beast – leaving you to head back to Hyrule. You can use the Dominion Rod here too, moving statues in different locations for reaching previously inaccessible areas, usually resulting in heart pieces and rupees.

Another Zelda classic, and gracing the top half of the list, is the Hero’s Bow. Like I mentioned earlier, once you get this item from the second dungeon, the Goron Mines, you won’t go back to the Slingshot. Again, the aiming feels great using the Wii Remote, but the best thing about the Hero’s Bow in Twilight Princess is the accessories. Yep – to be glamorous, you have to accessorise, and the Hero’s Bow is all about that. In Twilight Princess, you can combine the Hero’s Bow with Bombs, giving the series its first look at those deliciously explosive arrows. Alternatively, you can use the Hawkeye to give Link a sniper-style option, which works wonders during the Hidden Village section of the game. Here, you have to clear out all the Bulbins, and picking them off one-by-one from afar is satisfying indeed. Alone, the Bow is nothing new but combined with these new elements, it’s a wonderful take on a Zelda classic.

A Twilight Princess specific item (I’m not counting Hyrule Warriors) and one I wish would be used in more games is the Ball and Chain. This brutal, oversized flail is obtained in the Snowpeak Ruins and, like the Gale Boomerang, is won off the dungeon’s mini-boss. When Link equips this, he literally waddles at a snail’s pace due to the sheer weight of the item. However in use, Link will helicopter this overhead before launching it forwards at enemies and fragile walls which – frankly – don’t stand a chance. It’s particularly useful in the Cave of Ordeals (which appears in my Top 10 Zelda Sidequests list) as it’ll take out ReDeads with a single, crushing swing. It feels like a well-balanced item given how crippled Link’s speed is with it equipped, and I hope the Ball and Chain will make a resurgence at some point in Zelda’s future.

Oh yes – if you ever wanted to swing around spiderman style in a game of Zelda, well the Double Clawshot has you covered. Perhaps not an obvious choice, but I absolutely love the Double Clawshot in Twilight Princess and was happy to see it used in Skyward Sword too. The single Clawshot is received from the Lakebed Temple and works as you’d expect in a Zelda series. However, in the City in the Sky, after beating the mini-boss you obtain another Clawshot to double up – a series first! What I loved about this reveal is that it was so unexpected the first time around. Normally dungeons can only be explored so far until you receive that dungeon’s hidden item, but there are markers and clues along the way that indicate what the item might be. In City in the Sky, this isn’t the case – it’s a well-kept secret, and the Double Clawshot is super fun right out of the gate. Link can cling to a wall or surface, and then Clawshot from this position elsewhere, just like a web-slinging hero. It’s well used in the Argorok boss fight too, where you Clawshot through the sky until you can land on Agorok’s back and start stabbing away. It’s a shame it appears in the late game, as I’d love to swing through more dungeons, but the fun I had in that single dungeon with the Double Clawshot, makes it my favourite item from Twilight Princess.