You've explored every nook and cranny of a dungeon, escaping its dizzying array of traps, deadly enemies, and mind-bending puzzles. You come to a massive treasure chest, and your mind reels at what could await you inside. A magical boomerang? A fine-tuned grappling hook? A special arrow imbued with magical energy? Your fingers tremble as you unlatch the treasure chest and draw out the glowing…

Iron Boots? F--k!

They can't all be winners. Though most of the items in the Zelda series are satisfying, fun to use, and inventive, some clunkers are bound to slip through the cracks. Most of the time, these are equipment with very niche uses that only come in handy in very particular situations. Other times it's items that are literally useless unless you jump through a few hoops. There just can't help but be a few item slots that get used once, in their dungeon, and maybe to snag a Heart Piece or two scattered around the overworld, and then never again. These are the worst and most useless Zelda items.

For more Zelda reading prior to the launch of Tears of the Kingdom, check out our lists of the best Zelda games, bosses, and dungeons. If you still need to secure a copy of the upcoming Zelda game, take a look at our The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom preorder guide for details on the best deals and bonuses. And don't forget about the Tears of the Kingdom-themed Switch OLED console, which is available now.

Red Candle / Blue Candle (The Legend of Zelda)

Before magic became part of Link's regular repertoire, he could only summon fire with a candle. This made him about as heroic as a birthday cake. The candles had some utility, as they could light your way in dark spaces and damage select enemies, but overall, they had an extremely limited purpose. This received a spiritual successor of sorts in A Link to the Past with the Lantern, which was limited to lighting braziers, and looked doubly silly considering Link gets a screen-filling fire spell later in the game.

Magic Hammer (A Link to the Past)

Link would be nowhere without his trusty sword: a swift, versatile, short-range weapon. It's the staple of every Zelda game, and for good reason. But what if he also had a slow, even shorter-range weapon, which also tapped his magic meter? Meet the Magic Hammer, the underwhelming first find of the Dark World dungeons. It's clunky, it feels much worse than simply using the Master Sword, and it drains your magic. Fun, right? Aside from a truly great boss fight and the ability to knock down pegs that block your path, you'll barely use it, and it will get tucked into your equipment screen, never to be seen again.

Quake Medallion (A Link to the Past)

The three magical Medallions in A Link to the Past aren't terribly useful in general. They mostly clear the screen of enemies, but the combat isn't too challenging to start with, and they all unlock one of the Dark World dungeons by having an impact on the overworld. The Quake Medallion is the most useless of the set, though. Not only is it not very useful to take out a screen full of enemies, but it doesn't even do that function well.

Iron Boots (Ocarina of Time)

Look, there's a reason we started this list with a joke about the Iron Boots. They're terrible. They exist to weigh you down in the Water Temple, letting you slog through on the seafloor at a snail's pace to hit a switch or whatever. In the overworld, they're worse than useless, since they don't weigh you down to solve puzzles but still feel like walking through jelly. And unlike the Twilight Princess version of the Iron Boots, they don't even have a clever boss battle application. It certainly doesn't help that they're linked to one of the most notoriously frustrating dungeons of all time, which only amplifies the Iron Boots' lack of payoff.

Giant's Knife (Ocarina of Time)

The Master Sword is legendary and perfectly suited to Zelda combat. Biggoron's Sword is less versatile but handy if you want to use a two-handed broadsword that does significantly more damage. The Giant's Knife is a worse version of Biggoron's Sword, a waste of 200 rupees that can be used eight times before it breaks and becomes a severe power and range downgrade. When Ocarina first came out, the Giant's Knife felt like a mean trick on those who didn't know to wait for the Biggoron's Sword. Now that we all know that you get a better version, there is no reason to ever buy or use this.

Strange Flute (Oracle of Seasons/Ages)

This one is in the category of items that are intentionally useless, until you progress later in the game and unlock their full potential. The payoff--in which the Strange Flute becomes named after one of three special animal companions--is actually very useful. But until you get to that point in the game, it's just a strange item that plays a little diddy and nothing else. Once you unlock its full potential, the name changes too, so we can confidently say that the Strange Flute itself is dumb.

Water Bomb (Twilight Princess)

This item falls squarely into the "putting a hat on a hat" category of equipment. Yes, of course, logically it wouldn't make sense to have regular bombs that explode underwater. Sure. But this is a series about an elf boy who summons the power of a magical goddess triangle to defeat a pig monster who has another magical goddess triangle. Did we really need a special "realistic" explanation for bombs to destroy walls underwater? What are they, depth charges? It just feels like a flimsy excuse to have another item.

Hawkeye (Twilight Princess)

This item is optional, so by definition, it's not a must-find for completing Twilight Princess. Even by those standards, though, it's not terribly inspiring. The Hawkeye is basically a zoom lens. It lets you see farther away. When paired with your bow, it can let you aim with more precision over far distances, but it's just not a scenario that comes up all that often. Link could get roughly the same effect by just kind of squinting.

Gift of Hestu (Breath of the Wild)

The Korok Seeds are the main collectible in Breath of the Wild, which means they're not that useful for themselves but are meant to be worthwhile for the work put into finding them. To that end, they're reasonably useful, as finding them will unlock additional item slots for your weapon, bow, and shield stashes. That's not too bad! But if you go through the time and trouble of collecting all 900 (!) Korok Seeds, you get the Gift of Hestu, an item that does… nothing. Wait, that can't be right. Let's just check our notes and… yep, it does nothing. You collected all 900 seeds for literally no reward.

Not only that, but the Gift of Hestu charitably looks like a soft-serve ice cream. Less charitably, it looks like a pile of crap. As if to put a fine point on it, the official in-game description says it "smells pretty bad." Ew. You spent dozens of hours tracking down 900 doodads for golden poop. Congratulations.