I have a long, long history with The Legend of Zelda series, yet it continues to surprise me. A Link to the Past was technically the first game I ever owned - though I had played others, including previous Zelda games, with friends and family , it was the first I could ever call my own. Over the years, I've sought out and played almost every game ever released in the series. I've beaten all the Zelda games from the past 25 years, and have even 100%-ed most of them, but there's still a lot I don't know.

But of all the Zelda games, my favorite, by a long shot, is The Wind Waker. I can acknowledge that other games do certain things objectively better, but The Wind Waker scratches a certain itch for me. Something between the cel-shaded graphics, the freedom of exploration, and the jaunty, nautical music just makes it my ideal Zelda game. I've beaten both the original GameCube and the Wii U version multiple times each, and I'll do the same for the Switch 2's virtual console version once it's out. But each time I play, something new seems to surprise me.

Despite Playing Wind Waker Before, I've Just Learned This Enemy Detail

Link The Pig Is OP

As pointed out in a comment by Thomasritmeester, in a Reddit thread discussing weird and underappreciated Wind Waker factoids, "the big pig" that you encounter at the beginning of the game is the most powerful enemy in all of The Wind Waker, at least by one metric.

Now, I know a lot about The Wind Waker's pigs. I know that they're a lot less annoying than the rest of the series' Cuccos, and I know the trick to finding all three pigs for the Windfall Island sidequest. And, to be fair, I know that the big pig on Outset Island hits pretty hard. What I didn't know, though, was that this pig does the most damage of any enemy in the game, taking off three of Link's hearts in a single hit.

The big pig, whose name is actually the same as whatever you choose for your save file (i.e., usually Link), only exists on Outset Island for the express purpose of teaching you the game's stealth mechanic. You'll occasionally need to sneak up on enemies (and other pigs) throughout the game, and Link the Pig provides a pretty harmless target on which to practice. He begins life as a regular-sized pig, and, if you return later in the game, has grown much larger.

However, most players never discover just how powerful he is because he doesn't attack back unless significantly provoked, which, of course, most players are not likely to do. You don't even have a sword the first time you meet him, so you have to return later, and attack the pig multiple times to get him to fight back. After doing so, he'll charge you for three whole hearts of damage, which, NoxTheWizard points out in a reply to the original Reddit comment, is enough to kill Link instantly if you're doing a three-heart run - the only attack powerful enough to do so.

The Big Pig In Wind Waker Is The Strongest Enemy In The Game

How Other Enemies Compare

Pound for pound, heart for heart, this makes Link the Pig the most powerful enemy in The Wind Waker in of damage dealt by a single attack. No other enemy in the game - not Puppet Ganon, likely the hardest boss in the game, or even Ganondorf himself, the actual final boss, can compare. At most, these enemies can do one heart of damage at a time; although they may be able to chain several attacks together in sequence to deal more, they have to put in more effort than the pig for a fraction of the damage.

Couple that with the fact that Link the Pig is functionally immortal, and he could be the most powerful enemy in Zelda history. Sure, other enemies in different games do more damage, but if you hit them enough, they'll eventually stop. Link the Pig can't be hurt by Link the human's attacks, and will continue to charge at him, dealing three hearts of damage at a time, until Link is dead or leaves the island.

This Was Probably Added Humor From Legend Of Zelda Devs

Bringing A Little Challenge To The Wind Waker

Of course, you're never really meant to discover just how powerful Link the Pig really is. This is by design: Wind Waker is definitely intended to be on the easier side, as Zelda games go. Its colorful visual style and simple gameplay is intended to appeal to all audiences. So it's only natural that its most powerful enemy is hidden; relatively few players will actually attack him enough to provoke his deadly strikes.

Nor is Link the Pig intended to be some secret superboss challenge, either. In reality, he's just a silly little secret, likely left in intentionally by developers with a good sense of humor. And I think I know what they were referencing.

Pigs, in general, are supposed to be The Wind Waker's version of Cuccos, little chickens who wander around its towns. Most Zelda games have a quest where you're charged with returning a lost farmer's Cuccos from nearby rooftops and grass patches; The Wind Waker has the same for pigs. It's a lesser-known secret, however, that if you attack Cuccos, they'll attack you back. They don't do too much damage, but in certain games, the Cuccos will swarm Link, and can absolutely decimate his HP in numbers.

So, just as Cuccos have a surprisingly deadly attack for harmless-looking animals, so do pigs in The Wind Waker. It's just Link the Pig, though; run-of-the-mill pigs don't pose nearly as much of a threat.

As silly and meaningless as this little detail is, it speaks to what I love most about The Wind Waker: how big and detailed it is. It's not the largest open-world game I've ever played, but it's full of tiny little secrets and out-of-the-way locations that I discover something new every single time I play. It's this kind of care that makes The Wind Waker my favorite game in The Legend of Zelda series.

Sources: Thomasritmeester/Reddit, NoxTheWizard/Reddit