How Zelda: Wind Waker Hid A Triforce On Its Island Map

Before the enormous and expansive overworld of Breath of the Wild, fans found The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker‘s Great Sea to be one of the most open worlds in the franchise. As a gigantic ocean dotted with islands, submarines, and lookouts, Wind Waker players almost always had something to explore when sailing around. However, this entire time the Great Sea map has been hiding something: a Triforce hidden in plain sight on Wind Waker’s map.

Wind Waker was one of the first mainline Zelda entries to dramatically shake up the setting. While most Zelda games take place in a medieval fantasy kingdom, Wind Waker takes place on a massive ocean with lots of islands to visit with the help of the King of Red Lions. Players will need to pay attention to their sea charts so they can keep the wind in the direction they want to sail in. It’s one of the features that made the game stand out from the previous entries in the series, and many games have taken influence from it as well.

At the start of the game, players need to collect the three pearls so that they can summon the Tower of the Gods which houses the portal to Hyrule. Players need to travel from Dragon Roost Island to Forest Haven, Greatfish Isle, Windfall, and finally Outset Island to obtain each pearl. Afterward, they’ll need to place each of these pearls in the pedestals laid out on each of the Triangle Islands. It might not be something that fans think about actively, but the location of these islands actually illustrates a little secret.

Wind Waker’s Map Secret Is One Of The Legend Of Zelda’s Best

As the name implies, the Triangle Islands form a triangle when connected to each other by lines. It’s a clear reference to the Triforce, which is a prevalent sacred relic in the Zelda series. However, many fans might have failed to notice that it’s engulfed by yet another triangle when Dragon Roost Island, Forest Haven, and the Greatfish Isle are also connected by lines. As seen in the image above, this final triangle will create the unmistakable image of the full Triforce instead of a simple fragment.

It’s a clever reference that can easily go unnoticed since the cutscene that shows the summoning of the Tower of the Gods only shows the triangle in the middle. It’s not only a great touch that this is hidden in the map, but each of the pearls is actually protected in each of these three areas on the outer triangle. Link gets Juban’s Pearl away Greatfish Isle, but that’s only because Ganondorf destroyed his island before Link was able to arrive. Regardless of why it’s here, the hidden Triforce is a great secret in The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.