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The lead=yes is a fictional artifact and icon of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda video game franchise. It first appeared in the original The Legend of Zelda video game (1986) and has appeared in every subsequent game in the series. It consists of three equilateral triangles that are joined to form a large equilateral triangle. In-universe, it represents the essences of the Golden Goddesses—Din, Nayru, and Farore—who created Hyrule. Imbued with divine power, it is capable of granting any wish to anyone who possesses it.
The three pieces of the Triforce are often in the possession of the three main characters of the series, Ganon, Princess Zelda, and Link, who each embody one of its virtues: power, wisdom, and courage. Obtaining the Triforce is a frequent objective in the series, requiring the player to search for its shards and protect it from Ganon, who seeks its power for evil purposes.
The Triforce is a central motif of The Legend of Zelda series, frequently appearing in Zelda iconography and merchandise. It has appeared in related media, including manga, video games, and an animated television series. Due to its prominence and significance within the mythology of the Zelda series, the Triforce has become a widely recognizable symbol in gaming.
The Triforce can only be wielded by someone who possesses a balance of the three virtues in their heart: power, wisdom, and courage. Conversely, if held by someone with an imbalanced heart, it splits into three pieces, with each piece bestowed on a person who represents that quality. The three virtues of the Triforce are often distributed amongst the series' three main characters: Ganon, Princess Zelda, and Link. In some Zelda games, it manifests as a symbol on the hand of the bearer of one of the pieces. The trinity within the Triforce creates a moral balance, with evil seeking power, and wisdom and courage being the opposing forces for good. A recurring theme of the series is Ganon's plan to steal the Triforce from the Sacred Realm in order to use its power to conquer Hyrule, which is ultimately thwarted by Link and Zelda. This places the three characters in an endless battle that is repeated across the fictional timeline within a reincarnation cycle.
In 1986, the original The Legend of Zelda video game introduced the Triforce, which consisted of two pieces, as a central plot device. It involves the hero, Link, embarking on a quest to save Hyrule from the evil Ganon, who has stolen the Triforce of Power. After Princess Zelda splits the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and scatters them across the land, Link must search for the fragments and reassemble them to rescue Princess Zelda and defeat Ganon.
(1987) established the Triforce of Courage as the third piece of the Triforce. The game's instruction manual tells the backstory of Princess Zelda being placed in a magical sleep by a wizard and sets Link's fate as the hero who will wake her by marking the back of his hand with the Triforce. The story involves Link obtaining six crystals and then claiming the Triforce of Courage from the Great Palace. Using the three pieces of the Triforce, he is able to awaken sleeping Zelda from her curse.
The third game in the series titled A Link to the Past (1991) introduces a detailed fictional lore for the Triforce. In Japan, it was released with the title Triforce of the Gods. The game's instruction booklet provides the creation myth explaining how three Golden Goddesses named Din, Nayru, and Farore descended to create the land of Hyrule and then created the Triforce and imbued it with the essence of their power. In the game's backstory, Ganon enters the Sacred Realm to steal the Triforce and plunges it into darkness, creating the Dark World. To prevent Ganon from escaping and destroying the Light World, Link saves Zelda and the Sages. In the final scenes, he uses the Triforce to wish for the characters in the game to be restored.
Ganon, in his humanoid form of Ganondorf, again pursues his goal of obtaining the Triforce in Ocarina of Time (1998). Ganondorf manages to gain entry to the Sacred Realm and takes over Hyrule, plunging it into chaos. After a seven-year sleep, Link awakens as an adult and sets off to protect the Triforce from Ganondorf by travelling back and forth in time. With the help of Seven Sages, he successfully defeats Ganondorf by sealing him in the Sacred Realm. The game established the trinity of the characters each embodying one of the virtues of the Triforce.
When the game duo titled (2001) were conceived, they were originally intended to be a trilogy, with each story centred on one of the three virtues of the Triforce. In each game the Triforce initiates the adventure by summoning Link and transporting him to the worlds of Holodrum and Labrynna to collect eight Essences of Nature or Time in order to defeat the games' villains, Onox and Veran.
In The Wind Waker (2002), Link must collect eight pieces of the Triforce of Courage, which are scattered across the islands on the map, before he is ready to confront Ganondorf. The Triforce hunt, which was described by GameSpot as "infamous", is a lengthy process involving finding the chart locations, returning to Tingle and then finding the Triforce shards. Due to the tedious nature of the task, it was later simplified in The Wind Waker HD. In the finale, Ganondorf unites the Triforce, but before he can make his wish to rule Hyrule, the King of Hyrule's spirit touches it and wishes for Hyrule to be destroyed, resulting in a final battle between Ganondorf, Link and Zelda.
The Triforce does not play a major role in Twilight Princess (2006). At the beginning of the game, each of the three main characters is shown to be in possession of their individual component by glowing triangles that appear on their hands, but otherwise the Triforce only appears on murals and buildings.
Skyward Sword (2011) again focuses on the creation of the Triforce by the three Goddesses. In the game's backstory, demonic creatures rise from cracks in the earth led by Demonic King Demise with the intention of claiming the Triforce. To protect it, the goddess Hylia commands an army of the world's people to fight Demise. She seals him away and after becoming mortal, sends the humans to live above the surface world in Skyloft. She hides the Triforce in the sky to await the hero, Link, who recovers the three Triforce pieces from the Sky Keep and uses its powers to defeat Demise.
In A Link Between Worlds (2013), another version of the Triforce was introduced in the fictional universe. In Japan, the game is known as Triforce of the Gods 2, as it is a spiritual sequel to A Link to the Past. It takes place in two mirrored worlds, the Light World (Hyrule) and the Dark World (Lorule). Unlike Hyrule, Lorule has crumbled, caused by its people destroying its own Triforce, due to it being the cause of war. To save her world, Princess Hilda plots to steal Hyrule's Triforce. By the end of the game, she sympathises with Hyrule and allows Link and Zelda to return there with their Triforce. In an act of compassion, the two use the Hyrulean Triforce to recreate Lorule's Triforce.
Nintendo published Tri Force Heroes (2015) for the 3DS, a cooperative multiplayer game involving three Links dressed in red, blue and green. Hiromasa Shikata, the game's director, explained that the concept for the game was a "triangular relationship between three players".
Despite its prominence in the Zelda series, the Triforce plays no part in the storyline of Breath of the Wild (2017). It appears in various places within the game and manifests itself on the hand of Zelda in the battle against Calamity Ganon. The three virtues of the Triforce are present in the form of three springs located in different regions of the map, namely the Spring of Power, the Spring of Wisdom, and the Spring of Courage. The Triforce continued to be absent from the series as a plot device with the release of (2023), although it appears on in-game architecture and as a tattoo on the arm of the character Sonia. This led to speculation amongst players that it has been abandoned as a major element of the series.
In (2024), the Triforce appears again but is described as "Prime Energy". In a Famitsu interview, Aonuma explained that he decided to "bring out the Triforce" because it was necessary for the story. The development team knew that the game would end with obtaining the Triforce but felt that its image was too strong. For this reason, they set the story in an undefined time period to give the impression that the inhabitants had forgotten the Triforce and had only a vague idea of its existence.
"Triforce" is also a name given to an arcade board system that was a joint venture from three companies; Namco, Nintendo and Sega using a combination of Nintendo GameCube and Sega GD-ROM hardware inside a Namco cabinet.
Due to its simple design and popularity with gamers, the Triforce has become one of the most popular gaming tattoos. Professional wrestler Cody Rhodes, a longtime Legend of Zelda fan, formerly had the Triforce on his wrestling boots in his early career with the WWE.
The Triforce has inspired the production of Zelda-themed products, including a beer named Triforce IPA.
In 2023, the British metal band DragonForce released a single titled "Power of the Triforce", which is a tribute to The Legend of Zelda series.
Stephen Totilo, writing for Kotaku, highlighted that in 2016 Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma used the Triforce to reinforce the fixed gender roles of the three main characters in the series. Aonuma stated that the concept of creating a female version of Link, "would mess with the balance of the Triforce" and had been rejected by Nintendo for that reason. Jacob Kastrenakes of The Verge strongly disagreed by commenting that, although the three characters possess and embody the three virtues of the Triforce, the pieces could "theoretically be held by others in Hyrule" and that none of the Triforce pieces relate to gender.
The Triforce has been the subject of interpretation with regards to its significance within the Zelda series. Luke Cuddy considered that the Triforce can be interpreted as a lesson in morality that can be applied in the real world, as each of the three Triforce pieces is equal and could be used by the three main characters for good or evil, depending on how they choose to act. Anthony Bean opined that the Triforce is a symbol of the self in Jungian psychology, because it "serves as a connection between Hyrule (the conscious, mortal realm) and the goddesses (the unconscious, divine realm) just as the self serves as a meeting point for the ego and the unconscious". Edge staff commented that the Triforce is the deus ex machina of The Legend of Zelda series, stating that, of all the world-saving devices in gaming, it is "the most visually iconic and symbolically potent one" and noted its Christianity similarities: "salvation through a trinity that is also one".
Luke Plunkett of Kotaku opined that the Triforce is "one of the most iconic designs in the history of video games" and "the object that lies at the heart of The Legend of Zelda". Eurogamer staff commented that the Triforce symbolises "Zelda's perpetually cycling legend" and is the blueprint for every game in the series, with Link representing "agency, curiosity, the eternal innocence", Ganon representing "selfishness, megalomania, destruction" and Zelda representing "insight and direction". Nicole Carpenter for Polygon commented that the Triforce has become a ubiquitous symbol that is widely recognised amongst gamers. She highlighted that it creates a sense of community for many isolated gamers and also provides personal significance to those who find comfort and meaning in its symbolism.
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