Every good adventurer needs a good set of tools to blast their way through fields and dungeons and through legions of monsters. In previous Zelda games, you received most of your adventuring tools from dungeons, which you then used to complete the dungeon and access previously-closed-off areas in the game. But not this time! Some tools you can earn by playing the game; most of them must be rented from Ravio’s Shop.

Ravio’s Shop opens not far into the game; inside, you can rent pretty much every adventuring tool. This means that once you have access to Ravio’s Shop, you are potentially equipped to tackle almost every area and dungeon in the game. However first you must learn how to use your items.

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Items can be equipped to the X or Y button from the Item tab on the bottom screen. When you’re controlling Link, press the X or Y button to use the items equipped to those buttons.

Using an item will deplete the energy gauge in the bottom-left corner of the top screen–the amount depends on the item. The energy gauge fills up again slowly with time. However if you completely exhaust the energy gauge, you must wait until it recovers before you can use items again. The energy gauge is particularly handy for items such as the bow; normally you must carry arrows to use the bow and you can’t use it without arrows, but now you can keep using the bow so long as you mind the energy gauge.

One thing you must know about rented items: should you get a Game Over, you will lose all your rented items and must rent them again if you wish to use them. After beating the first three dungeons, Ravio will let Link buy his items for permanent ownership; if you get a Game Over, you don’t lose owned items. You can also upgrade items you own by speaking to Mother Maimai in Lake Hylia after rescuing at least 10 lost Maimais; for every 10 Maimai saved, you can redeem one item upgrade.