For many longtime Zelda fans, The Ocarina of Time is one of the best entries in this massive franchise.  When it first came out, it showed gamers things they had never seen before, all in 3D.  For a game that was released 20+ years ago (makes you feel old, doesn’t it?) there are still some secrets that fans might not have discovered.

Some of these secrets seem to be slight glitches, others seem to be fun little winks and nods from the developers.  Others still are simple cool additions to the game that you may have missed while playing it on the N64 all those decades ago.

10 The Free Shield

Adult Link needs to defend himself from the forces of darkness, and your dinky, child sized wooden shield is going to burn up at the first sign of fire.  So clearly you need to buy a Hylian Shield, right?

Money may seem worthless since you can find rupees in the grass, but if you want to save 80 bucks, you can simply go into a hidden hole in Kakariko Graveyard, where there’s a Hylian Shield for free.

9 You Can Drink A Poe

It’s almost guaranteed than more than a few unlucky gamers discovered this completely by accident way back in the day, simply trying to figure out what to do with a Poe once you capture one.  This is obviously before you figure out to sell them.

What might not be known, though, is that while drinking a Poe is usually considered bad for your health, on rare occasions drinking a Poe has been known to actually refill some hearts!  Do you feel lucky?

8 The Last Words

This is probably the darkest entry on this list.  Right after you get all the spirit stones and you witness Ganondorf chase Princess Zelda out of town, you should do a little bit of exploring in the backstreets of Hyrule Castle Town.

There will be a wounded soldier who was trying to defend the Princess.  Of course, he wasn’t you, so he didn’t stand much of a chance.  You’ll arrive just in time for him to impart his final goodbye, before going still, forever.

7 You Can Fix Signs

Chopping signs is fun, this much is fact.   In fact, it could be argued that chopping EVERYTHING is fun, which is why we have a fixation on smashing every pot we find, even if we don’t need hearts or arrows.

If you happen to feel bad about cutting down a defenseless sign, though, you can always mend it.  Not with Epona based glue, mind you, but by simply playing Zelda’s lullaby near the now halved sign.  Now you can be a vandal as well as the hero of time!

6 The Hylian Loach

Wasting time at the fishing pond is a great way to relax after pulling out your hair in the Water Temple.  For players who want to take this relaxing pastime to the next level, the is the ever illusive Hylian Loach.

This thing only shows up rarely, and when it does, it’s hiding in a log.  You can chase it towards the middle of the pond, but that won’t last long either.  Oh, and it can pretty much only be caught by using the sinking lure.  Fun, right?

5 You Can Steal A Hat

So if you start getting frustrated by trying to catch the aforementioned Hylian Loach, you can take out that anger on the shop owner.  Simply cast you rod at the owner (while being adult Link) and you’ll snag his hat.

The owner is sensitive about going bald, so he gets extra peeved at you.  You can return the hat, which is the nice thing to do, or throw it in the pond.  This will net you a fine, which is totally worth it.

4 Quit Being A Nuisance

Sneaking past all the guards to finally meet up with Princess Zelda was an awesome part of the game.  It gets progressively less awesome when she launches into a seemingly endless bout of exposition about how she doesn’t trust this new guy Ganondorf.

You can still muck about in this area, though.  A cool little feature (aside from the paintings of Mario) is that if you launch a slingshot attack at a shield through a window, a guard will chastise you.  He also throws a bomb at you for good measure.

3 Ganon Hates Deku Nuts

The final fight between Link and Ganon in Ocarina of Time is considered fairly easy compared to other bosses in the game.  The developers tried to up the ante by forcing you to use a weapon besides the Master Sword to attack Ganon’s tail.  You’re meant to use Biggoron’s Sword or the Megaton Hammer.

For reasons unbeknownst to all of us, Deku Nuts thrown at his tail will also cause damage, which kind of makes Ganon seem like an all powerful sorcerer and more of a giant scrub.

2 Ganon Also Hates Bottles

Before he even turns into his giant pig form, Ganondorf establishes himself as a complete loser right away.  At the top of his tower, after he treats you to a melodramatic organ solo, he’ll start lobbing lighting balls at you.

You’re meant to slap these back at him with your Master Sword, but for some reason, you can simply use your bottle swipe to knock them back as well.  You can take down the King of the Gerudo with a recyclable.

1 Free Milk

Everyone knows that if you play Epona’s Song near a cow, it will give you free milk.  That’s not the free milk “secret” here.  What a lot of people don;t know is that you can get a cow for your house.

All you need to do to get a sweet bovine based accessory for your treehouse is go back to Lon Lon Ranch and beat the obstacle course in under 50 seconds.  It’s tough, but it can be done, and what’s better is that it will be delivered totally free of shipping costs.  But how did they get it up there?

NEXT: Zelda: 10 Plot Holes In Ocarina Of Time That Were Never Explained