Composites within VS and power-scaling communities are something that I've always seen mentioned, but very rarely used in an actual debate or matchup setting. Although, VS shows like Death Battle seem to be very selective with their compositing, using only official Canon sources for feats (mostly… see any episode featured around a Star Wars character for example) and crossovers like Smash and MvC exclusively for stuff like equipment loadouts and combat techniques.
But what if someone were to go all-in, incorporating everything a character is capable of in their respective media?
That's right, I'm one of those sickos who goes through that kind of extensive, pain-staking research FOR FUN.
So here's how this is going to go down:
I will be cataloging these composites through various levels.
First, I will be laying out all of Link's relevant feats, weapons and equipment within the LoZ canon. I will go through each incarnation of Link within said canon. From there, I will combine every canon version of Link into a “Canon Composite”.
Then, I will move onto secondary canon sources such as spinoff games, strategy guides, and the Zelda Mangas.
Then, I will compile external sources such as Mario Kart, Smash, the Zelda cartoons, etc. At the end I will showcase a fully composited Link.
Now, if you're new and wondering what the heck I'm yapping about, a composite is essentially a combination of different versions of a character just to show how crazy they can get when using scaling from external, non-canon sources. For example, power scaling Kratos by using his appearances in PlayStation BR, Soul Calibur, and Mortal Kombat.
My goal here is for this to be your one-stop shop for power scaling Link, everything you could need all in one place, save checking out the source material itself. You can think of this as a Respect Thread for all official appearances of Link in media ( or at least the ones obtainable to me in my region).
With that out of the way, let's begin.
Canon Link
Zelda 1and2 Link
Link in Zelda 1 and 2 is the first official appearance of the character Link in any official media.
Link in Zelda 1 is capable of defeating enemies such as Lynels and Gleeoks, who can create large explosions and the latter of which create electrical storms that spread over large areas such as plateaus. He has a boomerang that can magically stun enemies, and a bow that fires unlimited arrows as long as Link is carrying Rupees. He has a lantern and Magical Rod that can fully incinerate enemies comparable to Link's size. He has a Magic Flute that summons cyclones powerful enough to lift him to other locations.
His fully upgraded Magical Sword can hit enemies in an intangible state, and his Silver Arrows are powerful enough to completely liquify Ganon into a red mist.
In Zelda 2, in addition to being more mature and having greater combat experience, also has access to Magical abilities such as healing and transmutation. He can transmute enemies into harmless animals or slime, shield himself and reflect damage back at enemies, transform himself into a fairy, increase his strength and athleticism or project lightning bolts.
He also possesses a Hammer that can completely pulverize building-sized boulders in one swing, and has magic boots that allow him to walk on water.
AlttP Link
Link from A Link to the Past. This version of Link has the Magical Cape which turns him invisible and intangible, and crushes the Helmasaur King with the Magic Hammer. He has Silver Arrows and the most powerful variation of the Master Sword (at least prior to ToTK), the Golden Master Sword, which was tempered by dwarves and blessed by a Great Fairy. He also has the Ether, Bombos, and Quake Medallions, the latter of which shook a whole plateau. He wears the Pegasus Boots, which grant him speed similar to Goron Link’s rolling (see below). And of course, he defeats Ganon.
He also has a magic Mirror that transports him into a parallel dimension, and a pearl that prevents transmutation.
OoT/MM
The N64 duology, which both star the incarnation of Link known as the Hero of Time. Link possesses a majority of the weapons he did in previous games, in addition to the Lens of Truth which reveals hidden and invisible objects, and can harm enemies such as ghosts and other spirits.
In terms of physical strength, he can rotate a large room around without strength upgrades. With them, he can push stone blocks roughly 30 times his size, pick up and crush boulders, and lift giant stone obelisks before tossing them several hundred feet. In OoT, Gohma’s DC was calc’d to about 13 tons (city block level) and Morpha was calc’d to 1.4 kilotons (high end MCB).
He can also use magic to project fire, shield himself, and teleport. With the Ocarina of Time, he can also slow and accelerate time, or summon storms. He has Light Arrows which can peirce Ganon's defenses and stun him, and the Master Sword reflects his attacks.
This of course all pales in comparison to perhaps the greatest destructive feat in the series, defeating Majora, who can create explosions capable of leveling Termina. I calculated this feat, of which you can view here, to equaling about 2 petatons tnt equivalent as a low end and about 25 petatons as a high end.
In MM, Link has a total of 24 masks, which sounds like a lot, but over half have very specific or one-time uses that don't really apply in a VS setting. The Bremin Mask can accelerate growth, but it only really works on farm animals. He has various “undead” type masks such as the Gibdo Mask that allows him to speak to undead enemies and causes them not to attack him, though again these are situational.
What we're really concerned with are the Stone Mask, which makes Link nearly undetectable by enemies (with few exceptions) and the Transformation Masks. Namely, the Deku Mask, Goron Mask, Zora Mask, Giant's Mask, and Fierce Deity Mask. The Deku Mask grants Link limited flight, can float on water, and can burrow underground. The Goron Mask gives him the tough body of a Goron and roll into a ball and clear Termina Field in under a minute. The Zora Mask allows him to breathe underwater and project an energy field around himself. The Giant's Mask allows him to grow large building-sized.
Then of course, the Fierce Deity Mask allows Link to transform into a being that can defeat all of Majora's manifestations effortlessly.
The Great Fairy Sword also has similar destructive potential, and is referred to as “the most powerful of all blades”, but does not physically transform Link.
After his death, the Hero of Time becomes the undead spirit known as the Hero's Shade, who can persist for over 117 years to meet the next incarnation. He can transform into a golden Wolf Spirit that can transport anywhere in Hyrule and is unaffected by Zant and Ganon's Twilight transmutation. He can bring others into a pocket dimension, split himself into multiple copies, project energy, and is effectively immortal as he cannot be killed by conventional means.
Oracle of Ages/Seasons
The scaling of the Oracle games mainly come from Onox, who creates thunderstorms and sinks a temple, putting him at around City to Island Level.
Link's Awakening
Link's loadout is very similar to previous games, though most notably he takes a Chain Chomp from the Mario series for a walk. Yes, this is still primary canon (technically LA is a dream, but everything still physically happened).
Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass
Toon Link got launched into the wall of the Forsaken Fortress no worse for wear, and froze an active volcano with his magic. He can control wind with the Wind Waker and summon gusts of wind with the Deku Leaf. He also defeats Ganondorf.
Ganondorf in Wind Waker has an Island Level feat where he conjures a storm over the entirety of the Great Sea.
WW Link also has the Command Melody, allowing mind control.
In Phantom Hourglass, he sails the sea in search of materials to forge the Phantom Sword while his life is being drained by Bellum, and later defeats Bellum who nearly killed the sea god Oshus.
Minish Cap
Most notably, Link in Minish Cap can shrink down to the size of an ant. With the White Sword of Three Elements, he can create two copies of himself for a few seconds.
He also has the Roc's Cape which grants him flight, and the Cane of Pacci allows him some minor reality warping and spatial manipulation by turning holes in the ground into a solid surface that propels him upwards.
Four Swords/Four Swords Adventures
Two multiplayer games featuring four copies of Link, one on Gameboy Advance and the other on the GameCube.
The Four Sword allows Link to split into four identical copies of himself.
The Four Links, or Link x4, can obtain the Gnat Hat, which allows shrinking to the size of an ant similar to Minish Cap, a Chain Chomp as a pet, and a Magnetic Glove which can move metal objects several times Link x4's size.
The Bombos and Quake Medallions from ALTtP also make a return in FSA.
Twilight Princess
The Hero of Twilight sumo wrestles with Gorons (including one five times his size wearing heavy armor) and has a ball and chain that destroys large sheets of ice. The Triforce of Courage protects him from Twilight magic, which rather than turning him into a spirit transforms him into a wolf, and can turn back into a human with the Master Sword. As a wolf, he is capable of attacking intangible beings such as ghosts. He also defeats Zant and Ganondorf in one-on-one combat.
Midna with the Fused Shadows clashed with Ganon in his spirit form, causing an explosion that destroyed Hyrule Castle and the surrounding town.
TP Link also doesn't have many magic abilities or items like the other incarnations do, meaning he usually has to rely on his own physical strength or resistances.
Skyward Sword
Link as he appears in Skyward Sword lives in a high-altitude area above the clouds and can crush large stone pillars and a giant gold automaton. He wrestles free from the tentacles of and defeats a seamonster that can easily pierce through the hull of a ship. He also defeats Girahim, The Imprisoned, and Demise as he is slowly regaining his power from Zelda’s spirit.
A Link Between Worlds
Link in ALBW has some spatial manipulation via making himself 2-dimensional, able to effectively become intangible to 3d objects, can slip through cracks in the walls, and can enter a space in between both dimensions.
Triforce Heroes
Honestly, this is just here so people can't claim I forgot it. The reason I don't include them in this composite is because the characters in Triforce Heroes are not the same as Link, and are separate from the incarnation that appears in their continuity.
Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom
Prior to his hundred-year nap, Champion Link was the appointed guardian knight for Princess Zelda, protecting her from enemies such as the ninja-like Yiga Clan and hordes of Moblins and Lynels. He is eventually weakened after an unprepared fight against Calamity Ganon and a large group of Guardians. He is mortally wounded and taken to the Shrine of Resurrection, where he is put into a comatose state until he regains his full strength 100 years later. Upon awakening, he travels the world and collects spirit orbs from 120 shrines which he trades for various power boosts at Goddess or Demon statues. He infiltrates the Yiga Clan Hideout and kills their master. He also retakes the Divine Beasts and is given the magical abilities of the fallen Champions, including Mipha’s Grace, which will revive and fully heal him upon death, Revali’s Gale, which allows him to summon a gust of wind and leap several hundred feet into the air and glide, Darruk’s Protection, where the spirit of the Goron Champion will surround Link in an energy barrier and parry attacks, and Urbosa’s Fury, which summons lightning strikes around Link’s vicinity. He collects various weaponry such as the Champions’ legendary weapons as well as the Master Sword, and armor he picked up from around the world. He defeats the Blight Ganons and Calamity Ganon.
Five years layer, he confronts the undead corpse of the real Ganondorf buried underneath Hyrule Castle, and is depowered significantly and loses the Master Sword via Ganon's Gloom, forcing him to travel through Hyrule yet again collecting blessings from the goddess Hylia to remove the Gloom inflicting his body, as well as restore all the equipment he lost.
What's Gloom, you ask? Well Ganon's power in the open world games manifests as two substances: Malice and Gloom.
Malice is a corrosive substance that gives the canon explanation for why weapons break so often in BotW and TotK, as it has a large country-wide level range and causes all weapons to become brittle (only the Master Sword and the One-Hit Obliterator are immune to this, see Recap).
Gloom is a life-draining essence that reduces Link's maximum health and bores into the earth causing a massive cavern system beneath Hyrule.
Link's arm was so infected with Gloom it had to be surgically removed, and residual traces of Gloom still permeated his body.
His arm was replaced with the Ultrahand, whose abilities are as follows: Its most basic function is being able to move objects via a telekinetic tether, which Link can move up to building-sized objects effortlessly. Link can also Fuse two objects together with an adhesive resin that combines the properties of two objects together. For example, if Link attaches an object imbued with fire or electrical properties to a weapon or arrow, that weapon or arrow will take on those elemental properties. It will also combine the attack power and durability of combined weapons. Link also has access to Zonai Devices which he can attach to objects in order to create machines that act as makeshift minecarts, planes, boats, cars, and other vehicles. The resin connecting the parts together acts as an electrical circuit that feeds energy through the entire structure directly from Link’s batteries, which can power these machines for upwards of several minutes, depending on the power needed and the complexity of the machine. The weapons that Link can build from these devices include, but are not limited to; Drones that seek enemy targets, laser beam emitters, flamethrowers, bombs, wind fans, freeze guns, shock guns, cannons, missiles, tanks, and weaponized boats and hoverbikes. Through an ability called Autobuild, Link can also instantly assemble any construct he commits to memory, provided he has the materials for it.
Ultrahand also has an ability called Recall which restores a target back to a previous position in space-time, effectively rewinding time on a single target. Link can use Recall to freeze or slow time as well as reflect back enemy projectiles. Link can also stand on fallen objects while Recalling them, using them as platforms to rise back up into the sky.
An additional ability is Ascend, which allows Link to enter a spatial gap between dimensions so long as a solid surface is directly above him (basically a more complicated form of portals, where instead of passing immediately to another location, he passes through an in-between space, and can travel back and forth through this dimension between two vertical positions).
Link can also obtain equipment from his previous incarnations, including the Fierce Deity sword and armor set.
When Link defeats Ganon in his dragon form, it creates a massive explosion that dispersed the clouds above Hyrule Castle.
So that was kind of a mouthful, but that's just how much information comes from these two games.
Echoes of Wisdom
The first canon Zelda game in which we actually play as the character the series is named after, meaning we finally get proper feats and abilities for her outside of just being a side character in Link's games and using Smash Bros as a frame of reference.
The majority of her own equipment is not obtainable by Link, though all of her feats should scale to him.
Zelda defeats the Seismic Talus, a monster the same race as the Taluses from Breath of the Wild who could defeat Guardians, and its more powerful variant the Volcanic Talus.
She also defeats Gohma and Volvagia from previous games. She also defeats Echo Ganon, an exact copy of Ganon.
The primordial being Null creates dimensional rifts throughout Hyrule, which swallow up living things and turn them into monsters. Link and Zelda later team up to defeat Null together.
I'd also like to note that Null existed before the creation of Hyrule, and was defeated by the Three Goddesses Din, Farore, and Nayru. Now, we don't know the exact powerscale (Was it a stomp, did he fight back, etc), however considering all three needed to intervene that would put these incarnations of Link and Zelda in the high Petatons range at the very least, which is consistent with high ends of Majora and Fierce Deity Link calculations.
Secondary Canon
LoZ Manga
*Note: I own these manga as physical media. The images you see are not scans, but photos by myself from the English-translated publications. Apologies in advance for pages that are not oriented properly or hard to read, this is the best way for me to get specific panels as not all of them are available on the internet.
Shows his combat skills early on by physically overpowering childhood bullies.
Has the ingenuity and dexterity necessary to build his own slingshot, and can nail targets with accuracy and precision.
Ganon creates black clouds over Kokiri Forest while sending Gohma to infect the Great Deku Tree. Naturally Link would scale to this.
In the manga version, Link's wooden shield is carved from the Great Deku Tree's remains and can ward off evil.
Tanks two Bombchus exploding together as a child before getting any special armor or upgrades. (I know this is presented as a gag feat, but I personally don't believe in excluding those.)
Again as a child, fends off multiple adult Gerudo warriors
Falls from a height above the clouds unharmed
Dodges electricity
Volvagia, a dragon that Link later defeats, has the potential to envelope Death Mountain, Kakariko Village, and Hyrule Field in lava
Is regarded as a “Great Swordsman” by Hylian Knights and smiths.
Defeats a series of Hylian champions, including a swordmaster who says Link is “too good to be taught anything”.
Skull Kid, while under the influence of Majora's Mask, can telekinetically move the moon without needing to wait 3 days. This was always implied in the game version, but here we have visual confirmation.
Quickly recovers after being paralyzed by poisoned water
One-shots Odolwa while in base form. (For context, Odolwa is one of five major bosses in Majora's Mask who created environmental affects over each region)
Survives sub-zero temperature with little more than mild discomfort. This same cold climate was able to freeze gorons solid. (He does this in the game too, but this discounts game mechanics)
Darmani's punches pulverize ice blocks, and the energy generated from these punches is visible from mountain peaks. Link is able to obtain this strength as Goron Link.
Zora Link electrecutes Gyorg to death, pretty much one-shotting him as well.
Defeats Twinmold in base form and with base weapons. In the game he uses the Giant's Mask and Light Arrows to do this. Twinmold caused a curse of undeath over the Ikana region that was broken once he was killed.
Blocks an energy blast from Majora
From here the manga essentially plays out the same as the end of Majora's Mask, Fierce Deity Link defeats Majora.
Throws a clay pot so hard he decapitates a living statue
Resists being transformed into a beast from Ganon's corruption over the Dark World.
Defeats Ganon with no sword or armor upgrades. Also resists the disintegrating effects of Ganon's blood.
Blue Link gets frozen solid and immediately burned with no ill effects, while Red Link showcases some metafictional awareness.
Also some cartoon physics abilities, such as hammerspace, or being shrunk/flattened as a visual gag
Blue Link also resists getting his soul pulled out
The four Links together disintegrate Shadow Link
More physics-defying with Blue Link somehow flattening spikes into perfect cubes
More poison resistance with Link x4 breathing in the same poison cloud slowly killing Zelda
Link x4 walking on clouds
Link x4 and Zelda bfr Ganon by absorbing him into the Four Sword
High end metafictional manipulation: Link x4 can't afford a ticket to an amusement park so Green Link goes in by himself and summons the other 3 by hitting L on the GameCube controller.
Zant creates black mist that spreads throughout the Twilight Realm, transforming its inhabitants and having mind control properties.
Gets fully healed after getting his arm cut off. It is to note this was due to the Light Spirit at the spring, however this showcases the capabilities of healing magic in Zelda beyond just recovering hearts in gameplay. He can replicate these healing effects such as with potions, fairies, or his own magic depending on the incarnation.
Link's Crossbow Training
The sister game to Twilight Princess released along with the Wii Zapper peripheral. Link displays enough skill with a crossbow to shoot between the gaps of full plate armor, shoot down small, rapidly-moving flying creatures, and has enough destructive capacity to destroy giant monsters such as the Fossil Stallord.
Strategy Guides
According to the Majora's Mask strategy guide, Skull Kid was able to create Termina after putting on Majora's Mask. This doesn’t really make sense considering it clashes with the lore of the game (NPCs recognize Skull Kid prior to wearing the mask and some characters in Termina existed for hundreds of years), but this is why I consider it a sort of secondary canon.
Hyrule Historia
Hyrule Historia and I have a complicated love/hate relationship.
If you've followed me since my Screwattack Forums days, you'd know I have a history debating against the use of this book, mainly since it makes several mistakes such as swapping the Spirit and Fire Sages in OoT, and mixing up Four Swords with Four Swords Adventures.
It makes similar claims to the strategy guides, such as that Skull Kid created Termina when he put on Majora's Mask, and states the Triforce to be “Omnipotent”.
It also contains a special comic called The Legend Begins: The Tale of Skyward Sword, a sort of prequel comic to Skyward Sword featuring the “first” incarnation of Link (it's kind of complicated since SS Link is supposed to be the first, and the Master Sword exists in it even though SS is sort of the origin story of the Master Sword, but this story is sort of like an in-universe “Bible”, a Legend within a Legend)
In it, Hylia creates a large fissure in the earth with the Master Sword, and creates the land of Skyloft.
Age of Imprisonment/Age of Calamity
These two games are claimed by developers to be “canon” to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom respectively, though they weren't made internally within the Nintendo dev team, and the primary canon of the games themselves take precedence.
In Age of Calamity, Link literally eats a hunk of burning magma rocks, fights all Blight Ganons at once, and soon after defeats Harbinger Ganon, an early incarnation of Calamity Ganon, showcasing not just power but impressive longevity and martial skill.
In Age of Imprisonment, Zelda defeats shades, possessed soldiers, and groups of gorons in a practice match, which Link would scale to.
The Knight Construct acts as a sort of proxy to Link, advancing through enemy territory while defeating hordes of enemies, as you do in these types of games.
Ganon also defeats all main characters at once, the former of which Link later defeats in TotK.
Xenoblade in BotW
There is a DLC in Breath of the Wild that allows Link to obtain Rex's armor from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. To my knowledge this doesn't give Link any scaling to Xenoblade characters, but I thought it was worth mentioning for completion's sake.
External Sources
Hyrule Warriors
Separate from the other HW games, the original creates its own continuity where the seers Lana and Cia survey over the timelines, and the story progresses through the timelines of each Zelda game, effectively a crossover event featuring the characters and settings from multiple fan favorite Zelda games.
Similar to the feats of the base games, Link and other playable characters defeat large waves of enemies including massive boss monsters and Ganon. Each of the Links and the other characters would also scale to each other, for example defeating Girahim from Skyward Sword.
There is also a Termina Mode in which the characters must travel across the map in a limited time in order to stop the moon from falling, effectively giving the entire roster scaling to Majora.
Mario Maker
Link appears as a guest character in the Mario Maker series. He has the same basic equipment and abilities he has in his mainline games, but now has agility on par with Mario platforming. He can also defeat Mario enemies, most notably Bowser who can be anywhere from planet level to sub-galaxy level depending on who you ask. Technically, this is a special mushroom that allows Mario, Luigi, the Toads, and Toadette to transform into Link, but Link scaling to Mario characters is something that will definitely come up again.
Mario Kart 8
Link in Mario Kart gives him the level of skill necessary to operate motor vehicles, including aircraft and underwater machinery. He can also breathe underwater and is unaffected by being in upper atmospheres and in space.
Soul Calibur 2
So here's where things get a bit messy. You see, the SC series is known for having guest characters. So the question is; do we scale Link to Heihachi, Darth Vader and Spawn even though these are technically the “Soul Calibur” versions of these characters?
Judging by the characters’ stories, though non-canon, they are effectively the same characters who have traveled to the SC world. Also, Link technically speaking never fights Spawn in SC, since he was an exclusive character in the GameCube version of the game. But for all intents and purposes, the main roster also fight them both respectively if we're including non-canon material anyway.
Animated Series
Link in the Legend of Zelda animated series had a magic sword that shot beams that teleported enemies into a pocket dimension. He could also fly by placing a bomb underneath his shield and launch himself into the air, and scales to Captain N the Game Master who has MFTL feats.
CDi
Link as he appears in the games for the Phillips CDi, Link:The Faces of Evil and Zelda: Wand of Gamalon.
These sources were by far the most excruciating to research, so I hope you guys understand how dedicated I am to this.
CDi Link has many of the same items he has in the main games, i.e. Arrows, bombs, shield and sword. He also has a Magic Mirror that can reflect damage against enemies, a sword that when combined with a Fire Gemstone shoots fireballs, and some limited cartoon physics, such as “popping” an enemy and making them fly around like a deflating balloon and picking them up after they've been flattened, similarly Zelda was also able to make a boss melt like the Wicked Witch.
Link can also resist hax from CDi Ganon who can “kill with a single look”.
Super Mario RPG
Link and Samus make cameo appearances in this game, though have next to nothing in the way of feats.
Super Smash Bros.
This is probably the first thing you thought of when you saw that this was a composite.
Super Smash Brothers actually has lore, which may come as a surprise. You see, SSB takes place in the Trophy World, a universe created by Master Hand in which popular video game characters can interact with one another in a massive crossover, mostly for fighting competitions, by projecting a piece of their consciousness called “Spirits” into an inanimate life-sized Trophy. By possessing their Trophy, they effectively become that character within that world.
Spirits can be removed from Trophies via being knocked out, or using weapons specifically designed to split Spirits from Trophies, reducing them back to inanimate objects (see Subspace Emmissary).
However, Master Hand puts them all on a level playing field in terms of speed and power to keep these fighting competitions interesting, or at least even enough so that each character can feasibly defeat each other.
The fact that they can all defeat Master Hand, his destructive equivalent Crazy Hand, and more powerful enemies such as Tabuu and Galeem suggest that these stats scale up rather than down for each character to be comparable to one another.
Link fights Mario in Subspace Emmissary cutscenes, who also fights Kirby, that alone putting Smash Link on sub-galaxy level and MFTL speeds, but with the scaling from all other playable characters and the fact that any of them can defeat the final bosses puts Link at Universal + (I say Universal + because he scales to characters like Shulk and Ness, and can defeat Tabuu and Galeem who are above Master Hand but I'd hesitate to call them Multiversal)
Multiple Spirits can possess the same Trophy, and the same Spirit can copy itself and enter multiple Trophies, meaning Link can potentially control multiple Trophies of himself at once, the canon explanation for players choosing the same characters. With 8-player Smash, it's up to 8 Link Trophies at once, though many copies of the same Trophy can exist at once provided there are Spirits to control them.
Robot Chicken Nintendo Special Event
Honestly nothing to write home about for Link, unless of course he scales to the godlike power of Reggie.
Recap
Canon Composite
This is essentially what most people go with in vs matches, scaling multiple Links together from the same continuity.
Though, what isn't universally accepted is his weapons loudout. Death Battle will go with the feats performed in the canon games, but use only the weapons used that reappear in Smash Bros and Soul Calibur as a reference for what would be considered the most iconic equipment.
However, this can be ambiguous as in some games he has boomerangs with magical properties, and other times it's just an ordinary wooden boomerang. He almost always carries explosives, yet sometimes he will have bombs with different properties such as underwater bombs and mobile explosives like bombchus, or infinitely spawning bombs with the Sheikah slate.
Sometimes he has heat resistant tunics, sometimes the tunics reduce damage, sometimes he just does all that on his own.
Here's my take on this: Either use one specific incarnation of Link, or if you're going to canon composite, you might as well commit to that, because I consider all of his end-game equipment to be fair game.
If you think this is a stretch, TotK Link is 23, the oldest and most experienced Link so far, and therefore has the most powerful magic abilities, showing the fullest extent of what a fully matured Link is capable of. Furthermore, he can obtain equipment from previous incarnations, effectively a canon composite himself similar to what I'm doing here.
I understand that can be difficult to compile for a character that's been around since 1986, but that's precisely why I'm compiling them all here for you.
Stats
-Island Level in base form with base weapons, Multicontinental DC and Durability with Great Fairy Sword and Fierce Deity Mask.
(Could be pushed to Moon or even Small Planetoid Level with Null scaling with the highest end estimations taken into account)
-Hypersonic speeds, even in base form due to dodging lightning and Flurry Rush
Hax and Resistances
(These are Link's natural abilities without equipment, which will be listed below)
-Latent supernatural physical strength, often brought out through training or enhancements
-Super speed in both movement and reactions
-Capable of reversing time on a single person or object up to thousands of years
-Can prevent himself from being turned into a spirit by Zant and Ganon, can turn into a Wolf or rabbit instead
-Capable of resisting extreme temperatures such as active volcanoes and frozen tundras
-Capable of killing ghosts, and eating or absorbing souls in some cases
-Can project magic to create energy waves, form fireballs, teleport, or create barriers around himself
-Can see and speak to Spirits, sometimes without the aid of magical items
-Can transform himself or others into different creatures such as fairies and slimes
-Can use magic to increase his agility, physical strength, resilience, and stamina
-Can reflect energy projectiles, sometimes without magical equipment such as the Master Sword
-Can summon Sages and Champions who assist him in battle and grant him abilities such as resurrection, wind gusts, limited flight, water manipulation, damage reflection, electricity projection, and crushing highly durable stones with goron rolling
Weapons and Equipment
-Hero's Tunic: A loose-fitting green tunic that offers some protection and freedom of movement. In some games, the tunics can be enhanced with rings changing their color and doubling defense.
-Champion's Tunic: The blue tunic seen in BotW and TotK. Additional leather padding as opposed to the Hero's Tunic.
-Climbing Gear: Reduces Stamina consumed when climbing walls and mountainous surfaces.
-Gerudo Outfit: Reduces body heat and allows Link to blend in with female society.
-Zora Armor: Allows Link to breathe underwater and improve swimming speed. Can also swim up waterfalls.
-Goron Tunic/Flamebreaker Armor: Allows Link immunity from extreme heat and prevents burning on Death Mountain, which is so hot it can cause people to spontaneously burst into flames.
-Attack Up Armors: Link has various armors in the open world games allowing increased attack strength such as the Barbarian Armor.
-Defense Up Armors: As mentioned before, Link has several armor sets that increase his Defense statistics.
-Leather Armor/Rubber Suit: Prevents damage from lightning and electricity based attacks.
-Skydiving Outfit: Increase Link's mobility while in the air
-Gloombreaker Armor: Allows Link to greatly resist the life-draining affects of Ganon's Gloom
-Majora's Mask: Although drained of its power post-MM, will prevent most enemies from attacking Link and causes NPCs to panic.
-Monster Suits: Outfits allowing Link to disguise himself as monsters, blending in for periods of time.
-Sheikah/Yiga clan outfit: Allows Link heightened stealth and can blend in with the Yiga Clan ninja faction
-Magic Armor: Converts damage taken into currency lost. In BotW/TotK, Link can carry a maximum of 999,999 rupees. The armor drains 3 rupees per second and deducts rupees proportional to damage taken, meaning Link can stay invincible for around 92 minutes, or until someone exceeds the threshold of the armor.
-Magical Cape: Turns Link invisible and intangible for a limited time.
-Sheilds: Link has many types of sheilds including wooden sheilds, bucklers, kite sheilds, tower shields, etc. The original Hylian Shield crafted by the thunder dragon Lanyru is indestructible (at least in context of Zelda continuity), and all other Hylian Sheilds are metal sheilds based on its design and used by Hylian soldiers.
-Mirror Shield: Reflects magic and energy based attacks
-Iron Boots: Allows Link more weighted leverage to avoid getting knocked down by Gorons or other opponents that have a weight advantage over Link. Also allows him to walk on magnetic surfaces and on the floor of bodies of water. Coupled with Zora Armor, he can walk and fight underwater indefinitely.
-Hover Boots: Allow Link to levitate for a limited time
-Pegasus Boots: Allows Link improved super-speed, able to clear Hyrule Field in minutes.
-Wooden Sword: Often carries a wooden sword or tree branch as starting equipment. Though dealing less damage than his actual sword he can still perform killing blows with them, and can use them when prevention of electricity conduction is needed.
-White Sword/Ordon Sword: Link has a collection of shortswords, longswords, greatswords, along with many other melee bladed weapons such as spears and axes
-Razor Sword: A specially made sword that allows Link to deal double damage until 100 strikes are performed with the weapon.
-Gilded Sword: A longer reach sword that deals Razor Sword damage but retains its composition. Is unaffected by time manipulation.
-Ancient Weapons: Energy-based Weapons made with Zonai technology, effectively laser blades and shields, including a laser chainsaw.
-Master Sword: The Blade of Evil's Bane. Contains Light Magic especially effective in defeating evil entities and dark magic. It has more powerful versions such as the Tempered Master Sword enhanced by dwarves, and the Golden Master Sword blessed by a Great Fairy. In TotK the Sword can also regenerate itself and increase its power over time when bathed in light magic. It was carried by Light Dragon Zelda for 10,105 years, producing the most powerful variation of the Master Sword currently in the franchise. It will also drain the health of those who pick it up who don't have the proper physical fortitude or courageous traits that Link does. In Skyward Sword it was also able to seal Demise inside it.
-Great Fairy Sword: Has similar destructive power to Link when in his Fierce Deity form.
-The Four Sword: Has similar evil-slaying properties of the Master Sword while also splitting Link into four identical copies.
-One-Hit Obliterator: A trident of the gods that kills anything in one hit, with the massive drawback that wielding it will cause the user to die immediately from one attack from any source.
-BowWow/Chain Chomp: An actual Chain Chomp that Link can obtain as a pet. Mainly used for destroying walls, burrowing, and sniffing out treasure.
-Hero's Bow: A bow and arrows that can fire Ice, Fire, or Light Arrows when magic is applied. Can also fire explosive arrows. In BotW and TotK, arrows can come pre-enchanted without the need for the user to apply their own magic to them, with the addition of electric Shock Arrows.
-Lynel Bow: An incredibly durable bow that can fire up to 3 arrows at once.
-Ganon's Bow: A highly destructive longbow that deals Gloom damage, draining the life of the target at the cost of Gloom inflicted on the user.
-Silver Arrows: Specialized Arrows that can hit enemies, namely Ganon, while intangible.
-Ancient Arrows: Zonai tech arrows that deal massive damage and have a chance of causing the target to vanish.
-Fire Rod: Effectively a magic flamethrower
-Magic Rod: Fires magic orb projectiles. Also a variant that places blocks in front of Link, providing him cover or a counter-weight to disarm traps and solve puzzles.
-Boomerang: Many boomerangs including wooden and bladed variants, and a magic Boomerang that paralyzes enemies.
-Gale Boomerang: Summons strong gusts of wind and can hone in on multiple targets at once
-Hookshot/Clawshot/Longshot: A chain grappling hook or hooks that allow Link traversal and ranged attacks
-Lense of Truth: Allows Link to see past illusions and in some cases see through walls and inside containers
-The Ocarina of Time: Allows Link to manipulate time, control weather, and teleport. Can also banish evil spirits and create sculptures of himself with the Elegy of Emptiness, though this has little use in combat. Link also has magic flutes from previous games that have similar properties.
-The Wind Waker: Allows Link control of the wind, create warp points, turn night into day, and control people's minds with the Command Melody.
-Shadow Crystal: Allows him to transform into Wolf Link at will
-Food and Elixors: Hylians and by extension Link have access to food and potions that grant special properties including resistances to extreme temperatures, resistance to electrical attacks, Gloom resistance and recovery, increased attack power, multiplied speed, recovery beyond your maximum health, increased stamina, increased durability, glowing in the dark, becoming virtually unnoticeable to enemies, and resurrecting upon death. Link can also throw the materials used to make food and elixirs; throwing a Muddle Bud will cause enemies to attack each other, Dazzlefruit will daze and blind their targets, and Puffshrooms create a cloud of smoke that obscures vision.
-Potions: Link has potions granting several effects including healing potions and magic meter and stamina recovery. Great Fairy Tears and Golden Jelly fully heal as well as double his damage output. Chatteu Romani grants him unlimited magic for 3 days.
-Sheikah Slate/Purah Pad: Basically tablets that can take photographs and have a magical form of GPS tracking. Stores all of Link's collective items into a pocket dimension and can also warp him to set checkpoints. The Sheikah Slate and Purah Pad can also allow Link to change equipment and use healing items or eat food instantaneously. The Sheikah Slate has magic runes that allow control of magnetism, cryokinesis, freezing time on a single target with damage stacking, and producing unlimited bombs. The Purah Pad can also store blueprints and serve as a portable generator for the devices he creates with the Ultrahand, see below.
-Ultrahand: The Ultrahand is Link’s new arm that once belonged to the Zonai King Rauru. Gains TK, can fuse objects together and combine their power, can reverse time with Recall, can recreate any vehicle or device he's seen previously with Autobuild, and has spatial abilities with Ascend.
-Masks: The Transformation Masks allow Link to become the three other main races that occupy Hyrule; Deku, Zora, and Gorons (sorry Rito, you guys didn't exist yet) and unlock each race's magical abilities, including but not limited to enhanced physical strength and speed, limited flight, breathing underwater, and electrokinesis. The Stone Mask allows Link to pass by enemies undetected, and the Mask of Truth allows Link to read the minds of both people and animals. The Giant's Mask allows Link to grow to giant size, and the Fierce Deity Mask of course significantly increases Link's power to the point where he stomps the Multicontinental Majora.
Secondary Canon Composite
The main differences between mainline Link and secondary canon Link come from the manga, where the gameplay elements are cut out, making the story much faster paced with some deviations from the main plot. As a result, without the dungeon crawling and puzzle solving, a lot of emphasis is put on Link's combat prowess. Also while in the games Link explores to obtain equipment that grant him certain abilities and resistances, the manga forgoes this in favor of just giving him these resistances and abilities naturally.
Characters and bosses are significantly scaled up, where they were mcb town level in primary canon, are city to island in the manga.
Depending on the tone of the chapter, he also has some minor toonforce abilities such as hammerspace, squashing and stretching, and some fourth wall breaking.
Link is gifted with his crossbow, able to shoot between gaps in full plate armor and rapidly moving flying creatures, and his weapons have enough destructive capacity to kill boss monsters like Stallord.
Link also has exceptional stamina, able to fight entire garrisons worth of enemies and run through entire battlefields without rest.
Some characters also get major upgrades like Skull Kid creating the world of Termina, which would require more energy than destroying it with an explosion, which Link also scales to. (Meaning with secondary canon you can more feasibly push Link and Zelda to the high ends of Moon or Small planetoid level)
Healing magic can also regenerate severe wounds like lost blood and limbs.
Link in the Four Swords manga has metafictional awareness and manipulation, aware of the manga's readers and can even manipulate the controls of the Four Swords Adventures video game.
The Triforce is also stated to be Omnipotent, though it is not an object that Link can obtain, it only grants one wish upon touching it and then it disperses. It'd be like allowing Goku to gather Dragonballs during his fights. Including this would be tenuous in a VS Battle setting in my opinion, though if it is used it has country-scale reality manipulation. Though, if one would take the Omnipotent statement literally, Link can just wish to defeat any opponent he faces, which is boring as it defeats the purpose of these debates.
Stats:
-Multicontinental to Moon Level/Small Planetoid (due to Skull Kid creating Termina and high end Null scaling)
-Hypersonic speeds from reacting to projectiles and lightning
Hax and Resistances:
-Superhuman athleticism and stamina
-Withstands supernaturally extreme weather such as cold that causes spontaneous freezing to resilient Gorons, and heat that causes spontaneous combustion
-Can resist forced transmutation through willpower
-Built up resistances to poison and paralysis
-Resists soul manipulation
-Resists melting and disintegration
-Minor cartoon physics and metafictional awareness
Equipment:
(For this section, to save time I will list only the changes from the primary canon)
-Deku Sheild: In the manga, Link's Deku Sheild is carved from the Great Deku Tree and can ward off evil.
-According to strategy guides and interviews, the Feirce Deity Mask contains all attributes of all masks in Termina, making it the ultimate “all-in-one” Mask.
-Goron Mask punches generate energy visible from mountain peaks
-Crossbow: Link weilds a crossbow he is exceptionally gifted with and can destroy large boss monsters with it
Full composite
Link's equipment (thankfully for my sake) is much smaller in external media, though he scales to the Soul Calibur cast including other guest characters such as Expanded Universe Darth Vader, Starkiller and Yoda, as well as Heihachi, Spawn, and Kratos.
He also gets scaling to Mario characters and through the use of his Trophies can defeat universal threats such as Master Hand, Tabuu, and Galeem.
Stats
-Universal+ DC and Dura
-MFTL speed
Hax and Resistances
-Can split himself into 8 copies with Trophies, and 4 more with the Four Sword for a total of 12.
-In Smash Bros, he has the Triforce Slash, which immobilizes opponents for a series of rapid strikes.