Cannon (The Legend of Zelda franchise)

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Cannon
Link utilizing a cannon in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
General information
Effect	Firing cannonballs or Bombs Enemy Weapon used by Vah Medoh (Breath of the Wild)
Appearances
First appearance	The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002)
Other appearances	Four Swords Adventures Twilight Princess Phantom Hourglass Spirit Tracks Skyward Sword Breath of the Wild Hyrule Warriors Legends

Cannons are recurring weapons in the The Legend of Zelda franchise. They have the ability to damage enemies from long distances, but can usually only be used in a boat or on a stationary device. Cannons first appear in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Appearances

The Legend of Zelda series

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Link can only use the Cannon in conjunction with bombs while sailing on his boat. This tactic is effective in fighting off several ocean-dwelling foes, particularly Warships. Because the Cannon is run solely by Bombs, it is limited by Link's supply of them. In the remake, the Cannon displays its payload's trajectory, allowing Link to aim more accurately.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, a group of cannons is found at the beginning of The Field. The cannons are operated by Hyrule Guards and shoot fireballs instead of cannonballs. Link must guide Malon past the group of cannons to progress.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, several cannons can be found strewn around Snowpeak Ruins, along with cannonballs. In order to fire a Cannon, Link must place a cannonball inside the cannon and ignite it via any bomb other than a Bombling. The Cannon fire is strong enough to destroy tough ice obstacles such as Freezards. Once Link obtains the Ball and Chain, he can use this to destroy frozen obstacles instead, but the cannons still aids in destroying far-away enemies. If Link is hit by his own cannon shot he will lose all of his hearts, which will result in a Game Over if he does not have any Fairies to revive him. If Link is hit while wearing the Magic Armor, he will instead lose all of his Rupees, but he will survive.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

In The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, soon after joining Linebeck on his ship, Link will be able to purchase a Cannon at Cannon Island from Eddo for fifty Rupees. The Cannon is able to fire an endless supply of cannonballs. It can be fired when the player taps the touch screen with the stylus. The Cannon is essential for advancing through walls of rock and ice, defeating the Big Eye Plant and Sky Whale in the World of the Ocean King, and for defeating the Ghost Ship after Bellum possesses it. There are eight different Cannons that can be customized as one of eight pieces of Linebeck's ship.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

In The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, the Spirit Train features a cannon that can fire at targets when Link is traveling. Link obtains the Cannon near the beginning of the game from Alfonzo at Aboda Village. The player can shoot at enemies with the cannon merely by tapping on them, and has infinite ammo. The concept is mostly the same as the S.S. Linebeck's cannon and is also used to defeat three Rocktites. When underwater, the cannon fires torpedoes. There are eight different Cannons that can be customized as one of eight pieces of the Spirit Train.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Link aiming the Motorboat's Cannon in Skyward Sword

In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, while traversing the Lanayru Sand Sea, Link seeks the aid from a nearby robot, LD-301N Skipper, who owns a Motorboat powered by a Timeshift Stone. Skipper's boat sports a cannon which Link can use to remove obstacles (like Barrel Mines) and defeat enemies (Water Spumes, Bokoblin Archers, and Craniocs) that appear in the Timeshifted sea of Lanayru while aboard the boat. It is also used to gain access to the Sandship dungeon, as three shots from the cannon are required to disable the Sandship's cloaking ability. Like the Cannons in Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks it has unlimited ammunition.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link encounters three different types of cannons during his quest, though only one of these types can actually be used by Link as a weapon.

Goron Cannons

In the Eldin province, Link finds that the Gorons have constructed Cannons in various areas which they use for defense and presumably for removing rumble and mining. These cannons are stationary though they can be rotated using a lever, allowing them to be fired in another direction. Link can fire them by dropping a round Remote Bomb into its chamber, thus they function is identical to the Cannons from Twilight Princess, though Link does not have to load cannonballs into them. During the "Divine Beast Vah Rudania" quest, Link learns that the elderly Goron Patriarch Bludo and Goron Champion Daruk's descendant Yunobo have been using these cannons to drive off the Divine Beast Vah Rudania to keep it from leaving Death Mountain and destroying Goron City in Eldin Canyon. It is revealed that the normal cannonballs used by the Gorons have no effect on the Divine Beast which was created via Ancient Sheikah technology which is far more advanced and high-tech compared to the Goron's low tech industrial technology. Fortunately, Bludo and Yunobo devised a way to use cannons to combat the Divine Beast, by taking advantage of Yunobo's ability to use Daruk's Protection and natural Goron ability to curl up into a ball. Bludo would fire Yunobo out of a cannon while he was using Daruk's Protection, which made Yunobo invulnerable to harm. It is implied that the protective barrier produced by Daruk's Protection combined with the kinetic energy of him being fired from the cannon (and possibly Yunobo's status as Daruk's descendant as it is implied by the Rito Elder Kaneli that only a Champion or descendant of one can tame and control the Divine Beasts) was enough to harm the Divine Beast enough to drive it off. As a result, Bludo and Yunobo where able to keep the Divine Beast contained on Death Mountain, though had to keep driving off the beast. However combating the beast even with the aid of cannon technology caused the elderly Bludo's back pain to flare up which made it impossible for him to fire the cannon and forced the Goron Patriarch to rely on painkillers to keep on fighting. However their supply eventually ran out and Yunobo was forced to go to the Abandoned North Mine to search its store room for more painkillers. Link finds Bludo waiting for Yunobo to return and he asks Link to see what is taking Yunobo so long. Link finds several cannons in the mine which he can use to attack enemies and clear paths. The cannonballs are powerful enough to destroy a the skull-shaped enemy base located in the area and can easily kill enemies such as Lizalfos and Bokoblins. Link finds that Yunobo has become trapped in the supply room by some rumble which he can remove with a nearby cannon. Yunobo thanks Link for freeing him and returns to Goron City with the painkillers so he and Bludo can drive the Divine Beast off once more. Link returns to Bludo who rewards him with 3 Fireproof Elixirs and is about to leave to go drive off Vah Rudania with Yunobo, when his back gives out despite the painkillers, forcing Bludo to cancel and he asks Link to tell Yunobo. Link finds Yunobo being attacked by Moblins at the cannon near the Bridge of Eldin. After defeating them, Yunobo thanks him but is disheartened to learn that the painkillers didn't work and thus all his hard work to get them was in vain. As he is about to go home, Link asks him to wait and manages to convince Yunobo to help him get inside Vah Rudania so he can free it. Though Yunobo is reluctant, he ultimately agrees to help Link, however he points out that Bludo raised Bridge of Eldin to prevent Vah Rudania from leaving Death Mountain. Link uses the cannon to fire Yunobo at the bridge to lower the it allowing them to venture further up Death Mountain. Link and Yunobo will find other cannons during their journey which Link can use to fire Yunobo at the Divine Beast which will eventually damage it enough Link to enter it, though Link must deal with enemies and Vah Rudania's Sentries while guiding Yunobo along the way, thus these cannons prove essential to enabling Link to enter Vah Rudania and freeing it from Fireblight Ganon's control.

Akkala Citadel Cannons

In addition to the cannons used by the Gorons, the Akkala Citadel had smaller more conventional cannons which Hyrulean Soldiers and Knights of Hyrule stationed there could use to defend the Citadel from attack, implying that the Citadel was an imposing fortress 100 years prior to the events of Breath of the Wild and may explain why the Knights of Hyrule and Hyrulean Soldiers who survived the fall of Hyrule Castle during the Great Calamity chose to flee there as its cannons would make defending the Citadel easier and provide them fire power capable of damaging Guardians which unlike Divine Beasts are shown to be susceptible to damage from conventional weaponry such as axes, swords, spears, hammers, boomerangs, arrows, and Bomb Arrows though Guardians are extremely resistant due to being more technologically advanced and tend to reduce the durability of melee weapons and bows, while most arrows (with the exception of high-tech Ancient Arrows) only inflict minor damage thus a lot of arrows would be required to take one down. As a result cannonballs fired by these cannons either had to be stronger than Bomb Arrows (like the cannonballs fired by Goron made Cannons) and/or used together in a coordinated bombardment to cause enough damage to destroy or damage a Guardian enough to put one out of commission. The presence of these cannons may also explain the number of broken and defeated Guardians in Torin Wetland near the Citadel, as they may have been taken out by the citadel's cannons during the Hyrulean army's last stand against Calamity Ganon's forces. However ultimately these cannons where not enough to save the Citadel from being overrun by the Guardian Stalkers and Guardian Skywatchers and the Citadel was destroyed leaving the Akkala Citadel in ruins. 100 years after the Great Calamity, Link finds these cannons mounted in various areas of the Akkala Citadel Ruins, though they are now derelict and inoperable, now serving as a silent reminder of military might the Kingdom of Hyrule possessed before it fell during the Great Calamity. It also serves as an indicator of the level of technology that the Kingdom of Hyrule possessed, after its people rejected the more advanced ancient technology developed Sheikah due to fears of it being misused after Calamity Ganon's defeat 10,000 years before the events of Breath of the Wild.

Vah Medoh

These are not the only cannons Link encounters as the Divine Beast Vah Medoh is equipped with four Cannons which make approaching the Divine Beast difficult. During the quest "Divine Beast Vah Medoh", Link learns from the Rito Elder Kaneli that two Rito, Teba and Harth ignored Kaneli's warnings about approaching the Divine Beast and where attacked by the Divine Beasts cannons, which managed to hit and injure Harth, though Teba managed to evade them and escaped with the injured Harth. Leaving Harth in Rito Village, Teba goes to the Flight Range to train and gather supplies to attack Vah Medoh again. Fortunately, Link arrives and speaks to Kaneli who believes Link to be a descendant of the Hylian Champion after dismissing the idea of the Hylian Champion's survival and requests he aid the Rito in calming Vah Medoh as Kaneli states that the Divine Beast can only be controlled by a Champion or a descendant of one. He tells Link to seek out Teba, believing that Link will be able to reach the Divine Beast with Teba's assistance. After proving himself to Teba at the Flight Range, Teba agrees to aid Link. However they must destroy Vah Medoh's cannons in order to get near the beast. Teba suggests Link use Bomb Arrows to destroy the Cannons while Teba distracts it. Unless Link has a powerful Bow, he must shoot each cannon twice to destroy them. Link successfully manages to destroy the Cannons though Teba is injured while drawing Vah Medoh's fire, thus Link must enter the Divine Beast alone while Teba returns to Rito Village. These cannons are implied to be more advanced as they are part of the Divine Beast which was created using Sheikah technology. Presumably the cannons where originally intended to be used to combat Calamity Ganon and where likely used against him and his forces during the battle that lead to Calamity Ganon's defeat and sealing 10,000 years before Breath of the Wild.

Hyrule Warriors Legends

Promotional render of the Spirit Train equipped with its Cannon from Hyrule Warriors Legends

In Hyrule Warriors Legends, the Cannon appears as one of the Item Cards on the Great Sea Adventure Mode map and is used to destroy enemy ships. The Cannon item card also appears on the Master Wind Waker DLC Map and the Grand Travels DLC Map. In Legends Mode, Link (and Tetra) can fire the Cannons on docked Warships by hitting a nearby switch with the Hammer item. The Spirit Train's Cannon from Spirit Tracks appears as one of the combos for Toon Link's Sand Wand moveset.

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