Non-canon warning: This article or section contains non-canonical information that is not considered to be an official part of the Legend of Zelda series and should not be considered part of the overall storyline.
Arwings are enemies from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. These enemies do not appear regularly in the game, but appear only when the proper GameShark codes are applied. Regarding the Arwing's purpose, common theories are that the Arwing is an easter egg for fans to stumble upon, an experimental actor designed for testing various aspects of the game engine, or purely a cameo on the game designers' behalf for their own amusement. The true purpose was revealed in June 2011; the movement patterns for the boss Volvagia were the same as how an enemy fighter tails an Arwing in Star Fox 64. The Arwing was inserted as a placeholder, so the developers could mimic the behavior, and simply switch the model.
Overview[]
Link battling an Arwing
While present in the game's coding and fitted with a fully operational artificial intelligence, Arwings never appear during the course of normal gameplay. They can only be accessed through hacking; the easiest ways are through a code which causes the Spin Attack to spawn Arwings, or through "Actor Modification", which can replace an "actor" (game object) such as an non-player character or bush, with another actor.
The Arwing is quite small, appearing only slightly larger than a Keese. It features twin laser cannons that fire in Link's direction whenever the Arwing is facing him. These lasers can be blocked and will not cause the Deku Shield to burn. The Arwing relies on a hit-and-run tactic that involves flying toward Link to attack and falling back at great speed. It can fly at varying altitudes and can even venture underwater unhindered. Unlike most enemies encountered in the game, the Arwing has no fade-in routine and will remain active and visible on-screen even when it is very far away from Link.
The Arwing can be destroyed with weapons such as the Boomerang, the Fairy Bow, or even Link's sword. Upon defeat, it will catch fire and plummet to the ground, where it explodes in spectacular fashion. The blast may cause splash damage to Link.
Gameshark Code[]
The following codes were tested and worked successfully on a ROM of Ocarina of Time version 1.0. The codes are written so that they may be copied and pasted directly. See the References section at the bottom of the page for more Actor Modification codes.[1]
This code replaces the sign next to Link's House with an Arwing, but only in child Link's timeline:
81244424 013B
81244432 0001
This code replaces Link's regular Spin Attack with an Arwing generator. However, it will not work in Hyrule Field, and it must be deactivated if Link needs access to the Equipment subscreen:
8138E03A 013B
Please note that Zeldapedia cannot guarantee the effectiveness of codes provided by its users.
Origin[]
The Arwing is the primary attack craft used by the Star Fox Team in the Star Fox series. Substantially larger than they appear in Ocarina of Time, these maneuverable one-man attack fighters are flown in the majority of missions in the series. Arwings can fire single laser blasts, double laser blasts, and plasma laser blasts, along with a plethora of other types, according to Star Fox Command. The Arwing's model for Ocarina of Time is based off its appearance in Star Fox 64 for the Nintendo 64.
Non-canon warning: Non-canonical information ends here.