ReDeads Lead Game Overs, Dark Link, and 20% of New Features on Mobile: What Zelda Notes Reveals in Ocarina of Time on Switch 2
Ten days after the ground-up remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launched worldwide on Nintendo Switch 2 on November 5, the servers powering the Zelda Notes companion service have delivered their first major batch of telemetry. By tracking real-time metrics from connected adventurers across Hyrule, Nintendo has pulled back the curtain on everything from the number-one cause of player "Game Overs" to an ongoing clash with Dark Link, while simultaneously reigniting a heated community debate over how much of the remake's new side content is locked behind a smartphone screen.
ReDeads Cause 18% of All Game Overs as Dark Link Dominates Miniboss Deaths
While the vast majority of connected players have kept their death count between 1 and 10 Game Overs across their playthrough, one classic undead terror continues to claim victims in the ruins of Castle Town Market, the Bottom of the Well, and the Shadow Temple. According to the Global Play Data leaderboard inside Zelda Notes, ReDeads and Gibdos rank as the #1 cause of Game Overs worldwide, accounting for 18% of all recorded player deaths.
That statistic makes plenty of sense given how aggressive these monsters have become in the 2026 rebuild. Even though producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi recently explained why Nintendo toned down the terrifying ReDeads in Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 after an early internal build went "a step too far," their crimson paralyzing glare and newfound ability to sprint straight at Link are still catching nearly one in five fallen heroes off guard.
Among elite encounters, the Water Temple's mirror duel against Dark Link stands out as the miniboss responsible for the most Game Overs globally. That tally has been fueled further by players experimenting with time-attack rematches inside the new Hall of Fallen Foes (unlocked by sleeping in a bed), which logs every practice defeat directly into the app's global counters. When it comes to non-fatal health loss, environmental traps (spinning blades, spikes, boulders, and guillotines) rank as the #1 source of damage taken, followed closely by ReDeads and Gibdos.
Hookshot Dominance, Lenses of Truth, and 1,000 Grass Clumps vs. 100 Smashed Pots
Beyond the death counters, Nintendo's first week of global telemetry paints a vivid picture of everyday player habits on Switch 2, with the most common completion time currently sitting in the 20 to 30+ hours bracket:
| Zelda Notes Global Metric | Current #1 Worldwide | Runner-Up & Community Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Top Game Over Causes | ReDeads & Gibdos (18%) | Most players average between 1 and 10 total Game Overs |
| Deadliest Miniboss | Dark Link (Shadow Link) | Boosted by Water Temple runs and Hall of Fallen Foes rematches |
| Top Damage Sources | Dungeon Traps | Followed closely by ReDead and Gibdo life-drain grabs |
| Most Defeated Enemies | Skulltulas | Driven by the hunt for all 100 Gold Skulltula tokens |
| Most Used Special Item | Hookshot | Ahead of the Fairy Slingshot, Boomerang, and Fairy Bow |
| Most Used Consumable | Deku Seeds | Followed by standard arrows and bombs |
| Top Magic Ability Used | Lenses of Truth | Redesigned as D-pad goggles, ranking ahead of Din's Fire |
| Hyrule Vandalism | 1,000+ Grass Clumps Cut | Versus only 1 to 100 pots smashed for the majority of players |
The surge of the Lenses of Truth to the top of the magic chart is a direct result of the remake's modernized controls: instead of a magnifying glass that had to be manually equipped through pause submenus, the item has been redesigned as wearable goggles mapped straight to the D-pad alongside the Iron Boots. Even more amusing is the contrast in how players hunt for refills: most adventurers have smashed only 1 to 100 clay pots across their entire journey, yet the majority have already sliced through more than 1,000 clumps of grass.
Roughly 20% of New Remake Features Locked to a Phone: Why Zelda Notes Divides Players
While these global leaderboards are fun to browse, they have also reignited a major criticism that has followed the remake since the Zelda: Ocarina of Time Switch 2 Update 1.1.1 patch activated Zelda Notes. After introducing the mobile companion ecosystem with the Switch 2 editions of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom (where fully voiced Voice Memories from Princess Zelda and King Rauru, daily item bonuses, and QR equipment sharing required a smartphone), Nintendo has effectively offloaded roughly 20% of the remake's brand-new side features and completion tools exclusively into the Nintendo Switch App on iOS and Android.
For players who prefer not to keep a smartphone propped up beside them while exploring Hyrule, or those playing in handheld mode on a commute without a constant dual-device connection, skipping the mobile app means missing out on a sizable slice of the 40th-anniversary additions:
- Gossip Quests: This brand-new GeoGuessr-style scavenger hunt sends photo clues to your phone, challenging you to track down exact vistas across Hyrule to earn points for unlockable ocarina sheet music, and cannot be accessed anywhere inside the game itself.
- Real-Time 100% Completion Map: While the new in-game Echo Gem replaces the Stone of Agony to chime near Gold Skulltulas, the live GPS map that tracks Young and Adult Link's exact coordinates and filters missing Pieces of Heart, Gold Skulltulas, and treasure chests is restricted to the phone app.
- Virtual Ocarina Composer & QR Sharing: Composing custom melodies, sharing song sheets via QR codes, and practicing unlockable tunes on a touchscreen (which even clashes with three-finger screenshot gestures on many phones) are locked behind the mobile interface.
- 2,000-Question Trivia, Medals & Stat Logs: Viewing 3D enemy statues from the Hall of Fallen Foes on the go, earning completion medals, browsing automated Today's Record journals, and taking daily quizzes could have easily lived alongside the new Threads of Time tapestry directly inside the Switch 2 pause menu.
Community polling over the first ten days highlights just how polarized players are over this second-screen requirement. Across more than 1,700 players surveyed, 28% state they have zero interest in touching Zelda Notes and another 26% only glance at it occasionally, leaving just 17% who use the companion app as much as possible. Among those who do link their phone, the interactive 100% map is by far the biggest draw (41%), followed by Gossip Quests (22%), personal play data (12%), and the playable virtual ocarina (7%).
My Perspective
I love digging through global player telemetry like this, and seeing that ReDeads still account for 18% of all Game Overs in 2026,or that everyone is mowing down a thousand clumps of grass while ignoring clay pots, genuinely cracked me up. But controller in hand, I completely share the community's frustration over locking so many new toys inside a smartphone app. When I am curled up on the couch playing Ocarina of Time in handheld mode on my Switch 2, the last thing I want to do is pick up my phone every five minutes just to check a Gossip Quest photo clue or cross-reference a missing Gold Skulltula. Back on the Nintendo 3DS or Wii U, the second screen was built right into the hardware in your hands; fencing off roughly a fifth of a remake's new side features behind a separate mobile device creates unnecessary friction that Hyrule simply did not need.
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Based on the outskirts of New York City, Chaya 'Chayane' spent five years studying software engineering in Montreal before returning to her home state. A Full-Stack developer and Deep Learning AI architecture researcher, she explores neural networks and algorithmic optimization while engineering data pipelines for Retrocharting and Gamescharting alongside Grimtag. A gamer for over 20 years and an avid collector of Nintendo history and The Legend of Zelda, she explored World of Warcraft's Azeroth before bringing her deep technical background to video game analysis.
