Check this ice, son!

Blue Ring: light of my life, fire of my loins.  My sin, my soul...

There's a giant lake in the middle of the Overworld.  If you follow the western edge of this lake northward until you can go no further, you will come across a cave.  Inside this cave is the best magic item in the game.

Fig. 1 - BLING BLING

The Blue Ring, once worn, cuts damage in half.  It's a necessity if you have any ambitions of getting past Level 3, and will make your life infinitely easier if you obtain it prior to delving into Levels 1 and 2.  At 250 rupees, it is by far the most expensive item in the game, but well worth the price.

Fig. 2 - Link makes a bold fashion statement upon donning the Blue Ring

I have to wonder, though, about Hyrulian economics.  It's a strange world in which a piece of bone-in meat costs over 20% the value of a fucking magic ring.  Also, why does a key cost 80 rupees?  Clearly, there is no Home Depot in Hyrule because you can get a key for, like, a dollar.  There are two possible explanations for this discrepancy:

1. Hyrule's currency is on a logarithmic scale (11 is 10x greater than 10, 12 is 100x greater than 10, 13 is 1000x greater than 10, etc.).
2. The game's creators gave little thought to monetary policy, a point made particularly clear by the fact that the maximum number of rupees Link can hold is 2^8.

Given my intense bias in favor of all things Zelda, I will lean on the second first supposition.  In any case, we're finally getting somewhere in LoZ!  I've got the Blue Ring, the White Sword, and a bone to pick with a princess-nabbing lord of darkness.

Let's do this.