Each of these lets you carry one Heart. Naturally, the more pots you have, the more hits you can potentially take before you reach game over. You start the game with three or five Heart Pots, and you can find or buy more, up to a maximum of nine, throughout the game like Swap Meet Pete told you: I'm sorry Croc. You are only allowed to have nine! It's the law! Note: thatThat when you die and continue, you will only receive three or five Hearts to play with, no matter how many Heart Pots you're carrying. All of your Heart Pots will be filled when you purchase a new one, or when you collect all 100 crystals from a particular stage.