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Arbiter's Grounds
For boss and miniboss strategies, see the pages for Death Sword and Stallord.
──── Any%/All Dungeons ────
Enter Arbiter's Grounds as human
Discovered by Giradam
With good aiming and movement it is faster to enter the dungeon as human. Therefore just climb up the stairs. When you enter the dungeon, clawshot up to the pathway on the left after skipping the cutscene and follow the pathway to the chain.
Poe 1 Skip (Pillar Roll method)
Discovered by MrMrMen, setup by Taka
By walking into the back of the pillar in a specific way, it is possible to pop up on top of it and roll jump off onto the platform, skipping the 1st Poe in Arbiter's. It is recommended to have over 1 heart when attempting Poe 1 Skip, as having 1 heart or less makes the frame window for rolling off the pillar smaller.
For this method, LJA towards the pillar (need to use 1 target to make sure the rang comes back in time), then hold forward and item buffer until Link's left leg moves forward. Pull out boomerang and line up your hearts with the pillar in the top left, then cancel and hold forward + mash A
Comprehensive Poe 1 Skip tutorial
Tutorial by bewildebeest
This video goes over the standard method of doing Poe 1 Skip setupless as well as backups.
Poe 2 fast strategy
There is a fast strat for the second poe where you enter the room as a wolf and deal with the bubbles during the fight. To do this jump attack the poe as soon as you can target it, this will make the poe attack sooner. Start a B-charge quicker after to get the first hit before the bubbles can make their way over. After this quickspin the bubbles while waiting for the poe to become vulnerable, when it is just use a B attack to knock it down and then finish it while the bubbles are still jumping around.
Speed Rat
After returning from Poe 2, you are able to manipulate the rat in the room below to interrupt the switch pushing animation by attacking the player. This lets the player run towards the exit while the door is opening. This trick is precise, and also may be impossible to hit if the rat falls down at certain spots.
Poe 3 Room backwards strat
Discovered by sva161620
After Poe 1 Skip you can enter the Poe 3 room backwards. To be able to kill off the redead and stalkins quickly, you can use Midna Charge in combination with precise movement. It is also possible to make killing the redead safer/easier by first targeting it, attacking with A, and biting it one time then launching off of it, making it so that only one hit via Midna charge is needed to kill it.
Stalfos with bomb before Poe 4
Method by Adam
Using a bomb in the boomerang to kill the stalfos is faster than using the ball & chain. However, it's not much faster, and it can be better to use ball & chain if bombs aren't already equipped and/or bombs need to be conserved.
Consistent poe 4 slow phase
Discovered by Dragonbane
After the poe's first attack, the actions listed below will manipulate the poe to skip its slow spinning phase and immediately start spinning quickly to begin another attack. There is no known way to manipulate the number of times it spins quickly in either cycle.
UP = Get out of sand, L-target poe + jump attack
LEFT = L-target poe + sidehop right
DOWN = Neutral B attack
RIGHT = L-target poe + forward B attack ASAP
Poe 4 faster second phase
Discovered By ZachLink99 / DeanMachine42
Stand on the edge of the ground shown in the video.
Count 4 poes then Jump Attack the front poe when its in the left half of the door.
If poe's keep spinning, reposition, count 3 poes, Jump Attack again, repeat as needed.
If the poe's stop and it doesn't hit the front, check the back poe, Jump Attack it.
If its not the back poe, wait half a second and spin attack for the two side poes
Alternative Safe Attack for Side Poe RNG
Discovered by Nimzo
Taking advantage of Link's invincibility during his forward B-attack, the poe's attack can be avoided entirely, allowing for an easier spin attack or B-attack right after, mitigating the risk of getting hit and having to wait through another cycle.
Faster rupee route (skipping 20R chest)
Routed by Adam
Using various rupee sources obtainable quickly throughout the run, skipping the 20R chest in AG is both possible and faster (by about 5s). The clips shown in the video demonstrate the necessary movement and backups.
Boss Key Early (Clipping)
Head to the left (GCN) in the large room after the Four Poe room. Turn into a wolf, and get by the pillar. Face the acute angle between it and the wall, and press B repeatedly (GCN) to clip through the pillar, and climb up to the Boss Key. This also allows for you to get to the Death Sword battle quicker if you proceed through the door and spinner track room.
Full Human Movement after Boss Key
Discovered by ZachLink99
This movement is fairly advanced. It saves 10 seconds but requires hitting a brakeslide.
After getting the Boss Key Chest roll and entering the door, sidehop off of the railing and roll over the other railing at the bottom. Either rollstab to get through the sand or do a brakeslide. Enter the door on the furthest left side, roll, sidehop, jump attack. Roll onto the railing and autoroll upleft, then do a brakeslide in the sand to get to land.
LJA after Boss Key to Heart Piece (obsolete)
It is possible in the room before the Boss Key (after in 100%) to target the ceiling so that the boomerang is above the spinner railing allowing you to LJA over onto the platform OoB and get to the heart piece faster. After the boss key L-Roll to stay centered and open the door, then L-roll twice more for a consistent position. Finally target where shown in the video and LJA as soon as possible.
Spinner room movement (glitchless)
Fastest stalfos with bombs
Method by ZachLink99
After entering the room, make your way across the sand with the human movement, or as wolf. Transform if wolf, and jump off the edge. Pull a bomb in the air, and B drop it in the darker ground texture. B drop another bomb for the next stalfos, then go near the first bomb to get the stalfos to stop in place. Roll towards the gate.
Stalfos with B&C
Method by SVA16162
First go to the far stalfos to wake him up then go back to the middle of the room on the edge of the quick-sand. Wait a little bit then start walking backwards with the B&C by holding L to kill the 2 behind you, finally throw the B&C to kill the last stalfos and start making your way to the gate
──── 100% ────
Shorten poe 1 cutscenes
After targeting poe 1 with senses on, a short cutscene will play. Moving underneath the poe shortly before targeting it can shorten the cutscene by a few frames; a neutral B attack is a good option.
After killing poe 1, a cutscene plays wherein its flame flies to its designated torch. If the poe dies far enough away, the flame will stop moving for a second or two during the cutscene before resuming its path, but if the poe dies close to the torch, then the flame reaches the torch before it gets to the pause. Including the movement to the dirt patch afterwards, this saves about 2 seconds done well. To do this, lure the poe towards the stairs between cycles. Note that luring the poe too far from its starting position will cause it to fly back home.
──── Wii/Glitchless ────
Fast chain pulls
Releasing the control stick to neutral shortly after Link begins pulling a chain will cause him to finish the animation early and not move backwards. This makes it possible to pull chains without pushing the blocks.
Chandelier Skip 2 bomb boost (Wii/Glitchless method)
Theorized by Draconif/Habreno, Discovered by pokemongenius
From the chain side of the chandelier, stand on the edge of the raised ledge and use a bomb combined with a jumpslash to boost onto the edge of the chandelier.
Setup for GCN
- Climb in the corner with the block
- Pull a bomb
- Enter first person
- Aim upwards as shown in the video (can use clawshot target on right wall as visual cue)
- Hold L and mash B to slash once
- Roll towards the chandelier platform
- Time pressing B near the end of the jump to bomb boost
Duplicate Poe souls (Wii)
Note: This only works on NTSC-U 1.0, and PAL Wii versions.
After knocking down and jumping on one of the poes, you can pause and savewarp away when link backflips off the poe. This will count towards your poe count, but the poe will remain when you travel back to it. (This only works on AG poes).
Boss Key Early (Roll Stab)
Discovered by DF
It is possible to make it over the sand hole with a roll stab and then quickly turning wolf on the other side and doing a B-attack before you get stuck.
──── Unused/TAS/Misc. ────
Chain pull cancel
Discovered by Giradam
Pull sword on last possible frame. The free time you have to move is equal to the animation of Link when he finishes pulling the chain.
Poe 1 Skip ('Camless' method)
Discovered by MrMrMen, Setup by Taka
Align and LJA towards pillar as the video does. Hold Up-right after landing, then Item Buffer until Link is standing on top of the pillar (the higher the better). Close the Item Wheel, then Hold Forward and Roll immediately
Poe 1 Skip (Backflip Pillar Jump method)
Discovered by Venick
It is possible with really precise movement to skip getting the 1st Poe in Arbiters and therefore complete the first half of the dungeon backwards. After the backflip the fourth Poe Soul gets collected first.
To do this you enter the leftsided room after the Poe Cutscene and backflip of the pillar in the sand in a really precise angle.
Note that this is very hard to do but can save around 1 minute for Any%.
There are good visual cues for Poe 1 Skip by SVA, but they are still dependent on position, angle and control stick direction.
Setup for backflip (barely used)
Discovered by Dragonbane
There is a semi-consistent setup by Dragonbane. The first cues and the LJA are completely consistent, but the final cue is really hard to pull off while being in Quicksand. With this setup Poe 1 Skip still saves around 40 seconds.
Fast moldorm kill before Poe 1 Skip
Discovered by Adam
The Moldorms in the Poe 1 skip room can attack you from the quicksand and therefore disturb your Poe 1 skip attempts. To prevent that, you can simply kill them. By using a bomb its easy to kill or at least distract them without wasting too much time.
Chandelier Skip 1 (GCN only)
Discovered by LogitechSDAZ
In the chandelier room with with the spikes, get to the other side of the room and pull the large metal box once. Walk up the stairs, and get on the ledge to your right. Pull out the boomerang, and target above the left side of the doorway. Now use a Long Jump to get onto the chandelier.
Alternative method from the right side (GCN only)
It is also possible to skip the chandelier from the right side. The target is not precise at all, just make sure you are standing on the edge of the step.
If done quickly this is the faster method.
Chandelier Skip 2 (GCN only)
Discovered by YautjaElder
In the second chandelier room, make your way down to the chain you would normally have to pull to raise the chandelier. Pull out the Gale Boomerang, and target above the left side of the door. Now just use a Long Jump to get across the gap. If you stand closer to the chandelier no moldorms should be able to hit you.
Chandelier Skip 2 alternate method (GCN only)
Discovered by SVA
From when you first enter the room, transform human and jump attack onto the railing at the right end next to the wall. Next LJA onto the chandelier by targeting at the back of the black square. You should slide into the chandelier where you can simply roll to the door. This has been timed to be one second slower but the advantage is moldorms can't get you
Poe 3 Redeads fast strategy
Discovered by Logitechsdaz
With the ball & chain there is a fast strategy that can be used to quickly kill the Redeads by the 3rd poe. It involes using the boomerang to stun the redead which will delay the scream that stuns you, it is also handy that if you are stunned by a Redead when the boomerang hits the Redead on the way back you will be able to move again.
1) Roll up to the first redead
2) Quick throw the boomerang towards the first redead - This will allow you to move once it comes back to you
3) Throw the ball & chain at the redeads
Poe 4 with Rare Chu Jelly
After the poes start spinning, transform and drink the Jelly, then transform Wolf and use Midna charge to kill the poe.
Skip triple stalfos
Helm splitter bomb boost method
Setup by jeez
Begin waking the back stalfos. Place a bomb on the stone once the stalfos is nearly awake, then backflip (target before the stalfos is fully awake and targetable), release target and draw sword, and then shield bash the stalfos three times into a position between the bomb and the upper ledge. Time a helm splitter to boost up onto the ledge.
Backslice moon boots method
Setup by jeez
Rollstab towards the back wall to break one or two skulls on the ground to avoid accidentally trying to pick them up. With Link roughly facing the wall, begin holding target; targeting a stalfos makes the trick difficult or impossible, so continue holding target across attempts. Sidehop onto the small block and use backslice moon boots to reach the upper ledge. With good A press timing, it is possible to begin the sideroll from the initial sidehop as shown in the first example in the video below.
If you do target one of the stalfos, you can either kill the stalfos and go through the room normally or spin attack them until they fall down and are no longer targetable, then retry the moon boots.
Final spinner track timesaver
It saves 1 frame if done perfect to get on the ledge and use the spinner from there.
