Arbiter's Grounds


──── 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

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.

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.

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

During the 4th Poe fight it depends on RNG when the Poes decide to circle around you fast. It is possible to eliminate RNG and make them spin immediately by precise movement relative to the position the real Poe is in.

UP = Get out of sand, L-target poe + jump attack

LEFT = L-target poe + sidehop right

DOWN = Neutral B attack

RIGHT = L-target poe + jump 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

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 enter 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


──── Wii/Glitchless ────


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.

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.
Poe1SkipVisualCues

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 stalfos with helm splitter bomb boost

Setup by jeez

Begin waking the back stalfos. Place a bomb on the stone once the stalfos is awake, then backflip, draw sword, and 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.

Final spinner track timesaver

It saves 1 frame if done perfect to get on the ledge and use the spinner from there.

Last updated 01/28/2024 – bewildebeest