Arbiter's Grounds

For boss and miniboss strategies, see the pages for Death Sword and Stallord.

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──── Any%/All Dungeons ────

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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. An autoroll is required at the end, and they are fast to use throughout.

Poe Gate Clip

setup by Maddie

See notes on displacement clip setups. Poe Gate Clip is over a minute faster than Poe Gate Skip done well and is far easier. It requires blue rupee text to be available, so retrying the trick after getting blue rupee text requires saving and reloading.

1. From the position at the end of the cutscene, roll right twice to the right side of the light grey area (not precise)
2. Aim the boomerang so the vertical lines of the reticle align with the left side of the leftmost pot and throw to pick up the pot (see notes below)
3. Run towards the gate and try to align Link to face north; running on the line on the ground can help
4. Sword drop the pot around the intersection of the two lines shown and roll
5. Make Link face due south by turning around (angle 0) and pull out the sword while turning around
6. Backflip into the gate and put on the iron boots during the backflip (z = -3390.9861)
7. Turn 180
8. ESS iron boots backhop and begin holding B midair to quickly charge a spin attack (z = -3265.9861)
9. Release the spin attack (z = -3365.2061); be sure not to abridge the animation by moving the control stick off of neutral too early, or to equip clawshot over iron boots to early and affect the distance achieved
10. Turn 180
11. Without aiming side to side at all, aim the boomerang so the horizontal lines of the reticle align with the bottom of the pot and throw to pick up the pot without affecting Link's coordinates (see notes below)
12. C-up, aim all the way down, and c-up cancel twice (y-angle 5625)
13. Press B to pull the sword and clip into the gate (z = -3424.9988 if the clip was successful; if not, restart from step 4)
14. Break the pot with the clawshot
15. Grab the rupee with the clawshot, pressing L between shooting the clawshot and it reaching the rupee so the camera turns the right way
16. Close the textbox as soon as possible (see notes below) and backflip or roll to the load zone; the safest way to do this is to mash A to close the text (to avoid accidentally slashing with B) while holding L and up-right

Notes

• When throwing the boomerang to pick up the pot from its initial position, aiming too far left will cause the pot to break on the wall, and aiming too far right will also pick up the next pot over, which has a green rupee in it. Link will catch the pot soonest if he's facing it. Stand clear of the statues to avoid letting the pot smash, especially if the pot is caught near the outside of the boomerang and is spinning in a wide arc.
• When Link catches the pot from the boomerang in step 10, the pot will push him away from the wall if the combination of the pot's position and the vertical angle when throwing the boomerang are incorrect. There are multiple combinations that work consistently, and what's described in the written steps above is one of them.
• When Link presents the rupee to the camera, he oscillates between a higher and a lower position. The textbox needs to be closed while he's at the lower position to successfully clip.
  • If clawshotting the rupee: On English, closing the text box on any of the first 9 possible frames will successfully clip; on French, that window is 10 frames; on German, closing the text within the first two possible frames will not leave Link clipped. If you don't close the text box right away, you can still clip by timing pressing A or B within a repeating 15 frame window around when Link is in the part his animation cycle where he quickly pops between up and down.
  • If boomeranging the rupee: this lines up with mashing to close the text box for almost all languages, with Italian being the exception as shown here

Playlist of setups/videos made around the time of the trick's discovery here

Boss Key Early

autoroll method

discovered by Draconif

This method is faster than the wolf clip method if entering the area as human as shown here.

Jump into the sand and autoroll to the right around the pillar. Unfortunately, as there's no known way to climb out of the sand pit as human, transforming to wolf and B attacking out of the sand is required to climb out.

wolf clip method

This method is faster than the autoroll method if already in wolf form.

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.

With a well timed B attack from the solid platform right before Link would jump down into the sand, it is possible to instantly clip past the pillar. If you're having trouble getting through the pillar, it can help to chain two B attacks, as the animation for the second part of a combo is different from the first.

Full Human Movement after Boss Key

Discovered by ZachLink99

This movement saves 10 seconds and requires a brakeslide. After getting the boss key early and entering the door, sidehop off of the railing and roll over the other railing at the bottom. To get the sidehop, hold L and up to begin walking on the railing before switching to holding left and pressing A. Either brakeslide or drop and jump to the next door. Enter the door on the furthest left side, roll, sidehop, jump attack. Roll jump onto the railing and autoroll upleft, then do a brakeslide in the sand to get to land. If you fail this brakeslide, transform wolf quickly and B attack to land; if you transform too late, Link will drown immediately.

Backup for failing sidehop

This path is around 4s slower than the ideal path.

Triple Stalfos Skip with step clip

Discovered by bewildebeest

First person method by qwerty

A step clip with a skull can be used to clip out of bounds and clawshot to Death Sword without killing the three stalfos and opening the gate. Aiming in first person is not required, but with this method, the control stick input and B press don't need to be timed relative to each other, as the B press both exits first person and draws the sword to accomplish the clip.

1. Get across the sand as wolf or human; if crossing as human with sword out, try to put sword away while getting out of the sand
2. Pick up a skull
3. Walk to the wall in the sand, aiming Link roughly perpendicularly to the solid ground
4. Target walk right into the wall a little (not always needed) and move Link close enough to the solid ground that it will push him away once he sinks low enough
5. C-up and aim the left point of the skull at the stairs (not precise; see image below for rough working range)
6. After the solid ground pushes Link away (camera shifts slightly), begin holding up and press B repeatedly (directly from c-up) to step clip and jumpslash; the time window to do this is large

Notes:

• On Wii, aim upwards after step 5. This is because unlike GameCube, the vertical angle doesn't get stuck here when holding up on the control stick, meaning if done normally then holding up will make Link's vertical angle be too low by the time the sword is drawn. Aiming a little bit upwards (not precise) offsets the difference, such that by the time the sword is drawn, Link's vertical angle is close to straight ahead. Note that on Wii, it's faster to skip the stalfos with a 3pcc.
• Another way of putting the sword away before picking up the skull is pulling out a bomb after crossing the sand, then sword dropping it by the skull and picking up the skull before the sword comes out. This uses a bomb, but if done correctly, the bomb will kill the two nearby stalfos, making it possible to retry the trick if failed without spending more time killing the stalfos. Using a bomb is generally not recommended, but is demonstrated in the second video below.
• If Link has enough scarabs on him that he trudges on solid ground, then he will fall faster after clipping and void out unless the facing angle is nearly parallel with the wall; this will only be the case after multiple failed attempts.
• Using the skull shown in the video is about 3f faster than using the skull straight ahead because Link can reach the sand to start sinking sooner.

Demonstration on Wii

Visual cue

The exact bounds depend on Link's exact position, but the green lines shown here are a safe estimate of the range in which the circled point of the skull can be for the step clip to work.

Third person method

This method is no faster or slower than the first person method, but it is generally not preferred because it doesn't allow for fine tuning Link's angle in first person while sinking and has an added timing component.

1. Get across the sand as wolf or human
2. Pull a bomb as soon as possible after getting out of the sand (this is optional - see note above about using a bomb)
3. At the skull shown in the video, sword drop the bomb and then immediately press A to pick up the skull before the sword comes out
4. Walk to the wall in the sand
5. Turn Link to be roughly parallel to the flat part of the wall or slightly angled in the direction the wall curves and target before the stalfos become targetable; angling too far left won't clip, and too far right will void
6. Target walk right into the wall a little
7. Stand close enough to the solid ground that the ground pushes Link away visibly when he sinks low enough
8. After this push, hold up, then press B 2 or 3 frames afterward (2f window) to drop the skull and step clip (video shows releasing target, which is not required)
9. Continue holding L while Link pulls the sword to automatically jumpslash once the sword is out (if releasing target for some reason, mash B to jumpslash)

Comparison to killing stalfos with bombs

Demonstration on Wii

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

Epic spinner room movement

With good movement, the blade trap cycle at the end will line up to allow exiting the room with no delay, whether the bomb chest is needed or not. These two videos show different methods of approaching the final spinner rails, but they are essentially equivalent. Note that during the spinner jumps at the final rail section, it saves 5f to hold forward during the jumps.

without bomb chest

Some alternative movement options

with bomb chest

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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.

Poe 1 Skip (Pillar Roll method)

Discovered by MrMrMen

Note that this trick was discovered and named well before Poe Gate Skip existed. It is still useful even after killing Poe 1.

By walking into the back of the pillar in a specific way and while Link is at a specific height in the sand, 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.

Tutorial by bewildebeest

This video goes over the standard method of doing Poe 1 Skip setupless as well as backups.

setup by Taka

For this method, LJA towards the pillar (for this method, 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.

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 the way shown in the video below. However, this is not perfectly consistent, as the direction each stalkin walks after Link enters the room is RNG. 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.

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Poe Gate Clip on Wii

setup by bdamja & Maddie

See notes on displacement clip setups. Poe Gate Clip is over a minute faster than Poe Gate Skip done well and is far easier. It requires blue rupee text to be available, so retrying the trick after getting blue rupee text requires saving and reloading. The method that GCN uses is possible on Wii, but isn't recommended due to requiring manual aiming because of c-up cancels not being possible on Wii.

1. From the position at the end of the cutscene, roll left twice to the right side of the light grey area (not precise)
2. Aim the boomerang directly above the rightmost pot and throw it, then wait for it to return to catch the pot
3. Run towards the middle gate and try to align Link to face north
4. At the top of the stairs near the middle of the gate, drop the pot by equipping clawshot to B and immediately rolling (it won't actually equip if you roll quickly enough)
5. Make Link face due south by turning around (angle 0) and pull out the sword while turning around
6. Backflip into the gate and put on the iron boots during the backflip (z = -3390.9861)
7. Hold ESS left (with iron boots, ESS is very lenient), then target and do a slash. Continue holding the stick angle after to "abridge" the slash (z = -3335.0288)
8. Do the same thing as step 8, but with a right slash (z = -3284.1272)
9. With a neutral position on the stick, hold target and do a slash, and then hold either ESS left or ESS right to abridge it (z = -3229.3062)
10. ESS iron boots backhop (z = -3354.3062)
11. During the backhop, equip an item over boots to force unequip it. Alternatively, simply unequip the iron boots normally after landing
12. With a neutral position on the stick, do a slash without targeting (z = -3352.2739)
13. Aim down in first person, take out the boomerang, and then throw it at the intersection on the ground shown in the video
14. Aim close enough to due south in first person, then do turnarounds until you're confident Link is facing due north
15. Enter first person, shake the Wiimote to drop the pot with sword, then 2-7f later, target and sidehop to the left (z = -3424.9954 if the clip was successful; if not, restart from step 4)
16. Turn around, take out the clawshot, then aim left until the pot is at the middle of the screen (lenient)
17. Clawshot the pot, then clawshot the rupee
18. Close the textbox as soon as possible and roll to the load zone (see notes below)

Notes

• When throwing the boomerang to pick up the pot from its initial position, aiming too far right will cause the pot to break on the wall, and aiming too far left will also pick up the next pot over, which has a green rupee in it. Link will catch the pot soonest if he's facing it. Stand clear of the statues to avoid letting the pot smash, especially if the pot is caught near the outside of the boomerang and is spinning in a wide arc.
• When Link catches the pot from the boomerang in step 14, the pot will push him away from the wall if the combination of the pot's position and the vertical angle when throwing the boomerang are incorrect. There are multiple combinations that work consistently, and what's described in the written steps above is one of them.
• When Link presents the rupee to the camera, he oscillates between a higher and a lower position. The textbox needs to be closed while he's at the lower position to successfully clip. Additionally, the camera may be facing in an odd direction. If it's not obvious which direction to roll, take your time to target after clearing the text, as there's no rush once Link is already clipped in.

Playlist of setups/videos made around the time of the trick's discovery here

Get to the block as human after Poe 1 Skip

After the ledge is grabbed during poe 1 skip, Wii routes navigate to the block to begin pushing it. While it's easier to transform to wolf to cross the sand and then transform back to human after, it's faster to stay human the whole time utilizing a brakeslide across the sand. This is true regardless if chandelier 2 skip is performed afterwards.

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

Theorized by Draconif/Habreno, Discovered by pokemongenius

It's possible to get to the single stalfos room without raising the chandelier using the boomerang and a bomb.

Setup for Wii (Glitched & Glitchless)

1. Climb in the corner with the block
2. Pull a bomb
3. Enter first person
4. Aim upwards as shown in the video (can use clawshot target on left wall as visual cue)
5. Open the item wheel and equip Boomerang to B, and then close the item wheel
6. Once control of Link is gained, hold B for 3-4 frames to throw the boomerang quickly without entering aiming mode
7. Hold Z and spam shake to slash once
8. Walk towards the edge of the circular part of the chandelier platform
9. Roll at the very edge, and time a shake to jump attack near the end of the jump to bomb boost

Setup for GCN (Glitchless)

1. Climb in the corner with the block
2. Pull a bomb
3. Enter first person
4. Aim upwards as shown in the video (can use clawshot target on right wall as visual cue)
5. Hold L and mash B to slash once
6. Roll towards the chandelier platform
7. Time pressing B near the end of the jump to bomb boost

Older method with only a bomb + jump attack

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.

Triple Stalfos Skip with 3pcc

Discovered on HD by bewildebeest, wii setup & tutorial by bdamja

In the room before Death Sword with the three stalfos, it's possible to skip killing them using a 3pcc. Go near the far stalfos and break the pot next to the wall. Align with the small square on the ground, and pull the clawshot facing towards the wall. Aim at the middle of the screen, vertically aligned with the left corner of the triangle splotch on the wall. Flick upwards, and release B once the reticle is almost at the top of the screen. This optimally saves about 13 seconds over killing the stalfos with bombs. The video below demonstrates visual cues and approach.

Comparison of 3pcc vs. step clip vs. bomb strat

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Triple Stalfos Skip IL methods

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.

Skip first spinner socket

Discovered by TheTasMaster

The first spinner socket can be skipped with a jumpstrike moon boots LJA.

Final spinner track timesaver

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

Poe Gate Skip

Poe gate skip was brainstormed and tested by many people over the years. The concept for the first working method was developed primarily by spicyjuice04, InAMuffinCup, CW15, qwerty, ChrisIsAwesome, Taka, bdamja, and bewildebeest.

Full demonstration with data viewer

This trick skips defeating all four poes by bypassing the gate with an ending blow moon boots from an out of bounds seam. There are four steps:

1. Clipping the bubble(s) through the gate

discovered by bewildebeest

To do this, get the bubble up against the gate near the east corner, stand Link in the west corner, and clawshot the rightmost side of the bubble. (This also works with all directions reversed, i.e. with Link in the east corner and the bubble in the west.) This partially clips it into the gate, so it can be helpful to turn towards the gate and toss the boomerang to knock it fully past the gate, though because its facing angle doesn't change after being stunned, its first hop will usually bring it to the other side of the gate anyway. It may be helpful in the final part of poe gate skip to have clipped both bubbles past the gate here so that there are more opportunities for a bubble to land in a good position, but only one bubble is required.

The easiest way to get a bubble into position is to lure it towards the east corner while it is still flying, then clawshot it while it's facing roughly towards the gate. After it is stunned by the clawshot (or boomerang), the bubble stays facing the same direction it was before, so having it face the gate means that it will at least start off hopping into the gate and staying in a good position. Its hopping direction can change randomly and may veer away from the gate; if this happens, wait for it to begin facing the gate again and then clawshot it again. This may involve waiting for it to grow wings again.

See these images for visual cues that help aim the clawshot at the correct part of the bubble to get it to clip when facing east and when facing west. The clawshot reticle's horizontal line that is closest to the poe door has its point that is towards the center of the clawshot reticle overlapping the dark line on the wall texture behind the bubble, with about half or a little bit more of the dark line covered by the reticle line. This cue works when the bubble is in the corner; when the bubble is still along the gate but closer to Link, clipping can still be possible, but the clawshot must be aimed farther from the gate to achieve the angle required.

It is also possible to get bubbles out of bounds during their bouncing after hitting Link's shield as shown in this demonstration, but this is very RNG-dependent and not useful outside of a TAS. This was discovered by CW15 and InAMuffinCup.

2. Step clip

Step clipping into the lowest platform can be done with a skull (faster) or a big pot (slower).

Skull method 1

setup by rodner and bdamja

This method is recommended over the others shown below.

1. Grab a skull and face roughly north
2. Target walk until Link is just left of the corner (not precise). There should be a small gap between the right side of Link's tunic and the corner
3. Aim all the way down in first person, then a little bit to the right (very lenient) (farthest left, farthest right)
4. While still holding directly up on the control stick, press B once and move forward to clip

Skull method 2

setup by rodner

Demonstration

1. Target walk right until Link gets stuck on the corner
2. Place skull with A
3. Hold up

Skull method 3

setup by bewildebeest

1. Stand against step facing corner (a bit north of 45deg) but a little left of the corner itself and hold L
2. Release L
3. Several frames later (feels like 3-5?), hold up
4. Press B next frame

3. Seamwalk

The general idea is to get Link stuck in a corner near the seam, get him unstuck, move him onto the seam, then cross the sand as wolf.

Get stuck in the corner

setup by bdamja

There are a few ways to get Link stuck in the corner. A quick and consistent setup is embedded below. Simply walking into the corner can work just fine, but is a bit finicky.

1. After step clipping, take out the clawshot and continue to hold the button to ready the clawshot to shoot, but don't release
2. Aim left until the reticle snaps (not precise, slightly further left or right can work)
3. While still holding X or Y for clawshot, hold L and tap A to target roll while holding neutral on the stick
4. After the target roll, hold up to walk into the corner

Get onto the seam and walk across

setups by isaac

The seam itself is extremely narrow, less than 0.01 units wide. Each of these steps is precise in its own way. To get perfect cardinal facing angles, these setups involve turning around.

A comprehensive tutorial on the trick that includes detailed data and different methods is embedded below. Two older tutorials are also available here and here.

To perform the fast method shown at the beginning of the video below:

1. Get stuck in the corner as described above
2. C-up and aim rightward to an angle that will snap to 32625 (see 6:02 in video below; also see notes below these steps)
3. Exit first person and walk forwards a little to snap to angle 32625
4. C-up and aim down slowly until Link pops out (see 4:43 in video below; also see notes below these steps)
5. Soon after Link pops out, press A to exit first person and tap or ESS down on the control stick to make Link turn around
6. If done correctly, Link should sink a little bit in the sand and then be pushed back onto solid ground without any further inputs; do not move Link aside from turning him around in the previous step
7. Once Link is on solid ground, turn 180 three times to normalize his facing angle to due north; more turns won't give a bad angle but aren't necessary
8. Transform wolf
9. Hold L and wait for the camera to center behind Link
10. Soon after the camera centers, hold up for about five footstep sounds
11. While still holding up, begin holding B and listen for about four footstep sounds (five steps, but the first is quiet)
12. Release B (if you're on critical health, which is 1 heart or less, be sure to not release B too late or else Link won't climb out in the next step)
13. Climb out of the sand by holding up without holding target; pressing A while in the sand does nothing, so you can begin pressing A early to dash to the wall
14. Go forwards to the wall before transforming to avoid being popped in bounds by wall collision

Notes:

• In step 2, using angle 32615 instead of 32625 is slightly faster as it doesn't require aiming down as far in step 4. However, since there are a smaller number of angle units that snap to 32615 and passing that angle will cause Link to pop back in bounds, 32625 is the safer option.
• In step 4, if you are confident that you have angle 32625, there is no reason to aim slowly the entire time. Instead, you can quickly aim the camera down nearly to the point where Link will pop out, then aim slowly over the threshold that makes Link pop out. For visual cues to tell what angle you've snapped to, see 8:11 in the video below.
• Beginning at 34:04, the video below goes over common fail cases, which are very helpful to know about when learning and troubleshooting

4. Ending blow moon boots

discovered by spicyjuice04

knowledge by qwerty

To finally skip the gate, get to the northernmost point on the seam, boomerang the bubble(s) behind the gate to stun it/them, and perform ending blow moon boots (EBMB) on the bubble to gain just enough height to clip in bounds behind the gate.

Note that it is possible to turn the camera out of bounds while the bubble is being targeted (if not targeted, the camera will remain in-bounds and any view of the bubble(s) will be obscured by the wall). Viewing the bubble directly like this is very helpful in keeping track of the bubble's position, facing angle, and what part of its hopping animation it's in.

There are several ways this can go wrong:

• Exiting the seam. Any movement at all that isn't along the north-south axis will also pop Link back in bounds or make him fall and void. Turning in first person in the wrong way can also pop Link back in bounds; to avoid this, only enter first person while not facing north, and don't move the first person camera while aiming with boomerang or clawshot.
• Failing the EBMB. Usually, for the EBMB to work, on Wii, the d-pad must be pressed on the same frame as A ("frame 1") or on the frame after ("frame 2"), while on GCN, because frame 1 fails to pull the item wheel, usually only frame 2 works. However, sometimes pressing d-pad on frame 3 works; see graphics below.
• Bubble positioning. The way the bubble moves after being hit by the boomerang is random, but the EBMB will only bring Link to the desired place if the bubble is in the right place - ideally along the north wall (see images below). For any case where the bubble doesn't go to the right place, re-stun the bubble with the boomerang to try again once it has stopped hopping.
  • If the bubble is too far away, Link can't lock onto it and EBMB isn't possible. There is also a small range where the bubble is targetable but too far away for the ending blow prompt to appear; in this case, the A button will say "Attack" instead of "Finish," and pressing A will make Link do a long jump attack that doesn't get enough height to get back in bounds.
  • If the bubble is too far south/east, the EBMB will land Link in jail right next to the gate where the only way out is to deathwarp or savewarp.
  • Initiating the EBMB while the bubble is midair during a hop westward against the west wall will cause Link to miss the ground above and fall into the void because the EBMB aims for where the bubble would be on the frame of the A press if the wall weren't stopping its movement. This can be seen in this video, where the yellow reticle shows the bubble's position and the green reticle shows the bubble's position minus the wall correction; the green reticle is what the EBMB aims for. This hypothetical position is referred to as "mDownPos" in the graphics below.
• Dying from bubble damage. This is a rare fail case that only happens under certain conditions, but it is worth mentioning. Bubbles do 0.25 hearts of damage to human and 0.5 hearts of damage to wolf. It's possible to perform the EBMB successfully, have the ending blow miss and get stuck in the ground, and then unavoidably get hit by a bubble's attack. This only has a chance of happening if the bubble you target with the ending blow begins flying and facing Link right after you start the attack. Because this is only ever a concern if you only have 0.25 hearts remaining, this fail case is very easily eluded by simply never doing the trick on that health. Even if you plan to deathwarp after Death Sword, there's never a reason to be on less than 0.5 hearts anyway.

graphics by qwerty

These images are overhead views of the area that the bubbles get stuck in behind the gate, and they show what the result of an EBMB will be for various bubble mDownPos (see definition above). Recall that when the bubble isn't moving, mDownPos is the same as the bubble's actual position. mDownPos is always snapped to the ground, so its y value doesn't change even during hops.

• Green areas show where the EBMB will successfully put Link past the gate.
• Blue areas show where the EBMB will cause Link to void out.
• Red areas show where the EBMB will put Link in jail.
• Dark areas are cases where the mDownPos is only possible if the bubble is moving. For instance, this means that the bright northwest corner represents the result when the bubble is at rest in that corner of the room geometry, and the dark areas around that bright corner represent the result when the bubble is in that corner of the room geometry but hopping in a direction. In the case of the second image below, this means Link will void from an EBMB while the bubble is in this corner and hopping west, but will successfully skip the gate with an EBMB while the bubble is in this corner and hopping north.

Wii Considerations

The trick is nearly identical on Wii, with a few differences listed below. Most notably, Wii can pull the item wheel and press A to ending blow on the same frame, which allows for more leniency during the EBMB.

Tutorial by meewix

Clipping the bubble (NA 1.0 Only)

On Wii NA 1.0, it's also possible to clip the bubbles through the gate using the boomerang. Clawshot the bubble(s) towards the gate (doesn't have to be into the corner), then equip boomerang, target a bubble (continue to hold Z), and repeatedly boomerang a bubble towards the gate. Try to be directly behind a bubble, such that you are facing north and a bubble is in between you and the gate for the best results. Be careful of your angle; throwing the boomerang too far to the side can cause the bubbles to fall into the void after clipping out, instead of landing in the enclosed area behind the gate.

This way of doing it is more manageable for clipping the bubbles in while they're both hopping next to the gate, as opposed to luring them up one by one. Both this method and the clawshot method are valid ways of clipping the bubbles in. The clawshot method is more consistent and skill based in theory, but the boomerang method is easier.

Seamwalk - Get stuck in the corner

Setup by An_D

The setup shown previously for getting into the corner quickly doesn't work on Wii, but a different setup is embedded below.

1. Once clipped, enter first person
2. Line up the right edge of the C icon with the right edge of the wall
3. Exit first person, then hold target and move forward until in the corner

Seamwalk - Get onto the seam and walk across

Visual cues for lining up the seamwalk in first person differ in 16:9 (the default aspect ratio), but this part of the trick functions the same in principle. While not strictly required, it's recommended to avoid pointing at the screen at all when in first person during the seamwalk, as that can cause Link to slightly change his facing angle and clip out.

Ending Blow Moon Boots

When in first person before throwing the boomerang, aiming the pointer too high or to the right before throwing it can cause Link to pop in bounds or fall into the void. Additionally, moving the pointer far away from the center after throwing the boomerang and before slashing can make Link fall out of bounds.

Unlike GCN, it's not possible to see exactly where the bubbles are at the same moment as doing the EBMB. However, when waiting for a bubble to jump into the corner, first person will let you see through the wall to identify where the bubbles are right before the EBMB. Wii can also directly target the bubbles with the boomerang. When doing so, it's recommended to target the bubble(s) multiple times to avoid the boomerang coming back too soon and making Link slash when drawing his sword.

For the EBMB itself, Wii has one additional working frame of pulling the item wheel. When A and minus are pressed at the same time, this is "frame 1" and yields the most height and speed. Getting a frame 1 EBMB should also make it impossible to fail the EBMB by falling into the void (but getting stuck in jail is still a concern). Pressing A and then minus one frame later is called "frame 2" and is the same as what GCN must go for intentionally. Frame 1 is preferable, but frame 2 works fine too, just with slightly less working bubble positions as shown previously.