Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess
Walkthrough — VIII. Arbiter's Grounds

In the first room, use the Claw to hit the target on the right wall just ahead and drop the ledge there. Cross northward and then duck into the top left corner of the room where some little skeletons await. Take them out and pull the lever all the way back to open the gate. In the alcove that follows, fill up and empty bottle and your lamp with oil from the pot on the left, and then dip right to grab the small key from the chest. Use the key to open the locked door. Now, head north.

In the next room, dispatch the skeletons as you light the lamp on either side of the door. The door will open and you can continue north. Ahead you'll see a scene reminiscent of the Forest Temple of OoT, in which four Poes will appear and run off. Turn into wolf form and take out the one that is hanging out in the room and learn its scent. Now you can track the Poes using “sense” while in wolf form. As such, follow one of the scent trails that run into a dirt patch which you can dig and expose a pull lever. Pull it out from the wall to open a stairway.

Head down the stairs and push the block sticking out from the column forward and a doorway to a chest will open. Grab the small key, and then lock up through the hole in the ceiling to spot a grate. Target the grate with the Claw-Shot and launch up to the next floor. From here drop down and go through the exposed door to find a Poe within. This one can only be attacked when it glows bright white, so do so then. Two rounds of vigorous gnawing should do it. Head back to the column room and drop down to the floor below. Push the column back the way you had it to reopen the way from whence ye came.

Head back upstairs and go through the locked door on the west wall. In the next room, head up to the statue and grab the tablet jutting front the front and push until the walls rotate, opening two passages. Take the west one to find a Redead Solider (freaky!) and a chest with a small key. After collecting the key head east and through the locked door.

In the next room make sure you're in human form and attack the tiny skeletons and the two Redead Soldiers in this hallway. Once all enemies are defeated, turn into Wolf Link to spot a scent trail dipping into a dig-able spot. Dig out a chain and pull it back to expose a Poe. Defeat the Poe and then continue ahead to the next room.

Here, jump down the lowered part of the room and grab the small key from the tiny chest and then quickly switch to Wolf Link and activate your senses. Take out the ghost rats and run through the locked door to the next room. From here you need to get over to the lever next to the chandelier. Push the box so that you can pull the lever all the way out and then run under the chandelier in the depressed square. The contraption will drop around you, and you can climb up and jump from it to the door across the sand. Go through the door.

Jump from one end of the room to the other and continue ahead. The next room features your first Stalfos of the game. Easiest way to beat it is to defeat it so it crumbles to bones, and then plant a bomb on the bone pile to blow the Stalfos to smithereens. Head through the door that opens and up the stairs. In the room with the Snake Goddess statue, light the rightmost torch and the one in the front to open the hidden door. Go through that to the next room.

Here your next Poe encounter awaits, which continues to reek of the Poe Sisters (I swear, if I have to arrange blocks into a painting…) due to its splitting into four mirrored images of the same Poe, though of course only one is real. Defeat the Poe by standing still until one glows bright white and then attack it. Head north through the door.

From here drop down to floor 1F and head through the east room to head back to the room where the room where the Poe's first disembarked from. All four are defeated, so the way north is now open.

Now, before I neglect this any further, plunder the chests at either north corner of the room for a Heart Piece and the Dungeon Map.

Head north through the gate into the next area. Head left through the only door available to you and jump down the floor below. Push the jutting block so that the floor rises twice and head around a hallway to a chest with a small key in it. Then, go back to the corkscrew and push it in the opposite direction so the floor descends three times. Head through the locked door.

In the next room, make your way to the top right corner where a chain can be pulled to open a passage to the next door. The catch is the many phantom rats in the room, as well as the spikes that pop up from some of the holes in the floor. Use Wolf Links' senses to see everything and make it through to the next room.

Here's you need to cross the hallway while bugs pour down on you and all the while avoiding the Traps on either side of the wall. It's a tall order and the trick is to shake the bugs off of you at every chance and plod along until you make it. On the other end of the hallway, on the left is Ooccoo chilling out in a jar. Let her out and then head through the door that took so much effort to reach.

The next room features a huge spinning trap, so head clockwise around the room to the opposite end of the room, ducking into the alcove on the left as a pit stop. Take out the two Stalfos there and the one hiding in the back of the room by the skulls. When all three are dead a gate next to the giant trap will open. Go through it and around, jumping over where you dispatched the last Stalfos and over to the door. Go through the door to find a Mini-Boss.

MINI-BOSS: Possessed Sword

Spying the sword tethered to the floor via several prayer-card laden ropes, sever one connection and the sword will be released. To defeat this guy you have two options depending on if it is visible or not. If visible, hit it with the Claw to make it fly around the room and fly at you for an attack. Hit it quick to stun and follow up with a few slashes. Letting the guy flying around the room will result in some Agahnim impersonating, so let's avoid that. If invisible, switch to Wolf form and use your senses to spot him. When the guy turns white, press the attack. After a few rounds he'll go down for the count and a gate will open, yielding the path north.

The next room is impossible to describe, but suffice it to say this room is Spinner-heavy. You need to ride the tracks all the way to the north edge of the room and to the door on the east wall in that area.

Head through the door to find the chest with the Big Key waiting inside. After grabbing the key, ride the rails over across the pit and drop the spinner in the slot on the floor. Hit B multiple times to spin the wall and open the way north.

In the area that appears, ride the rails up the stairs until you can see the top of the pillar in the middle of the room. Jump from the rails to the top of that pillar and drop into the slot on it. Rev the Spinner to raise a huge rail ramp. When that's complete, ride the rails that appeared all the way up to the Big Door. Enter.

BOSS: Twilit Fossil, Stallord

Possibly the coolest Zelda boss fight ever awaits you. Step forward in human form to awaken the Stallord. Once the cut scene ends, hop on the Spinner and start circumventing the room on the rail. When behind Stallord, jump off the rail and attack his spine a flashing jump on the Spinner. Three rounds of that is all he can take and the boss collapses. Sand drains for the room, revealing a slot for the Spinner. Rev it up and the pillar you stand on raises and the Stallord revives. This next part is great fun; you travel around the room, jumping from the central pillar to the outer walls, avoiding the fireballs Stallord's head shoots at you. After a few dodges, you can strike the boss' head with the Spinner, dropping it to the ground. Run up and slash away. Rinse and repeat two more times and the fight is won!