Poe

Poes are ghost enemies that appear throughout The Legend of Zelda series, and debut in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. They are encountered in graveyards and other dark areas. Poes carry around a lantern which contains a Poe Soul. Their name may be a reference to the author.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Poes are found in the graveyard outside the Sanctuary starting at midway through the game. They fly back and forth in a wavy pattern. In the Dark World, their counterpart, Hyu, acts the same way but is found in the Village of Outcasts and Skeleton Forest.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Poes are depicted with purple and white frayed robes and black faces with beak-like noses, and have a much larger presence in the game. They are first found in the Kakariko Graveyard. When certain graves are moved, a lantern will appear underneath. It will then wiggle, and the Poe will form. Poes float around while a whooshing noise plays, and will charge at Link while spinning their lanterns. If they are hit, they will rapidly back away, and if they are targeted, they will turn invisible and invincible. When they are defeated, their whole bodies turn black and disintegrate, causing their lanterns to drop and releasing the Poe Soul, which looks like a sad, purple flame. In the future, Poes can be found in the graveyard even without moving graves. Also in the graveyard are the Composer Brothers (also referred to as Poes of the graveyard) who act much the same, but offer advice regarding the Sun's Song when defeated.

In the future in Hyrule Field, a different type of Poe appears, having a split, jester-like hood and skull necklace. These ones do not care if Link targets them, and instead circle him just out of reach, dropping fire from their lanterns. They release the same type of Poe Soul. Sometimes (usually while riding Epona), a Big Poe appears instead, and flees instead of attacking. In the Haunted Wasteland, a Phantom Guide appears to direct Link across it. In the original, it resembles one of the fire-dropping type, but in Ocarina of Time 3D, it instead is a Big Poe. Four more Poes, the Poe sisters, make trouble for Link in the Forest Temple.

Solely in the future, Poe Souls can be sold to the Poe Collector at the Ghost Shop in the ruins of Hyrule Castle Town.

In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest, normal Poes additionally appear in a grave-filled room of Dodongo's Cavern.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Poes' role has been reduced again. They are one of many types of wandering spirits found in the Ikana region. Normal Poes are only found in the inverted Stone Tower Temple in a single open-skied room (which contains infinite Dragonflies normally). Due to the large pit leading into the sky, it is harder to get the Poe Souls when they are defeated. As an additional note, it is actually possibly via a spin attack to defeat a Poe while in the adjoining Death Armos-filled room. Big Poes, the Composer Brothers, and the Poe sisters reappear as well.

In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D, Poes' lanterns disappear along with them.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
In The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, a friendly Poe appears in the Yoll Graveyard. If Link uses the Power Bracelet to visit the Poe, he will thank him for freeing him and give Link the Poe Clock, starting the game's trade sequence. Unlike previous Poes, he lacks a hood and has his facial features on the front of his body, like a Hyu.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Poes appear primarily in the Earth Temple and the Ghost Ship. Here, they appear in various different colors which all act identically, with most in the Earth Temple being dull blue, the two in the Ghost Ship being red, and the ones of the other primary and secondary colors appearing less. They each wear large masks with large toothy frowns and colorful patches that may be eyes or cheeks. They first appear patrolling rooms while transparent, attacking Link by charging at him and swiping with the lantern. When Link attacks them, all hits are directed to the lantern, which eventually falls to the ground and breaks in a large swath of fire. At this point, they will charge at Link to "possess" him, temporarily inverting his controls while he glows purple and the mask floats over him. When it wears off, the Poe also disappears.

If they are touched by light directed from Medli's harp or the Mirror Shield, they become tangible, and begin panickedly running around for a short period, allowing them to be attacked. After a certain amount of time, they become transparent and composed again. Upon defeat, they float up while shrinking and wavering, making a high pitched wail overlaid with a deep groan. The boss of the Earth Temple, Jalhalla, is an enormous fat conglomeration of variously colored Poes with a mask. When damaged, he splits into all of the individual Poes, which must each be defeated to eventually defeat him.

In the game's coding, a prototypical model for a Poe can be found. It is slender, purple, and has a blue face texture, which is also assigned to its hands.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, a single, green Poe appears as the "soul" of the two Big Poe bosses, starting with the one in the Swamp. After the Big Poe is defeated and it explodes, the small green Poe is shown frantically but slowly hopping away, but cannot be interacted with in any way. Later, when another Big Poe is found during the infiltration of Hyrule Castle, the Big Poe will occasionally inhale some of the Links, bringing them to the same place as the green Poe, which appears on the Game Boy Advance screen. At this point, they can battle it directly, with it only being able to spit a fireball to attack. After enough damage is taken, the Big Poe will spit the Links out, and the process will need repeating. Eventually, the Poe will take too much damage and explode, followed by the Big Poe also exploding.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, four Poes appear, each found in the Arbiter's Grounds, where they steal four torch lights, similar to the Poe sisters. They are treated as a larger version of the Imp Poe in this game, which are much more common. Like Imp Poes, they give Poe Souls upon defeat. Appearance-wise, they are very tall and thin with fanged, blue, corpse-like faces. However, they are not visible, so Wolf Link must use his senses to locate and battle them. Once all four are defeated, the way further into the temple opens.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
In The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Poes look and act as they do in A Link to the Past and are again found in the graveyard outside the Sanctuary, though a group of three appears as an encounter in the secret passageway between the graveyard and the Sanctuary. Another group of them guards the deepest reaches of the Lost Woods, only reachable when Link has all three Pendants of Virtue. They direct Link through the woods with a series of challenges involving the group twisting among themselves to confuse him. It starts with a group of eight, though if he repeatedly fails, the number will drop. For the first challenge, he must follow a specific one, for the second, he must avoid going down the same paths as two of them, and in the third, must avoid going down the same path as three of them, with the correct answer being the path he came out from.

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
In The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, Poes have a large presence in the Ruins area, as well as the floors of the Den of Trials based off that area. Normal white Poes can be defeated with two sword slashes from anybody, but the red, blue, and green types can only be damaged by the Link of their respective color. They commonly appear in areas around bottomless pits. There is also a Link-shaped Poe called a Prankster Poe that tries to pick up and throw Links and Doppels into pits, meaning another Link has to attack it while it carries one to defeat it. Palace Noir contains a helpful type of Poe called a Lantern Poe, which minds its own business while floating around, lighting the dark area with its extra-large lantern. The level also contains another Link-like Poe called a Key Bandit Poe, which quickly floats through the library room carrying one key each, and respawns to steal it back if defeated. Finally, the level's miniboss is a huge Poe called the Grim Repoe, which wields a huge scythe.

Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda
In Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda, Poes appear in numerous colors, the most basic of which is orange. They appear transparent and holding still, but begin following the player character after being approached. They only appear solid when the player character is moving away from them, similar to Boos in the Mario franchise, and if they catch up to the player, they will teleport them somewhere else on the screen. When a Poe is close enough, however, moving in its direction will defeat it.