Stallord is the boss of the Arbiter's Grounds dungeon in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Appearance
Stallord is the revitalised fossil of some gigantic creature. Upon Link's entrance to the boss' lair, Stallord is merely an inanimate skeleton. However, Zant quickly appears and brings Stallord to life by embedding his magical sword in the creature's skull. Zant vanishes, leaving Stallord to kill Link. Stallord seems to actually only be the upper half of its original form; it is embedded in a huge sand pit, with everything from (assuming a vaguely humanoid shape) the hips and below remaining buried. In the second stage of the battle only Stallord's head remains, but gains the ability to fly and shoot fireballs from the mouth.
Strategy
Stage 1
On the initiation of the boss battle, sand starts to drain into the huge pit and non-aggressive skeletal warriors emerge from the ground periodically. Stallord's attacks consist of attempting to crush Link with its hands/claws, which is easily avoided, and shooting a torrent of fiery breath around the edge of the arena. Link spends the bulk of this stage on his Spinner, riding a track around the perimeter of the pit. To damage Stallord, Link must ride his Spinner in close and jump it into Stallord's spinal column. Riding the spinner track to circle around behind Stallord allows Link to approach without fear of Stallord's attacks landing. The only real challenge to this is avoiding the two spinning enemies that also ride the
Spinner track (they ride faster than Link, but a quick jump off and glide back onto the track lets them pass by) and avoiding the skeletons that emerge from the sand, as they will bounce Link off in the opposite direction. It takes three hits on the spinal column to complete this stage, and Stallord will summon an additional protective perimeter of warriors to avoid after each successful hit.
At the end of this stage, Stallord falls to the ground and the sand drains out of the arena. Link can then proceed to the Spinner gear in the middle of the lair and use it. This causes a spiral Spinner track to rise up around a central column, facing a series of concentric Spinner tracks around the outer walls. Stallord's floating skull reanimates and the second stage of the fight begins.
Stage 2In this stage, Link must ride the spiral Spinner track upward until Stallord appears and starts attacking. Stallord will start shooting fireballs, with a pause between each. To avoid these, Link must jump the Spinner between the central column and the tracks on the outer wall.
After 4 fireballs, Link will draw level with Stallord and can jump the Spinner off the track and into Stallord's skull. This causes both of them to fall to the ground, with Stallord prone and vulnerable. Link can then use his sword to attack Zant's sword stuck in Stallord's forehead. After two successful attacks, Stallord then summons spinner enemies to ride the tracks; avoiding these is a matter of jumping to switch tracks and then jumping back to continue Link's ascent. Riding the track high enough initiates the third and final attack sequence.
After being defeated, Stallord vanishes and Zant's sword flies up to the top of the central column, where it turns into a heart container. A bridge extends to the now-open exit, and Link can head off toward the Mirror of Twilight.
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