Poe

Poes are ghost-like entities that can be found at the dead of night. They are described as ghosts of concentrated hatred towards the world, and can be found haunting graveyards, empty fields, and plains. Poes serve a variety of roles, and often carry lanterns.

A Link to the Past
Poes first appeared in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, where they floated arounf the graveyard, similar to Ghinis from earlier games.

Ocarina of Time
In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, they are found in graveyards, and in Hyrule Field during the Imprisoning War. Once defeated, Link can collect the spirits of the Poes in bottles and bring them to a shop in Hyrule Town where they can be sold. Link is also able to drink the spirit of the Poe, although, doing so usually causes negative effects. Poes go invisible when Z-targeted

Wind Waker
In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Poes must be caught in the light to be made tangible and then killed with any weapon. In order to do this, Link must first obtain the Mirror Shield. Poes can also posess Link, causing the controls of the game to flip backwards. Poes mostly appear in the Earth Temple, and are ruled by Jalhalla.

Twilight Princess
In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Link begins to find Poes after he talks to Jovani, a man from Hyrule who was consumed by greed and turned into a gold statue. He requests Link to find 20 Poe souls to return him to his human form, but when this fails, Link must collect all 60 Poe souls in order to save him. Once this task has been completed, Link can talk to Jovani to receive 200 Rupees. Additionally, speaking to Jovani's cat as a wolf can garner 200 Rupees anytime Link has no money.

In order to collect the Poe souls, Link must assume his wolf form and use the wolf's senses to see a Poe and tear out its soul.

Big Poe
Big Poes are larger cousins of the normal Poes.

Ocarina of Time
In order to obtain a bottle from the man in the Ghost Shop in Hyrule Castle Town Market, Link must find the 10 Big Poes which are scattered across Hyrule Field and deliver them to him, hereby receiving points for his Magic Card, and, eventually, being rewarded by the bottle. The Big Poes look just like Normal Poes but considerably larger. They too carry lanterns.

Majora's Mask
Big Poes appear as a sub-boss in the Beneath the Well dungeon and in the third night's open grave in Ikana Graveyard. It is summoned when three blue flames appear and merge together. By defeating this Big Poe located in Ikana Graveyard, Link is granted a bottle. This Big Poe attacks much like a normal Poe, although after each attack it disappears and reappears from another direction, usually from behind Link. It will also hover higher than most regular Poes, nearly necessitating the use of arrows. The bottled Big Poe can be sold for 200 rupees at the Curiosity Shop, although one is needed to trade with one of the Gibdos beneath the well.

Four Sword Adventures
In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, there were Poes but bigger and also much more rare. They only appeared in The Swamp, in the graveyard part. Big Poes can only be defeated if you light the near-by lantern posts.