Dead Man's Volley

refers to a technique in certain Series: battles where Link swings his Series: at an oncoming projectile, turning it back on its caster to inflict damage or cause a Critical Point. In many games, the Series: will return Link's volley. A rhythmic rally ensues where the projectile is knocked back and forth until one party fails to counter and is struck by it. Dead Man's Volley is typically used against primary antagonists or their clones.

NaN Bosss to be defeated by Dead Man's Volley may have other projectile attacks that require special tactics to volley, or that cannot be volleyed at all and must be dodged. Usually the volleying attack is a single flashing ball of energy. In games where Link rallies back and forth with the boss, these rallies tend to become longer as the battle progresses. These can be shortened by standing closer to the boss, giving them less time to react.

Humorously, Link can perform a volley with items like a SS:, Series:, or Series: in some games.

Dead Man's Volley first appears in the battles against Agahnim, who is too powerful to be harmed by anything but his own magic. Agahnim has multiple magical attacks, one of which is a flashing white ball of energy that can be volleyed back at him to cause damage. His second attack is a blue cluster projectile that splinters when struck – it must be avoided.

In the second encounter with Agahnim, he produces two clones which can only perform the one attack that can be volleyed. Link can volley a clone's attack at the real Agahnim, but the clones themselves cannot be harmed.

If timed correctly, the volley can be performed with a swish of the ALttP:.

Agahnim's Shadow, the second form of the final boss Shadow Nightmare, is defeated with Dead Man's Volley the same way as the real Agahnim in. It has two attacks: the energy-ball attack to be volleyed, and the splintering cluster to be dodged.

The energy ball can be volleyed with the LA:.

introduces back-and-forth rallies to Dead Man's Volley. It occurs in the second phase of the battle against Phantom Ganon when he casts yellow energy orbs at Link. At the end of the game Ganondorf uses the same attack. Both can be volleyed with a OoT:.

Ganondorf has a second magical attack where he launches multiple projectiles at Link. An ordinary sword swipe is not sufficient to fend off the attack as it deflects some but not all of the projectiles. A well-timed Spin Attack volleys all the projectiles back at Ganondorf, stunning him immediately.

Phantom Ganon's projectile changes color from yellow to blue as it is volleyed back and forth (yellow when cast, blue when returned by Link, yellow when returned by Phantom Ganon, etc.).

and
The OoA: Series: in has two magical attacks similar to those of Agahnim's Shadow. However, the energy-ball attack does not cause damage. Instead, it turns Link into a vulnerable baby for a few seconds. When it is volleyed back at Blue Stalfos, the boss turns into a skull-faced Keese for the same amount of time, during which it is vulnerable to sword strikes.

In the first phase of the battle against Twinrova, Link volleys Koume's fire attack to Kotake, and Kotake's ice attack to Koume. This combines Dead Man's Volley with the Mirror Shield reflection tactic used to defeat Twinrova in.

In, Gouen launches a colored orb which can only be volleyed by the Link of that color. Instead of rallying with the boss, the Links can bat the orb back and forth between each other until it hits the boss.

The same tactic is used at the end of the game against Vaati.

In, Dead Man's Volley is used against Phantom Ganon only. As in, Link and Phantom Ganon volley energy orbs back and forth until the latter is struck by his own attack. This is the first game in which the tempo of the rally increases with each volley.

In TWW:, Phantom Ganon begins using a greater multi-projectile attack similar to Ganondorf's in. In can be returned with a TWW:.

FSA: launches colored energy orbs to be volleyed by the Link of the same color. During the second encounter in the FSA:, Phantom Ganon creates multiple clones that throw colorless orbs which dissipate on contact.

In the final battle, TMC: launches four energy orbs simultaneously. Link returns them all by creating three copies of himself using the TMC:.

Link performs Dead Man's Volley against TP: when she uses her sword to cast balls of energy. As in, a rally ensues that increases in pace until Zelda is struck by her own attack. Zelda has no Critical Point — the attack inflicts damage on her directly.

An TP: can be used to volley the attack.

In the boss battle against the PH:, one of the four sisters will launch a blue-white orb at Link. They receive Link's return shot by batting it to and fro amongst each other for a while before sending it back at Link. Link wins a rally when one of the sisters is killed by a return shot.

[[SS -]]
Bilocyte spits green projectiles which Link must deflect with his sword back towards the boss's protective frills.

In the final battle against Ghirahim, Link returns Ghirahim's sword beams at him by swiping in the right direction, either vertical or horizontal.

Dead Man's Volley is used against Yuga Ganon.

Dead Man's Volley is used against Lady Maud.

Battle Quest
In, the Dead Man's Volley appears when fighting Wizzrobes in Co-Op Play. Wizzrobe will occasionally throw a glowing orb that is the same color as one of the Links. The color shows which Link is being targeted and must volley the orb. Only Links holding swords will be targeted by the attack. If the orb is volleyed by Wizzrobe, it will gain speed and may change color. It is also possible that the orb will split into three orbs, each targeting a different Link holding a sword.

In, a form of Dead Man's Volley is performed as one of Link's attacks as part of the Great Fairy weapon. The button combo has the Great Fairy briefly release Link from his giant Bottle, and the two volley an orb of light back and forth. The Great Fairy then grabs the orb and attacks surrounding enemies with the blast. As the attack animation is performed automatically, Link does not need to volley the orb for the attack to succeed.

Dead Man's Volley also appears in when fighting against Phantom Ganon. Unlike its other appearances, where the orb is volleyed a random number of time before the boss is hit, Phantom Ganon will always be hit by the orb after the Warrior volleys the orb three times, exposing his Weak Point Gauge. After Phantom Ganon has taken a certain amount of damage, he will change his tactics and no longer attack the Warrior with orbs, thus preventing Dead Man's Volley from being used.

Nomenclature
The name "Dead Man's Volley" is from. The PH: call it that in a taunt before the boss battle on the PH:. The name "Dead Man's Volley" is a reference to the horror theme of that dungeon.

The name is a play on the title of the murder-mystery novel  by Agatha Christie.

Trivia

 * Although Dead Man's Volley strictly refers to the use of swords or similar items/weapons to deflect spells back at their casters, a similar strategy was depicted in fights against TAoL:s and TAoL: as well as OoT: in and, respectively, with the main difference being that the player has to use their shield (and in the case of the former, the Reflect spell) to do so.