Moldorm

Moldorm is an uncommon worm-like dungeon enemy in The Legend of Zelda that gained fame when large members of the species featured as bosses in A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, and Four Swords Adventures, with the normal-sized members making further appearances in games such as The Minish Cap and Twilight Princess. The more common, smaller versions of this enemy are Mini-Moldorms.

Characteristics
The Moldorm is a large, segmented annelid known to inhabit dungeons, and otherwise large, enclosed rooms where they can roam about freely, unobstructed. While most Moldorms generally look alike (a large head, with many body segments), the iterations in Phantom Hourglass and Skyward Sword appear to embody a more centipede-like look, while the ones from Twilight Princess tend to look more like Lanmolas or Swamolas. Appearing originally in The Legend of Zelda, they have grown in strength from their simple, social form seen within the labyrinths of The Legend of Zelda, to gargantuan, speedy dungeon protectors as in A Link to the Past and several titles afterwards. It is this transformation that forced a change in its weak spot between titles: originally, wherever Link struck the foe, it would loose a segment of its body, however, once a boss, its vulnerability changed to that of its final bodily segment.

All Moldorms are ground-dwelling, however, the iterations from Twilight Princess literally live in the ground, jumping from the quicksand in the Arbiter's Grounds to attack Link. To seek them out, he must Clawshot their sandy shadows, pulling them from the earth and towards him, where he can subsequently attack them. The Moldorms appearing in Skyward Sword reside out of sight underground. They are encountered only when Link enters an underground tunnel with the Mogma Mitts. One is fought as a mini-boss in the Fire Sanctuary.

Appearances and Weaknesses
When not a boss, Moldorms can be defeated with any conventional weapon, usually in one or two hits. In A Link to the Past, the first title to feature the Moldorm as a boss, it takes six strikes of the sword to its vulnerable tail render the creature defeated, yet the entire battle is made more difficult because the battlefield has no boundaries, meaning that the boss can drop Link to lower floors if he is unluckily pushed from the edge by the foe. After each strike, the creature increases its speed to make itself more difficult to be hit. This particular Moldorm makes a reappearance in Ganon's Tower, only the battlefield is shaped differently, making it harder to defeat. However, if Link has the Golden Sword, it can kill this Moldorm in two hits.

This boss takes the same shape and behavior in Link's Awakening, yet only four hits are required to oust the beast. Four Swords Adventures includes regular smaller Moldorms and the boss, known as Big Moldorm brings a twist to the confrontation: Once hit, its tail would change to one of the respective colors of the four Links, and only the Link carrying the color of Moldorm's tail in his tunic would be able to injure it. Not only this, but as the battle progresses, the Moldorm will split into two, much like the Moldorms of The Legend of Zelda.

The Moldorms in Twilight Princess are best defeated by using Link's Clawshot to pull them out of the ground, then kill them with his sword. If he kills enough of the small, one-hit kill Moldorms, a giant one comes out like the ones in Arbiter's Grounds, which takes two hits to kill. In Skyward Sword, striking their tail segment with the Mogma Mitts will destroy the rear segments and increase their movement speed, with three strikes required to defeat them.

A Link to the Past comic
In the A Link to the Past comic, the monster Link fights in the Tower of Hera is a giant spider as opposed to the Moldorm fought in the game. However, when the monster's illusion appears in Ganon's Tower, it is still called a Moldorm.

The Moldorm first appears in Chapter 4, where it ambushes the young hero from above. Upon being told that the Pendant of Wisdom is inside the beast's eye, Link reaches for it and, now with all the Pendants of Virtue in his hand, uses the Moldorm to ride down the tower, thus defeating the monster.

A Link to the Past manga
The Moldorm briefly appears in the A Link to the Past manga as well, this time in a much more accurate depiction. Link is shown fighting off the giant centipede as he runs up the Tower of Hera. He manages to slice through one of its pincers and continue his dash up the winding stairway to the Pendant of Wisdom, hanging from the hand of an elegant statue at the very top. Upon collecting the final Pendant, he is mysteriously warped to the Lost Woods.

Trivia

 * Moldorms featured in most games are known as or  in Japanese. This explains the name of the Tail Cave in Link's Awakening. The Legend of Zelda and Twilight Princess the only games where Moldorms are known by the same name in Japan.
 * The Swamola is known as in Japan, just like the Moldorms of The Legend of Zelda. Swamolas behave similar to the Moldorms of Twilight Princess, which were also known as  rather than  in Japan.
 * The Moldorm from The Legend of Zelda looks similar to the Moldola enemies appearing later in the Zelda series.
 * The final form of Puppet Ganon in The Wind Waker takes on the form of a Moldorm and uses the same mechanics as most boss battles against them; however, only the Light Arrows can inflict damage on Puppet Ganon's shiny blue tail segment.
 * In The Minish Cap and Phantom Hourglass, Moldorms are simply known as in Japanese, like Mini-Moldorms, which is why they are common enemies rather than bosses.
 * Nightmare, the final boss of Link's Awakening, takes on the Moldorm shape as one of his six forms. However, this battle is surrounded by walls, making the battle somewhat easier.
 * In Twilight Princess, after defeating enough of the standard Moldorm in the Arbiter's Grounds, a larger Moldorm will rise from the sand, in the same vein as the Stalchildren from Ocarina of Time. This grand variation can be struck down with two hits instead of one.