Deku Toad

Template:Boss The Deku Toad is the mini-boss of the Lakebed Temple in Twilight Princess. The Deku Toad is initially clinging to the ceiling, and begins the fight by dropping down to the floor and shaking off several Toado eggs from it back. Like most small swarming enemies in Twilight Princess, the hatchling toados can be dealt with efficiently using the Spin Attack.

Strategy

File:Frogtongue.jpg

The toad's vulnerable tongue

When Link enters the room and looks up at the ceiling, he spots a large toad hanging onto a stalactite with eggs on its back. When the Deku Toad sees Link on the ground below, it lets out a roar and drops down. It lets out another roar and shakes the eggs off its back. Thus, the battle begins.

The Deku Toad's attack pattern is to jump to the ceiling, attempt to fall down on Link, and shake off more Toado eggs. If Link can roll out of the way in time to avoid being crushed, it can be stunned momentarily, allowing Link to strike its exposed tongue. Following this, if Link can manage to shoot a Bomb Arrow into its mouth, it remains stunned again, exposing its tongue once more. Otherwise it continues its attack pattern. After several hits to its tongue, the Deku Toad remains destroyed, but not before coughing up a chest containing the Clawshot. It is also possible to perform the ending blow while Z/L-targeting the tongue. This is a rare occurrence, and for best results, it is recommended to only do Z/L-targeted jump attacks (as the controls for both the Ending Blow and the jump attack are the same). If successfully performed, the battle will end after the Ending Blow, and the chest will still appear as normally.

The Deku Toad appears to be a giant version of the Toadpoli enemies, which bears similarities with Octoroks from previous games. The Toado could therefore be the tadpole stage of the Toadpoli. According to Hyrule Historia, "the Deku Toad was meant to depict what a Toadpoli might look like a thousand years in the future."^[1]

The Deku Toad is similar to the "real-world" Surinam Toad as they both carry their eggs on their back.

Trivia

The Deku Toad bears some similarity in the way it acts to Wart, a mini-boss in the Great Bay Temple. Like Wart, it has many eye-like objects on its body (though these are actually its eggs), but not nearly as many as Wart did. It also starts the battle on the ceiling, like Wart.
Midna is repulsed by the Deku Toad and, as such, does not wish to take part in the battle.^[2]^[3]
The Deku Toad, along with Ook, are the only mini-bosses in Twilight Princess to have their own battle music. All other mini-bosses share the same battle music (with the exception of Death Sword and Phantom Zant, who share a unique battle music).
It is unknown why it has the prefix "Deku" in its name, considering that the word is used in the names of many plant-related characters and items in the Zelda series. It is likely to be a mistranslation, as the original Japanese name is Degu Toad (Big Toad).

References

↑ Template:Cite book
↑ "Ughh... It's creepy... I can't stand pimply things like this... This one's all yours!" — Midna (Twilight Princess)
↑ "I told you this one's all yours! Stop calling me! That thing's gross!" — Midna (Twilight Princess)