Moldarach

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Moldarach

Title	Thousand-Year Arachnid
Game(s)	Skyward Sword
Dungeon(s)	Lanayru Mining Facility Shipyard Construction Bay
Weakness(es)	Slingshot Gust Bellow Sword

Moldarach is a boss appearing in Skyward Sword. An Aracha that has reached the age of one thousand, two of them appear throughout the game; one as the main boss of the Lanayru Mining Facility and another later encountered at the Lanayru Shipyard in the Lanayru Sand Sea as a mini-boss.

Fi's Comment

Strategy

Moldarach will defend itself with its claws, but once it drops it guard to attack, Link must slash the eyes inside the claws in the opposite direction that the claws are guarding: if the claw opens vertically, Link must slash it horizontally. After slashing the eyes, one of them will turn red and Moldarach will then attempt to grab Link. The young hero can break free by shaking the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. The Slingshot is helpful during this phase of the battle, as its pellets stun the eyes temporarily so the young hero can proceed to inflict damage to them.

After hitting a claw enough times, it will fall off, and so Link must do the same for the remaining claw. Moldarach will then burrow under the sand and try to attack with its stinger by jabbing at Link, although this attack is easily avoidable with a backflip or a side jump. Link must blow away the sand covering the arachnid with the Gust Bellows to force it out of the ground. Its eye will turn red when it begins to charge its stinger attack, which is the Critical Point in which Link must stab the eye until it falls.^[1]

Trivia

Moldarach's name seems to be a portmanteau of 'mold', which in the Zelda series tends to denote an enemy with a long or noteworthy tail (e.g. Moldorm, Twinmold) and often an affinity for sand and 'arachnid'.
Unlike real scorpions that have eight legs, Moldarach has six and Arachas have four.
Moldarach is an arthropod, like all the variations of the recurring boss Gohma in the Zelda series. Like Gohmas, its oversized, unnaturally-placed eyes are its weak points, and it is armed with large crab-like claws.
Moldarach is quite similar to the Helmasaur King, a similar heavily armored enemy from A Link to the Past. Both have spiked tailtips and similar tail whip attacks. Furthermore, both are larger varieties of otherwise weaker enemies introduced in the dungeon.
Moldarach's death scene is similar to that of numerous bosses in A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening and certain bosses in the 3D games such as Volvagia, Twinmold, Molgera, and Bilocyte in that it explodes from the tail to the head.

Gallery

Beta model of Moldarach from the 2010 Demo

Video

References

↑ Zelda Dungeon: Skyward Sword Bosses; Retrieved June 16, 2010

Names in Other Regions
Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	千年甲殻蟲モルドガット (Sen-nen Koukaku Chū Morudogatto)	Millennium Crustacean Insect: Moldgat
Spanish	Escorpión Milenario, Morgrad	Millennium Scorpion, Morgrad
Spanish	Escorpión Milenario, Moldarg	Millennium Scorpion, Moldarg
French	Arthropode Millénaire Moldgath	Millennium Arthropod Moldgath
German	Dunkler Äonenskorpion, Moldoghad
Italian	Crostaceo millenario: Skorpyo