Moldorm

Phases

• Moldorm will do the following repeating pattern:

Rotate (32-63f) -> Walk straight (8-23f) -> Rotate (32-63f) -> Walk straight (8-23f) -> Face Link -> Walk straight (48f).

• If you hit Moldorm during a Rotate or Walk straight, he will go on to the next phase when he's not stunned anymore.

• If you hit Moldorm during Face Link, he will stay in this phase.

• If he hits an edge or a wall, he will instantly change his direction by 180 degrees (but keep rotating the same way).

• When at 1 or 2 hp, the AI will work exactly the same, but the speeds are increased (with around 33% - it depends on the exact direction he is facing).

Walk straight

Moldorm keeps moving straight with no rotations.

• After a Rotate, he will walk for 8-23 frames.

• After a Face Link, he will walk for 48 frames.

Rotate

• Rotates either clockwise or anti-clockwise (which is determined at random every time) for 32 to 63 frames.

• He will rotate 22.5 degrees every 4 frames, meaning his range is 180-360 degrees.

Face Link

• If he's not facing Link already, he will change direction towards Link by 22.5 degrees every 4 frames, until he's facing Link.

This can take some time if he gets stuck in a corner bouncing back and forth.

• When he's facing Link, he jumps to Walk straight for 48 frames.

• There is no limit to how long this phase lasts.

• There is a bug that makes him switch between clockwise and anti-clockwise rotations when trying to face Link sometimes.

If for example you stand still directly behind him, when he's facing left, he will walk away from Link and rotate one way, then the other etc. (Wiggling back and forth, never turning completely around.)

Strategy

• Only the head from Moldorm can hit you.

• You can only hurt him on the end of his tail.

• Two main methods:

1. Load your sword in between hits, stand a few tiles from him, and time a dash onto his tail, hitting him just as he gets vulnerable.

This is usually best to do horizontally, since there is a smaller chance you will get hit dashing through his head horizontally.

2. Stand behind Moldorm and move along the path the head takes.

Example: If he's facing left, and starts moving clockwise, you will follow him < then ^ and slash his tail v.

• If Moldorm is near an edge/wall, you might want to do method 1, since his movement will be hard to predict if he hits the edge/wall.

You could also stand 3-4 tiles away (enough that he can't insta-180 and hit you) and wait until it's safer to move in on the tail.

• For the last hit, when he starts moving fast, most people try to kill him with a dash.

• It is possible to predict what Moldorm will do by understanding his pattern of phases.

For example, if you hit him while he's lunging towards Link, he will always rotate for at least 32 frames once he's not stunned anymore.

• If you dash into the arena and hit Moldorm, you will bounce back to the top level again. Make sure you don't touch your DPAD during this, as that can cause Link to fall down to the previous floor.

If you like dashing in as a default, consider walking/quickhopping if Moldorm is near the bottom part of the arena, to completely avoid this. You risk taking a heart of damage by doing this, but won't lose time to bouncing back (which often repeats itself when you try again).

Damage:

• The level 1 sword needs 6 hits to defeat him.
• The level 3 sword needs 3 hits to defeat him.
• The hammer needs 3 hits to defeat him.

External resources

• Andy's NMG Tutorial
• Runnerwatcher's NMG Tutorial