Gohma

Gohma
Artwork of Gohma from The Legend of Zelda
First appearance	The Legend of Zelda (1987)
Appearances	The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening Ocarina of Time Oracle of Seasons The Wind Waker Four Swords Adventures Twilight Princess
Effective weapon(s)	(Hyrule Warriors) Arrows Fury Horn
Spoils	(Hyrule Warriors) Various Materials Ganon Bomb (Ganon's Fury)

"AIM AT THE EYES OF GOHMA."

— Old Man

Gohmas, also known as Ghomas, are recurring enemies in the Legend of Zelda series. They typically serve as bosses in their respective games. Despite appearing as different enemies in each appearance, the general appearance of Gohmas is that of armored arthropods, characterized by a single, large, tell-tale eye that usually serves as their weak point.

Appearances

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

The Legend of Zelda

In the original Legend of Zelda, Gohma is a large armored arthropod in possession of an enormous eye that is susceptible to arrows when open. It shoots fireballs at Link and can be defeated by having arrows fired at its eye. Gohma comes in two variants, red and blue; the red Gohma requires one hit with the arrow to kill, while the blue one requires three.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

In Link's Awakening, two small Gohmas act as the mini-boss in the game's fifth dungeon, Catfish's Maw. They strafe backwards and forwards across the room, one behind the other. Only when Link is within attack range will they open their eyes, which makes them vulnerable to attacks from the sword, Bow, or Hookshot.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Queen Gohma is the boss of the first dungeon in Ocarina of Time. Queen Gohma is part of a curse placed on the Great Deku Tree by Ganondorf. In order to defeat her, Link must stun her by either shooting her eye when it turns red with the Fairy Slingshot, or by throwing Deku Nuts and then attacking repeatedly with Deku Sticks or his Kokiri Sword.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

This incarnation is very similar to that of the original The Legend of Zelda, however, it resembles a crab more than a spider, complete with quick sideways movement and crab-like claws. The battle against it is similar to the ones in the original. However, instead of immediately shooting its eye with arrows, Link must first slash and destroy its prominent claw and then proceed to shoot seeds into its eye with the Slingshot. It guards the fourth Essence of Nature in the Dancing Dragon Dungeon.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

A Gohma serves as the boss of Dragon Roost Cavern, the first dungeon in The Wind Waker. Unlike previous Gohmas, this Gohma has the appearance of a huge orange centipede-like creature with tough scales vulnerable only to heavy bedrock protecting its body. This Gohma is sometimes thought to be the mother of the Magtail species.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

Gohmas appear in two variations. The first type is a large, one-eyed arachnid that aimlessly wanders in The Fields of Hyrule. The second type also appears as a large, one-eyed arachnid; however, it acts as mini-boss and shoots fireballs at Link. Both types of Gohma can be harmed only by shooting arrows at their open eyes.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Armogohma serves as the boss of the Temple of Time, the sixth dungeon in the game. Initially, the design of this enemy was vastly different, as seen in the game's beta release (see Beta Gohma). Additionally, Young Gohmas with blue abdomens appear as regular enemies in the Temple of Time; Armogohma's spawn, Baby Gohmas also appear in extremely large swarms in said dungeon.

Spoiler warning: Spoilers end here.

Other appearances

Subseries warning: This article or section contains information on a subseries within the Legend of Zelda series and should be considered part of its own separate canon.

Hyrule Warriors

Gohma appears in Hyrule Warriors, where it appears with the title Arthropod Cyclops Monster. It is first summoned by Wizzro at Faron Woods, after he quickly realizes that defeat was inevitable, and decides to use it in a last ditch effort to defeat the Hyrulean forces and to buy enough time for him to escape. It later appears in the Gerudo Desert, alongside King Dodongo and Manhandla, as one of the three commanders of the monsters dwelling there, with Ganondorf, Ghirahim, and Zant vanquishing it to subject the monsters to their control.

In Adventure Mode, Gohmas are represented by their 8-bit sprite from the original Legend of Zelda on the Adventure Map.

In this game, Gohma resembles its Ocarina of Time counterpart, but with new colors and abilities. Its front legs are equipped with armor plating that it can use to batter enemies and shield its eye from attack, and it can project lightning from its eye as sweeping beams or massive energy bombs. It is briefly vulnerable to the Bow after using a lightning attack (signified by its eye turning blue), which can stun it and leave its Weak Point exposed.

Lana summons slightly smaller Gohmas to attack enemies as part of her Summoning Gate moveset.

In the Boss Pack DLC, Ganon can obtain a Ganon Bomb power up by defeating Gohmas, which allows him to fire Ganon Bombs (which resemble Gohma's energy bombs) that can put King Dodongos in a downed state exposing its weak point. Ganon can put Gohmas into a downed state by using his Fury Horn (obtained from Manhandla) power up.

Subseries warning: Subseries information ends here.

Name discrepancy

For the earlier Gohma bosses, two spellings - Gohma and Ghoma - were used interchangeably; however, due to the similarity of the bosses regardless of the name, they are usually all referred to as Gohma.