Stalchild

Stalchildren are undead skeletal enemies that appear in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. They have red, glowing eyes and red claws on both hands and feet.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
"Stalchild Don't be afraid of the Stalchild! Just attack it repeatedly!"

- Navi

In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Link only encounters Stalchildren at Hyrule Field at night when he is a child. Stalchildren spawn from the ground endlessly, although they do not appear if Link wears the Bunny Hood or walks on the path. Stalchildren always appear in pairs and attack by slashing Link with their claws. If Link slashes his sword at a Stalchild horizontally, it gets decapitated, but the Stalchild continues to attack. When Link strikes the Stalchild again, it gets defeated. A Stalchild is also defeated if it walks too deep into the surrounding water; they can even spawn underwater, defeating them immediately. Stalchildren usually leave behind Rupees when defeated. Link can stun them by using Deku Nuts. When ten Stalchildren are defeated, a larger Stalchild appears. They usually give out a larger Rupee reward when defeated. When the sun rises, all active Stalchildren are defeated immediately.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
"Stalchild It's a Stalchild. They were the cursed soldiers of the Kingdom of Ikana...What are you gonna do?"

- Tatl

Stalchildren have a slightly larger role in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Stalchildren are the fallen soldiers of the Ikana Kingdom and are part of an army led by Captain Keeta. They continue to serve as soldiers to the Ikana Kingdom.

Stalchildren are primarily encountered at Ikana Graveyard during the night, where they guard graves, sit around a campfire, and swing around from the trees. When they see Link, they use the same attacks as in their debut appearance. If Link wears the Captain's Hat, the Stalchildren think he is their leader and do not attack him; they also communicate to Link and provide information to him. With the Captain's Hat Link can order the Stalchildren to open a grave that leads down into Beneath the Graveyard, which Captain Keeta ordered the Stalchildren to guard. During the race against Captain Keeta, he leaves Stalchildren behind to hinder Link.

Six Stalchildren are in the Oceanside Spider House. They do not attack Link even if he does not wear the Captain's Hat. By wearing the Captain's Hat, Link can talk to each Stalchild to get a hint on solving the puzzle, which ends with a Piece of Heart reward.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, Stalchildren, simply called Stalfos in the English guide, appear in small groups and walk around slowly. Similar to most previous fixed-camera depictions of Stalfos, they are capable of jumping away from sword slashes, with some additionally attacking by jumping and slamming and others attacking by throwing bones while rotating their arms, though neither type has any physical distinction.

In Four Swords Anniversary Edition, purple-colored Stalfos appear behind the silver door of the Hero's Trial. They act the same, but must be knocked into pits to be defeated, as attacking them a lot simply causes them to temporarily crumble.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Stalchildren are called Stalkins. They are much smaller than before, wield spears, and have large underbites instead of overbites. They appear in large groups in dark hallways in Arbiter's Grounds, where they come out from the sand. They are still quite weak, though they may appear in the vicinity of the powerful Redead Knight. They also appear in the Cave of Ordeals and the northern courtyard of Hyrule Castle. In Hyrule Field, their previous behavior from Ocarina of Time is for the most part given to Stalhound.

Link's Crossbow Training
Stalchildren using their Twilight Princess design appear as enemy targets in Link's Crossbow Training.

Hyrule Warriors
Stalchildren are one of the main infantry types in Hyrule Warriors and its later iterations. The normal ones look just like the Stalchildren in Ocarina of Time 3D, while the captains look like the Stalfos from the same game. The archers throw bones, the keep guards have large, spiked helmets, and the summoners have purple mantles.

In the Majora's Mask Adventure Mode map, Captain Keeta occasionally appears in some missions, with some large Stalchildren as guards.

Zelda Universe

 * Stalchidren are skeletal creatures who were never flesh and bone. They hunt their prey in large packs, and will only appear once the sun has set.