Moon Cleft

Moon Clefts are very powerful species of Clefts found in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, during Chapter 7 (that is to say on the moon, as their name implies). These moon-dwelling enemies have high stats but are easy to beat when an explosion, preferably from Admiral Bobbery, flips them over, lowering their Defense down to 0. Like their relatives, they disguise themselves as rocks, but they reveal their true form when Mario comes close enough. Moon Clefts attack by charging at their opponents, and cannot be stomped because of their spikes. This enemy has colors similar to a normal Cleft from Paper Mario, whereas those are pale gray in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in fitting with the color scheme of Boggly Woods. They also have the highest defense power in the game, alongside Chain Chomps and Elite Wizzerds.

They return in Super Paper Mario in Chapter 5-1, near Downtown of Crag. Their attack pattern remains the same: they charge at Mario and his allies as soon as they get close enough. They still have the same weakness, as Boomer can flip them over. Moon Clefts will occasionally drop a Cake Mix when they are defeated.

Trivia

 * The respective internal file names for Moon Clefts and normal Clefts indicate that at some point in development, Moon Clefts were intended to be the "base" version of Cleft while the final game's normal Cleft was intended as a variant, explaining Moon Cleft's usage of the original coloration. Furthermore, the Japanese script for Super Paper Mario considers the ones in that game normal Clefts.