To initiate the boss fight, players must socket 9 Gems to transform the Crab King into its aggressive form. This action will destroy all nearby Sea Stacks. If the player leaves combat, the Crab King will return to its inert state, dropping all socketed gems. It will also despawn all Crab Guards, Crab Knights, Cannon Towers, Imposing Claws, Ice Floes, while respawning new Sea Stacks around itself.
After 9 gems are socked, the Crab King turns aggressive and summons 5 Imposing Claws and 4 Cannon Towers to start the fight.
When Crab King's Health drops below 10800, it will try to heal itself for every 1500 health lost or whenever all claws are killed, after a delay of 12 seconds.
It will first despawn all Imposing Claws and generate a large number of Waves to push all Floating Platforms away. At the same time, it summons a ring of geysers, indicated by bubbles, in a circle of 8 units around itself, in all directions except south. After 8 seconds, the geysers will erupt once per second until there are no Floating Platforms within 14 units. The Crab King will then create a 16 unit radius Ice Floe around itself, destroying all structures or plants within this area. It will then summon 3 Crab Guards and creates a circular Ice Barrier around itself. As long as the Ice Barrier is intact, the Crab King cannot be targeted by any attacks.
If the Crab King's Health drops below 4200, it will also summon a Crab Knight each time.
After summoning the Ice Floe, the Crab King taunts for 10 seconds and then begins to repair its shell every 1.2 seconds, restoring 50 Health each time. If any attack hits during the repair process, the repair fails and health is not restored. This behavior continues until the Crab King returns to full health or the Ice Barrier breaks up.
25 seconds after the Ice Barrier is broken, the Ice Floes will break, starting with the Ice Floes closest to Crab King. The Crab King will then summon Imposing Claws and Cannon Towers up to their original numbers.
Below is the number of hits it takes with each weapon to kill a Crab King when playing with characters with a default damage modifier. The Weather Pain, Brightshade Staff, and Bee Mine are not included due to their random natures. This table does not take into account the damage bonus gained from characters with a lunar or shadow affinity. It also does not take into account the 40% damage bonus Wendy gets from attacking the same mob as Abigail, Wanda's damage bonus with Shadow weapons (except for the Alarming Clock, which does accurately reflect that bonus), or Wolfgang's damage multiplier when he isn't mighty.
Number of hits
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314 (Melee on land) 210 (Melee on ocean) 189 (spell)
262 (Melee on land) 175 (Melee on ocean) 157 (spell)
210 (126 ) (Melee on land) 140 (84 ) (Melee on ocean) 126 (76 ) (spell)
175 (105 ) (Melee on land) 117 (70 ) (Melee on ocean) 105 (63 ) (spell)
236 (Melee on land) 157 (Melee on ocean) 142 (spell)
197 (Melee on land) 131 (Melee on ocean) 118 (spell)
157 (95 ) (Melee on land) 105 (63 ) (Melee on ocean) 95 (57 ) (spell)
131 (79 ) (Melee on land) 88 (53 ) (Melee on ocean) 79 (48 ) (spell)
189 (Melee on land) 126 (Melee on ocean) 113 (spell)
157 (Melee on land) 105 (Melee on ocean) 95 (spell)
126 (76 ) (Melee on land) 84 (51 ) (Melee on ocean) 76 (46 ) (spell)
105 (63 ) (Melee on land) 70 (42 ) (Melee on ocean) 63 (38 ) (spell)
118 (Melee on land) 79 (Melee on ocean) 71 (spell)
99 (Melee on land) 66 (Melee on ocean) 59 (spell)
79 (48 ) (Melee on land) 53 (32 ) (Melee on ocean) 48 (29 ) (spell)
66 (40 ) (Melee on land) 44 (27 ) (Melee on ocean) 40 (24 ) (spell)
()
236 (Direct hit) 353 (AoE)
197 (Direct hit) 295 (AoE)
157 (95 ) (Direct hit) 236 (142 ) (AoE)
131 (79 ) (Direct hit) 197 (118 ) (AoE)
370 (222 )
308 (185 )
370 (222 )
308 (185 )
277 (167 )
231 (139 )
277 (167 )
231 (139 )
222 (133 )
185 (111 )
222 (133 )
185 (111 )
139 (84 )
116 (70 )
139 (84 )
116 (70 )
()
283 (162 )
236 (135 )
283 (162 )
236 (135 )
377
314
251 (151 )
210 (126 )
283
236
189 (113 )
157 (95 )
226
189
151 (91 )
126 (76 )
142
118
95 (57 )
79 (48 )
()
142 (When thrown)
118 (When thrown)
95 (57 ) (When thrown)
79 (48 ) (When thrown)
300
471
393
314 (189 )
262 (157 )
353
295
236 (142 )
197 (118 )
283
236
189 (113 )
157 (95 )
177
148
118 (71 )
99 (59 )
()
353
295
236 (142 )
197 (118 )
()
177 (When thrown)
148 (When thrown)
118 (71 ) (When thrown)
99 (59 ) (When thrown)
589
491
393 (236 )
327 (197 )
442
368
295 (177 )
246 (148 )
353
295
236 (142 )
197 (118 )
221
184
148 (89 )
123 (74 )
()
221 (When thrown)
184 (When thrown)
148 (89 ) (When thrown)
123 (74 ) (When thrown)
()
471 (Direct hit) 706 (AoE)
393 (Direct hit) 589 (AoE)
314 (189 ) (Direct hit) 471 (283 ) (AoE)
262 (157 ) (Direct hit) 393 (236 ) (AoE)
()
706
589
471 (283 )
393 (236 )
()
353 (When thrown)
295 (When thrown)
236 (142 ) (When thrown)
197 (118 ) (When thrown)
Crab King is immune to being slept.
Gems
The Crab King's fighting abilities depend on the number of gems of each color socketed into it. Iridescent Gems count as 1 of each color and the Pearl's Pearl counts as 3 of each color.
These gems will flash when Crab King uses the respective ability.
Imposing Claws are summoned by the Crab King. Their health, attack damage and quantity are determined by the number of Green Gems socketed.
Once summoned, the Imposing Claws will slowly move towards to target to attack. Imposing Claws only attack Characters (all characters, not only players) and Monsters, and will never attack any other Mobs, even if they are attacked by them.
It takes 4 hits of an Ice Staff to freeze Imposing Claws.
Cannon Towers are summoned by Crab King and will periodically respawn if destroyed during the fight. Their resistance to being rammed by boats, health, and numbers depend on the number of Yellow Gems socketed into Crab King. Their damage and ability to cause Leaks on boats depend on the number of Red Gems socketed. With 5 to 7 Red Gems, cannon hits will cause small leaks, while 8 or more Red Gems will enable the cannons to cause medium leaks.
Cannon Towers will only targets Characters on boats and boats themselves, favoring boats when a character is not on them. Ramming into them with a boat does an exponential amount of damage determined by the boat's speed as well as the amount of Yellow Gems socketed into Crab King.
To make the fight easier, the player should try to use a variety of gems, as reaching 5 gems of a same color will add much more difficulty to the fight.
For example, going from 3 to 4 red gems only increases Cannon Tower damage a little bit. But going from 4 to 5 red gems means that Cannon Tower shots will cause leaks, in addition to the increased damage.
Barnacles were added to the Crab King's loot table in the Troubled Waters update.
Crab King's combat was fully reworked in the Staying Afloat update.
About Crab King before this update, see Crab King/Old
There is an unused animation of the Crab King dying as opposed to falling into the water when defeated.
The Crab King was once Pearl’s love interest, as the Pearl she gives the player is intended for it, the Shell Bells dropped by the Crab King also prove this relation further, as Pearl also awards Shell Bells to the players. When many characters examine the Pearl, they comment on Pearl not giving up on her love interest and when giving the Cracked Pearl back to Pearl herself, she appears to take it as being rejected by the Crab King.
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these Mobs
