Crab King

Exclusive to:

Crab King
	20000 - 95000
	Lunar Aligned
Special Ability	Freezes player, Damages boat, Summons Imposing Claws, Heals himself.
Drops	×7, ×4-6, ×3-5, ×2-3, ×3-7, for , for , (, if is socketed)
	"crabking"

“Yikes! A little too crabby for me.”

–Wilson

“He doesn't look too happy...”

–Willow

“This makes Wolfgang very scared AND hungry.”

–Wolfgang

“One of us will be sent to a watery grave...”

–Wendy

“A FLESHSACK DISGUISED AS A NON-FLESHSACK”

–WX-78

“I wonder if its size is natural or caused by lunar mutations?”

–Wickerbottom

“I think we might've bothered him.”

–Woodie

“Say, pal, why don't we try to work this out?”

–Maxwell

“Have at thee, cursed crustacean!”

–Wigfrid

“He looks pretty crabby!”

–Webber

“Oh, the dishes I could make with that much crab meat...”

–Warly

“Crabby...”

–Wormwood

“Looks like he thinks he's the boss around here.”

–Winona

“Another cursed soul.”

–Wortox

“Glurp... he kinda cranky.”

–Wurt

“YES!! Now that's a proper sea monster!”

–Walter

“Ah! There you are, you old codger!”

–Wanda

The Crab King is a Boss Mob exclusive to Don't Starve Together, introduced in Return of Them.

It can be found in the Swell Ocean inside a circle of Sea Stacks in its Inert form. Players must socket 9 Gems to turn him into his aggressive form and start the boss fight. His position can be indicated by the Astral Detector if the Inactive Celestial Tribute has not yet dropped.

Upon death, the Crab King drops all the socketed gems, 7 pieces of Meat, 4 Soprano Shell Bells with a 50% chance and a 25% to get one extra, 3 Alto Shell Bells with a 50% and 25% chance to get one extra, 2 Baritone Shell Bells with a 50% chance to get one extra, 3 Barnacles plus 4 extra with a 25% chance for each, and a Blueprint for the Strident Trident. If the Pearl's Pearl was socketed, a Cracked Pearl is dropped instead of the Pearl's Pearl, and an Inactive Celestial Tribute in the form of an Underwater Salvageable appears as well.

If the player leaves combat, the Crab King will return to his inert state, dropping all the gems socketed and summoning new Sea Stacks around him. He reappears 20 days after being killed.

Behavior

The Crab King's fighting abilities depend on the number of gems of each color socketed into him. Iridescent Gems count as 1 of each color and the Pearl's Pearl counts as 3 of each color.

His health depends on the number of Red Gems, see table below. Every ten percent of life he loses, a piece of rock from his crown breaks off.

About every 10 seconds he casts a spell that summons geysers under all boats in the vicinity (with a radius of 25). Each geyser does 10 damage to boats and creates a small leak (-0.5 /s). The number of geysers created depends of the number of Purple Gems socketed into the Crab King. The casting time of the spell depends on the number of Yellow Gems.

When his health is below 90%, he summons Imposing Claws around him. The health and the number of Imposing Claws depends on the number of Green Gems.

When his health is below 85%, he regularly casts a spell that lowers the temperature of players around him and freezes them for 10 seconds at the end. The temperature decrease and the radius of the spell depend on the number of Blue Gems. The casting time for the spell depends on the number of Yellow Gems. The temperature decrease is up to 3 times stronger if the player is Wet.

When his health is below 85%, he tries to heal himself every 40 seconds. The healing process takes 10 seconds during which he repairs himself with pieces of rock. Players can interrupt the healing of each rock by attacking the Crab King, destroying the piece of rock. The amount of healing from each rock and the number of hits needed to interrupt the healing depends on the number of Orange Gems.

He cannot be put to sleep. His resistance to freezing increases with the number of Blue Gems.

Gem Count
	Health	Number of geysers	Temp. decrease	Freeze range	Freeze resistance	Freeze casting time	Geyser casting time	Healing per rock	Hits to cancel	Number of Imposing Claws	Claw health
0	20000	5	-40°	3.8	3	5s	8s	650	1	5	500
1	20000	5	-50°	5.0	4	5s	8s	650	1	5	500
2	23000	6	-60°	6.2	5	4s	7s	750	1	6	550
3	23000	6	-70°	7.5	6	4s	7s	750	2	6	550
4	32000	7	-80°	8.8	7	3s	6s	850	2	7	600
5	32000	7	-90°	10.0	8	3s	6s	850	2	7	600
6	47000	8	-100°	11.2	9	2s	5s	950	3	8	650
7	47000	8	-110°	12.5	10	2s	5s	950	3	8	650
8	68000	9	-120°	13.8	11	1s	4s	1050	3	9	700
9	68000	9	-130°	15.0	12	1s	4s	1050	4	9	700
10	95000	10	-140°	16.2	13	0s	3s	1150	4	10	750
11	95000	10	-150°	17.5	14	0s	3s	1150	4	10	750

Fight

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 is not included due to the random nature of its projectile.

Number of Hits

Item	(Count ×3)
	23	0	0
	68	0	0
	92	0	0
	113 - 151	0 - 0	0 - 0
	115	0	0
	≥144	≥0	≥0
	145 as	0 as	0 as
	226	0	0
	226 - 451	0 - 0	0 - 0
	230	0	0
	256 (154 )	0 (0 )	0 (0 )
	339	0	0
	339	0	0
	384	0	0
	677, 512 or 384	0, 0 or 0	0, 0 or 0
	387	0	0
	387 - 774	0 - 0	0 - 0
	423 - 846 -	0 - 0 -	0 - 0 -
	451	0	0
	460	0	0
	521	0	0
	531 (319 )	0 (0 )	0 (0 )
	542	0	0
	575	0	0
	677	0	0
	677 (226 )	0 (0 )	0 (0 )
	752	0	0
	769	0	0
	846	0	0
	1128	0	0
	1150	0	0
	1353	0	0
	1692	0	0
	5412	0	0

Imposing Claw

Imposing Claw
	500-750
	35 (Initially) 17.5 (Periodic)
Attack Period	3-4
Walking Speed	1
Drops	×1
Spawns from
	"crabking_claw"

“That's claws for alarm!”

–Wilson

“Keep your claws off my boat!”

–Willow

“Keep away from boat, big pinchers!”

–Wolfgang

“It wants to drag me down to the icy depths of the sea.”

–Wendy

“IT HIDES ITS FLESH WITHIN A HARD CASING”

–WX-78

“Thank goodness I'm not allergic to shellfish.”

–Wickerbottom

“Not the best time to make snap decisions, eh?”

–Woodie

“Best to avoid that.”

–Maxwell

“Prepare thyself tö be de-clawed!”

–Wigfrid

“Aaah! Leave us alone!”

–Webber

“I had a nightmare like this back in culinary school.”

–Warly

“Scary!”

–Wormwood

“Now that's some claws for alarm. Ha!”

–Winona

“Now that's claws for alarm, hyuyuyu!”

–Wortox

“Go away! No pinching!”

–Wurt

“Woah! Look at the size of those claws!”

–Walter

“You keep those big old snippers away from me!”

–Wanda

Imposing Claws are summoned by the Crab King when his health is below 90%. Their health and number depends on the number of Green Gems socketed.

Imposing Claws move slowly in the water, looking for boats to clamp onto. When they clamp, they remain attached, which prevents the boat from moving completely. The initial bite causes 35 damage to the boat, and they cause 17.5 damage every 3 to 4 seconds.

The player must kill them to free the boat, and they drop 1 piece of Meat when killed. They reappear after 30 seconds when they're killed.

Trivia

• The Crab King was introduced in the She Sells Sea Shells update.
• Barnacles were added to the Crab King's loot table in the Troubled Waters update.
• It's possible to insert more than 1 Pearl's Pearl using console commands. With these, it's possible to get the Crab King to have 527,000 health and an insane amount of other changes.
• 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 him, 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.

Gallery

• 

  Crab King in the She Sells Sea Shells Trailer

• 

  Crab King in the She Sells Sea Shells Trailer

• 

  Map Icon

• 

  Unused menu background with the Crab King

Animations

• 

  reappear

• 

  disappear

• 

  frozen

• 

  die

• 

  unused death animation