The Crabby Hermit goes out of the Hermit Home during the day. She roams on her island, performing various tasks, mostly fishing. She will approach and comment while the player is performing a task. She is immune to any damage.
In worlds where daytime is turned off, she will roam her island regardless of the time of day.
Tasks
Beyond level 1, being in proximity to the Crabby Hermit grants access to the Bottle Exchange Tab. More recipes are unlocked at friendship level 3, 6, 8, and 9.
When a task is completed for the first time, the friendship with the Crabby Hermit increases by one level. Each task can be redone several times for extra Bundle of Thanks, but they will not grant extra friendship.
When friendship goes to levels 2, 4, 5 and 7, she gives the player a Bundle of Thanks. She also gives a Bundle of Thanks when a task is performed for the second time and for each of the following ones.
The color of the Crabby Hermit's speech is initially light pink. At level 4, the color changes to light magenta. At level 8, the color changes again to light purple, and players will see her as Pearl and her Hermit Home as Pearl's Place. At this point, she will also dance when a player performs the dance emote.
After completing 10 tasks, including all three of the Hermit Home upgrades, she will give the player the Pearl's Pearl.
The tasks players can perform for the Crabby Hermit are:
Build a Wooden Chair, which can be prototyped using a Sawhorse, which's blueprint can be obtained by building a Replica Relic Chair on the Hermit Island and waiting for the Crabby Hermit to come to it, see it, talk about how bad it is, come to the player and give them a blueprint that they can use to make Sawhorse to allow them to create better chairs.
Each separate upgrade of the Hermit Home awards a friendship point. Therefore, completing all three upgrades awards three friendship points.
Planting 10 Flowers on the Hermit Island. This task can only be done once.
Drying 6 Food items simultaneously on the Hermit Island. This task can be redone if the Crabby Hermit eats 6 foods on drying racks. Usually there will be enough Bull Kelp Stalks on her island for the player to pick, allowing them to dry the Kelp Fronds.
Fertilizing 8 Berry Bushes on the Hermit Island. Juicy Berry Bushes are acceptable for this task as well. This task can only be done once.
Killing a Meat Bulb on the Hermit Island. It cannot be planted by a player. A Meat Bulb appears on the Hermit Island at the beginning of spring if this task was never completed.
Giving a heavy Ice Bream to the Crabby Hermit, this task gives an extra advert for Snow Day Lure.
Giving 5 heavy Ocean Fish to the Crabby Hermit, excluding the four seasonal fish.
An Ocean Fish is heavy if it weighs more than 70% of its maximum weight from its minimum weight. Heavy fishes produce an extra examination quote when weighed with a Pocket Scale. The player can also simply try giving the fish to Pearl, and she will refuse the fish if it's not heavy. A Heavy Weighted Lure will only attract the heavy fishes within a shoal, saving the player time catching and weighing all of the fish. A Tin Fishing Bin will keep all Ocean fishes fresh until they can be shown to Pearl.
To finish Pearl's quests by early Spring in one trip without sea fishing by completing the three hermit home upgrades, flowers, drying, lureplant, underwater salvageables, rain, berrybushes and chair tasks, one will need to bring the following resources:
learned recipe of the Replica Relic Chair, most easily obtained by killing a Resting Horror
It's possible to complete her questline as early as the first Autumn by swapping out the Lureplant quest for the 5 heavy Ocean Fish quest. However, the player would have to replace the rain task with the seasonal fish task or rely on a rare Autumn rain, or force it to rain by using Telelocator Staves to increase the world's moisture level. This typically requires two staves.
A Bundle of Thanks is given by the Crabby Hermit to reward tasks.
Bundle of Thanks contains 8 random Shell Bells (40%, 40%, 20%), except at level 2 where there aren't any. It also contains 1 Honey if the Flower task has been completed.
At level 2, 4, 5 and 7 the Bundle of Thanks also contains one random Lure from the following: Rainy Day Lure, Snow Day Lure, Stupefying Lure and Heavy Weighted Lure, with a 25% chance each.
Shell Bell Bundle contains 4 random Shell Bells with a 40% chance for Soprano Shell Bell, a 40% chance for Alto Shell Bells and a 20% chance for Baritone Shell Bell.
Trivia
The Crabby Hermit and the Bundle of Thanks were introduced in the She Sells Sea Shells update.
Based on the gifts she gives the player (along with her appearance, and the update that added her), she appears to be based on Mary Anning, a fossil collector, palaeontologist, and dealer who inspired the popular tongue twister "She sells seashells".
The name "Crabby Hermit" could be a play on Hermit Crab
Sounds
Crabby Hermit's voice.
The musical stings that sound when a new level of friendship has been achieved.
Gallery
Promo image of the Crabby Hermit released along with the She Sells Sea Shells beta forum post.
The Crabby Hermit featured in a promotional animation for the She Sells Sea Shells update.
Crabby Hermit in the She Sells Sea Shells Trailer.
Crabby Hermit concept art from Rhymes With Play #278.
Crabby hermit as seen in the Eye of the Storm trailer
Crabby Hermit emoji from official Klei Discord server.
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