Crab God is quite a refreshing title for all Strategy and RTS fans, and it is challenging when you are completely new to the game and can’t grasp all the mechanics immediately. I’ve beat the game, and I have some tips to share that you should know before playing Crab God.
Things about Crab God I Wish I Knew Before Starting My First Run
“Oh, everything’s going so well, I like this ga- wait, why is my base rapidly losing hea- WAIT! STOP! Please don’t ;_;” was how I was feeling on my first run. The second one was also a great learning experience, and I nailed it on the third. I’ve thought up some crucial tips that will definitely help you, and I wish I had known them before hitting the Play button for the first time.
Name Your Crabs Based on Their Proficiency
This will keep things organized for you. In the bottom-right corner, when you click on a portrait of a Crab in your colony, it will show you the default name of the Crab. Between the levels, you can rename your Crabs by pressing “R” when they are selected. Since the game allows 16 characters per Crab, I thought of a way to easily know their “specs.” You can inspect their traits and name them based on them. You can even duplicate the names, it doesn’t matter. I thought of simple strings such as Gard, Build, Worsh, Scav, and Hunt that are short enough to be immediately recognized.
Focus on Increasing the Number of Crabs in Your Colony
Before choosing your “route” in the level selection, make sure to inspect what’s on the levels you are being offered. I made sure to choose the option that gave me the most new Crab hatches available. The answer is straightforward. More hands on deck gives you more breathing space. Under the name of the level its depth in meters, you will see how many ritual stones and eggs are available. In the picture below, we see one Ritual Stone and two eggs.
Make Sure to Leave the Level With the Maximum Food Possible
When you reach the required food level, you are offered to leave the level and move on to the next one. Well, I did that in my first two runs, and it came with a toll. The food you gather during a level is given to your crabs, and they eat it. They get XP based on how much food they eat, and they occasionally level up. The secret ingredient is to push the food stock up to the limit (which is double the required amount). After the game automatically assigns a fair share of food to every crab, you can assign the rest however you please and help those Crabs that are close to the level-up to have them get another perk to choose.
Your Crabs Can Die in a Fight
I honestly didn’t even realize that Crabs can die until I got the perk that makes a Crab stronger but forces all threats to attack it. I gave it a go, and my Crab ended up in Crab heaven on the same level. Basically, don’t take that perk, and look out for your Crabs because it will get harder to get new ones as you progress through the game. They can be healed by Worshippers after you get the perk that grants them this ability.
Do Not Miss the Ritual Stone Quests
Ritual Stone quests are not mandatory by any means, but skipping them is a problem because of the power creep that happens after each level. By doing Ritual Stone quests, you are ensuring that your colony stays on top of the upcoming challenges. Similar to the first tip, check how many Ritual Stones are there on a level before choosing one.
Do Not Underestimate the Power of Walls
You will notice “rubble” very early in the game, which a Hunter can upgrade into a spike trap. That’s all fine and dandy, but we’re not doing this. I advise you to get the perk for wall-building as soon as it’s offered to you. Then, a Builder Crab can place a wall and upgrade it a few times (two upgrades are fine, the ones that cost 20 and 35 favor), and this wall will indeed be able to take quite a few hits while your Hunter Crab army is angrily tossing their spears at the threats. This will definitely help your survival odds a lot. I rejected the idea at first and kept placing spike traps, but they didn’t do enough damage to warrant their usage.
Get those Role Cost Reductions Whenever They are Offered to You
When thinking about Crab roles, you’ll be forced to change them a dozen times during each level, and having to pay these costs is extremely detrimental to your progress. If you get an offer to get a perk that slices the Role cost by 50% for all Crabs, take it (two times max) without thinking. If you get that going, your chances of losing the run have been drastically reduced (you would probably need to make a clinically insane level of errors). Some Crabs will get individual cost reductions (or increases in trade of a strong ability), so you can play around with this.
There is a Clock for a Reason, Plan Your Tactics Ahead
Four colors are the most important on the clock in the center of the top of your screen:
- Yellow – daytime
- Orange – dusk
- Dark Blue – night
- Light Blue – morning
During the night, threats attack your base. Sometimes they attack from the left, and sometimes they attack from the right. Just before night falls you should change most (if not every) Crabs into the Hunter role. If you do not have enough favor points for all of them, Builders can fight as well, and Scavengers can immediately start bringing back the food to the base.
After the fight, you will notice that your Hunter Crabs are idle when you see a question mark in their status bar (bottom-right). This means that the fight is over, and you can start switching them back into Worshippers and Scavengers to get some resources. This leads me to the final tip for Crab God.
Keep Your Idle Crabs Busy
In the bottom-right status bar, you will see mini-portraits of your Crabs. If one of them has a question mark, it means they’re not doing anything. You can either assign them a new task for their role or change their role to something else you need more at this moment (Worshippers are always welcome!)
That’s all I’ve got for this tip session. Here’s a Cheat Sheet of all the flora and fauna in this game. More guides available at our Crab God game hub!
