Giant rock crab

Giant Rock Crab

Release date	1 August 2005 (Update)
Members?	Yes
Combat level	137
Life points	2400
Experience for killing	960 (320 Constitution experience)
Slayer level	Not assigned
Aggressive?	Yes
Poisonous?	No
Immune to poison?	No
Attack style	Melee
Attack speed	Unknown edit
Max hit	110 (approx)
Weakness	[[]] (wind spells)magic ([[winds]])magic (wind spells)magic (wind spells)magic (wind spells)magic (wind spells)magic (wind spells)magic (wind spells)magic (wind spells)magic (wind spells)magic (wind spells)magic (wind spells)Magic (Wind Spells)
Always drops	Bones
Examine text	No one likes crabs... especially really big ones! (when disguised as a boulder) "Heavy rock!"

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Giant rock crabs are massive versions of the weaker Rock crab. They lie in wait for prey, disguised as large boulders. When approached, they attack, unless they have become tolerant, in which case they remain as "boulders" - attempting to cast a spell on them gives the message "You can't attack this NPC."

Giant Rock Crabs are good droppers of charms, as they drop 3 of them at a time. They also drop various black equipment (platebody and claws), worth a decent sum of coins. They are the only droppers of rock-shell parts, which is needed to create Rock-shell armour.

Locations

File:ChaosTunnels entrances.png

Use the middle south entrance just east of the wizard who teleports player to the Abyss. This is labelled entrance number 2 and goes directly to the giant rock crabs.

• In Waterbirth Island Dungeon (a partner is required in order to do this).

In the Chaos Tunnels (The middle south rift just east of Mage of Zamorak (Abyss) leads directly to them). This is recommended when not having a companion.

Strategy

File:Rock Crab Haven.png

A player killing Giant Rock Crabs from a distance.

Giant Rock Crabs are extremely resistant to Melee and Ranged attacks, and thus are only effectively killed using Magic. However, Verac's armour and Diamond bolts (e) are quite effective with their shared unique effect, which can hit through their high physical and ranged defense, Verac's armour also has a prayer bonus allowing the player to use Protect from melee for longer than usual. This method is advised for those with a low Magic level but high melee combat levels. For lower attack levels the use of Attack Potions can be used to improve the chances of hitting. Rock Crabs drop three charms at once, and are a very good source of gold charms. These Crabs are not immune to poison, but are extremely difficult to poison them with a poisoned weapon like the dragon dagger or any poisoned ranged ammo because of their high Melee and Ranged defense.

Another method includes wearing rune or better armour, and bringing a weapon with a high crush attack bonus, such as the Zamorakian spear or Barrelchest anchor. Slash weapons such as the Abyssal whip are not recommended due to the crabs' high slash defense.

A notably effective and economic way to kill Giant Rock Crabs is the Black Salamander, or the Polypore Staff. The Black Salamander's magic attack, and the Polypore staff's attack acts as a normal magic attack and takes advantage of their lower magic defense. Their magic defense is so low you can utilize high level defensive armour without losing much accuracy.

Giant rock crabs have a very high defence, but relatively low attack and strength. If attacked in the Chaos Tunnels they will walk off and stop attacking you after a minute or two.

If using mage, note that they are most vulnerable to air-based spells.

Mage Gear is as follows:

• Helmet: Farseer helmet > Infinity > Ahrim's > Dagon'hai > Mystic/Sacred clay
• Necklace: Stream necklace > Amulet of fury > Amulet of glory > Amulet of magic/Amulet of power
• Cape: God cape > Soul war cape > Ardougne cloak (4/3>2) > Obsidian cape, Cape of Accomplishment,
• Body: Ahrim's > Infinity > Dagon'hai > Mystic/Sacred clay
• Legs: Ahrim's > Infinity > Dagon'hai > Mystic/Sacred clay
• Weapon Slot: Polypore Staff, Elemental staff or a 'Magic damage'-increasing staff
• Shield: God book (Unholy>Ancient>Balance) or Broodoo Shield > Mage's book > Arcane spirit shield
• Gloves: Barrows gloves > Rune gloves > Lunar gloves > Regen bracelet
• Boots: Infinity > Wizard's > Mystic > Lunar > Swanky
• Ring: Seers' ring (i) > Explorer's ring > Beacon ring > Lunar ring or Ring of Wealth

Note: Another useful tactic is to use (Elite) Void knight equiment, preferably with a Deflector and a good mage robe top.

If you are using ice burst or barrage the arcane stream necklace is not as important here because magic damage boost adds only to the target you click on. The other 8 targets do not receive the damage boost from it or your staff, so you would be better of using a necklace with a prayer bonus.

If using burst or barrage spells the Staff of light is recommended despite the lower mage bonus (in comparison to Master wand, or Chaotic staff) given the fact that it gives free casts; when used in conjunction with Battle Robes, it has a 50% chance of saving runes when casting. Even when this effect doesn't activate, the Battle Robes themselves have a chance to save runes, effectively adding up to a 60% chance of saving runes. The Battle robes will, however, only last for 6 hours of combat afterwhich they will need to be recharged (270 tokens).

Provided you are going to be bursting a Tome of frost is recommended above items that provide a higher magic bonus. This is because rock lobsters have fairly low magic defence (thus the difference in offensive magic bonus is negligible), while the tome saves an inventory space and the need/price of Water runes.

Retreat

The Giant Rock Crab is one of few monsters in RuneScape that will retreat from battle when they become critically wounded. One way to avoid this (in the southern room in the chaos tunnels) is to kill the eastern one first (using the safespot in the picture above). Then when picking up the drop from them you will have likely alerted a few other giant rock crabs. Go back to the safespot and two should follow you there, from there kill them. While you're killing them the one you first killed should spawn but not attack (unless you go beside it). Because he spawns the other two can't get out and are trapped, so they cannot retreat. After killing the first one, don't pick up the drop and proceed to kill the second one. This means that you will not alert the one that spawned and you will have another retreat free kill. Do this over and over.

27 May 2009

After the 27 May 2009 update, Giant Rock Crabs drop Charms in groups of three instead of ten. However, charm dropping rate was increased significantly. This hidden update initially angered players, though complaints died down as the rate of dropping them was increased.

Drops

100%

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Bones	1	1 Always	105

Runes/Talismans

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Water rune	1–39	3 Uncommon	7–273
	Earth rune	2–37	3 Uncommon	12–222
	Air talisman	1	4 Rare	81
	Mind talisman	1	4 Rare	84
	Fire talisman	1	4 Rare	1,938
	Cosmic talisman	1	4 Rare	160
	Body talisman	1	4 Rare	251
	Water talisman	1	4 Rare	4,485
	Earth talisman	1	4 Rare	826

Weaponry/Armour

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Steel platebody	1	3 Uncommon	1,126
Exchange:Black claws	Black claws	1	3 Uncommon
	Black platebody	1	3 Uncommon	3,402
	Mithril hatchet	1	3 Uncommon	204
	Rock-shell gloves	1	3 Uncommon	5,513
	Rock-shell boots	1	3 Uncommon	1,581
	Black warhammer	1	4 Rare	623
	Adamant longsword	1	4 Rare	1,791
	Adamant warhammer	1	4 Rare	2,987

Seeds

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Poison ivy seed	1	3 Uncommon	31
	Belladonna seed	1	3 Uncommon	29
	Guam seed	1	3 Uncommon	5
	Marrentill seed	1	3 Uncommon	3
	Tarromin seed	1	3 Uncommon	7
	Harralander seed	1	3 Uncommon	4
	Toadflax seed	1	4 Rare	989
	Ranarr seed	1	4 Rare	2,935
	Irit seed	1	4 Rare	100
	Avantoe seed	1	4 Rare	1,306
	Snapdragon seed	1	4 Rare	26,078
	Cadantine seed	1	4 Rare	997
	Lantadyme seed	1	4 Rare	28,328
	Dwarf weed seed	1	5 Very rare	43,732
	Torstol seed	1	5 Very rare	274,040

Herbs

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Grimy guam	1	3 Uncommon	521
	Grimy marrentill	1	3 Uncommon	41
	Grimy tarromin	1	3 Uncommon	56
	Grimy harralander	1	3 Uncommon	385
	Grimy ranarr	1	4 Rare	3,508
	Grimy irit	1	4 Rare	1,496
	Grimy avantoe	1	4 Rare	2,877
	Grimy kwuarm	1	4 Rare	2,902
	Grimy cadantine	1	4 Rare	1,336
	Grimy lantadyme	1	4 Rare	6,002
	Grimy dwarf weed	1	4 Rare	7,525

Other

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Coins	27, 28, 42, 70, 137	2 Common	Not sold
	Raw lobster	1	2 Common	177
	Raw bass	1	2 Common	478
	Tinderbox	1	2 Common	62
Casket	Casket	1	4 Rare	4,040
Rock-shell splinter	Rock-shell splinter	1	4 Rare	19,359
Rock-shell chunk	Rock-shell chunk	1	4 Rare	8,751
Rock-shell shard	Rock-shell shard	1	4 Rare	12,898
	Spin ticket	1	4 Rare	Not sold
	Clue scroll (medium)	1	5 Very rare	Not sold
	Starved ancient effigy	1	5 Very rare	Not sold

Rare drop table drops

This monster drops items from the rare drop table.
The ring of wealth improves the chances if equipped but is not required to access the table.

	Show/hide rare drop table
Item Quantity Rarity GE Market Price Coins 250; 381; 450; 3,000; 9,000; 12,000 2 Common Not sold Uncut sapphire 1 2 Common 810 Uncut emerald 1 2 Common 1,295 Uncut ruby 1 2 Common 2,613 Loop half of a key 1 3 Uncommon 9,402 Tooth half of a key 1 3 Uncommon 12,758 Uncut diamond 1 3 Uncommon 9,520 Uncut dragonstone 1 4 Rare 13,572 Dragonstone 1 4 Rare 10,393 Dragon dagger 1 2 Common 17,356 Rune javelin 5 4 Rare 1,285 Adamant javelin 20 5 Very rare 800 Rune spear 1 5 Very rare 12,130 Dragon spear 1 5 Very rare 40,021 Dragon dagger 50 (noted) 5 Very rare 867,800 Rune kiteshield 1 5 Very rare 34,977 Shield left half 1 5 Very rare 65,553 Dragon helm 1 5 Very rare 60,107 Adamant bolts 200 3 Uncommon 31,600 Rune arrow 150–200, 500 4 Rare 28,500–95,000 Onyx bolts 150 4 Rare 1,315,350 Battlestaff 200 (noted) 4 Rare 1,612,200 Air orb 1000 (noted) 4 Rare 1,216,000 Fire orb 1000 (noted) 4 Rare 1,406,000 Vecna skull 1 5 Very rare 457,724 Water talisman 1 3 Uncommon 4,485 Earth talisman 25–35 (noted) 3 Uncommon 20,650–28,910 Fire talisman 25–35 (noted) 3 Uncommon 48,450–67,830 Chaos talisman 1 3 Uncommon 137 Nature talisman 1 3 Uncommon 165 Pure essence 500–15000 (noted) 3 Uncommon 53,500–1,605,000 Template:ExchangeItemNat Nature rune 47–77 4 Rare – Soul rune 20 4 Rare 6,360 Death rune 50, 121 4 Rare 9,250–22,385 Blood rune 50 4 Rare 9,750 Raw swordfish 125 – 250, 1000 (noted) 3 Uncommon 37,875–303,000 Raw shark 250–500 (noted) 3 Uncommon 129,750–259,500 Big bones 150 – 500 (noted) 3 Uncommon 52,650–175,500 Coal 150–7500 (noted) 3 Uncommon 39,450–1,972,500 Adamantite ore 150–800 (noted) 3 Uncommon 248,250–1,324,000 Silver ore 100 (noted) 4 Rare 9,200 Adamant bar 1000–7000 (noted) 4 Rare 2,175,000–15,225,000 Runite ore 100 (noted) 4 Rare 1,067,100 Rune bar 1,50,150 (noted) 4 Rare 13,029–1,954,350 Clean ranarr 33 (noted) 3 Uncommon 115,665 Clean toadflax 25–250 (noted) 3 Uncommon 69,100–691,000 Clean snapdragon 30–120 (noted) 3 Uncommon 168,210–672,840 Clean torstol 10–100 (noted) 3 Uncommon 277,960–2,779,600 Saradomin brew (4) 250 (noted) 5 Very rare 854,750 Watermelon seed 3 3 Uncommon 5,583 Yew seed 1–50 4 Rare 84,903–4,245,150 Magic seed 1–6 4 Rare 294,483–1,766,898 Palm tree seed 10 4 Rare 1,219,220 Snapdragon seed 1 4 Rare 26,078 Torstol seed 1–31 4 Rare 274,040–8,495,240 Fellstalk seed 2 4 Rare 2,052 Yew logs 100–20000 (noted) 4 Rare 49,400–9,880,000

Trivia

• Jagex commented about a future update on 11, 2012 about the Giant rock crab. It will have a stronger version, assigned by Kuradal and can only be found in her dungeon.
• Contrary to popular belief, Giant rock crabs are only aggressive when a player goes near them when they are in their "dormant" form. If they are moving they will not attack any players at all.