Iridium Crab
| Iridium Crab | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Monster |
| Location | Skull Cavern |
| Floors | 26+ |
| HP | 240 |
| Damage | 15 |
| Defence | 3 |
| Speed | 3 |
| XP | 20 |
The Iridium Crab is the Skull Cavern's cruellest joke on a miner. It sits perfectly still and looks exactly like an Iridium Node, the one thing every farmer in the deep cavern is hunting, and it waits for a pickaxe. While its shell is down nothing can hurt it, so the first few swings land for nothing at all. Once it moves it is quick, and several together can corner a farmer who was busy mining. The reward is worth the trick: half of them drop up to three Iridium Ore, half drop a plate of Crab Cakes, and every kill counts towards the sixty rock crabs that earn the Crabshell Ring.
Behaviour
A disguised Iridium Crab is invulnerable. Hitting it with a sword produces a knocking sound and a zero where the damage number should be, which is the quickest way to tell crab from node before the pickaxe goes in. A real node makes no such noise.
Waking it is a job for the pickaxe. A strike knocks the crab back and brings it out of its shell, and only then can a weapon hurt it. From that point it moves fast, far faster than the shell suggests, and a floor holding several can turn into a scramble.
Removing the shell changes the fight entirely. Enough pickaxe blows will knock the shell clean off its back, at which point the crab turns and flees rather than fighting. A bomb does the same job in one go, and a Mega Bomb is particularly good at stripping shells, which also explains why bombing a deep floor sometimes produces a crowd of fleeing crabs.
Bug Killer also works on rock crabs, doubling damage against the whole family, so the enchantment that makes Armored Bugs killable also shortens every crab fight in the cavern.
Location
Iridium Crabs appear in the Skull Cavern from floor twenty six downwards, which is roughly where iridium starts to appear in quantity, and that overlap is the point. Serpents, Mummies, Iridium Bats and Armored Bugs share the same depths, so a crab usually reveals itself at the worst moment.
Their relatives are spread across the game. Rock Crabs hold the top floors of the Mines, Lava Crabs the hot floors near the bottom, the Truffle Crab appears on the farm when a Pig digs the wrong truffle, and all of them count towards the same goal at the Adventurer's Guild.
Drops
Iridium Ore is the reason to fight one. Up to three come off half of all kills, which on a deep floor is a genuine saving in pickaxe swings and energy. Iridium is the metal behind the best tools, the Iridium Sprinkler and the Iridium Band, so none of it goes to waste.
Crab Cakes drop at the same rate and are a surprisingly good meal to find underground. Gus sells them at the Stardrop Saloon for a few days after Willy's six-heart scene, and Elliott loves receiving them, so the ones not eaten in the cavern have somewhere useful to go.
Beyond that, the crab carries the universal small chance of a Diamond or a Prismatic Shard that every monster gains once the bottom of the Mines has been reached. On floor fifty of the Skull Cavern, with a Burglar's Ring doubling every roll, those odds stop being negligible.
Items this monster can drop when it is defeated, with the chance of each.
| Item | Image | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Crab Cakes | 
|
50% |
| Iridium Ore | 
|
50% |
| Iridium Ore |
|
50% |
| Iridium Ore |
|
50% |
| Diamond | 
|
0.05% |
| Prismatic Shard | 
|
0.05% |
Notes
Sixty rock crabs of any kind complete the eradication goal, counting Rock Crabs, Lava Crabs, dangerous varieties and these. Gil hands over the Crabshell Ring, which adds five points of defence and stacks with a second copy bought from Marlon for 15,000g. For a farmer heading deeper into the cavern, that defence is worth more than the ore.
Mining a cavern floor with a sword in hand is the practical lesson. Tapping each suspicious node once costs a second and saves the energy of a pickaxe swing that was never going to work.
Bombing is the faster approach for anyone who does not care about the kills. A Mega Bomb opens the nodes, strips the crabs and clears the floor at once, though the fleeing crabs take their ore with them.
All Monsters
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
| Name | Image | Location | HP | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armored Bug | 
|
Skull Cavern | 1 | 8 |
| Armored Bug (dangerous) | 
|
Skull Cavern | 250 | 20-27 |
| Bats | 
|
The Mines & Skull Cavern | 24, 36, 80, 300,; 268, 277 | 06, 07, 15, 30, 13, 14 |
| Blue Squid | 
|
The Dangerous Mines | 310 | 18 |
| Bug | 
|
The Mines | 1 | 8 |
| Bug (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 250 | 15-16 |
| Carbon Ghost | 
|
Skull Cavern; The Dangerous Mines | 190 | 25 |
| Cave Fly | 
|
The Mines | 22 | 6 |
| Cave Fly (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 266 | 13-15 |
| Duggy | 
|
The Mines | 40 | 6 |
| Duggy (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 280 | 8 |
| Dust Sprite | 
|
The Mines | 40 | 6 |
| Dust Sprite (dangerous) | 
|
The Mines | 280 | 13-15 |
| Dwarvish Sentry | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 300 | 18 |
| False Magma Cap | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 290 | 15 |
| Ghost | 
|
The Mines | 96 | 10 |
| Grub | 
|
The Mines | 20 | 4 |
| Grub (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 265 | 12-13 |
| Haunted Skull | 
|
Quarry Mine; The Mines random dungeon floors | 160 | 15 |
| Haunted Skull (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 310 | 19-26 |
| Hot Head | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 215 | 18 |
| Iridium Crab | 
|
Skull Cavern | 240 | 15 |
| Iridium Golem | 
|
Wilderness Farm | 430 | 15 |
| Lava Crab | 
|
The Mines | 120 | 15 |
| Lava Crab (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 340 | 19-26 |
| Lava Lurk | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 220 | 15 |
| Magma Duggy | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 380 | 16 |
| Magma Sparker | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 310 | 15 |
| Magma Sprite | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 220 | 15 |
| Metal Head | 
|
The Mines | 40 | 15 |
| Metal Head (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 280 | 19-26 |
| Mummy | 
|
Skull Cavern | 260 | 30 |
| Mummy (dangerous) | 
|
Skull Cavern | 445 | 38-55 |
| Mutant Fly | 
|
Mutant Bug Lair, Skull Cavern | 66 | 12 |
| Mutant Grub | 
|
Mutant Bug Lair | 100 | 12 |
| Pepper Rex | 
|
Skull Cavern | 300 | 15 |
| Putrid Ghost | 
|
The Dangerous Mines | 500 | 25 |
| Rock Crab | 
|
The Mines | 30 | 5 |
| Rock Crab (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 272 | 13 |
| Royal Serpent | 
|
Skull Cavern | 150 + (50 × tail segments) | 32-48 |
| Serpent | 
|
Skull Cavern | 150 | 23 |
| Shadow Brute | 
|
The Mines | 160 | 18 |
| Shadow Brute (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 370 | 22-32 |
| Shadow Shaman | 
|
The Mines | 80 | 17 |
| Shadow Shaman (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 310 | 21-30 |
| Shadow Sniper | 
|
The Mines | 300 | 18 |
| Skeleton | 
|
The Mines | 140 | 10 |
| Skeleton (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines, Quarry Mine | 655 | 16-18 |
| Skeleton Mage | 
|
Dangerous Mines, Quarry Mine | 355 | 20-25 |
| Slimes | 
|
The Mines, Skull Cavern, Quarry Mine, Secret Woods, Tiger Slime Grove, and Volcano Dungeon | Varies | Varies |
| Spider | 
|
The Mines (Shrine ON) | 200 | 15 |
| Squid Kid | 
|
The Mines | 1 | 18 |
| Squid Kid (dangerous) | 
|
The Dangerous Mines; Skull Cavern | 250 | 22-32 |
| Stick Bug | 
|
The Dangerous Mines | 700 | 20 |
| Stone Golem | 
|
The Mines | 45 | 5 |
| Stone Golem (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 283 | 13 |
| Truffle Crab | 
|
The Farm | 30 | 5 |
| Wilderness Golem | 
|
The Farm | 30 | 5 |