The Crabs room makes up one of the four puzzle rooms in the Chambers of Xeric. When you enter the room you will see a number of Jewelled crabs. These crabs can not be killed with combat, but are aggressive to players in very close proximity (1 tile). There is also four crystals in the room, the goal is to turn each of these crystals white. Which will be explained in the next part of this guide.
How to complete the Crabs Room in CoX?
If players attack the crabs with a specific attack style it will change colour corresponding to the style used. For example, attacking with Mage will change the Crab to blue, Melee will change it red and Range will change it green temporarily. If it has not been attacked it will be white. The goal is to send the opposite colour orb to the crystal to nullify it and turn it white. The combinations for this can be seen below.
The procedure to follow for this is different depending on the scale of the team. Teams are traditionally Trio in the CoX, in these scales, each player can grab a crab each and bounce the orb to the correct crystal.
Efficient solve for “Good” Crabs
The below image shows the fastest solve for “good” crabs. Good crabs refers to the fastest crab room layout, this layout can be found whenever crabs is the last puzzle room in a 5 room raid. Or where crabs is first in layouts that start with SCS (Scavs-Combat-Scavs). To solve them efficiently:
- First player in solves purple crystal by colouring it green
- Second player in runs to the blue crystal with a crab, while the first player sends a red orb in that direction
- For the yellow crystal, all three players position on the south side of the room to bounce it on three crabs while colouring it mage.
- Finally all three players move down to the tiles marked 4. No colouring is needed here and the white orb will bounce to the black crystal.
Efficient solve for “Bad” Crabs
The next type of crabs that can be found in 5 room raid layouts is considered “bad” crabs. They are called bad as they are generally slower to complete than good crabs. Bad crabs occur when crabs is the first of the 2 puzzle rooms in a 4 room raid, with the exception of layouts that start with SCS (Scavs-Combat-Scavs). To solve them efficiently:
- First two players in set-up with a crab on each tile 1, colouring the crabs red.
- Next all three players move and position on tiles 2, no colouring of the crab needed.
- Shift one tile to the south each, colouring the crab green this time.
- Finally move three more tiles south and colour the final orb blue.
How to complete crabs in a Solo CoX?
The crabs room is definitely a little more complex in a solo. As all crabs must be moved and positioned by one player. For this you will want to make use of your dragon warhammer to right click crabs and smash them in position. If you don’t have a dwh, you can use a regular hammer. There is a spawn-point at the beginning of the crabs room, so you don’t need to bring on yourself.