old	Due to an update, the information in this article may be out-of-date. Reason: Evolution of combat You can help improve it by updating the information.

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 are needed to create Rock-shell armour.

Two giant rock crabs, located immediately above the entrance to the dagganoth kings lair, currently have a combat level of 136.

Contents 1 Locations 2 Strategy 3 Retreat 4 27 May 2009 5 Drops 5.1 100% 5.2 Runes/Talismans 5.3 Weaponry/Armour 5.4 Charms 5.5 Seeds 5.6 Herbs 5.7 Other 5.8 Rare drop table drops 6 Trivia

LocationsEdit

• 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 one does not have a companion.

StrategyEdit

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 defence, 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 defence.

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 defence.

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 defence. Their magic defence is so low you can utilise 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 fire-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) > Tokkul-Zo > Beacon ring > Ring of Wealth

Note: Another useful tactic is to use (Elite) Void knight equipment, 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 off 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 after which 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 for Water runes.

RetreatEdit

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. This may be repeated indefinitely in this fashion.

27 May 2009Edit

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.

DropsEdit

100%Edit

Item		Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Bones	1	1 Always	83

Runes/TalismansEdit

Item		Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Water rune	1–39	3 Uncommon	13–507
	Earth rune	2–37	3 Uncommon	18–333
	Air talisman	1	4 Rare	145
	Mind talisman	1	4 Rare	76
	Fire talisman	1	4 Rare	2,018
	Cosmic talisman	1	4 Rare	210
	Body talisman	1	4 Rare	187
	Water talisman	1	4 Rare	4,721
	Earth talisman	1	4 Rare	793
	Nature talisman	1	4 Rare	270

Weaponry/ArmourEdit

Item		Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Steel platebody	1	3 Uncommon	1,160
	Black claw	1	3 Uncommon	1,833
	Black platebody	1	3 Uncommon	2,526
	Mithril hatchet	1	3 Uncommon	186
	Rock-shell gloves	1	3 Uncommon	2,254
	Rock-shell boots	1	3 Uncommon	553
	Black warhammer	1	4 Rare	583
	Adamant longsword	1	4 Rare	1,668
	Adamant warhammer	1	4 Rare	2,942

CharmsEdit

Charm drop percentages

No charms
30–33%	42–46%	9–11%	10–12%	3–4%

Represents 90% confidence range, based on a sample of 2,437 kills.
3 charms are dropped at a time.

Please add to the log (only if 50 or more creatures killed).

SeedsEdit

Item		Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Poison ivy seed	1	3 Uncommon	54
	Belladonna seed	1	3 Uncommon	33
	Guam seed	1	3 Uncommon	8
	Marrentill seed	1	3 Uncommon	12
	Tarromin seed	1	3 Uncommon	4
	Harralander seed	1	3 Uncommon	9
	Toadflax seed	1	4 Rare	702
	Ranarr seed	1	4 Rare	1,019
	Irit seed	1	4 Rare	74
	Avantoe seed	1	4 Rare	1,890
	Snapdragon seed	1	4 Rare	2,196
	Cadantine seed	1	4 Rare	2,354
	Lantadyme seed	1	4 Rare	34,922
	Dwarf weed seed	1	5 Very rare	38,269
	Torstol seed	1	5 Very rare	78,509

HerbsEdit

Item		Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Grimy guam	1	3 Uncommon	539
	Grimy marrentill	1	3 Uncommon	44
	Grimy tarromin	1	3 Uncommon	249
	Grimy harralander	1	3 Uncommon	652
	Grimy ranarr	1	4 Rare	2,160
	Grimy irit	1	4 Rare	1,743
	Grimy avantoe	1	4 Rare	4,128
	Grimy kwuarm	1	4 Rare	2,471
	Grimy cadantine	1	4 Rare	2,507
	Grimy lantadyme	1	4 Rare	7,850
	Grimy dwarf weed	1	4 Rare	8,195

OtherEdit

Item		Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Coins	27, 28, 42, 70, 137	2 Common	Not sold
	Raw lobster	1	2 Common	128
	Raw bass	1	2 Common	715
	Tinderbox	1	2 Common	111
	Casket	1	4 Rare	12,114
	Rock-shell splinter	1	3 Uncommon	13,458
	Rock-shell chunk	1	4 Rare	7,469
	Rock-shell shard	1	4 Rare	11,374
	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 dropsEdit

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 1,142 Uncut emerald 1 2 Common 1,792 Uncut ruby 1 2 Common 3,576 Loop half of a key 1 3 Uncommon 8,548 Tooth half of a key 1 3 Uncommon 12,668 Uncut diamond 1 3 Uncommon 7,160 Uncut dragonstone 1 4 Rare 14,935 Dragonstone 1 4 Rare 9,966 Dragon dagger 1 3 Uncommon 17,221 Rune battleaxe 1 4 Rare 24,627 Rune javelin 5 4 Rare 1,270 Adamant javelin 20 5 Very rare 920 Rune spear 1 5 Very rare 12,048 Dragon spear 1 5 Very rare 36,856 Dragon dagger 50 (noted) 5 Very rare 861,050 Rune kiteshield 1 5 Very rare 32,145 Shield left half 1 5 Very rare 65,188 Dragon helm 1 5 Very rare 59,636 Adamant bolts 200 3 Uncommon 17,400 Rune arrow 150–200; 500 4 Rare 29,850–199 Onyx bolts 150 4 Rare 1,303,050 Battlestaff 200 (noted) 4 Rare 1,665,400 Air orb 1,000 (noted) 4 Rare 1,418,000 Fire orb 1,000 (noted) 4 Rare 1,612,000 Vecna skull 1 5 Very rare 138,745 Water talisman 1 3 Uncommon 4,721 Earth talisman 25–35 (noted) 3 Uncommon 19,825–27,755 Fire talisman 25–35 (noted) 3 Uncommon 50,450–70,630 Chaos talisman 1 3 Uncommon 227 Nature talisman 1 3 Uncommon 270 Pure essence 500–15,000 (noted) 3 Uncommon 42,500–1,275,000 Nature rune 47–77 4 Rare 5,217–8,547 Soul rune 20 4 Rare 2,420 Death rune 50; 121 4 Rare 93 Blood rune 50 4 Rare 8,150 Raw swordfish 125 – 250; 1,000 (noted) 3 Uncommon 37,750–302 Raw shark 250–500 (noted) 3 Uncommon 246,500–493,000 Big bones 150 – 500 (noted) 3 Uncommon 67,350–224,500 Coal 150–7,500 (noted) 3 Uncommon 41,700–2,085,000 Adamantite ore 150–800 (noted) 3 Uncommon 227,700–1,214,400 Silver ore 100 (noted) 4 Rare 10,500 Adamant bar 1,000–7,000 (noted) 4 Rare 3,168,000–22,176,000 Runite ore 100 (noted) 4 Rare 1,038,500 Rune bar 1,50,150 (noted) 4 Rare 13,002–1,950,300 Clean ranarr 33 (noted) 3 Uncommon 74,448 Clean toadflax 25–250 (noted) 3 Uncommon 95,050–950,500 Clean snapdragon 30–120 (noted) 3 Uncommon 106,530–426,120 Clean torstol 10–100 (noted) 3 Uncommon 118,420–1,184,200 Saradomin brew (4) 250 (noted) 5 Very rare 181,000 Watermelon seed 3 3 Uncommon 6,030 Yew seed 1–50 4 Rare 71,385–3,569,250 Magic seed 1–6 4 Rare 160,602–963,612 Palm tree seed 10 4 Rare 1,064,590 Snapdragon seed 1 4 Rare 2,196 Torstol seed 1–31 4 Rare 78,509–2,433,779 Fellstalk seed 2 4 Rare 932 Yew logs 100–20,000 (noted) 4 Rare 56,100–11,220,000

TriviaEdit

Soloman Pets will not pick up their charms. Glitch or intended unknown.