old	Due to an update, the information in this article may be out-of-date.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	88

Runes/TalismansEdit

Item		Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Water rune	1–39	3 Uncommon	13–507
	Earth rune	2–37	3 Uncommon	22–407
	Air talisman	1	4 Rare	152
	Mind talisman	1	4 Rare	78
	Fire talisman	1	4 Rare	2,039
	Cosmic talisman	1	4 Rare	200
	Body talisman	1	4 Rare	197
	Water talisman	1	4 Rare	4,619
	Earth talisman	1	4 Rare	817
	Nature talisman	1	4 Rare	260

Weaponry/ArmourEdit

Item		Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Steel platebody	1	3 Uncommon	1,117
	Black claw	1	3 Uncommon	1,897
	Black platebody	1	3 Uncommon	2,568
	Mithril hatchet	1	3 Uncommon	190
	Rock-shell gloves	1	3 Uncommon	2,274
	Rock-shell boots	1	3 Uncommon	553
	Black warhammer	1	4 Rare	583
	Adamant longsword	1	4 Rare	1,658
	Adamant warhammer	1	4 Rare	2,931

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	53
	Belladonna seed	1	3 Uncommon	33
	Guam seed	1	3 Uncommon	9
	Marrentill seed	1	3 Uncommon	12
	Tarromin seed	1	3 Uncommon	4
	Harralander seed	1	3 Uncommon	9
	Toadflax seed	1	4 Rare	706
	Ranarr seed	1	4 Rare	992
	Irit seed	1	4 Rare	83
	Avantoe seed	1	4 Rare	1,981
	Snapdragon seed	1	4 Rare	2,179
	Cadantine seed	1	4 Rare	2,431
	Lantadyme seed	1	4 Rare	35,611
	Dwarf weed seed	1	5 Very rare	42,382
	Torstol seed	1	5 Very rare	84,168

HerbsEdit

Item		Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Grimy guam	1	3 Uncommon	568
	Grimy marrentill	1	3 Uncommon	44
	Grimy tarromin	1	3 Uncommon	258
	Grimy harralander	1	3 Uncommon	684
	Grimy ranarr	1	4 Rare	2,322
	Grimy irit	1	4 Rare	1,750
	Grimy avantoe	1	4 Rare	4,033
	Grimy kwuarm	1	4 Rare	2,518
	Grimy cadantine	1	4 Rare	2,563
	Grimy lantadyme	1	4 Rare	8,349
	Grimy dwarf weed	1	4 Rare	7,998

OtherEdit

Item		Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Coins	27, 28, 42, 70, 137	2 Common	Not sold
	Raw lobster	1	2 Common	126
	Raw bass	1	2 Common	732
	Tinderbox	1	2 Common	103
	Casket	1	4 Rare	12,114
	Rock-shell splinter	1	3 Uncommon	14,000
	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 1,106 Uncut emerald 1 2 Common 1,749 Uncut ruby 1 2 Common 3,429 Loop half of a key 1 3 Uncommon 8,456 Tooth half of a key 1 3 Uncommon 12,074 Uncut diamond 1 3 Uncommon 7,237 Uncut dragonstone 1 4 Rare 15,457 Dragonstone 1 4 Rare 10,361 Dragon dagger 1 3 Uncommon 17,181 Rune battleaxe 1 4 Rare 24,584 Rune javelin 5 4 Rare 1,250 Adamant javelin 20 5 Very rare 920 Rune spear 1 5 Very rare 12,043 Dragon spear 1 5 Very rare 37,035 Dragon dagger 50 (noted) 5 Very rare 859,050 Rune kiteshield 1 5 Very rare 32,394 Shield left half 1 5 Very rare 64,765 Dragon helm 1 5 Very rare 59,980 Adamant bolts 200 3 Uncommon 18,400 Rune arrow 150–200; 500 4 Rare 29,850–199 Onyx bolts 150 4 Rare 1,306,950 Battlestaff 200 (noted) 4 Rare 1,671,600 Air orb 1,000 (noted) 4 Rare 1,525,000 Fire orb 1,000 (noted) 4 Rare 1,592,000 Vecna skull 1 5 Very rare 145,208 Water talisman 1 3 Uncommon 4,619 Earth talisman 25–35 (noted) 3 Uncommon 20,425–28,595 Fire talisman 25–35 (noted) 3 Uncommon 50,975–71,365 Chaos talisman 1 3 Uncommon 218 Nature talisman 1 3 Uncommon 260 Pure essence 500–15,000 (noted) 3 Uncommon 45,000–1,350,000 Nature rune 47–77 4 Rare 5,217–8,547 Soul rune 20 4 Rare 2,440 Death rune 50; 121 4 Rare 93 Blood rune 50 4 Rare 8,200 Raw swordfish 125 – 250; 1,000 (noted) 3 Uncommon 38,250–306 Raw shark 250–500 (noted) 3 Uncommon 236,000–472,000 Big bones 150 – 500 (noted) 3 Uncommon 65,850–219,500 Coal 150–7,500 (noted) 3 Uncommon 41,700–2,085,000 Adamantite ore 150–800 (noted) 3 Uncommon 237,150–1,264,800 Silver ore 100 (noted) 4 Rare 10,900 Adamant bar 1,000–7,000 (noted) 4 Rare 3,231,000–22,617,000 Runite ore 100 (noted) 4 Rare 1,042,900 Rune bar 1,50,150 (noted) 4 Rare 13,025–1,953,750 Clean ranarr 33 (noted) 3 Uncommon 78,804 Clean toadflax 25–250 (noted) 3 Uncommon 96,200–962,000 Clean snapdragon 30–120 (noted) 3 Uncommon 103,500–414,000 Clean torstol 10–100 (noted) 3 Uncommon 116,490–1,164,900 Saradomin brew (4) 250 (noted) 5 Very rare 165,500 Watermelon seed 3 3 Uncommon 6,276 Yew seed 1–50 4 Rare 70,571–3,528,550 Magic seed 1–6 4 Rare 163,332–979,992 Palm tree seed 10 4 Rare 1,088,560 Snapdragon seed 1 4 Rare 2,179 Torstol seed 1–31 4 Rare 84,168–2,609,208 Fellstalk seed 2 4 Rare 872 Yew logs 100–20,000 (noted) 4 Rare 57,600–11,520,000

TriviaEdit

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