Hermit Crab

Speed | 10 m/s

The **Hermit Crab** is a ground-based monster in Risk of Rain 2 that looks and serves as a mortar.

The challenge The Demons And The Crabs requires the player to chase 20 Hermit Crabs off the edge of the map.

## Environments

* After Looping:

Unlike other monsters, the Hermit Crab will not spawn *at all* if the Artifact of Dissonance is enabled.

## Skill & Behavior

Hermit Crabs initially spawn a distance away from the player(s), so that they are not easily taken care of when spawned in.

Any single instance of damage that deals more than 50% of the Hermit Crab's total health will stun it and interrupt its attacks or movement.

### Primary: Bury + Mortar Volley

This skill has two modes depending on whether the Hermit Crab is on the move or burrowed. If it is on the move, it will burrow within 1 second (scales with attack speed). While burrowed, it can fire a mortar which takes 1 second to execute (scales with attack speed). Then the mortar will go on cooldown for 3 seconds, after which it can be fired again. If the Hermit Crab moves while burrowed, it will unburrow over 1.3 seconds (scales with attack speed).

The mortar deals 400% damage with a proc coefficient of 0.5 in a radius of 7m with linear falloff. The mortar's trajectory is adjusted so that it will land 4 seconds after being fired, but it cannot be made to land closer than 25 meters away.

The skill has a cooldown of 3 seconds, which is only activated when the Hermit Crab first burrows in. However, the mortar cannot be fired while the skill is on cooldown. Therefore, after burrowing the first mortar can be fired after 3 seconds, while every following shot after 4 seconds.

### Behaviors

1. **Unburrow and flee**: the Hermit Crab must be within 20m from its target. This behavior lasts for 3 seconds. If it is already unburrowed, it will simply run away. If it is burrowed, it will run away for

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 seconds. It will also ignore the node graph, so it will flee directly away from the enemy. It is this behavior that causes Hermit Crabs to jump off from cliffs on , as without ignoring the node graph they would not go off the stage.
2. **Use primary (mortar)**: the Hermit Crab must be within 20-120m from its target. The primary is not necessary to be off cooldown, which means this will be the Crab's primary behavior while burrowed in and waiting for the mortar to come off cooldown. This behavior also does not require to have line of sight to the target, as the Hermit Crab always knows its target's position.
3. **Use primary (burrow)**: the Hermit Crab must be within 20-120m from its target and have line of sight. This ensure that sieging its enemy will be successful. However, it does not take into account obstacles for actually firing mortars from that spot, such as the ceiling in the cave on .
4. **Chase**: no requirements.

## Tips

* Try to make a point of taking out Hermit Crabs whenever noticed, either directly or indicated by the mortar. A single one on its own is not particularly dangerous, but they can quickly become a problem if too many are left untouched.
* Due to the long delay between firing and landing as well as not predicting their shots, Hermit crabs will rarely if ever hit a target that is constantly moving. Take care not to back up into yourself if they are around however.

## Notes

* Oddly, Hermit Crabs are the only enemy in the game that cannot spawn in Artifact of Dissonance,  or Simulacrum that is not a    Lunar or     Void enemy, or a special boss.
	+ The reason for this is likely that their lack of aggression would make them frustrating to fight within , as they would bombard the player from near the edge of the radius. The other two scenarios seem to simply copy or otherwise utilise the same spawning list of monsters, resulting in Hermit Crabs being excluded in all three.

## Lore

```
$ Transcribing image... done.
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Complete!

This is the logbook entry of D. Furthen, naturalist for the UES [Redacted] in conjunction with the UES Research and Documentation of Outer Life. I am joined by my good friend Tharson, who is keeping me safe through this journey.

We suddenly came under fire when Tharson was smacked in the head by a glob of mucus and debris – Tharson is OK from this encounter. Tracing the trajectory, we followed the projectiles’ path to its source, a large crustacean-like creature.

I will describe its properties below. I have assigned its common name as “Forhamian Hermit Crab.”

* The Crab disguises itself as a stalagmite – careful observation can reveal the Crab’s true identity.

* The Crabs dislike up-close contact with prey, fleeing upon approach. It attacks from exclusively long-range by expelling balls of mucus and body waste with incredible force.

* The Crabs don’t seem to have eyes – often stumbling around and bumping into walls. How they can locate targets from a long-range with decent accuracy is currently unknown.

* The Crabs seem to have “favorite shells.” I observed several specimens clearly too large for their shells, only ditching their shells once they are damaged and forced to find a new one. Some Crabs also seem to have favorite materials that they prefer.
```

## Version History

Anniversary Update
* Major Content
	+ Added New Lore Entry: Hermit Crab
* Gameplay Changes
	+ Base Damage: 4 (+0.8 per level) ⇒ 12 (+2.4 per level)
	+ Mortar Projectile Count: 3 ⇒ 1
	+ Mortar Projectile now has more visible trail
	 *Developer Notes: When fighting Hermit Crabs, it’s always been difficult to parse where and how many there are. To help clarify their behavior, we made it clearer so 1 mortar = 1 crab.*

Early Access Scorched Acres Content Update
* Bug Fixes
	+ Clear idle animation for Hermit Crabs after they die

Early Access Patch (Build ID No.3731106)
* Gameplay Changes
	+ **[Community Suggestion]** Reduce proc coefficient of mortar attack from 3 to 0.5.
		- *\*This primarily affects the duration of burning effects.*
	+ **[Community Suggestion]** Reduce base health from 150 to 100.