The Cave Crab, also known as Spike Crab, is a recurring foe in Epic Battle Fantasy series. As its name suggests, it appears primarily in caverns, such as Rock Lake of Epic Battle Fantasy 3 and the Crystal Caverns of Epic Battle Fantasy 4.
Appearance[]
The Cave Crab is a black crab with a conical spiral shell on its back. It has two large claws, with the right claw being larger and sporting two red spikes on its upper edge; the left claw is held open against the ground, as if the crab is grasping it for support.
The Cave Crab's shell is a much brighter shade of red in EBF3 compared to EBF4. Oddly enough, the spikes on its right claw remain the same shade of red in both appearances.
Overview[]
The Cave Crab is a simple defensive foe which uses single-target attacks. It can pinch players with its claw and it can deal Earth or Water damage as well. As with other Crabs, the Cave Crab can tuck into its shell to protect itself; however, it is ultimately an annoyance at worst.
The Cave Crab's resistances change drastically between games (notably, its weaknesses are completely different), but it consistently resists Fire while being immune to Wind. It also has below-average Evade, making it easier to hit with low-accuracy skills.
Epic Battle Fantasy 3[]
The Spike Crab is able to deal physical Earth damage or magical Water damage; it can also pinch players for non-elemental damage. It is somewhat unique in that its moves change slightly depending on where it is fought; it can use Quake in caves and Flood near the ocean. Its Shell Stab attack can deal surprisingly high damage due to its power and heavily increased critical hit chance; however, it's also quite inaccurate even before Accuracy and Evade manipulation comes into play.
The Spike Crab can also tuck into its shell to buff its Attack and Defence; if magic attacks or Dispel effects aren't an option, Tera Drill can actually turn the Defence buff against it while simultaneously hitting its Earth weakness. Inflicting Poison is another option to wear it down even if it defends itself or the party focuses on other foes.
The Spike Crab is weak to Bomb, Holy, and especially Earth while being immune to Fire, Thunder, and Wind.
Epic Battle Fantasy 4[]
The Cave Crab's offensive repertoire focuses exclusively on single-target physical attacks, one being non-elemental and the other two being 50% Earth-based. None of its skills are especially powerful, and a lack of secondary effects makes them relatively non-threatening.
On the other hand, killing the Cave Crab can be a bit of a chore; while below-average Evade means that it won't be doing much dodging, it can hide in its shell to give itself Defend. This move also gives it Bless on higher difficulty levels to protect it from status effects; this includes Dispel, so the party will have to deal with its Defend status on the next turn.
The Cave Crab resists Fire, Earth, and Bomb while being immune to Wind. On the other hand, it is very weak to Ice and Poison, the latter of which can be further exploited by its vulnerability to the Poison status effect (as long as you land the status before it defends itself).
Statistics[]
Epic Battle Fantasy 3[]
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Spike Crab | Underground Dweller | EBF3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Defensive creature which attacks differently in different environments. | |||
| Statistics | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Statistics |
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Exp | AP | Gold |
| 155 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3.5 | 33 | 2.6 | 22 | |
| Elemental Resistance |
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| 100% | 100% | - | 300% | 100% | -70% | - | - | -60% | -50% | |
| Status Resistance |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Debuff Resistance |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Item Drop Rate | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Icon | 
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- | - | - | - |
| Name | Sea Shell | Magmaball | Solid Spike | - | - | - | - |
| Chance | 80% | 10% | 5% | - | - | - | - |
Epic Battle Fantasy 4[]
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Cave Crab | EBF4 |
|---|---|---|
| A defensive creature which uses earth attacks. | ||
| Statistics | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Statistics |
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Exp | AP | SP | Gold | Hit2HP |
| 128 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3.7 | 18 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 12 | 50 | |
| Elemental Resistance |
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| 50% | - | -80% | 50% | -80% | 50% | 100% | - | - | - | |||
| Status Resistance |
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| - | - | - | - | -50% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Debuff Resistance |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||||
| Item Drop Rate | |||||||
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| Icon |
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- | - |
| Name | Sea Shell | Dirt Ball | Solid Spike | Geode | Sushi | - | - |
| Chance | 80% | 60% | 10% | 10% | 1% | - | - |
| Status Damage | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances: | |||
| Burn
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Poison
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Doom (if Death fails) |
 Regen
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| 3.5% | 5.4% per stack, up to 48.6% |
25% | -33.(3)% |
| Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down. | |||
Prior to the v2 update, its description incorrectly claimed it could use Fire-elemental attacks.
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Cave Crab | EBF4 |
|---|---|---|
| A defensive creature which uses earth attacks. | ||
| Statistics | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Statistics |
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Exp | AP | SP | Gold | Hit2HP |
| 128 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3.7 | 18 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 12 | 50 | |
| Elemental Resistance |
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| 50% | - | -80% | 50% | - | 50% | 100% | - | - | - | |||
| Status Resistance |
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| - | 100% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Debuff Resistance |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||||
| Item Drop Rate | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Icon |
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- | - |
| Name | Sea Shell | Dirt Ball | Solid Spike | Geode | Sushi | - | - |
| Chance | 80% | 60% | 10% | 10% | 1% | - | - |
| Status Damage | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances: | |||
| Burn
|
Poison
|
Doom (if Death fails) |
Regen
|
| 3.5% | 3% per stack, up to 27% |
25% | -33.(3)% |
| Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down. | |||
Attacks and Abilities[]
Epic Battle Fantasy 3[]
| Attack List | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack | Target | Power | Type | Element | Status Effect | Acc | Crit | RdF | ||
| Claw Strike | Single | 28 |
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---- | -- | -- | -- | 100% | 10% | 10% |
| Shell Stab | Single | 40 |
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80%
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-- | -- | -- | 70% | 50% | 10% |
| Bubbles | Single | 20 |
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100%
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50% | 30% |
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120% | 0% | 10% |
| Quake | Single | 50 |
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50%
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-- | -- | -- | 120% | 10% | 10% |
| Flood | Single | 40 |
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100%
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-- | -- | -- | 100% | 20% | 10% |
| Fume | Single | 38 |
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50%
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-- | -- | -- | 110% | 10% | 20% |
| Notes: Has no usage conditions set, and therefore may not be seen during normal gameplay. | ||||||||||
| Shell Visit | Self | -- | -- | ---- | 100% 100% |
40% 40% |
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-- | -- | -- |
Epic Battle Fantasy 4[]
| Attack List | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack | Target | Power | Type | Element | Status Effect | Acc | Crit | RdF | ||
| Claw Strike | Single | 22 |
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---- | -- | -- | -- | 100% | 10% | 10% |
| Shell Stab | Single | 28 |
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50%
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-- | -- | -- | 100% | 10% | 10% |
| Tremor | Single | 28 |
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50%
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-- | -- | -- | 100% | 10% | 10% |
| Shell Visit | Self | -- | -- | ---- | 100% | -- | 
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-- | -- | -- |
Notes: On Hard and Epic difficulties, also applies 3x  Bless.
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Battle Logic[]
The following describes general logic of the enemy and attack patterns, with chances of each attack to be used. Conditions are listed from highest to lowest priority unless specified otherwise.
Epic Battle Fantasy 3[]
- Berserked → Claw Strike;
- Syphoned → Claw Strike (1/4), Shell Stab (1/4), Bubbles (1/4), Shell Visit (1/4);
- Otherwise → Claw Strike (1/5), Shell Stab (1/5), Bubbles (1/5), Quake/Flood (1/5), Shell Visit (1/5).
There is only one instance of a Spike Crab appearing in a battle with the second background, which is the path-blocking (thus not respawning) battle one screen above and one screen to the left from the big treasure cave in Rock Lake.
If the Spike Crab would ever appear in Volcano Peak, it would have had a 50% chance to cast Quake and 50% for Fume whenever the background-dependent attack set is rolled. However, the Spike Crab is not present in any battles in said area, and cannot be summoned by any other foes, so this variant goes unused, along with the foe's ability to cast Fume.
Epic Battle Fantasy 4[]
- Berserked → Shell Stab;
- Syphoned → Claw Strike (1/3), Shell Stab (1/3), Shell Visit (1/3);
- Otherwise → Claw Strike (1/4), Shell Stab (1/4), Tremor (1/4), Shell Visit (1/4).