Game Mechanics

This page is all about the different gameplay mechanics Crab Champions has to offer

Combat

Combat is the main form of gameplay in Crab Champions. It mainly focuses on the player(s) dealing damage and killing the enemies while trying to stay alive themself(s) during a run

Forms of Combat

Combat can be devided in mainly 4 categories (of dealing damage) and these categories mostly determine the builds you are going for or should go for

Gun focused Builds

The most straightforward form of dealing damage in the game. There currently are 17 primary weapons in the game with which you can shoot the enemy with and deal damage to them until they are dead. There are a lot of weapon mods and perks like for example Sharp Shot, Damage Shot, Juiced and Supercharged which are focused on increasing your weapon damage (and dps in general) in many different ways

Ability focused Builds

Your Abilities consist of 5 different abilities which you can use to deal with enemies. Mostly, pure ability builds for example with the Grenade or Laser Beam are rather underwhelming because they have less good upgrades than your weapons but in hybrid builds they add a good way of dealing with large waves of small enemies
Often, if you don't opt for a pure or hybrid build, using abilities for their effects rather than their damage can be wise, as the movement bonus of the Grappling Hook and the slowing/gathering enemy effect of the Black Hole can be very helpful without needing a lot of upgrades or mods

Melee focused Builds

Their are 3 Melee Weapons currently in the game which deal damage to close-up enemies and can knock them back depending on the Melee Weapon. There are rather few perks for Melee Builds but atleast they are very straight forward without any big drawbacks to them like Big Claws or Iron Claws. Pure Melee Builds tend to be less useful since getting the right upgrades can be quite tricky and needing to be close to the enemy increases your chances off taking damage so using Melee as a solely secondary option is recommended

Mod & Perk focused Builds

In this contex, Mod and Perk focused means a build focused on dealing damage not through percentage based weapon or grenade mods but instead through Mods and Perks that deal damage on their own. Those mods include (but are not limited to) stuff like Damage Aura or Spnic Boom that deal damage on their own and mods like Dagger Arc, Bubble Shot or Bomb Shot, that fires things with a set damage along with your shots or "Grenades" (Abilities)
This form of dealing damage can either be the primary focus of your build since the damage output with these mods or perks can be enough on its own or a very usefull additional damage source with another primary build

• Elemental Builds could be considered to be in this category but since they overlap with every kind of build and vary to much depending on the Element you are opting for, this section of the game is described in more detail below
• Turret Builds would also fall into this category but this type off build fails to do any meaningful damage the further you get in your run

Tips for Builds/Combat

• Most sources of damage are affected by the amount of Global Damage you have. This damage can be enhanced with perks like Gemstone, Checklist and Money is Power so these kind of perks help out in almost any build
• Opting for only one of those types of builds can work out very well but often it is good to go for a secondary build to complement your main source of damage and the type of damage it does (single target damage/AOE damage and vice versa)
• Choosing the right Weapon, Ability and Melee Weapon at the Lobby Island before your run is important since they can't be swapped during a run and will determine the type of build(s) you should try to go for

Upgrades

Note: The "Upgrades" section is still under construction

Elemental

Elements are one of the main mechanics of the game. They are debuffs that can be either applied to enemies or the player, and can be stacked to increase their effects. Elements can be inflicted by the player with Perks or Weapon and Grenade mods, and enemies have special elemental variations. There are 5 element types in the game

Elements

Arcane

Arcane is a basic damage over time element. It deals 1.25 damage per stack every second and the number of stacks decreases by (%) every second

Fire

Fire is a basic damage over time element which lasts based on stacks. It deals 0.2 damage per stack/tick and damage is dealt in ticks (? ticks per second)

Ice

Ice is a element that freezes the target for 20ms per stack (1 second per 50 stacks). Enemies are completely frozen and cannot do anything until the ice stacks run out. Caps at 50 stacks

Lightning

Lightning is an element that deals damage and shocks targets in a chain-like fashion. The lightning shocks nearby targets from the enemy that has the lightning stacks, which can help with crowds of enemies. However, it is ineffective against lone enemies

Poison

Poison is an element that increases all damage taken by the target by 1% per stack

Interactions

Elements can have interactions between each other. They can be complimentary or detrimental in some situations

• Fire removes Ice stacks from enemies and vice versa
• Poison will also increase the damage taken by other Elements

Movement

Movement is essential in Crab Champions since the game could be described as a Movement Shooter. The movement in Crab Champions in and itself is quite simple with potential for neat tricks and combinations. The basic forms of movement are as follows:

• You can move in any direction with a base speed of (?) m/s and jump up to (?) meters. Movement speed can be increased with perks like Speed Demon
• You can additionally slide which will increase your movement speed by (?)% for (?) seconds
• While in the air, you can dash which will boost you into the direction you are currently going. Dashing can be used again, after (?) seconds or multiple times in a row with Stamina

Tips for Movement

• You should always stay moving to not get hit but should also not move to linearly since the enemy AI will precisely shoot in the direction you are going (even with speed upgrades)
• Buffing anything Movement related is almost exclusivly done with speed upgrades but upgrading it shouldn't be your biggest priority

Damage & Crit

Note: The "Damage & Crit" section is still under construction

Health

Health or HP is the amount of damage something can take before it dies. Your health can be modified and healed with certain perks and some mods

Enemy Health Scaling

Enemy health is increased by a certain percentage per island cleared. This scales infinitely, or until it reaches the 32 bit integer limit. In Multiplayer enemy health also scales with how many players are in the game

Crystals/Money

Note: The "Crystals/Money" section is still under construction

Combo

Combo refers to a counter on the right side of your screen, that will goes up the further you progress but resets each time you take damage. The max combo is capped at 5 but can be increased with Combo Ring. Currently, the only thing Combo does is interact with certain perks like Damage Combo or Crystal Combo

Parrying

Parrying is a mechanic in Crab Champions where the player dashes right before getting hit. This works because the player gets 0.15 seconds of damage immunity after dashing

Tips for Parrying

• Damage over time like fire stacks can be parried
• Ring Of Parrying heals the player when damage is parried