Flying Crab

The Flying Crab is a small, hostile flying creature that damages the player upon contact. Flying Crabs only spawn from Flying Crab Hatchers and are roughly the size of a pioneer's head.

Stats
As the Flying Crab only has 1 HP, it can be killed with one hit from any weapon.

Behavior
Flying Crab Hatchers open and burst when a pioneer approaches it, spawning three Flying Crabs each time. Once the crab count is less than 3, the Hatcher will respawn new crabs every 5 seconds, until the spawner is destroyed or the pioneer goes away. The Flying Crabs, when aggroed, will fly to the pioneer and perform suicide attack, each deal 10 damage.

If the Hatcher is destroyed from a distance, it will not spawn any Flying Crabs.

Stray Flying Crabs will suicide mid-air after 60 seconds since spawned.

Combat

 * Once you have unlocked the Rebar Gun or Rifle, shooting and destroying the Flying Crab Hatcher from a distance will prevent any Flying Crabs from spawning from it.
 * You should destroy the Flying Crab Hatcher as soon as possible, or it will continue to spawn more Flying Crabs.
 * The hatcher spawns waves of three Flying Crabs in regular intervals.
 * As Flying Crabs only have 1 HP, you can kill one with one hit from any weapon. Gas areas (either natural or from gas Nobelisks) will also instantly kill Flying Crabs: at present, any Hatcher that is within a natural gas cloud is effectively harmless as its Flying Crabs will die the instant they are spawned.
 * The Boom Box is a very effective weapon against Flying Crabs. Since its Turbo Bass function deals 1 HP of damage to nearby creatures, it is very useful for killing multiple Flying Crabs at once.
 * If only a melee weapon is available, such as a Xeno-Zapper, ensure you have at least 31 HP left (3 segments+).
 * Build an Equipment Workshop near the Flying Crab Hatcher. It has a window and roof with some walls that provide good cover.
 * Try to only trigger one Flying Crab Hatcher at a time.
 * All three Flying Crabs will typically follow a similar path towards you, so it is relatively easy to kill all of them.
 * If you are low on health, you may choose to flee. Be aware that flying crabs can outrun the player in a straight line, even while running so be very careful moving around flying crab hatchers if without a melee weapon or at low health without a healing item on hand.

Loot
Flying Crabs themselves drop nothing, but a destroyed hatcher drops a Hatcher Remains.

History

 * Patch 0.6.0.10: Updated behaviors.
 * Patch 0.6.0.0: Flying Crabs have more predictable behavior. Crabs are now suicidal. HP reduced from 6 to 1. Damage doubled from 5 to 10.
 * Patch 0.3.4.11: Increased hitstun on the Flying Crabs a little more
 * Patch 0.3.4.10:
 * Increased the size of Flying Crabs to make them easier to hit and track
 * Increased the stun delay and downward force on the Flying Crabs so they are on the ground a little bit longer
 * Patch 0.2.1?: No longer simply fly in straight lines, but have three different movement patterns, making defeating them significantly more challenging