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 an engineer's head.

Stats
It takes 2 hits from the to kill, while the  or the  can kill them in 1 hit. It attacks by circling around behind and ramming the player, dealing 5 damage (half-segment) to the player.

Behavior
Flying Crab Hatchers burst when damaged or if an engineer gets too close, spawning three Flying Crabs, each with different attacking pattern. One of the three will charge towards the engineer in a straight line, one will flying in a 'S' path and the other one will circle around the engineer and sneak from behind. After hitting the engineer, the crab ragdolls on the ground, and after a few seconds it will start flying around again.

If the hatcher is destroyed from distance, the Flying Crabs alternate between moving around and hovering, patrolling near where their hatcher was.

Combat

 * Once you have unlocked the Rifle, shoot the Flying Crab Hatcher and Flying Crabs from a distance away is the easiest way to kill Flying Crabs.
 * Flying Crabs despawn automatically after 30 seconds if no engineer is nearby, so you actually only need to shoot the hatcher.
 * Nobelisk is not effective against them. Crabs can easily move out of the explosion range.
 * If only a melee weapon is available, such as Xeno-Zapper, ensure you have at least 50 HP left (5 segments).
 * Build an Equipment Workshop nearby the Flying Crab Hatcher.
 * It has a window and roof with some wall which is a good cover.
 * Try to only trigger one Flying Crab Hatcher at a time.
 * The hatcher will spawn 3 flying crabs.
 * First kill the one which is charging at you in a straight line. You need 2 hits with a Xeno-Zapper or 1 hit with a Xeno-Basher.
 * If the crab takes damage, it will fall to the ground and roll. Move forward and kill it.
 * Similarly, a crab that attacked you will also bounce away and roll on the ground.
 * One of the remaining Flying Crab will be right behind you. Turn around and attack it.
 * The other might already have bumped into you from the other side. Each crab's tackle attack deals 5 damage (half a segment).
 * Back-off and look at them, attack whichever comes to you first.
 * Repeat until all 3 crabs are killed.
 * Loot the dropped Alien Carapace for later use.
 * If you are low in health, you may choose to flee.
 * A Flying Crab's speed is lower than the engineer's running speed, so it is easy to outrun them.

Loot
Flying Crabs themselves drop nothing, but a destroyed hatcher drops a reskinned Alien Carapace.

History

 * 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 flying in straight lines. Now they have 3 different type of movement modes and this make killing them considerably harder.