Video Game / Crab War

Crab War is an Idle Game for the iOS and Android platforms by Appxplore.

A long time ago, crabs thrived and lived on the surface on the land. But all that changed when the reptiles arrived. Fearing for their lives they retreated underground. Deep down, they were exposed to crystal radiation. Now, armed with crystal sharp claws and diamond hard shells, they are ready for war!

Players control a swarm of crabs to attack and destroy reptiles of increasing difficulty. Crabs come in two varieties for the main game, the basic crabs spawned by tapping, and Queens, which serve as your Idle DPS and can be leveled to give bonuses. The Land of Reptiles game features Crab Kings to combat the Reptile Queens and Reptile Kings, and said crabs are strengthened by collecting parts. Prestige in this game is known as Ecdysis, where your crab molts to gain DNA points that can be used for permanent mutations but resets their level progress.

The game can be downloaded here for the iOS and here for the Android.

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• Action Girl: Every single Crab Queen is very capable of combat and serve as your idle DPS.
• Amazon Brigade: Your entire squadron of Queens is composed of female crabs, which means that it you're not tapping or having Shadow Swarm on, every crab on the battlefield will be a female.
• An Ice Person: The Frost Tongue King Reptile's attack freezes all your King Crabs on the screen instead of killing them. Frozen crabs can be freed by an unfrozen crab touching them.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: All Crab Queens and Kings are very much capable of combat and are usually stronger than the basic crabs. The Reptile Kings and Queens are also extremely powerful and require your Crab Kings to take down.
• Artistic License – Biology: Several of the enemy reptile types have tentacles or extra eyes, and one of them resembles an axolotl which is an amphibian, not a reptile.
• Boss Game: The Land of Reptiles minigame features only boss battles and no normal enemies. Said bosses have to be taken down by your Crab Kings.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: All reptiles explode upon death, which does damage and kill crabs caught in it. Even if the crabs dodge or block it, they'll still be knocked back.
• Earn Your Fun: The Jade Scarab minigame requires you to click increasing amounts of Jade Messengers that periodically appear on the main game in order to gain runes to fill a 10x10 grid of 100 bonuses, giving you a week to do so before the bonuses you obtained activate. If you manage to fill up the entire grid after lots of dedication, you're rewarded with some very powerful boosts, while also gaining several valuable Pearls, Gems, Gene Points and Burrower Crabs in the process.
• Emerald Power: Emerald Crabs are enhanced and powered by crystal radiation from emeralds, and most of them are green or greenish in colour.
• Excuse Plot: Crabs lived on the land until reptiles drove them underground, crabs got enhanced by underground crystal radiation, crabs now fight the reptiles to take back the land.
• Fragile Speedster: Amethyst Crabs have the highest speed but lowest damage of the three crab types.
• Gem-Encrusted: The crabs were exposed to crystal radiation underground and transformed into their current, gem-covered and enhanced state. Said gem armor give them a fighting chance against the reptiles.
• Gemstone Assault: The gem radiation that changed the crabs also gave them crystalline claws, which they use to attack the reptiles for massive damage.
• Giant Enemy Crab: Or rather, Giant Ally Crab. The Colossal Crab deals huge damage on the enemy it attacks, while the Juggernaut and Burrower Crabs allow you to skip levels by rushing through enemies or digging a huge hole underground respectively.
• Good Animals, Evil Animals: Arthopods such Crabs and insects are good. Fish like the Golden Ray are also good. Reptiles are evil.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Easter Fiend's attack summons rolling Easter eggs that constantly harm any crab they touch. This can cause your King crabs to rapidly dodge or block the eggs until they fail to do so, and one King Crab part causes your King Crabs to do a powerful Counter-Attack every time they dodge or block an attack. With a high enough dodge rate and some fast tapping to send your crabs into the eggs, the Easter Fiend will suffer massive counterattack damage from its own attack.
• Life Drain: The "Vampire" King Reptile will regain health for every crab it manages to snag with its tongue.
• Made of Explodium: Reptiles explode violently upon being killed, and said explosion can kill your crabs.
• Meta Power-Up: The "Ember Tipped Carapace" Mutation gives you multiplied DNA points after an ecdysis, so you get more DNA to spend on Mutations. It's generally considered the most important Mutation to have and to level up.
• Mighty Glacier: Garnet Crabs have the highest damage but lowest speed of the three crab types. They do however have a high dodge rate.
• Money Spider: Reptiles inexplicably drop gold when killed, which can be used to upgrade your crabs.
• Not Completely Useless: The Cerulean Walkers mutation increases Basic Reptile Gold Drop. Once you have Ember Tipped Pincers at level 245, all regular enemies will be Golden Reptiles, making Basic Reptile Gold Drop redundant. However, the Golden Leech ability relies on Basic Reptile Gold Drop, which means that it still has a use for gaining huge amounts of money.
• One-Hit Kill: The "Killer Crab" purchasable item summons a crab that instantly kills the current Reptile regardless of the Reptile's health.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Any crab that is attacked by a Reptile or damaged by a Reptile's death explosion dies instantly... unless they dodge or have a Bubble Shield.
• Piñata Enemy: Gold Reptiles are rarely-occurring enemies that drop far more gold than normal reptiles.
• Power Crystal: The crabs are enhanced by gem radiation underground and transformed into their stronger forms. You can collect gems in order to strengthen them further.
• Power Pincers: Inevitable, as the game is a crab game after all, and these serve as your crab swarm's primary method of attacking Reptiles. Some of the Crab Queens have Flavor Text detailing how their pincers were enhanced. When Queen Frenzy is active, your Queens gain auras around their pincers that deal huge damage. The Killer Crab's pincers are so powerful they instantly kill any Reptile they hit.
• Pretty Butterflies: Every now and then, a butterfly will fly across the screen. There are three kinds — yellow ones gives gold or special free bonuses, blue ones appear less often but allow the player to use a discounted shop item and provide Pearls or rarely Gems if the Treasure Butterfly gene is unlocked, and event-specific ones drop event currency.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Reptiles invaded the crabs' lands and started eating them. As such, they are the enemy from the crabs' point of view.
• Shout-Out:
  • The intro story line "But all that changed when the reptiles arrived" is an obvious one to "But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked".
  • The Wildebeast is a huge reptile covered in spikes and also has a very similar name to the Bewilderbeast from How to Train Your Dragon 2.
• Single-Use Shield: Bubble shields will save a crab but dissipate upon the crab being hit by a Reptile or if they are caught in a Reptile's explosion.
• Suicide Attack: Presumably done with the crabs, who disappear as soon as they hit a reptile.
• Taking You with Me: When a Reptile dies, it explodes and kills any nearby crabs. Crabs who block or dodge are still pushed back.
• Tech Tree: The Gene Tree. The player uses obtained Gene Points, to unlock a branching network of Genes and powerful permanent special bonuses.
• Useless Useful Spell: Colossal Crab. It looks awesome but is only useful in the early game levels when Shadow Swarm, Queen Frenzy, and Genetic Split are weak. Furthermore, it does not take critical chance or critical multiplier into account, while Shadow Swarm and Genetic Split do. Finally, there are no mutations that increase Colossal Crab's damage, only its cooldown. This causes Colossal Crab to be far weaker than Shadow Swarm, Genetic Split and Queen Frenzy in the mid- to late-game, making it useless.
• Zerg Rush: Basic Crab strategy is to send massive hordes of crabs to rush the reptiles. The Shadow Swarm and Genetic Split abilities allow you to summon even more crabs at the reptiles.