Is there a way to find Crab King besides console commands/brute force exploring?

[kiwikenobi]

I've been sailing around my world looking for Crab King for quite a while, and I haven't found him yet. Is there a particular kind of place he appears in the ocean, or can his ring of rocks appear anywhere in the water? Does he appear more often near any other locations, like the lunar island, or Pearl's island, or a particular biome on the mainland? I know I could just use a console command to show me where he is, but I'd like to be able to find him by playing normally, if I can. But if it's just luck whether you happen to sail near the ring of rocks around him, with no hints or clues in the game to indicate where he might be, I might just use the console if I don't find him soon.

Because the lunar island is relatively easy to find using the shape of the mainland as a guide, and Pearl's island is outright revealed on the map if you find a bottle. Is there even a tiny clue as to where to find Crab King in a given world?

[ArubaroBeefalo]

dont take this as something that works but in the 3 worlds where i have found him, was "near" pig king biome

Spoiler

 

[Hornete]

Crab King spawns in the "Swell" ocean. The Swell part of the ocean is the "2nd" layer right after the "shore" ocean. So he'll spawn pretty close to land most of the time. I suggest you map out the ocean around the land to try and find him.

Edit: But it would be pretty nice if we had a crows nest attachment for masts that players could hop into to get increased camera range and map exploration range, B)

Spoiler

I'm begging you, Klei.

 

[kiwikenobi]

I'll make a close-ish circuit of the mainland, and I'll start near the Pig King biome. In theory, I should be able to find Crab King just by going around the whole mainland once, if I stay at about the right distance from the shore the whole time. Thanks for your help, both of you. Here's hoping it works!

Also a crow's nest or something similar is a great idea! I hope some option to increase the range of sight on boats is available someday, because finding stuff at sea can be really frustrating sometimes.

[gghhrr]

9 hours ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

dont take this as something that works but in the 3 worlds where i have found him, was "near" pig king biome

this might actually work, and probably intend to be located near pk upon world gen

recently(in 1 month) I actually found crab king almost next to pk biome all of the time ( I always go sailing in public server in first 20 days )

 

however, I also found crab king is far from pk many times, but the versions were elder, almost beta and freshly released from beta

so, you still probably test result yourself

 

if you are looking for a formal way (non-console), the way how I sail might help you

just sail round the world, don't explore every spots in details, keep lookin at map, once you found some seastacks seems to be aligned in a line, check it, if it isn't crab king, skip that area and continue

I often find crab king before I get to Pearl Island or to lunar

btw I just go randomly sailing in a circle, I often can find lunar in first 2 days of sailing too, hope this help

[BoysenSyrup]

I've seen him spawn near the lunar island once... and that's the only time I've ever seen him.

[Deleted Profile]

Since Crab King spawn is in the Swell Ocean, not everytimes he will be close to the shore. The biome is also around lunar island or Pearl home (it took me 300 days sailing around cuz I did not expect that at all) :

Spoiler

 

[Ardcrumb]

15 hours ago, Hornete said:

Edit: But it would be pretty nice if we had a crows nest attachment for masts that players could hop into to get increased camera range and map exploration range, B)

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I made that exact idea like post like a year ago

[Pootis Bird]

On 9/6/2020 at 8:48 AM, Hornete said:

Edit: But it would be pretty nice if we had a crows nest attachment for masts that players could hop into to get increased camera range and map exploration range, B)

y e s 

[kiwikenobi]

So, I sailed around my world for in-game weeks. No sign of Crab King. So I broke down and used a console command to warp straight to him, just to see where he is. I drowned immediately of course, but that put him on my map.

Behold my frustration:

Spoiler

In those screenshots, you can see my world map, and the circuitous route I sailed all around it. Then you can see the proximity of Crab King to my base. And then you can see how rage-screamingly close I came to finding it naturally.

I think this is a real problem with the Crab King specifically and looking for stuff in the ocean in general. We need something to see farther while on a boat, or at least something to give a hint as to where Crab King and other important ocean stuff is.

[sinisterrkid]

Yes, something like in land we know we are close to Pig King when we find the Deciduous biome, or close to Dragonfly when we find the desert with barrell cactus. I wish the ocean for a wide radius around Crab King was different or had markings to let us know we were close, or relatively close.

[GregoryAndTheHawk]

Just to ease the frustration, remember if you have the Florid Postern upgraded to the Celestial Portal, you can swap to Woodie and use his weregoose form to explore the ocean faster in half-day intervals.