Another Crab’s Treasure is a bright and wonderfully challenging soulslike that’s out now. In it, you can learn multiple techniques that make combat a touch easier, and some of these are super moves called Adaptations. While you’ll collect most of the game’s Adaptations by simply going around and fighting both mandatory and optional bosses, there’s one that’s tucked away behind a fun encounter in one of Another Crab’s Treasure’s opening areas.
By the time you arrive in New Carcinia, you’ll already have the first, not to mention best, Adaptation, the Royal Wave, from your fight with the Duchess. However, you can also immediately grab a second one the moment you arrive in the big city. It’s just going to hurt a little bit…
Upon entering New Carcinia, you can immediately head to the lower crust, which is the darker underbelly of the city where most of the game’s vendors live. You’ll be coming back here time and time again throughout the game to sell things to Prawnathan and upgrade your weapon at the smith, but for a moment, you’re going to want to focus on Nemma and her Stowaways shop. You’re not going to be shopping there, but it’s a great way to orient yourself to where you can find the Urchin Toss Adaptation.
Facing her shop, you’re going to want to look to your left. The path of microplastics forks into two distinct directions, and you’re going to want to take the one that leads to the right. Following this path will immediately bring you to a spindly ball that’s actually an NPC named Erich. Everyone say hi to Erich!
You actually don’t need to say hi, because the second you get too close, Erich will scream his head off at you. Because he is an urchin with spikes, Erich’s wary of letting anyone get too close to him. Erich is a very emotional and reserved guy, but he also just wants everyone to be safe, and specifically doesn’t want to cause anyone harm, which I’m sure he’s unintentionally caused. Jeez, someone ought to show this guy Neon Genesis Evangelion, I think he could learn a lot from Shinji.
Anyways, Erich will scream at you not to get too close, but Kril will insist on trying to hug him. If you don’t already know where this is going, you’re going to proceed to disregard Erich’s warnings and run right into him multiple times. Every time you recover from his prickly touch, Erich will treat you to some kind of dialogue, often berating you and calling you a masochist before eventually going nonverbal.
Keep going at him and he’ll eventually grow so uncomfortable that he’ll finally just give you his “secret technique.” And that, my friends, is how you unlock the Urchin Toss Adaptation, which can be thrown at and stuck to enemies for prolonged damage. With one more skill in your repertoire, it might be even easier to fight your way deep into the Expired Grove and find one of the game’s best weapons a little earlier than usual.
