- The Future Of Crab Champions - 18 March 2026
Hey!It's been a while since the last update and I wanted to let you know what the plans are for the game moving forward! Rather than a big wall of text I've made a mini FAQ to keep things easy to read. WHERE NEXT UPDATE?Great question! I've been hard at work on the next big update: it's still cooking and I like to make sure each update is really worth returning for rather than rushing things out too soon. My wife and I are expecting a baby in the next few weeks so I can't promise a definite timeline, but I'm still aiming for sometime this Spring. If you want to check out some of the new stuff as it gets added, I'm updating the beta branch weekly and keeping a close eye on the #beta-discussion channel over on Discord. Feel free to stop by and chat! 🦀 WHERE TONY?Great question! As everyone knows Tony has been slumbering in his cave for quite a while now and it really is about time he wak…
- The Island Update Hotfix #3 / #4 - 22 November 2025
After spending the last few weeks reading as much feedback as possible on the new update, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two types of players when it comes to the feedback I was getting of “I’m bored, make the game harder!” A) Players that were finding Diamond runs too easy and wanted a fun (but still attainable) new challenge to grind B) Players that want the most overtuned difficulty that I could possibly muster up no matter how unfair it was I made the mistake of trying to satisfy both groups with a single medal so I have made a bunch of changes in this patch to make the game more enjoyable for both groups of players. Firstly, I have made a new completely optional (doesn’t affect medals or achievements) set of difficulty modifiers called Flex Modifiers. These are unlocked when reaching Diamond account rank and are purely for those players looking to create the most unfair…
- The Island Update Hotfix #1 / #2 - 3 November 2025
HOTFIX #1 PATCH NOTESChanged the Nightmare red difficulty modifier to be +4 difficulty level so this gives you an additional difficulty point to spend on either a green modifier or disabling another one of the 1 point red modifiers. This should give enough flexibility to still get Prismatic while running the least annoying modifiers to you personally (everyone seems to have different opinions on which they prefer / hate so this new modular system seems to be working well to allow people to have more agency)Greatly expanded out of bounds trigger zones on all islands so the out of bounds warning should pretty much never pop up accidentally when near a wall anymore and also it should feel a lot less restrictive to move a bit away from the main arena areas now. In general out of bounds warnings should feel much more invisible now and only show up when you are REALLY pushing itYou now get te…
- The Island Update (Early Access Update 11) - 2 November 2025
Patch HighlightsALL NEW ISLANDSNEW WEAPON: POISON CANNON DIFFICULTY SYSTEM REVAMP WITH NEW RANK: PRISMATICPatch Notes NEW ISLANDS + VISUALSAdded all new visuals and brand new islands to the game. These have all been designed with much more consistent enemy spawns in mind so less enemies sneaking up from behind you! Many of the islands have been designed to keep the spirit of the older islands but with a fresh coat of paintAdded completely new lighting setups for all biomes to give them a more distinct lookEnabled reflections (most noticeable on water) and added ripples to lavaThe static blue boundary walls seen in previous updates has been updated to be a new freeform out of bounds system allowing me to design much more open islands and prevents clunky situations that used to happen by bumping into blue walls unexpectedly. You can also knock enemies out of bounds and cause them to take…
- The Anvil Update Hotfix - 3 April 2025
Thank you all for the amazing feedback on the last update- I have spent the last while absorbing it and made this hotfix to smooth out the most common pain points 🦀 Lightning Scepter / Arcane Wand Changes Lightning Scepter now only makes you fly while already in the air so you can fire it while on the ground without getting lifted up Removed the velocity cap when floating with the Lightning Scepter. This should make it easier to air dodge Added a delay before the floating happens in the air with the Lightning Scepter. This should make your initial jump / launch feel much smoother instead of jankily losing all momentum as soon as you fired which felt jarring Lighting Scepter no longer lifts enemies into the air as it could actually create more dangerous situations for you as they were able to still fire in that position Improved Lightning Scepter projectile visuals to make it harder to…
- The Anvil Update (Early Access Update 10) - 24 March 2025
Patch Highlights NEW WEAPON: LIGHTNING SCEPTER NEW ABILITY: AIR STRIKE NEW MELEE WEAPON: KATANA ARCANE WAND REWORK ANVILS NEW ENEMIES Patch Notes Anvil Portal (Enhancements 2.0) I think enhancements were a good addition to the game but they had a few issues: there wasn’t enough control over which enhancements you got and you weren’t able to target a specific mod to enhance. In this update I have added an Anvil portal reward which spawns 3 enhancement choices after clearing an island. You can then choose to enhance a specific mod from your inventory, allowing for much more targeted builds centered around one main mod. The random enhancement totem in the shop is unchanged (other than not being guaranteed anymore) as it’s a fun alternate way to get enhancements, rolling the dice in the hopes of getting something good Added new enhancements: Returning, Orbiting, Chipping, Growing, Endangeri…
- The Elemental Update (Early Access Update 9) - 1 September 2024
Patch Highlights NEW WEAPON: ICE STAFF NEW ABILITY: ELECTRO GLOBE NEW MELEE WEAPON: PICKAXE TURRET REVAMP INFINITE PEDESTAL NEW ISLANDS NEW ENEMY: HORNET XL TOTEM NEW ABILITY VISUALS Patch Notes GENERAL Turrets have been reworked, all turret spawning turret perks have been all moved to Ability mods in order to give you agency over when and where to spawn them as in the previous system they often spawned outside the map bounds or far away. Turrets now lose health over time but there are ways to extend their lifetime with perks and create infinite turret builds! Added new infinite shop pedestal type: one can be found on every reroll and the loot doesn’t despawn when purchasing, allowing you to invest heavily in one particular piece of loot Added new enemy: Hornet Added new enemy: Elite Hornet Added new enemy: Hammer Crab Added new enemy: Elite Ramming Grub Grubs lacked identity so have be…
- The Variety Update Part 2 Hotfix #2 - 14 March 2024
Hotfix #2 (Version 2003) Thanks for all the community feedback on the last update- I've made some fixes and improvements based on it! 🦀 General Added cactus destructibles to the Desert biome Balance Changes Double destructibles (both combat and reward) spawn in the Desert as most islands there are quite open and bare Totems are both more likely to initially spawn AND are more likely to spawn in groups Shop prices have been decreased by 25% but scale a bit more sharply when looping (so building into economy becomes more important in the late game but shops are more accessible in the early game). Greed loot now is worth exactly the same as Epic loot Slippery Slope now scales with each island similar to the Paycheck buff in the previous patch. It gives more than double the amount that Paycheck does so I’ll keep an eye on it in terms of balance. Also added total crystals gained stat for Sl…
- The Variety Update Part 2 Hotfix #1 - 5 March 2024
Hotfix #1 (Version 1999) Difficulty scaling improvements Enemy damage bonus when looping has been removed. There was previously a whopping +100% damage multiplier to all enemy attacks when looping from island 33 onwards which created very unfair situations where enemies would melt your entire health bar in a second, especially with fire. Enemy damage should feel much more fair and consistent when looping while still being a challenge- looping is meant to be quite difficult Enemy spawn bonus when looping decreased from +33% to +20% Islands 1 and 2 of a biome no longer can spawn two waves of ranged enemies back to back These changes should make looping feel far less unfair / punishing while maintaining the challenge Scorpion mega nerf + rebalance Scorpion projectile damage reduced by 60%, projectile radius reduced by 33%, projectile speed reduced by 15% and removed projectile bounces. Als…
- The Variety Update Part 2 (Early Access Update 8) - 4 March 2024
Patch Highlights RELICS ENHANCEMENTS SNIPER REVAMP NEW WEAPON: MARKSMAN RIFLE DESERT BIOME NEW ISLAND TYPE: DEMOLITION INVENTORY STATS Patch Notes GENERAL Added 30 Relics to the game. Relics are a new loot category that are found under Perks in your inventory. They can only be picked up once (can't be leveled up like perks) and have powerful effects such as being able to rocket jump. There were quite a few perk ideas that weren't fun to level up but were fun as a once off pickup so this loot category nicely fills in that gap. Added new mechanic: Enhancements: In Tony's shop you'll find an Enhancement totem which allows you to randomly roll powerful enhancements on mods and perks that previously only could be leveled up in a linear way (Dagger Arc, Mace Shot, Bubble Blast etc.). This allows for a fun new layer of buildcrafting and experimentation when at the shop: choosing to buy new loo…
- The Variety Update Part 1 (Early Access Update 7) - 25 December 2023
Patch Highlights ABILITIES: GRENADE, GRAPPLING HOOK, LASER BEAM, BLACK HOLE & ICE BLAST MELEE WEAPONS: CLAW, DAGGER & HAMMER NEW WEAPONS: LASER CANNONS & SEAGLE MINIGAMES: ARCADE, HOLDOUT & DUEL QUICKPLAY Matchmake for other players at any of the three main difficulties and communicate via an improved text chat! SIDE SLIDING NEW CONTENT New island type: Waves New enemies: Starfish & Limpet New music New loot New island challenge modifiers and a blessing type BIG BALANCE CHANGES Reworked economy, enemy and health scaling for a more satisfying experience with less cheap ways to win or lose Patch Notes GENERAL Added new ability system with 5 abilities to equip: Grenade, Black Hole, Grappling Hook, Ice Blast and Laser Beam. This is a big new system with a lot more mix and match potential but it is still being worked on- all "grenade" mods will work on any ability and in The Variety Update P…
- Nominate Crab Champions for the Steam Awards! - 21 November 2023
If you are enjoying Crab Champions so far, it'd mean a lot to me if you could nominate it for a Steam Award (after polling the community, it looks like either the "Best Soundtrack" or the "Better With Friends" categories are the most suitable for this game). There's still so much to add but I've been blown away by the response to the game since it launched only a few months ago in April! In other news, the beta for the next big update has been live for the last week or so, bringing lots of new features such as: - Selectable Melee Weapons (Claw, Dagger and Hammer) and Abilities (Grenade, Grappling Hook, Black Hole, Ice Blast and Laser Blast) - 2 brand new Mingames to test your skills without committing to a full roguelike run - Side sliding - New weapons (Laser Cannons and Seagle) and perks - New enemies - New island layouts - New music - Much more (quality of life features, massive loot…
- The Fire & Magic Update (Early Access Update 6) - 1 September 2023
Patch Highlights NEW WEAPONS: FLAMETHROWER & ARCANE WAND VFX OVERHAUL ULTRA CHAOS: NEW EXTREME DIFFICULTY UNIQUE LOOT VISUALS + ICONS (A START) Loot is finally getting some identity! While there's a lot of loot to make unique visuals for, I'm happy with the way the first few are turning out. It makes a big difference to be able to start recognizing loot at distance or being able to share your inventory screen and not have to explain what each piece of loot is! BIG MECHANIC IMPROVEMENTS Universal Critical Hits: ANYTHING can now cause a critical hit including your secondary projectiles like Mace Shot or Dagger Arc. This means that there is a single unified critical hit chance stat that affects all of your build at once instead of having to find separate grenade crit and melee crit etc. perks Damage 10x Lower: As many people were reaching the limits of the game in terms of getting to the p…
- The Difficulty Update (Early Access Update 5) - 17 June 2023
It's been quite a while since the last update- this will most likely be the pace moving forward: larger updates every 1-2 months delivering a nice chunk of new content to explore! As mentioned in previous patch notes, I have been continually updating the Beta branch with changes every few days so if you feel like trying out every little addition (with the possibility of them being unbalanced) then feel free to opt into that branch. There has been an amazing beta community growing on Discord and it's been fun to see the reactions to each element as I add them. With that said, lets get into all the changes! Patch Highlights DIFFICULTY MODIFIERS With a surprising amount of players asking for a challenge beyond Nightmare, I have added 12 new difficulty modifiers that can all be enabled at once for the ULTIMATE test of skill! Keep in mind that these are intended for seasoned players and (esp…
- Early Access Update 4 - 25 April 2023
Patch Notes GENERAL Added 5 new Volcanic arena islands and removed the re-used tropical islands from the Volcanic biome You can now interact with key totems even after unlocking everything to start a run off with a random piece of loot (minimum rarity is Epic) Added new perk: Critical Claws: Melee critical hit chance increased Added new perk: Blender: Melee cooldowns reduced Added new perk: Iron Claws: Melee damage heavily increased but melee cooldowns are also increased Added new Greed perk: Brawler: Melee damage greatly increased but weapon damage is reduced Holding down the melee button will now melee automatically after each melee cooldown BALANCE CHANGES Increased the minigun chance based mods trigger chance by 33% Time Shot damage increased from +50% to +100% Tony’s Black Card discount reduced from 15% to 8% per perk level Gold Dice chance increase reduced from 50% to 20% Blocker…
- Early Access Update 3 - 15 April 2023
Patch Notes GENERAL Elemental weapon mods are now chance based instead of cooldown based. This has been a heavily requested feature and I will be moving from cooldowns to chance based on many other mods in upcoming updates to allow for even more insane build scaling! The general idea is that it’s boring for a powerful thing to fire only once every 5 seconds max and it’s much more fun for a weaker thing to fire potentially multiple times a second (scaling nicely with fire rate and chance build options). In order for this to be balanced and considering that a 20% chance to burn enemies would be constantly applied from the minigun (due to the fast fire rate) and would barely be applied at all from the sniper (due to the slow fire rate), the base trigger chance for the certain perks will change depending on the weapon used (with fast firing weapons having a lower base chance and slow firing…
- Early Access Update 2 - 10 April 2023
It's been just over a week since Crab Champions released into Early Access and I still can't believe how amazing the community is already! Since the last update, I've been trying to focus on the most commonly reported bugs and quality of life features to try and get the game into solid shape before starting on any major updates. Patch Notes GENERAL Due to popular demand, locked inventory slots have returned with a few caveats. No slots are locked on Easy difficulty, 12 slots are locked on Normal difficulty and 16 slots are locked on Nightmare difficulty. The cost to unlock each slot has been reduced as it was one of the main issues with locked slots on previous builds EDIT: There is a lot of community discussion regarding this topic- some people love the locked slots, others hate it and want to just build without having to manage inventory. I think the only real solution here is to add…
- Early Access Update 1 - 5 April 2023
Thank you all for an absolutely incredible launch! I'm blown away by the amount of people enjoying the game and have been working hard to improve as much as possible. This update adds a few new features as well a bunch of bug fixes. Quickplay was initially working in this build but there were issues where players were loading into previously started lobbies and were going past the 4 player limit so I've had to disable it for now while I work on a proper fix. Now, onto the changes 🦀 Patch Notes GENERAL Added backwards sliding and being able to slightly move right or left while sliding (I tested being able to slide left and right at full speed but it was way too OP and made the movement far less skillful) Added 8 new songs! (most of them are demos but will give more variation to the existing playlists) Inventory slots are now all unlocked by default- the locked inventory slot mechanic wa…
- Obviously, this is a fast-paced roguelike where you are a crab with a gun - 3 April 2023
Remember that incredibly goofy dance music video with the dancing crabs that everyone loved back in like 2018? People did a bunch of memes of it. Anyway, the artist who made that, Noisestorm, made a roguelike third-person action shooter about crabs. It's called Crab Champions, and though it released into early access on April 1st, 2023 it's anything but a joke. It's actually kind of... good?.. Read more.
- Crab Champions Early Access Roadmap - 30 March 2023
As the Early Access release drops on April 1st, I thought it would be a good time to share the Early Access Roadmap for those interested! As always, I'll be very active in the Crab Champions Discord server and will do my best to address as much feedback as possible 🦀 I can't wait to see what everyone thinks of the game! Join the Crab Champions Discord server: https://discord.gg/crabchampions Follow Crab Champions on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crabchampions Join the Crab Champions subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrabChampions/
