Hermite Crab

Hermite Crabs are red crab enemies that appear in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team around Wakeport. Despite their name, Hermite Crabs are not hermit crabs, and are simply regular crabs that use coconuts as both shelters and weapons. In the field, Hermite Crabs hide under their coconuts, occasionally peeping their eyes out, and pick up their coconut and chase Mario and Luigi if they get near.

In battle, Hermite Crabs, like on the field, hide under their coconuts during the bros.' attack turns. They will move from coconut to coconut every few seconds to confuse the bros., as more often than not, there will be more coconuts than Hermite Crabs. Mario and Luigi must attack the coconut once in order to remove it from battle and be able to attack the Hermite Crab that may be underneath. If the Hermite Crab's attack turn arrives while it is still under its coconut, it will likely attack. If not, the Hermite Crab will leave for a moment to throw more coconuts into the battle, some covering its friends, if any.

A Hermite Crab can attack by picking up its coconut and throwing it high into the air above a bro. It will then approach the bro it is targeting and idle by him until the coconut hits him. The targeted bro must swing his hammer with the right timing to both knock the coconut away and hit the Hermite Crab. If the Hermite Crab stutters backwards when picking up the coconut to throw, it will approach the bro that will not get hit by the coconut; it will also side-step away from the bro it approaches at the moment before the coconut hits the other bro. The bro who is not approached must swat the coconut away in order to avoid it. Additionally, the approached bro may smash the Hermite Crab to deal easy counter-attack damage.

Hermite Crabs can also pick up their coconut, approach a bro, and chuck it in the direction they plan to move. If the bro is caught in its planned movement path, he must jump after the coconut flies over his head and before it rushes into him.

Mario and Luigi can fight Hermite Crabs as early as visiting Dozing Sands for the first time, if they visit the pathways that connect to Wakeport to the west. As such, the bros. can gather many more experience points from defeating Hermite Crabs at this point in the game than the enemies in Dozing Sands, and can prematurely acquire Expert Challenges points.

A larger Hermite Crab creature appears in the boss battles against Heavy Zest and Big Massif. If the opponent runs into them, their coconut will hit and instantly defeat several Hooraws in the background.

A stronger version of these called Hermite Crabs R appear later on in the game.

Names in other languages
Kankris