How to Beat Nephro, Captain of the Guard in Another Crab’s Treasure

In Another Crab’s Treasure, you play as a Hermit Crab named Kril, who has to take on many powerful foes to get his home back. This guide will explain how to beat Nephro, Captain of the Guard in Another Crab’s Treasure.

One of Kril’s first tasks is to find a shell so he is not quite so….exposed. A drowned vending machine seems to have the answer, but in order to walk away with a shell—and alive—he must first defeat the game’s first boss: Nephro, Captain of the Guard. The fight against the blue lobster can be quite challenging, so here’s how to easily defeat Nephro.

Where to Find Nephro Location in Another Another Crab’s Treasure

After approaching the Dutchess’ castle, the guards will tell you to go get a shell, directing you towards where you can find them. There will be a path of plastic bits leading in that direction. By following the path, you’ll come to a vending machine.

Interact with its glowing light, and it will spit out some pop cans, which will serve as your shell. Soon after, you’ll trigger a cutscene where Nephro, Captain of the Guard, will charge at you, demanding your head for breaking the law.

Another Crab’s Tale Nephro Boss Guide – How to Defeat

Level Up Your Skills

You’ll have a really hard time against Nephro if you haven’t leveled up at least two of your skills first. You can level up your skills by collecting Microplastics and going to a Moon Snail Shell to exchange them for the upgrades.

You’ll want to upgrade:

• Attack (ATK)
• Either Vitality (VIT) or Resistance (RES)

You can ignore MSG for now. You won’t need that until a little bit later in the game. The easiest way to get Microplastics at this point in the game is by defeating enemies. Watch out for large groups of them, though. You’ll have a really hard time defeating large groups of them without a shell. For now, stick to fighting individuals.

Thankfully, Another Crab’s Treasure gives you infinite attempts when fighting enemies or bosses. Because this is a boss, you won’t even have to find your way back here from a Moon Snail Shell because it will give you the option to respawn right before interacting with the vending machine. You’ll be able to recollect your Microplastics and items here as well.

Stay Near The Cans

Throughout your fight with Nephro, he will break at least one of your shells. The vending machine, luckily, has spit out several pop cans, so you’ll have plenty to switch to when you need it. Make sure to stay near the pop cans during the fight. If you’re not careful, Nephro will chase you away from them and you won’t be able to replace your shell once it breaks.

Hide Behind The Sand Barrels

At the beginning of the fight, Nephro is charging at you, but there are sand barrels between you and him. He will ram straight into him, delaying his action against you. Take this moment to hit him with a charged attack.

This will be one of the only moments in the fight where you’ll be given this chance. Also, make sure to stay slightly to his right. If he slashes at you, he’ll be less likely to hit you if you’re to the right.

Hide When Nephro is About To Attack

Most of Nephro’s attacks are pretty well choreographed. He’ll often charge his attack before dishing it out, giving you a very brief window of time. While this is happening, hide in your shell.

The shell will take the brunt of the damage, and you’ll live longer. He has a move where he charges at you jousting-style. There isn’t much time to react to this move, so hiding in your shell is the best move when he’s charging after you.

Strike When the Time is Right

There are some really easy moments for you to get some good hits in. Here are the best times to damage Nephro in Another Crab’s Treasure:

• After Nephro does certain attacks, he will be unable to attack you again for a small window of time. Take advantage of that before he charges his next attack.
• After attacking, Nephro will sometimes turn around to get space between you and him for his next attack.

When in doubt, aim for his side. He doesn’t have many moves that will be able to hit you from there, so he’ll either be trying to move so he can face you head-on, or he’ll get caught going in circles trying to find you.

Inflicting Capsize

Under enemies’ health bars, you will see a pale bar that increases slowly after you hit them. This is the Balance bar. Once the Balance bar has reached maximum, their health bar will start flashing, and you can inflict Capsize by hitting them with a charged attack.

When an enemy is Capsized, they’ll be knocked prone, unable to act. This is your chance to inflict as much damage as possible. You will want to inflict Capsize on Nephro as soon as you are able to.

Hitting him from the back might be tempting because he doesn’t appear to have any way of defending you from back there. However, you’ll want to avoid the back because he’ll punch you with a secret claw under his tail.

Don’t Let Him Grab You

When Nephro’s HP is below half, he may try to grab you with his open claw and drag you along the sea floor before throwing you away. This is an almost guaranteed KO, so make sure you don’t get too close to the front of him or that claw towards the end of the fight.

As with all other enemies in this game, if you get hit while you’re trying to heal, you’ll get the HeartKelp knocked out of your hand—er, claw. The best times to heal are the same as when to strike. Moments when there’s a decent distance between you and him is also good.

After defeating Nephro, you are free to return to the Duchess’ Castle. If your can/shell breaks on the way, don’t worry. You won’t have to walk all the way back to the vending machine. You’ll now find cans scattered throughout the landscape, which you will be able to use as your shell.

Another Crab’s Treasure is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X / S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.