Gemstone Crab Guide (OSRS 2025)
- Theoatrix
- Sep 23
- 5 min read
Welcome to my gemstone crab guide - I'll show you how to get there, the requirements, as well as a gear progression guide for training at the crab…
Quick-Links
Why Train At Crab
So why might you consider training at the crab? Well the gemstone crab provides 10 minute afk intervals, and theres no competition like regular crabs, meaning you wont need to fight over a spot. You also never go out of combat, so youre always attacking for a solid 10 minutes, which leads to higher xp rates overall. It could also be considered a social training spot where a lot of players chat, so if youre looking to socialize you can do it at the crab too.
Requirements
The only real requirement to fight the gemstone crab is completing the “children of the sun” quest, which gives access to varlamore. Its a very short and easy quest with zero requirements.
Recommended
But aside from children of the sun, there are some other unlocks you can get which will improve your training at the gemstone crab.
Firstly, having fairy rings unlocked makes travelling to the crab a lot easier, and ill show exactly how to get to the crab in a moment…
You can also complete the twilights promise quest to get the pendant of ates, which is an amulet with a teleport closeby to the crab.
In terms of combat stats, there are actually no recommendations. You can start at level 1 and still be effective at the gemstone crab, simply because it has very little defence.
How To Get There
So how do you get to the gemstone crab? Well im going to show you the fastest way there, the second fastest way there, and how to get there with no requirements. So firstly, how to get there the fastest.
And that involves using the pendant of ates teleport to kastori, then you run to the nearby crab location. And if theres no crab there, you just enter the cave and it takes you straight to the current active crab.
The second fastest way there arguably has easier requirements, and that is using the “AIS” fairy ring to get there. From the fairy ring, you run south west to the row boat in the water, and travel to kastori.
Another very quick way to get there is by using quetzal transportation which requires the twilights promise quest completed, along with building the landing site in kastori. The jungle landing site is built by default, so you dont actually need to build it yourself.
And if you dont have any of those methods of transportation, the only way to get there is by taking the quetzal from varrock to varlamore, then running east then north until you reach the mountain guide. Then you follow the guide to auburnvale, and from here you run south east to the row boat, and here you travel to kastori. Then you run north west to the crab location.
Crab Mechanics
So this is how the crab’s mechanics work.
Every time the crab spawns, a 10 minute timer starts which can be seen by its healthbar. The healthbar doesnt go down with damage, it only goes down with time, and once it reaches zero, it burrows to a new location. So then you have to enter the nearby cave, and it will always take you to the next crab spot.
So this basically means you just click the crab once, fight for 10 minutes, enter the cave, click the crab again, and afk for another 10 minutes.
It is important to keep in mind that the crab gives reduced xp per damage hit that you do, so you wont get as much xp per damage as you do in other areas, but since youre constantly attacking and you never go out of combat, the xp evens out. If youre interested, the total xp reduction is 12 point 5 percent.
At the end of the fight, the gemstone crab will shed a piece of its shell when moving to the next spot. The 16 players who dealt the most damage can mine the shell for three random unnoted gems granted they have a pickaxe with them. There is a rare chance to get dragonstones here which could be good for early game ironmen but not worth the effort for main accounts.
Gear & Weaponry
Now im going to briefly cover the best gear to use for melee, ranged then magic…
Melee Gear
So for melee, you should focus on your strength bonus and prioritizing high strength bonus equipment. A strength amulet is a great starting point, giving the same strength bonus as the torture. Void isnt a bad option, although your biggest strength bonuses are going to come from bandos, oathplate or torva armour. I wouldnt recommend using blood moon armour at the crab since it degrades and ends up being extremely expensive.
In terms of weaponry, you should use the best scimitar you can until level 50, then granite, dragon, abyssal and then the rapier. The rapier and even the whip is better than using the osmumtens fang here, simply because the crab has such a low defence.
Ranged Gear
For ranged, you should prioritize armour that gives a high ranged attack bonus and ranged strength bonus. So this include the leathers and dragonhides at a lower level, and elite ranged void is the best in slot over everything due to its effectiveness against low defence monsters. Even better than masori. Generally, its not really worth using karils or eclipse moon armour because it costs a lot of money in the long run with their degrading and these sets ONLY give ranged accuracy which is useless against the grab.
For ranged weaponry, your best option from a low level is using the best knife you can, although using a shortbow with decent arrows is also a great way to train. For ironmen, you can get the dorgeshuun crossbow which has a fast fire rate and has cheap ammunition. The blowpipe is the best option although can be very expensive to use, and the eclipse atlatl is a decent option too. With crabs zero defence, slow heavy hitting weapons like crossbows arent worth using here.
Magic Gear
Now for magic you need to prioritize your magic strength bonus mainly, but a high magic attack bonus can help too.
Theres a range of spells you can use at crab, and generally its best to cast spells from the standard spellbook, and to avoid using powered staves like tridents since they cost a lot more money.
Air spells are generally the cheapest since they require less runes and with the changes to magic, the damage of the elemental spells scales with your magic level, so air and fire spells can deal the same amount of damage. The cheapest way to start is get a staff of air and some mind runes, and you can work your way up with air bolt, air blast, and so on.
But, if you have the money, you can get a smoke battlestaff, which gives unlimited air and fire runes, and also gives a 10% damage boost for more xp per hour.
Or better yet, the harmonized staff is the best option, changing your spells to 4 ticks instead of 5 ticks, essentially speeding up your casting. So this is a boost to your xp per hour, although the staff is currently over 160 mil.
In terms of magic armour, you can start with wizards robes, xerician, then mystic, and then elder chaos druid robes provide a magic strength bonus. Then theres dagon hai through to ancestral which is best in slot.