There’s nothing more terrifying than a giant crustacean that’s able to punch faster than a speeding bullet. Here’s everything you need to know to track down and defeat the Mantis Shrimp boss in Dave the Diver.
How to Find the Mantis Shrimp
Serving as one of Dave the Diver‘s early optional boss fights, players can track down the Mantis Shrimp only after sinking a few hours into the game. To have the opportunity to brawl with this behemoth, you’ll first need to meet Sato, the guy who dresses like Ash Ketchum from the Pokémon anime series. He’ll provide you with an app called Marinca, which keeps track of every fish you catch during your undersea expeditions. Sato will explain that there are certain special “cards” that can be found in the Blue Hole. The first of these Super Rare Boss Cards is the Hermit Crab and the second is the Mantis Shrimp.
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As mentioned above, to fight the Mantis Shrimp you’ll need to have already defeated the Truck Hermit Crab boss fight. If you’ve already done this, then it’s impossible that you haven’t unlocked night diving, the other essential stipulation for encountering the Mantis Shrimp. If those requirements are met, Sato will approach Dave on a stormy night and inform him of a powerful presence below the waves. NOTE that if you want to tussle with the gigantic crustacean, you need to dive on the same night Sato informs you of the above. Otherwise, you’ll need to wait until another stormy night which occurs randomly with no discernable pattern.
Once Dave’s in the water, spend some time gathering up some equipment. Ideally, you’re looking for water scooters to boost your speed and an improved firearm, preferably something long-range like the sniper rifle. The Hush Dart and Net Gun are effectively useless against the Mantis Shrimp and the Triple Axel, while decent at this point in the game if you’ve upgraded it a few times, requires you to be too close. This boss fight is all about positioning and speed, so any weapon that requires Dave to get really close isn’t going to cut it. If you have neither of the above options, the basic underwater rifle will do in a pinch.
Now that you’ve got your gear all sorted out, dive to a depth of around 30m and head down the first major ravine you come across. You’ll see the Vortex spinning on the right of the crevice. Swim on inside and brace yourself for the Mantis Shrimp boss.
How to Beat the Mantis Shrimp
As soon as Dave pops out the other side of the Vortex, the Mantis Shrimp will be waiting for him. The gigantic creature stands at the height of the cavern which serves as your arena and he’s equipped with two boxing gloves. Why does a Mantis Shrimp need boxing gloves? To practice his boxing, obviously.
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Before the actual fight begins, quickly scope out the environment during the cutscene. Behind Dave, you’ll see two oxygen tanks that can be used if you’re running low on health. A gun usually also spawns but it’s not exactly impressive. It’s usually a Basic Underwater Rifle, so don’t expect that thing to do heaps of damage. It’s mainly just there in the event you forgot to swap out your Hush Dart or something.
After Dave comes up with the idea of finding something to block the shrimp’s punches, the cutscene will end and your enemy will crawl towards you. IMMEDIATELY swim to your left since he always opens with a jab that is wickedly fast. Unless you’ve managed to put some distance between yourself and the shrimp, it will hit you and take out a chunk of your air. The boss generally follows this up with a similarly fast attack except this one requires a lengthy telegraph to pull off. He’ll wing his left arm back (and give you some odd googly eyes) before punching diagonally from top to bottom. You’ll want to equip your scooter as soon as possible and hug the ceiling for this introductory phase.
After every attack, the Mantis Shrimp will drop his gloves, leaving his eyes unprotected: Those are his weak points. You’ll need to position Dave in such a way as to fire directly into his eyeballs to deal with what feels like an insignificant amount of damage. Always fire from above, you’ll never hit him if you’re shooting from below. Just remember that his jabs usually track your location and the gloves’ surface area is big enough that Dave’s hitbox is usually in the line of fire. I recommend swimming back and forth to dodge rather than going up or down, it’s just more consistent when it comes to avoiding the Mantis Shrimp’s attacks. The safe place is hang is just in front of his first two legs, below the gloves. Just be on the lookout for the “winding up” telegraph, which suggests he’ll be flinging himself forward and if you’re stuck under there you’re liable to take damage.
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After you’ve dealt enough damage, the Mantis Shrimp will leap away and a gust of water will start pushing Dave to the left of the screen. The second you see the current, swim to the top left of the screen; a chain with a handle will dangle from the corner. Grab onto it and pull it as far as it’ll go. The Shrimp will start charging an attack and if you’re too slow, it will hit you and send you into the wall of spikes behind Dave, resulting in double damage.
Anyway, you’ll notice that as you pull the chain, a massive steel wrecking ball will rise from the sand. Get this to roughly halfway up the arena before the Mantis Shrimp attacks. When his punch comes flying, it’ll connect with the construction equipment and stun him. The boss will back up to the right, giving Dave an opportunity to swim closer and shoot him in the eye. I you run out of ammo, boxes of bullets will spawn whenever the Mantis Shrimp gets angry and initiates the strong water currents. You can find them on the floor, usually between the oxygen tanks.
With that loop out of the way, all you need to do is rinse and repeat until the Mantis Shrimp is nothing more than a pile of soggy sushi. For your victory, you’ll be able to harvest the creature’s meat, which sells for a ton of cash, and Dave will earn a Super Rare Boss Card. I would have liked a charm of some sort but that’s just me.
If you’re looking for more, check out how to beat and find the next major optional boss, Klaus, in Dave the Diver.
