Crab Tank

The Crab Tank is a special weapon in. It is a temporarily summoned piloted assault vehicle that can both rapidly fire ink shots and launch powerful ink balls.

Appearance
The Crab Tank is a crab-shaped mech that can curl up into a ball. Its outer shell changes color to match the user's ink. It is armed with three turret-like cannons, one on each front limb, and one in the center of the body.

Splatoon 3
The Crab Tank can walk and strafe like players, or curl up into a ball to move faster and climb up walls, inking the surface as it moves, similar to the Baller. When climbing, the crab tank cannot move left and right, only up and down.

The Crab Tank has 500 HP and has varying damage multipliers against certain weapons.

In walking mode, the tank has two firing modes: pressing fires a ball of ink in an arc that pierces enemies and explodes on contact similar to Explosher, while  fires a rapid stream of bullets from two turrets, behaving similarly to dualies. Like a real crab, the tank walks faster side-to-side than it does forwards or backwards.

In ball mode, it can also damage opponents by rolling over them.

The Crab Tank will flash red when the time is almost out, warning the user the special will run out soon. Once the special ends, the crab tank will disappear and the player can move with little delay.

Continuous shooting with the Rapid Fire mode will increase its rate of fire drastically, starting with a fire rate similar to the .52 Gal and reaching its peak rate of fire to that of a Hydra Splatling. Interrupting the continuous shooting by either rolling, using the Cannon mode, or by simply letting go of the button, will reset the fire rate to its starting point.

In walking mode, the back of the tank, where the player character sits, is a weak point which is accessible from above, behind or the side. The weak point appears to have the same health as a player, and the player is immediately splatted if it is damaged enough. Whether resistance abilities such as Sub Resistance Up apply to the weak point, and whether the player retains damage that the weak point sustained once the special ends, are currently unknown. In ball mode, the weak point is completely inaccessible.

If the tank itself is destroyed, the player is ejected rather than splatted, and the special ends.

The Crab Tank turns and adjusts its aim very slowly while in walking mode. However, the tank faces in the direction of the camera when coming out of ball mode, so switching to ball mode and back can allow it to turn more quickly.

It appears in 2 Return of the Mammalians missions:


 * Tread Heavily
 * Alterna Space Center Hangar
 * The Spirit Lifter: Steerage

Special Power Up
Special Power Up increases the duration of Crab Tank. The following table shows the duration, in number of frames, when stacking Special Power Up.

Badges
Wining a certain number of battles with the Crab Tank will reward the player with special badges that they can use on their Splashtag.

Strategy
For competitive tips about the Crab Tank

Trivia

 * Prior to the Salmon Run Next Wave trailer, the Crab Tank is primarily yellow with sections that change color to match the user's ink instead of the whole tank matching the user's ink.
 * The outside cannons resemble a style of juctioned exhaust headers mainly used in speedboat engines.
 * The Crab Tank's multiple legs, ability to turn into a ball, and twin machine guns make it similar to the Wrecking Ball mech from the game Overwatch.
 * If a Crab Tank user is tagged (by a Point Sensor for example), and rolls, their position tag will roll with Crab Tank.
 * In Salmon Run the attack acts as a bomb, allowing players to take down Flyfish and Mudmouths easily.