Crab Tournament Guide

Crab Tournament!!! It's maybe the greatest part of Kenshi. You compete in a multi-round tournament in The Pits East. In the end, if you beat all the waves of crabs, you get the Crab people as allies and you can purchase crabs and the crab armor blueprints. The crab helmet is maybe the best in the game for heavy armor, so this tournament is worth it.

The crab tournament comes in waves of increasing difficulty. It varies a little on how long each round takes but about 4-5 games of in game time. There are 4 waves, so this is 16-20 days of time in the game.

My guide had one squad of 22 people. My ninjas had ~40 toughness and tanks had ~55ish. They were in specialist gear appropriate to their specialty. This was overkill for the crab tournament, as I suspect 20x level 45 toughness would be enough, given some micromanagement.

This one is up to you really, it matters how you play more than what I am saying. I am simply showing the level I was during the tournament and my composition. My group is way over level for this tournament, it's going to be too easy at level 50-60 toughness. I think you can do this with about 20x level 40 toughness characters, but below that you are going to face serious challenges.

6 archers (mixed weps)
6 ninjas (nodachi)
6 tanks (falling sun + plank)
1 beep (seasoned to taste)
3 garru

You'll notice Kang has 57 toughness, and 83 strength but he is way stronger due to him carrying stuff at the base. Mostly my tanks are ~50 toughness and ~60 strength. Each are in full specialist Samurai Armor. Falling Sun and Plank weapons, mostly Mk III or Edge Type 1.

Miu is one of my ninjas. 44 toughness and 55 dexterity. This is about average for my ninjas, and they are all equipped with Samurai clothpants, Armored Dustcoat (mod, so use Dustcost otherwise), sandals, iron hat (great for acid) and nomad cape mod for the belt.
Green is my main archer. 35 toughness and 81 Crossbow skill. My archers have a variety of Masterwork bows with Regular and Longs mixed. Samurai pants, dustcoat, iron hat.
I am in almost all Specialist gear at this point. The tournament should be pretty easy with this config and setup as long as you manage the acid rain and sleeping properly.

You need a ton of stuff to do it the way I did, but honestly you can probably get by with 2 small huts if you had to. You just need enough to be a base, shelter from acid, and a place to rest your people.

Stuff to bring:
20 days of food
Acid protection
Shelter for acid protection and beds to heal
Plenty of arrows

I brought enough for an outpost and had to ferry back and forth a few times during the first week of the tournament. Here's what I built so you know what generally to bring:
2 watch towers
a wall and gate
4 windmills
3 batteries
8 crossbows
storage chests

This crater is a great spot. It's super close to the crab town. It triggers the event properly. It has one entry and exit point. It has an iron node (no copper in the crater). It can also fire turrets from the towers to the approaching raiders atop the crater rim.


There is low wind here, and farming is rough, so I just brought food and skipped farming.

Save your game before you build in case you have to come back.

Just build your base in the crater. You may need to wait ~6 days in game but eventually the crab tournament with Titus the crab comes to your town and you have to defend it. Titus is easy, and this raid is small, so don't get comfortable yet. There are 3 more until you become a crab victor.

You will simply build a base and defend it for a while, making sure to wipe out any raiding party, mainly the main crab in each fight.

This is my Faction tab. I went to SQD button the lower right, then clicked Faction at the top.

Notice the Crab Quarter Finals in my status. It tells me when they will be dispatched as well, so I know when my people should be healed by. You may see the status here super early, I forget if it shows up before quarter finals.

This land has acid rain. Bring acid protection gear. Nomad cape if you have the mod, Iron Hat for every character. Or just rotate out the people getting acid burn.

Build turrets on your towers. Higher position and more time for the enemies to run up to get you. Don't build in positions that aren't ideal, they aren't worth it here because they take up valuable fighters.

Use medical meds if you have that mod, or just build some beds and lay down some sleeping bags. You need to keep people in fighting shape the whole tournament in case of loose raiders which happen quite often when you turn up raiding frequency in settings.

Keep rotating your players into beds to heal then back to turrets. Keep fights in range of turrets.

If you are really struggling, don't forget to loot the crab raiders weapons and health kits so they can't hurt you as much.

At worst, treat this like a tower defense if you want, and make a maze of storage boxes. It increases how much time they are in front of turrets.

There are 4 rounds. Each round is 4-6 days apart and the waves get harder as you go.

1- Crab Tournament (Titus)
2- Crab Quarter Finals (Barnabus)
3- Crab Semi Finals (Gigantus)
4- Crab Tournament Finals (Crabinator)

This can take many in game days, there are 4-6 days between rounds, so you might as well build a base down here or something. You could ferry materials across the world between rounds, so get comfortable.

You win when you defeat the 4 main crabs in the tournament. To make sure you get it, loot a bit of the crab meat from them so you ensure each round counts as a victory. The crab is your main goal, and you can otherwise just fight until everyone else is downed, but that crab has to go in each of the 4 fights.

The flow is simple. Build base near crab town. Kill 4 crabs in 4 tournaments. Then wait a while for the victory announcement after crabinator.

I had a glitch in my first crab tournament because I built in some hill too far away. The next 5 playthroughs went fine though, all in this crater.

The main way I almost failed was when I felt bad for crabinator and healed it in one playthrough. If you do not kill the main crab, I think it is considered a loss. You heal it and this never triggers the victory for that round. Do not heal the main crab.

I'm unsure if you win by killing the main crab, then having your team go down before beating the crab raiders. Post comment if you know if you can just focus fire on main crab. Interesting strategy if it works...

If you fail, it seem the game just repeats the tournament. I think you redo the whole tournament, but there could be edge cases I am unaware of that could cause complete failure. If you fail, there is some Crab Remedial Tournament that seems to reset the tournament from square 1.

It is supposed to be recoverable if you fail, but this is Kenshi and really this is why we made a custom save point at the start.

The guide told you to make a save point at the start. Use that if you can't figure out what to do, but otherwise here are some steps to try.

Basic troubleshooting:
*Check your Faction tab. See if it shows a tournament scheduled on the right side.
*Go to crab town. See if they are forming up a crab raid party.
*Save game, wait 7 days

Then if it really is stuck here are some options:
*Import game (don't do this lightly)
*Restore save point
*Attack crab raiders (not city) then run back to your base
*Use the crab tournament fix mod on steam (June 2025 today, no issues)

You should always begin by making a save point though. I've only used it in one playthrough but it helps.

Mods related to crab tournament that I use:

Crab tournament fix. I don't know if it does anything but I always use it. July 2025.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2520244566&searchtext=crab+tournament

Medical Beds:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1408051707&searchtext=bed

Nomad Cape (30% acid protection, finally a belt item!):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1817582624&searchtext=nomad+cape

This is my full mod list. Most are unrelated to crab tournament.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails?id=3364206666

You know what? I'm going to say it.

I don't care that you broke your arm Hamut.