#I also like the concept of blood infused venomous fangs...

[husband-steve-cortez]

Spending too much time with elden ring wikis and weapon calculators on trying to figure out whether occult raptor talons or keen with bloodflame blade is better. And I think it might be keen.

[endless-bestiary]

CRABSNAKE

While everyone else might be waiting for the Reaper Leviathan or Cuddlefish, I've been vibrating since day one in anticipation of the Crabsnake. This big, wiggly monster is way up there as one of my favorite things in the whole game. It's just the right combination of awesome, horrifying, pseudorealistic, and interesting that makes it the real face of Subnautica to me. When the game was first announced, I had all of its concept and promo art plastered across my phone and computer like it was a celebrity. And to me, it is!

To understand the Crabsnake, one must first understand the Jellyshroom. Jellyshrooms are massive purple mushroom-shaped flora (fauna?) with a hollow trunk. They grow exclusively beneath the Blood Kelp plains in huge caves, which they illuminate with their glowing caps. Their hollow trunks are large enough for Crabsnakes to make their nests, which is the basis for their symbiosis. The Crabsnake has a sheltered nest for its eggs, while the Jellyshroom absorbs the nutrients from the remains of the Crabsnake's uneaten prey. It's a heartwarming tale: a giant sea serpent and a giant mushroom in a loving relationship. At least, that's what the fanfiction has led me to believe. The realism of their symbiosis isn't particularly far-fetched. If we ignore the issue of a cave of superpredators having to continuously overhunt a limited supply of prey, it's not impossible to imagine the incredibly territorial Crabsnake murdering everything that moves in a hundred foot radius. It is based on the bobbit worm, after all, which is an equally vicious predator and just as messy of an eater. In addition to the natural life cycle of caves and the ocean, which already feeds megastructures like coral reefs, the nutrient infusion of the Crabsnake's prey could feasibly grow the Jellyshroom to such colossal proportions - after all, what's going to eat the Jellyshroom when it has such a fierce guard? Speaking of bobbit worms, look at the JAWS on the Crabsnake! Those don't just mean business, they mean an entire corporation. While the actual mouth is small in comparison, the Crabsnake's mandibles are far more menacing than they need to be. It has no venom unlike its inspiration (and personally I think it's too large to need venom), so the fangs it carries most likely developed as a way to give it a faster ambush strike. Combining a coiled strike with the extra few feet of reach they grant is enough to surprise otherwise too-evasive prey. In game, the player has to hold one fang in each hand just to avoid being swallowed whole, which is pretty terrifying if you also consider the raw muscle required to move fangs that dextrously. Having a bright pink sea serpent is a pretty bold choice, but I think it works in this context. When the Crabsnake is sitting in its nest, it's difficult to tell if the nest is occupied or empty, meaning prey can't simply avoid occupied dens. Even when it's not in its nest, the Crabsnake blends in with the purple light of its surroundings in a way that's even caught me off guard. Of course, all of this means that out of the context of Jellyshrooms, the Crabsnake couldn't catch the broad side of a barn. That's the beautiful thing about nature, though. Everything is in context, and with every generation of koalas that survives, we are reminded that hyper-specialized animals with unbelievably strict requirements can make us all look like chumps.

SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF: 4/10 DESIGN COHESION: 6/10 DEEP SEA DANGER NOODLE: 100/10 PERSONAL RATING: 10/10