🦀 Monsters
Every monster can be beaten, and every monster drops loot — the tougher the monster, the better the tier, and loot grows +25% every 10 nights (up to double). Monsters never take more than 1 heart per hit.
| Monster | First night | How to beat it |
|---|---|---|
| Fog Crab | 1 | Bonk it to flip it onto its back (2.5 s). Hits while flipped don't count; the 3rd flip defeats it. 25% chance of a Fog Crab Hoard find. Fog Crabs never flee from light — a crab caught in the beam steps just past the edge and comes back. |
| Shellback | 5 | An armored Fog Crab (dark slate shell, barnacles, red eyes). Takes 2 extra flips and moves faster, but has a 50% hoard chance and carries better treasure. Their share of the crab swarm grows each night, up to 25%. |
| Driftwood Golem | 5 | Wades ashore and walks straight for the lighthouse, pushing through walls. It raises an arm before it slams (1 heart + a shove) — dodge the slam. Light dries it out: keep it in lantern, torch or lighthouse light (faster near lanterns), and knock wet bark off with Bonker/Slinger hits. Dry Golems catch fire and flee to the sea, paying out loot. None appear on Calm or Tidemaw nights. |
| Glowfish | 3 | They dim lanterns and hunt keepers who are alone. First hit scatters them, second hit pops them. Stick together — two friends close by scare them off. |
| Lamp Moths | — | They land on the lighthouse lamp and drink its oil. Two Bonker/Slinger swats puff them to dust for the night. They never take hearts. |
| Barnacle Brute | 8 | Light doesn't scare Brutes. Flip it, then flip it again to beat it — everyone who helped gets driftwood and a Hoard find at better odds. Watch for the two-claw raise: that's your dodge window. A Brute Bell upgrade slows them. |
| Sharks | Shallows | A hunting shark circles for a moment (watch the fin), then lunges at where you're swimming. 3 bonks from a pier or boat — or Slinger shots — drive it off for the patrol, often leaving a shark tooth. |
| Mossback | Jungle cave | See below — the big neighbor has his own rules. |
| Old Tidemaw | 10 | See below. |
| Pirates | 25 | See the Crew Chest section under Building. |
| Foglings | Finch Isle | Little puffs of living fog. A touch costs a heart, but a bonk, a Slinger shot or lantern light within 7 studs pops one into sea glass. |
🌊 Old Tidemaw
The oldest thing in the sea. Tidemaw rises first on night 10, then every 3–5 nights at random — the morning before, the sea goes glassy and still and Marlo warns you. Don't follow its golden lure (it tugs swimmers toward it and snaps at 6 studs: 1 heart and you're flung home). Waves roll in about every 30 seconds, each costing the lamp 8 oil and shrinking the light. To drive it off, light the Three Fires — Elias's old signal fires on the beach. Driving it off pays pearls, coins, supplies and a shot at the Tidemaw's Treasures find set (its Scale, Tooth and Lure-Light Pearl).
🌿 Mossback, the big neighbor
Mossback lives in the jungle cave. He charges and throws — hearts stay at 1 per hit. But Mossback remembers how you treat him:
- Feed him fish. He'll sit and munch for 12 seconds. Every fish resets the timer — and every 3 fish shared, ever, he tells you one part of his 5-part story (talk to him while he sits). Hear all five to earn the title Friend of Mossback.
- Friends are safe. Anyone who has shared 3+ fish is a friend: he never charges or throws at them.
- Grudges are real. Each night he comes out and nobody shares a fish, he holds a bigger grudge (up to 3): he warns less, charges faster, and from grudge 2 takes one more hit to shoo. Sharing a fish takes a grudge off.
Monsters get tougher
As nights pass: Fog Crabs take +1 flip every 8 nights (up to 5), Brutes take +1 hit every 10 nights (up to 6), Tidemaw's waves come sooner each visit, and Mossback shows up more often after night 12. A dusk notice tells you when something has gotten tougher.