How to catch crabs and lobsters in Dave the Diver

Dave the Diver received a new content update to go along with its Switch release. One of the new additions is the ability to catch various small crabs and lobsters using crab traps. Here’s how to obtain and use crab traps in Dave the Diver!

This guide contains very minor spoilers for the Sea People storyline.

Start the crab trap quest

Crab traps are obtained through a small side quest. Make sure your game is updated, and then talk to Duwa the blacksmith in the Sea People Village. He has a bit of a cough, and you’ll be prompted to visit Mima in the village restaurant. She advises you that horsehair crabs are good for coughs, but you’ll need special equipment to catch them. Speak to Otto on the surface (he should be at the farm). He’ll set you up with a crab trap. You can buy more traps from the iDiver app on your phone if you need them.

To finish the quest, use the crab trap in the Glacier Passage. There are a few gray bubbling rocks in the maze of ice that should yield horsehair crabs. However, you don’t need to finish this quest in order to catch crabs elsewhere.

Place the trap and add bait

The crab trap can be set anywhere you see a conspicuous, shaking rock with bubbles coming out of it. Interact with the rock to lay down a trap.

Make sure to add bait! This can be any fish in your inventory, though some are more effective than others. It looks like more stars means better bait, and it doesn’t always correlate with the item’s rank.

Check the trap

Explore for a little while and return to your trap. It only takes a minute or two for your trap to capture some critters. This means you don’t need to end your dive and come back on a later dive. Just hang out in the area until you see the trap shaking, indicating something is inside for you to collect. 

A handy icon will appear at the edge of your screen if you swim away, letting you keep track of where your trap is. A green check mark on the icon means that your trap has caught something. 

Drop rocks on the large crabs

If you see giant crabs just sitting out in the open, these are not captured using crab traps. Instead, grab a nearby rock (hold right-click) and drop it on top of them to kill them.