Path of Exile 2 has plenty of monsters designed to punish bad positioning, but the most lethal one in the game may be the least dramatic: a crab. According to Grinding Gear Games, the crustacean has quietly become the deadliest ordinary enemy in the action RPG, thanks to a bug that turns one of its attacks into a point-blank burst of instant death.
The detail surfaced during a podcast appearance by the game’s co-directors, who were discussing an embarrassing hardcore-mode death suffered by streamer Zizaran. He had assumed the kill was his own mistake. It wasn’t. In practice, the crab can fire a volley of projectiles, and if it dies while that animation is still underway, every shot lands at once. That is less ”fair fight” and more ”shotgun with legs.”
How the Path of Exile 2 crab bug works
The problem is simple and nasty. If the creature is killed during the attack, the projectiles don’t disperse normally; they all connect simultaneously. On a character standing close enough, that can mean a sudden wipe, which is exactly the sort of thing that makes hardcore players speak in complete sentences with extra punctuation.
This is also a good reminder that difficulty in games like Path of Exile 2 is often less about bosses than about the tiny systems hiding in normal encounters. Grinding Gear Games has built a reputation on elaborate combat interactions, but complexity cuts both ways: when something breaks, even a beach nuisance can become a top-tier killer.
A common enemy with an uncommon kill count
Roberts said the crab has the highest player kill count among regular enemies and sits third overall on the game’s death leaderboard. That is an awkward statistic for a creature that sounds like it should be carrying a coconut rather than ending runs, but it also fits the broader action-RPG trend: the most memorable threats are often the least cinematic ones.
- Path of Exile 2 entered paid early access on 6 December 2024.
- The game is available on PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and a standalone client, plus PS5, Xbox Series X and S.
- The full release is planned for 2026, after which it will become free-to-play, like the first game.
Path of Exile 2 early access and release plans
For now, the crab is less a symbol of balance than of unfinished edges. Early access is supposed to expose exactly these kinds of bugs, and this one has the rare distinction of being both funny and lethal. The real question is whether Grinding Gear Games can keep the game’s brutal identity intact while sanding off the accidental nonsense before the 2026 release window arrives.