These guys are a pain to tame but so worth it. They're a great replacement for traps when taming, just pick up the dino that you want to tame (if you can) hop off and shoot it, the karkinos does not drop what's in its claw when you dismount thus eliminating the need for traps for small & medium tames. They're also great for harvesting oil from trilobite, just pick one up in each claw and wack wack, easy! I can farm hundreds of oil in half an hour doing this. Also avoid fights where possible, these guys have an annoying animation they do when hit and they won't walk or jump during making it nearly impossible to get away. Ravagers are passive towards these though so you don't need to worry about them.

I’m a switch noob.and I swear too god,my server is haunted,I live in the hidden lake,and it keeps on saying my level 12 karkinos killed a coelacanth,I WITNESSED a coelacanth die.so I was in the lake building some pipes for a auto garden and I saw a coelacanth and then suddenly 267 damage was dealt too it and it died,there was nothing around it.conclusion is that I apperantly own a non controllable and invisible crab,and that dlcs might be coming too switch,cause there is no dlcs on switch and karkinos is aberration exclusive.

So... the guys are really usfull you should pump up a lot of melee and stamina and its a great PvE creature, tho i don t consider it so usfull on PvP. U can tame it with a trap but never ever use a cannon on an under 100 lvl because he might get 1 shoted, remember that these guys are a damage dino not tank, so be really careful i recomand watching some youtube videos about trapping them and thats all.

A well imprinted karkinos with really high health can be effective against reaper queens since they don't get torpor from it's attacks and can jump away if you are about to get pushed into molten element of angry rock drakes and/or spinos just keep in mind your karkinos will probably get flung as soon as you dismount. Always make sure you have a glide suit so you can get back to your crab safely as megas and carnos will suddenly aggro on you. Also good for underwater exploration albeit it is not built for speed eels and cindaria will not aggro karkinos. Karkinos can also be used to tame just about anything sarcos or smaller since it can grab them and you can use a longneck/crossbow while mounted and it won't drop them when you dismount. Do not overestimate it's climbing ability it doesn't jump as high as it looks.

Single player uses:

1. Taming mount: Karkinos is pretty tough and unlike most "big dinos" you can use a weapon while riding it, they can also grab two dinos at once and if you dismount then they won't immediately eat them like a Megalosaurus would.

2. Aquatic mount: Karkinos can't be grabbed by a tusoteuthis and are very strong.

3. Power mount: Big crab strong.