Sand crabs are aggressive monsters that can disguise themselves as sandy rocks. They are a combat level 15 monster with 60 hitpoints and no combat stats, making them one of the best monsters to train combat AFK in Oldschool Runescape. Sand crabs can only be found in P2P areas such as Hosidius' coast, Crabclaw Isle, Crabclaw Caves, and the Isle of Souls. The most popular locations are Hosidius and Crabsclaw Isle, which are usually crowded, but have up to 125 spawns in total, so you should be able to find a good spot even if you have to hop worlds a few times depending on the time of day.
Here are the best locations where you can find sand crabs in Oldschool Runescape:
Several spots for sand crab training can be found on the Coast of Hosidius. This city is easily accessible, and for new players, the quickest way to get here if you have never been there before would be by talking and traveling with Veos located on Port Piscallirus close to Draynor Village, then running west off the docks, then south.
This is a small island located just south of Hosidius' coast. To get to this island, you must spend 10,000 coins each time you travel by boat, making it unsuitable for pures or accounts with low defense because you must travel across each time you run out of food. If you have completed the easy Kourend & Kebos Diary, you can get across for half the price (5000), and you can get across for free if you have completed the medium Kourend & Kebos Diary. This location is usually preferred by players with higher combat stats because it contains up to 40 sand crabs and numerous spots where you can have 3-4 crabs attacking you at the same time.
This cave is located west of the coat of Hosidius or south of the woodcutting guild; to access it, you must have partially completed the depths of despair quest.
it contains 15 spawns of sand crabs and is usually less crowded due to the requirements needed to begin the depths of despair quest, which are: Client of Kourend completion, X Marks the spot, 20% Hosidius favor, and 18 agility.
This location has less competion for Sand Crabs since it is relatively new and has a requirement. The quickest route is via Civitas illa Fortis, which you can reach by speaking with Primio, east of Ardougne. Note that you'll need to have completed Children of the Sun to unlock this option.
From the city, head south until you reach the shoreline, then follow the coast westward to get to the Sand Crabs. If you've already finished Twilight's Promise, there's a quicker way. Renu, found in the centre of Civitas illa Fortis near both Primio and the city teleport, can send you via the Quetzal Transport System. Choosing either Sunset Coast or the Colossal Wyrm drop-off puts you right next to the beach.
This island is one of the least popular places to train with sand crab since they are not aggressive. This means players must manually engage each crab, and because the area only allows single-way combat, you can't tag several at once before stepping away. it is located west of Feldip Hills and is best known as the location for the Soul Wars minigame. It has 15 spawns on its coast.
Here are the fastest ways to get to the Sand crabs at Crabsclaw cave, Crabscaw Isles and Hosidius coast:
All crabs are similar when it comes to training strategy. Start by world-hopping until you find an area with enough Sand Crab spawns. Once you've found a spot, enable auto-retaliate and stand near the spawn points so the crabs attack you. Each one will respawn after being killed and remain aggressive for roughly ten minutes. During this time, you'll only need to eat if your Defence level is on the lower side. After the aggression wears off, simply run a fair distance away and return to reset it. Sand crabs are aggressive, but do not have an aggressive range as high as that of Ammonite crabs, but still the same as Rock Crabs.
When you first start with low combat levels, you can choose to stay at spots with few spawns of small Sand crabs so you don't take too much damage. As your defense and other combat stats improve, you will be able to kill the small crab much faster. At this point, you should switch to a tile with two sand crabs spawning nearby. When you start killing the two sand crabs quickly enough that you are spending too much time idle, you can then move the three sand crabs' spots. It would be a waste of food to stand at a three-sand crab spot when you can't kill two sand crabs quickly enough. Both spots would yield the same experience rates, but you'd have to eat more and click more at the three sand crabs' spots, making this method less AFK.
As previously stated, Sand Crabs are only aggressive to you for 10 minutes before they stop attacking. When they spawn, they remain disguised as sandy rocks and you have to stand close to them to make them aggressive. After 10 minutes, you must leave the area for about 5 seconds before returning to get them to become aggressive to you again.
Tip: Below is an example of how far away you need to move at Hosidius, before returning to reset the aggression of Sand crabs
Sand crabs are known to provide the second-best experience rates of any crab in Old School RuneScape. When training with Sand crabs at lower levels, the experience rates are quite similar with Ammonite crabs. At higher combat levels, you would be able to kill sand crabs so much quicker and that's when you would need to switch to Ammonite crabs, due to their hitpoints of 100.
Here are the different experience rates that you should expect depending on your combat method.
Level 1-20: You can get up to 5,000 average XP per hour
Level 20-40: You can expect to gain about 12,000 XP per hour on average.
Level 40-60: You can gain up to 30,000 XP per hour by using a Rune scimitar.
Level 60-80: You can gain up to 45,000 XP per hour by using a Dragon scimitar.
Level 80-99: You can gain up to 60,000 XP per hour by using an Abyssal whip.
Beginning levels are quite quick when training ranged at sand crabs
Level 1-30: You should expect to get an average of 15,000 experience per hour.
Level 30-40: You should expect to get an average of 22,000 experience per hour.
Level 40-60: You can gain up to 35,000 XP per hour by using an Adamant crossbow
Level 60-80: You can gain up to 45,000 XP per hour by using a Rune crossbow.
Level 80-99: You can gain up to 60,000 XP per hour by using a Toxic blowpipe.
Beginning levels are also quite quick when training magic at sand crabs
Level 1-30: You should expect to get an average of 15,000 experience per hour using strike spells
Level 30-40: You should expect up to 25,000 experience when using bolt spells.
Level 40-60: You can gain up to 40,000 XP per hour by using the fire blast spell.
Level 60-80: You can gain up to 58,000 XP per hour; make sure you start to use the fire wave spell at level 75 magic.
Level 80-99: You can gain up to 70,000 XP per hour: you should continue to use Fire Wave till 99 as other spells unlocked will give similar experience rates when training at sand crabs.
Training magic at sand crabs using the method above is expensive, and it may be worth considering options that are similar in cost but have faster experience rates, such as ice bursting/barrage maniacal monkeys.
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