OSRS Sand Crabs Guide

Sand crabs are a spot that pretty much every OSRS player has spent countless hours at. They're one of the most laid-back training methods in the game, offering up to 10 minutes of AFK time while still providing excellent experience rates for anyone training melee or Ranged.

Gamer note: From my experience, one of the biggest mistakes players make is trying to train Magic here. While it definitely works, it's extremely inefficient for both GP and experience. There are much better methods available if you're looking to level your Magic.

Before we dive into everything sand crabs have to offer, there's one thing I'd recommend considering. If you've unlocked the Gemstone Crab, it's generally the easier AFK option while offering equal—or even better—experience rates than sand crabs. It's especially useful for 1-20 Defence accounts, since sand crabs can still hit you at lower Defence levels. The Gemstone Crab does have slightly different requirements, so if you want to compare them first, you can see our guide on Gemstone Crab here.

If you've decided sand crabs are the way to go, let's jump into everything you need to know before getting started!

1. What are the requirements to kill Sand Crabs?

One of the best things about sand crabs is that they have absolutely no requirements, so you can start training right away. That said, I'd still recommend knocking out a few early quests first to skip some of the slower early-game levels. And if you need a hand getting through those annoying quests, we've got you covered— Check out our OSRS questing page.

If you're planning to train melee, I'd recommend completing these quests first:

• Waterfall Quest

• Fight Arena

• Tree Gnome Village

• The Grand Tree

• Vampyre Slayer

Finishing these will leave you with 44 Attack and 30 Strength, letting you skip a lot of the early grind with weaker weapons. Throw on your best melee gear, and you're ready to start training.

If you're planning to train Ranged instead, I'd recommend completing Dwarf Cannon first, then following our guide to train range to 40+ using cannon training spots.

Once you've done that, equip your best Ranged gear, bring some lower-tier darts, and you're good to start gaining levels.

Gamer note: One of the most common mistakes I see is players using lower-tier knives. For example, steel or mithril knives often cost around twice as much as mithril or adamant darts while giving slower experience rates. In the end, you level slower and lose more GP every hour.

2. Which sand crabs locations should I use?

There are lots of different locations for sand crabs, there is no real reason for me to list off every location and fluff up this guide more than needed. I will list you the locations that in my experience are the best and easy to get/return to. I will simply list the locations here, then we’ll talk about how to get there in the next sections!

For each of these locations, there are dozens of spots with 2-3 crabs spawning, I won’t show you them all, just stand between some crabs and auto retaliate on!

The three main sand crab locations that I would suggest using are:

1. South coast of Avium Savannah

2. South coast of Hosidius

3. Crabclaw Island (accessed from the boat on the above beach with 10K GP)

3. How should I get to sand crabs?

I am going to show you the non-noob ways of returning to each of these spots. They will have you back at your sand crab spot in under 30 seconds from any bank in the game.

1. South coast of Avium Savannah

The absolute quickest way to return to these crabs is by using a ‘Colossal wyrm teleport scroll’. You can buy these directly from the GE, then simply use the scroll and it will take you to the agility course directly north of the coast.

From here just run directly south and you will be at the beach with all of the crab spots

2. South coast of Hosidius

There are a few easy ways to return to Hosidius sand crabs, both of these methods will have you there in less than 30 seconds! (Note, there are lots of ways to get back here, but the two below are the quickest and ones I would recommend, if I listed all of the possibilities, this section would be 10 pages long!)

Skills necklace → Woodcutting guild

Simply teleport to the woodcutting guild with a skills necklace, then follow the map below to get to the south coast where all the sand crab spots are:

Tithe farm minigame teleport

This one has the small requirement of having entered Tithe farm at least once. If you have, simply follow these few steps:

3. Crabclaw Island

For Crabclaw island, you will use the same methods as above to get to the Hosidius beach. Then you will simply pay 10K GP to the NPC below and he will take you right to the island.

4. What kind of exp/h can I expect at sand crabs?

Melee

If you're training melee, you can expect peak experience rates of around 90k xp/h. It's difficult to go much higher than that due to the sand crabs' Hitpoints and respawn timers. These rates assume you're using near-max stats, best-in-slot gear, and resetting aggression as efficiently as possible.

Starting out with 44 Attack and 30 Strength, you'll be looking at roughly 25k xp/h. From my experience, the fastest way to progress is by training your Attack and Strength in 10-level intervals. For example, train Attack to 50, upgrade to a Granite Hammer, then bring Strength up to 50. Next, train Attack to 60, switch to a Dragon Scimitar, then level Strength to 60. Keep repeating this pattern until you reach your target stats. One mistake I see all the time is players rushing straight to 70 Attack for an Abyssal Whip while leaving their Strength around 30-40. Although it unlocks the whip sooner, it's noticeably slower overall.

Below is a table showing the approximate melee experience rates you can expect at different levels. Your actual xp/h will vary depending on your gear and how efficiently you reset aggression.

Range

Ranged experience rates also top out at around 90k xp/h, mainly because the sand crabs' respawn timer becomes the limiting factor. Reaching these rates requires near-max gear, 90+ Ranged, and efficient aggression resets.

Starting at 40 Ranged with mithril darts, you can expect to earn around 30k xp/h. As your Ranged level increases, your experience rates will steadily improve alongside your gear upgrades. The biggest piece of advice I can give is to keep your equipment up to date whenever you unlock a new milestone. Early-game Ranged gear provides huge accuracy boosts, and every upgrade makes a noticeable difference.

Below is a table showing the approximate Ranged experience rates you can expect at different levels. Your actual xp/h will vary depending on your gear and how efficiently you reset aggression.

5. I’m 1 Defence and still get hit. What kind of gear should I use for Sand Crabs?

While sand crabs hit significantly less than places like Ammonite Crabs, you will still take some damage while training here. There are two main ways to handle this:

A) Use one of the alternative methods mentioned in the next section (especially Gemstone Crabs, as they rarely hit you due to damage being shared between multiple players).

B) Maximize your defensive gear and HP regeneration to extend your trips for as long as possible.

I've put together the best defensive setup you can realistically use for sand crabs. The chaps can be downgraded to whichever version fits your account and budget. The Regen Bracelet is also extremely useful here, as it restores your Hitpoints at double the normal rate. This setup is designed specifically for 1 Defence accounts looking to stay at sand crabs indefinitely. With this gear, you'll be able to train for hours without needing to bank.

Melee setup:

Helmet: Bear Head
Cape: Fire Cape/Obby cape
Amulet: Fury
Weapon: Best melee weapon
Platebody: Varrock armour 1/Decorative range top
Shield: Iron kiteshield
Chaps: Hueycoatl chaps/Any god hide chaps/Best range chaps
Gloves: Regen bracelet (very important)
Boots: Aranea boots/Climbing boots
Ring: Steel ring

Range setup:

Helmet: Robin Hood Hat/Coif
Cape: Avas Accumulator
Amulet: Fury
Weapon: Best range training weapon
Platebody: Decorative range top (important)
Shield: Iron kiteshield
Chaps: Hueycoatl chaps/Any god hide chaps/Best range chaps
Gloves: Regen bracelet (very important)
Boots: Ranger boots (no real alternatives, if no ranger boots, use any boot)
Ring: Steel ring

Most players who have a lot of experience in building low-defence accounts will use one of the other alternative methods listed. It will be overall more AFK and will use much less resources. Work smart, not hard.

6. Alternative crabs to train at

I think there are 3 real alternatives that fall into the same AFK category as sand crabs. Luckily for you, we have guides on all of them!

Alternative A) Gemstone crab

Since its release, this has become the spot that most experienced players (including myself) use. This is your go to for all things AFK, I cannot suggest it enough! Look at our full guide for the gemstone crab right here.

Alternative B) Rock crabs

Rock crabs are a slightly less efficient version of sand crabs. They also have no real requirements, but have slightly lower HP. They have become somewhat obsolete in recent years, because better options have arisen. They are very uncontested though! Click here to see our full guide on everything Rock Crabs!

Alternative C) Ammonite Crabs

These are the option with the second highest EXP rates. You will gain higher EXP per hour here, but if you’re a low defence account, they will hit you significantly more than sand crabs/rock crabs - these also have slightly higher requirements to get to. Click here to see our full guide on Ammonite crabs.

7. What kind of gear should I use for sand crabs?

Luckily for you, we have entire guides on gear progression!

Melee gear 

For your melee gear, you can see our full guide on melee gear progression right here - and our guide covering melee weapon progression here!

Range gear 

For you rangers out there, you can see our guide on range gear progression by clicking here - and our guide for range weapon progression by tapping this!

8. FAQ’s

What is the absolute fastest way to get to a sandcrab spot?

The quickest way to get directly to a sand crab spot is by using the ‘Colossal wyrm teleport scroll’ described in section 3, then running south. This will have you at a spot in ~15 seconds from any bank.

How do I reset the aggro of crabs?

You simply run out of their aggression range, then run back to your spot. Because there are dozens of different sand crabs spots, I cannot really show a reset guide for every spot. Just run in any direction until your sand crab spot is out of view, then run back to it!

Alternatively, you can also utilize the below plugin on runelite:

This will give you a timer telling you exactly how long you have left until you need to reset, shown below:

And if you use these settings:

Then you simply run over to the closest yellow line, cross it then run back to your spot - like this:

Is it worth it to train magic at sand crabs?

As mentioned earlier in the guide, training Magic at sand crabs is honestly not worth the time or GP investment. There are so many better Magic training methods available that offer faster experience rates, better AFK potential, and much more efficient costs. In my experience, Magic training here is a classic "noob trap" that many players fall into. However, sand crabs are still an amazing training method for both Ranged and Melee!

If you're looking for a Magic training guide instead, check out our OSRS Bursting Guide right here!

That should cover everything you need to know about sand crabs! Remember, if you ever have any questions or need help with anything, feel free to open up a live chat and we'll be happy to help you out.

Happy crabbin’ and don’t get sand in your underwear!