When you start the quest Summer Lovin’ in Legend of Mana, about the two Penguins David and Valerie at Madora Beach, you’ve got to be ready for some crab bashing if you want the best ending for the quest. Follow this guide to learn what to do. The guide uses images from the Legend of Mana Ultimania to illustrate what path to take in each room. The guide is not perfectly accurate, the fourth room actually has one additional crab in it. Following this guide will get you enough crabs to get all the rewards, but only if you complete it during Summer Lovin’!

In total, you need to stomp 32 crabs. The boss of the quest, Fullmetal Haggar, counts as two! So it’s in your best interest to complete your crab stomping along with this quest. With those together, it is possible to get a score of 34 stomped crabs. The blue Pincher Crab enemies in the level don’t count, it’s only the red crabs that run around and don’t cause you to draw your weapon.

You are going to want to save before attempting this, because even with the guide these crabs are very tricky! This is likely going to take you a few attempts.

Royal Coastline 1

The first section you need to stomp crabs in shows up on the first section. Wait for the story between David and Valerie to play out, then follow the image on the left to stomp seven crabs! Don’t get distracted by crab five as it runs past you on your way towards three and four, you can get it afterwards!

Crab 1 – Immediately to your left.
Crab 2 – Behind the tree on your right.
Crabs 3 & 4 – Sitting together near the right side of the map.
Crab 5 – Runs from right to left, then hangs out behind crabs 6 & 7. It will attempt to break to the right side.
Crabs 6 & 7 – Sitting together behind a rock on the left.

To get to the next section with crabs, you need to travel Right and fight two Pincher Crabs and a Tezla, Right and fight two Iffish, and finally get ready for more crabs as you enter the cave to your Right.

Sunrise Caverns 1

In this cave is where the difficulty starts to ramp up, but the image on the right should get you through it. The crabs in the first section didn’t escape as easily, but you need to be careful here! There are eight crabs in this section, make sure to grab Crab 1 as it quickly runs towards the top left! The sixth crab in particular enters the map, and then starts to leave! Crab six walks slowly down, be careful not to exit when stomping it! Crab seven may get stuck trying to exit the top right. Don’t be tempted to grab crab eight early as you might run out of time!

Crab 1 – Immediately in front of you as you enter.
Crab 2 – Immediately down and to the left.
Crabs 3 – Will run from where Crab 4 is up towards where you entered.
Crab 4 – Bottom middle of map, behind some coral.
Crab 5 – Slowly walks down towards the bottom right.
Crab 6 – Slowly walks off map on the bottom right.
Crab 7 – Attempts to break towards the top left.
Crab 8 – Starts in the top middle, and slowly walks to where 4 was.

To get to the next section with crabs you need to travel to the Lower Right (where crab 6 was) and fight through a Sahagin and two Bloodsuckers, go Upper Right and fight a Big Baby, then get ready for crabs once again as you go Upper Right.

Sunrise Caverns 4

Still inside the cave is where you’ll find the next set of eight crabs, outlines in the image to the left. These crabs in particular are very fast and moving around a lot! You need to grab crabs three, four, and five relatively quickly, so study the map to the left before you go in. Crab seven is likely having a fit in the corner, again don’t get distracted by crab eight, which doesn’t immediately escape!

Crabs 1 & 2 – Immediately in front of you as you enter.
Crabs 3, 4 & 5 – Converge towards the middle of the map, 5 will break towards the top right.
Crab 6 – Sits near the exit in top left, eventually runs off.
Crab 7 – Sitting on the left of the map, tends to get stuck.
Crab 8 – Sits around on the bottom right, before running towards the upper left.

From here, you need to travel to the Upper Left to exit the cave, you will then fight a Pincher Crab with a Tezla and then two more Pincher Crabs on Prince Beach before going Left into a cave, fight the Sea Jack and finally go Upper Left and prepare for crabs once again.

King’s Cavern 2

The final set of eight crabs that the Ultimania lists out can be found here, and they are the hardest of them all to get. Two of them, crabs seven and eight, are quite tricky! Crab seven makes a quick escape up in the top left, and crab eight waits a while to enter from the bottom right, circles the middle of the room, and exits from whence it came. Again, follow the map to the right to make sure you’re on the right track. Study it carefully, don’t get distracted by the other crabs darting around! Stay on track on what number you are on, and the area you are at. There is actually a ninth crab that escapes to the bottom right very quickly, you can grab it if you’re fast!

Crab 1 – Immediately in front of you as you enter.
Crab 2 – Moves up and to the right, in your path.
Crab 3 – Sits on the right side of the map.
Crab 4 – Walks back and forth near the bottom left exit.
Crab 5 – Hides behind some coral at the bottom middle of the map.
Crab 6 – Starts near 2, but eventually walks down to 5.
Crab 7 – Hangs out at the top left exit.
Crab 8 – Enters at the bottom right after a short time.

The Upper Left exit will take you to the final crab that counts up how many you’ve stomped. That little guy is going to get stomped too! You should fight the Fullmetal Haggar first, it counts as a crab and this is your only chance to get that benefit! So head to the Lower Right instead.

Complete the Quest

Now all you’ve got to do is go fight the Fullmetal Haggar and go back to the final crab to stomp on. Be careful not to talk to Valerie first, as she will end the quest. It will tell you the score, and hopefully you got them all! Keep trying until you get it perfect! When you bash the final crab keeping tally at the end it tells you, “You’ve stepped on n crabs.” and then what he thinks of you, which you can see in the list below. The final tier, at 33-34 crabs, is possible! Try your hardest! Thanks to Apocalypse612 for the list.

1-3 – Is that all?
4-6 – A bully?
7-9 – An outlaw?
10-12 – Crab cruncher?
13-15 – Crab champion?
16-19 – A devil’s spawn?
20-22 – Shadoles’ pupil?
23-25 – Lord of Darkness?
26-28 – King of Demons?
29-31 – Ruler of Underworld?
32 – Transcendental?
33-34 – Is that possible?

You’ll likely end up with some new house guests after completing the crab stomping and doing more quests for Cap’n Tusk. Just be a bit careful, as some of those guests may be stompable themselves…

Valerie will join your household at 30 stomps, and at 32 you’ll get her and her baby!