Uca Major

No one really knows where the fearsome Uca Majors came from or what they truly are. They could be just ordinary crabs transformed by the corruption that plagues the Estate, or they could be ancient horrors that have risen from the depths to feed. But that's because few have ever survived an encounter with one. These creatures are massive and covered in a thick, heavy carapace capable of withstanding even the mightiest of blows. In addition to their nigh-impenetrable shell, they possess massive claws capable of sundering even the thickest of armor and inflicting gaping wounds upon flesh. Once cut open, there is little their prey can do but bleed out on the salt-caked floors of the grottoes it calls home.

Behavior
The Uca Major is Eldritch-type and the Large enemy of the Cove. While the Uca deals very little direct damage, unlike most other Large enemies, they make up for it with the sheer chaos they can cause. Their Tidal Slam ability possess a fairly decent critical chance and is capable of stunning and knocking your front row heroes to the back ranks, effectively disabling them for several turns. However, it is their other ability, Arterial Pinch, that you need to watch out for. While it does very little direct damage (around 1 to 3), it causes a catastrophic amount of bleeding: 8 Damage per round on Veteran levels and 10 on Champion! Even worse is that the effect can stack, causing a staggering 16 or 20 bleed damage per round! This, coupled with the fact that Arterial Pinch inflicts a debuff that reduces healing received, can quickly result in a hero being brought to Death's Door or even killed if left untreated. To make matters even worse, Ucas have a large HP pool and a very high protection stat, making them very difficult and time consuming to bring down.

The best strategy when facing Ucas is to keep to try and keep them stunned (be warned that they do have a reasonably high Stun resistance) while stacking blight to bypass their armor and quickly whittle down their health. A Plague Doctor is an excellent choice for dealing with this enemy as she can cure the bleed with her Battlefield Medicine ability and can also use her attacks to inflict blight and/or stuns. It is also highly recommended to bring bandages as well. Another way to deal with Ucas is to use protection debuffs, such as Houndmaster's Target Whistle.

Abilities
This enemy does not appear in Apprentice level dungeons. Veteran =

Champion =

Related Enemies
Cove: The Pelagics
 * Pelagic Grouper
 * Pelagic Shaman
 * Pelagic Guardian
 * Sea Maggot
 * Deep Stinger

Bosses
 * Siren

Cove: The Drowned
 * Drowned Thrall
 * Squiffy Ghast

Bosses
 * Drowned Crew
 * Drowned Anchorman

Trivia

 * With one of its claw being larger than the other, the Uca Crusher resembles the characteristic of fiddler crabs, which are semi-terrestrial marine crabs that make up the genus Uca.
 * That being said, the Uca Crusher is a male crab.
 * Despite not appearing in Apprentice level dungeon, the game still contains the Uca's Apprentice level variant like all other monsters in the game. The Apprentice level variant for the Uca is refered to as Uca Major according to string files.