Everything Is Crab Evolutions Explained: Types, Affinities & Rarities

Everything Is Crab has 125+ evolutions, and every one of them is defined by three orthogonal dimensions: a Type (what slot it fills), an Affinity (the build flavor it belongs to), and a Rarity (how common and how powerful it is). Confusing these three is the most common reason new players misjudge evolution offers.

This page is the foundational reference. Once you understand the three dimensions, every offer makes sense and your build decisions stop feeling random.

Dimension 1: Evolution Types (4 Total)

Type defines what slot the evolution fills and how many you can equip at once:

Slot caps matter. Picking your second Ultimate doesn’t double your Ultimates — the second one displaces the first or sits unused. Same with Attack: two slots, period. Unlimited Passives are why Passive-heavy builds feel “complete” while Attack-heavy builds feel specialized.

Passive Evolutions

Always-on effects. They don’t animate, they don’t have cooldowns, they just apply. Common categories:

• Stat scaling — flat bonuses to Physical, Ability, HP, Social, or Speed
• Reactionary triggers — “On hit, do X.” “On low HP, do Y.”
• Synergy multipliers — “Boost ally damage by Z%.” “Pierce damage ticks twice.”
• Resource gain — Increased DNA drops, healing efficiency

The compounding rule: Passives stack with each other within an Affinity, but stacking two Passives from the same Affinity sharply increases the rate at which related Passives appear in future offers. This is why focused builds outperform mixed ones.

Attack Evolutions

Direct expressions of how your character deals damage. You can equip two at once; picking a third forces a swap.

The categories you’ll see most:

• Physical / Burst — Single high-damage hits, core to Predator
• Charm-on-Hit — Turns enemies into allies on damage, core to Gregarious
• Pierce / Chain — Hits multiple targets per swing
• Bleed / DoT — Damage-over-time after a hit lands
• Body Slam / Momentum — Damage that scales with size, core to Imposing
• Status / Debuff — Stun, slow, vulnerability application, core to Trickster
• Parry / Counter — Trigger damage on perfect-timed defense

The two-slot rule: Most builds want two Attack evolutions from the same Affinity. Two Pierce attacks compound; one Pierce and one Burst dilute each other.

Ultimate Evolutions

Your build’s emergency button. One equipped at a time, long cooldowns, large impact. Common archetypes:

• AoE damage (clear the screen of regular enemies, soften a boss)
• AoE charm or stun (Gregarious/Trickster builds love these)
• Self-buff windows (temporary damage or speed multiplier)
• Heal or revive (top off HP or bring back charmed allies)
• Channel-time effects (powerful but require standing still)

The timing rule: New players burn Ultimates in opening engagements because the cooldown feels too long to “waste.” Experienced players hold Ultimates for boss phase transitions, where the difficulty actually spikes. The right time to use most Ultimates is the moment a boss enters phase two or three.

Movement Evolutions

Marked with a paw-print icon. Categories:

• Dash — Short-range, low-cooldown reposition, usually with iframes
• Burrow / Phase — Briefly untargetable, counters most ground-based attacks
• Charge — Long-range commitment, useful for closing on ranged bosses
• Flight / Levitation — Lift off the ground, hard-counters Shellephant’s stomp

The one-Movement rule: Every build needs at least one Movement evolution. Zero Movement options is the single most common reason runs collapse in late acts.

Dimension 2: Affinities (5 + 1 Special)

Affinity defines the build flavor. Each evolution belongs to one of five affinities, plus a special sixth tag:

The first five each have a recognizable icon — Predator is a bald eagle, Gregarious is a bumblebee, Imposing is an African elephant, Trickster is a red fox. The icons appear on every evolution card so you can identify affinity at a glance.

How affinity offer-weighting actually works

Every time you pick an evolution, the matching affinity gains 1 point. Each point raises the chance of seeing that affinity’s evolutions in future offers by +10%. After three picks in a single affinity, that affinity is roughly +30% more likely to appear on every subsequent offer screen — which is why focused builds compound and mixed builds stay generic.

Carcinisation — the special sixth tag

Carcinisation is the special sixth tag. Nine crustacean-themed evolutions carry it, and they behave differently from the five standard affinities:

• +8% food rarity per Carcinisation level — better offer quality
• +10% damage taken per level — direct survival cost
• Does not raise its own offer rate. Standard affinities snowball; Carcinisation does not. Picking one Carcinisation evolution does not make future Carcinisation offers more likely.

Stack one or two Carcinisation evolutions in a tank build to push offer quality without becoming a glass cannon. Stack all nine and you trigger the Total Carcinisation achievement plus the full cosmetic transformation — a dedicated meta-progression goal, not a casual run choice.

Dimension 3: Rarities (5 Tiers)

The colored banner around an evolution’s icon tells you its rarity:

Branching evolutions are a fifth rarity tier parallel to Legendary, not a separate evolution type. They’re the run-definers — each boss drops a Boss Fruit, which lets you pick one Branching evolution from a pool of three.

Branching specifics:

• Rare. Four boss fights per run = four maximum
• Powerful. Effects scale with the run’s remaining length
• Build-locking. A Branching pick that doesn’t match your Affinity wastes a slot you can’t reroll

The matching rule: Always Branching pick that compounds your existing Affinity. Generic upgrades look strong on the offer screen but underperform a focused Branching that doubles down on what you’ve already specialized in.

Putting the Three Dimensions Together

Every evolution offer can be parsed as Type + Affinity + Rarity. When you see an offer like “Epic Imposing Attack — Body Slam”:

• Epic rarity (top-of-mid-tier)
• Imposing affinity (size-scaling, strength)
• Attack type (occupies one of your 2 Attack slots)

If you’re running Imposing and don’t have a Body Slam attack yet, this is an obvious pick. If you’re running Predator, it’s a trap even though the rarity looks tempting — taking it would dilute your Predator-weighted offer pool.

Evolution Tier Quick Reference

What Beginners Get Wrong

Variety over focus. “I have an Attack, I should pick a Movement next” feels balanced. It isn’t — at any given offer, the question is “does this pick compound with my committed Affinity?” If the answer is no, even a high-rarity pick is a waste.

Treating Ultimates like upgrades. Ultimates are emergency tools, not stat upgrades. Picking your second Ultimate displaces your first; you don’t double up.

Skipping Movement. Movement evolutions don’t show damage numbers on the offer screen. Beginners undervalue them and then die in late acts because they have no escape.

Reading rarity instead of fit. A Legendary off-Affinity Attack is worse than an Epic on-Affinity Attack. Rarity tells you how powerful the card is. Fit tells you whether the card helps you.

Mechanics summary as of the May 2026 launch patch. We update this reference when patches change slot caps, evolution categories, affinity tags, or offer weighting. Spotted an inaccuracy? Email us.