A ‘crab’, and how does one perform/obtain one

team-fortress-2terminologytf2-spy

Ok, so there I was playing TF2, as a Spy (and doing quite well, at least by my low standards). When the other team begins with the usual friendly greetings, racial/sexual orientation slurs, as well as wondering how my mother was doing (so kind of them), when suddenly somebody bets me that I "can't even crab"

Of course, my interest was piqued, and I inquired as to the origins of this phrase, and was deluged with calls of 'noob', with no real answer.

So, what is a crab? Is it a wearable/unlockable or some sort of tactic/manoeuver?

Best Answer

The person was referring to crab walking (or doing the Spycrab), which is a set of movements you may perform that are amusing in the 3rd person perspective (but not as much in 1st person).

To perform the Spycrab, equip your Disguise Kit, crouch, and look upward. Walking around will make you look like a crab.

More recently, as an acknowledgement of this community phenomenon, the Disguise Kit was given a second taunt that performs a Spycrab, which may have been what the person was talking about. This taunt is performed at a reduced chance (empirically, it appears to be about 20-25%).

The random nature of this taunt has lead to the creation of a gambling game often played on trade servers, where participants pay some amount of metal, then repeatedly taunt with the Disguise Kit until they Spycrab. The last remaining player who has not Spycrabbed wins the pot.

Comparison table

        Base (Max)  Disguise  Backstab  
         Hitpoints    Kit       Icon    On backstab

Knife    125 (185)    Yes       Yes     Disguise drops
                                        Enemy screams (crit-death)
Icicle   125 (185)    Yes        No     Disguise drops
                                        Leaves behind ice statue (crit-death)
YER      125 (185)     No        No     Disguise as the enemy, silently
                                        Corpse cloaks
Kunai     70 (180)    Yes       Yes     Disguise drops
                                        Enemy screams (crit-death)
                                        Health is stolen from enemy
Earner   100 (150)    Yes       Yes     Disguise drops
                                        Enemy screams (crit-death)
                                        Cloak is restored

Knife / Sharp Dresser

The normal knife and Sharp Dresser are the most balanced of the knives.

They are the easiest knives to use when you need to sap enemy sentry guns. Not only can you choose your disguise, but you can sometimes take up to 3 non-crit hits from an Engineer's wrench before dying... more if they're using the Jag.

Icicle

The icicle works mostly like the normal knife, except that it leaves behind ice statues instead of regular ragdolls, alerting enemies to the presence of a spy. If a spy holding the icicle is hit by a flame attack, or pulls out the icicle while on fire, they will not burn, extinguish any flames they have, and become immune to fire damage for 2 seconds. This disables the icicle for 5 seconds, but not the spy's other weapons, allowing them to escape or to pull out a revolver to take down the enemy who set them on fire. Usually it's best to use this item if you know there will be at least one pyro spychecking for the other team, so you can make a hasty retreat. Clever pryos, however, will equip a shotgun and kill you anyway, so best to keep running.

Your Eternal Reward / Wanga Prick

The Eternal Reward and Wanga Prick are very good for killing several enemies in succession, such as those pushing a cart that are not looking behind them.

It also makes a Stab and Sap on an Engineer and his sentry gun considerably easier, provided you already have a disguise.

Be aware that you cannot disguise as your own team with these knives!

Note: You disguise only if the enemy dies from the backstab. This means you will not disguise if they: turn when you kill them and die a normal death, are ubered, have a Razorback, or are using a Dead Ringer.

Conniver's Kunai

With 70 health, you are a one-hit kill to any non-Scout melee weapon. Most ranged weapons will also kill you in one hit.

Because the health you gain is capped at 180, you actually have less health than a fully overhealed Spy with the Knife or YER (they would have 185).

The Kunai may be good for escaping due to the extra health, but it requires that you get a backstab first.

Big Earner

With 100 health, your survivability is a bit higher than with the Kunai, but a single rocket, grenade, or scattergun/shotgun shot may kill you if their pellet spread is right.

The 30% cloak you gain from using this knife is not a lot in the grand scheme of things. For the Invisibility Watch, collecting a small ammo box restores 25% cloak, a medium ammo box restores 50%, and a large ammo box 100%. For the Dead Ringer, collecting a small ammo box restores 25% cloak, a medium ammo or large ammo box restores 45%.

The Cloak and Dagger would be the watch that gains the most from this, but it's also the watch that recharges if you stand still while cloaked...

What I use

I use the Knife or Your Eternal Reward as appropriate to the situation:

CP push/PL defense (RED): Start with YER (Saharan Spy Set) and Cloak & Dagger. Switch to Knife and Dead Ringer as appropriate.
CP push/PL offense (BLU): Start with Knife and Dead Ringer, disguised as BLU's Soldier or Heavy. This is to draw the enemy Sniper's fire, or set off the demoman's sticky trap. Switch to YER and C&D as appropriate.
PLR: Varies. Usually YER and C&D.
CP symmetric / koth: Varies. Usually Knife and DR.
Arena: That's a trick question. I rarely play Spy in arena.

What use is the Conniver’s Kunai and strategies used with it

I have hundred of hours play time with the Spy mostly using the classic knife and I was really interested to try the Conniver's Kunai as soon as it has been released.

Unfortunately, the 60 health points limit is really low and with the high level of missiles, pipes and bullets spam that there is in Team Fortress 2 it is really difficult to sneak behind the enemy lines without accidentally dying.

In the end I tested the Conniver a lot and found only a few maps and situations where its efficiency (K/D-ratio) is comparable to the standard knife. These are usually large maps, like, for example, pl_badwater (red team), cp_badlands and cp_coldfront when you are pushed by enemy team and mostly defending.