Hi,

normally I do not like to post spoilers, but being this early into the game and already stuck does not feel weel either.

Does anyone have any hint on how to beat the Yamamoto crab?
It turns me into fish fodder within seconds, which is a pretty undesirable state...

CYa

I wouldn't say it is early in the game. I have beaten it about hour ago. After playing for a more than a day, having saved for complete home base upgrade and the best gun (special bolt cannon) - 70000 for only those two items.

Not all of the above is needed, but some loot grinding seems to be necessary. The strategy that finally worked was
- get full stack of torpedoes (20, 6 remained after the fight). And as much air tanks as you can get - 10 wasn't enough for me, the fight was longer and I had to retreat for a refill
- it's probably good idea to put everyone who could help into combat station, you don't want to miss a shot at torpedo, leave some people on repair duty too
- wake it up, then quickly do 180 turn and retreat on overdrive and up. While retreating hold the forward button and look back to watch for torpedoes
- carefully approach again. Watch when it fires a torpedo, shoot it down when it's near enough and then dive for your own torpedo shot, then quickly rise back up to the safety. Repeat until it's dead, or at least all it's turrets are destroyed.

Main dodge method is up and down. All my other attempts (hide below it's belly and shoot at towers for example) ended badly because of the clunky controls.

BTW I chose the "fast" ship for my game. Slower ships may need to some other strategy.

Alright, My strategy was quite a bit different than huan, I only had the creeper and angler torpedoes. First when awoken, I went full speed and left flank, then shot any type 92 torpedoes that came at me, focus fire upon the control tower. As you fire on the control tower, move at about 3/4 speed and flank left and right alternating to cause the T92 batteries to miss their salvos.
After you destroy the con tower, start in on the rear battery, then the fore battery, once those are dead, dock with the con tower and grab your passport asap. then undock and retreat. You don't need to fully destroy the ship to win this encounter.

Ship I used was the Salvage class ship.

You are right that none of it is "needed". I didn't use much of the upgrades myself. I still had angler torpedoes which turned out to be my main weapon for the fight. Shooting down enemy torpedoes doesn't need upgraded guns either. It was only meant as illustration. You pick up some experience how stuff works while exploring around (grinding). I tried something like your strategy too, but I couldn't figure out how to control the submarine to go in one direction and shoot in another. It works in normal exploration, but in the heat of the battle combining direction lock and throttle up controls on one key was really bad idea. Let's see how this update changes things.

change your control config to 'simulation' in the game settings menu.

the update really must have made a difference. 4 torpedos and the crab's guns and launcher were toast.

kinda helps that i played for about 10 hours before taking it on too :D

After the update:
- the fight has reset (maybe intentional, I have visited another area in the mean time), so I could try again
- new simulator mode is even more confusing than arcade, maybe it will just take some time to get used to it. I used arcade for the fight
- this time it "died" with just creeper cannon, about 200 scrap and no deaths. I couldn't make it stop moving completely. Last time I used some convenient mini-mines nearby to deliver the final blow, this time I just docked, grabbed second copy of the passport and let it roam
- I learned to dodge more effectively. Look at it, head towards it at whatever speed is needed. When it fires its cannon, press and hold left or right, the sub will make a sharp turn and most of the shots will miss. It won't work if the speed is set to "STOP", it still needs some separate throttle. Which is pretty confusing for people used to FPS, and simulator mode doesn't fix it.
- it's still pretty hard to target vulnerable spots, that's why it cost so much ammo. Especially the torpedo launcher. I was firing at it from few meters and still most shots missed or exploded on the hull. Torpedoes at least do AoE damage and have guidance which makes them easier option

I managed to cheese the crab without much difficulty.

1) Scavange/loot Pirates till you can afford the long range cannon from the first upgrade home base shop. (The one for 16500. If you sell to wandering merchants, this doesn't take much time)
2) Slowly approach the crab from the front and a bit above it's level till it activates.
3) Go full speed backwards till you are out of range of it's cannons while shooting down the first torpedo.
4) Stay out of cannon range and focus exclusively on the crab's torpedo launcher. Two or three hits with the long range cannon should do the trick.
5) After the torpedo launcher is gone you can take out it's cannons safely because you have longer range.
6) After the cannons are gone swim close and take out the tower.

kill conning tower on initial strafing run.

turn around - punch it - shoot incoming mega torpedo

slam on the brakes - quickly dock -secure the goods.

gtfo of there @ best possible speed.

You guys just boosted my video game ego thanks! I beat the Yamato crab with the "base" weapons (but I had an upgrade to the "second" of my sub types) AND I did it before the patch nerfed the poor battleship hermit crab ;)

I DID get wiped out over the course of a night, but figured out pretty quickly the best way to take him out was to focus on locking a torpedo onto the weapon emplacements. Get close enough to lock on, fire off a torp. The trick is to ALWAYS be focusing on whether or not HE had fired at YOU first. Keep your head on a swivel - if the crab has a fish in the water (there's a torpedo heading for you) make shooting it with your guns your top priority. If you've just shot down a torpedo, you probably have plenty of time to get close and launch one or two of your own. But always watch out for his torpedos! They're super easy to shoot, but only if you see them! ;)

I admit, playing on a controller (with a stick for camera control) is a HUGE help. Also, the key to "lock" your heading is extremely important. Actually, it helps a ton in exploring too. Hold down the key to lock your heading, then you can swing the camera around freely without changing your heading.

I have to admit, the control scheme is one of my favorite parts of the game. It feels "real" and deep enough to require a bit of thought, but once you get in the groove of using it it's second nature. Again, this is coming from someone who went with the gamepad controller over base keyboard / mouse - I think that was a huge help.

you guys are nuts.

i just ran. i ran so far away.

then theres his big brother Naglfar.

I actually had a pretty easy time with Naglfar last night. I was debating whether or not I should just aimlessly wander the world in an attempt to put off taking her on. But eventually said "Screw it."

I won't detail how, because spoilers - but she went down easier than I thought. Gorgeous, menacing vessel. The game was even nice enough to let me disengage to hit up a town and reload (ran out of scrap LOL - I don't carry too much at a time) and resume the fight when I found her again.

I was scared if I left her "zone" / area, all the damage I did would "reset" - not the case - nice programming choice - makes fleeing and fighting another day a viable option.

see now after i completed the naglfar quest, i left the zone back to the frozen fiords, & it was back leaner & meaner then ever.

strange.