I need shells to breath underwater. I need crabs but they won't spawn or drop shells for shit. I read its better to steal from the crabs to get them. I fail to steal anything from them at rank 8. They are paralyzed or asleep or even stoned. Not sure why it won't steal them.

Make sure spawn speed is set as fast as possible. If you have a Gourk to detect them, all the better, as well as Spirit Eye. Bad luck on one crab, kill it for a good amount of experience, then try to pickpocket the next. I also had really bad luck, even at rank 10. A few of them cooperated *eventually*. Basically had to sprint around the shore, having more luck along the western side.

If you don't want to do all this, it's possible to just duplicate the shells (or the breathers/masks, which I have admittedly done after so many playthroughs). Let me know if you want instructions to do that. They are pretty easy to find on the Ironworks Board, as well.

sure kind of interested in that duplication thing. I am getting frustrated trying to farm them.

Save first, just in case.

1. Open the "Buy" window in a shop and scroll to the last item in the list. This works best with shops that have a short list of items, so you need not scroll so far.
2. Open your inventory and drop the desired item.
3. Close inventory. The dropped item should appear in the last buy slot of the "Buy" window.
4. Repeat steps 2-3 until you have enough.
*You may need to buy something between steps, some people won't have a duplicate appear otherwise.

It may take some trial and error to get used to, but is very handy for this particular quest.