How to beat Nephro, Captain of the Guard in Another Crab’s Treasure

The first boss fight you encounter in Another Crab’s Treasure is against Nephro, Captain of the Guard, but how do you beat them? I struggled quite a bit during my playthrough against this violent enemy, so here’s how to defeat them.

Another Crab’s Treasure: How to beat Nephro, Captain of the Guard

Upon facing this guard, he’ll immediately be hostile to you and deem you a lawbreaker. He now believes it’s his rightful duty to slay you, leaving you to tackle a pretty nasty boss fight. You can beat Nephro, Captain of the Guard in Another Crab’s Treasure by relying on accurate dodging and inflicting heavy attacks when you can, as well as hitting him at the end of his attack animations.

Nephro has a few different types of attacks. His main one is a horizontal slash that you can easily time and dodge in any direction. Preferably, dodge closer to him, as your weapon doesn’t have a long range and you want to get those small hits in whenever he’s vulnerable (between the end of his attack animation and before he’s about to attack you again).

This is easiest when he does his lunge attacks, piercing you in a vertical motion. These are easily avoidable, but I found it best to hit him right after dodging and while he was still in an animation. He’ll lunge, slowly turn to face you, and as he’s adjusting his position and turning that’s when you strike.

Try to get as many heavy attacks in as you can (hold down the attack button), but make sure you have enough time to perform them. They inflict a good amount of damage, and I relied on them more in the round that I won against him. I’ll also recommend that you don’t try to hit him from behind, as Nephro will kick you with his back legs. This attack is faster than most others in his move set.

Nephro also has an attack that is unavoidable if you attempt to block it by going inside your shell. These Aggro attacks have an angry red symbol. When you spot that, dodge out of the way as soon as you can because he’ll snatch you up, shoving you into the sand and inflicting a massive amount of damage on you. Don’t dodge backward or forward to avoid this, strafe either left or right.

I barely relied on blocking during this fight as I didn’t find it to be helpful (at this point in the game you don’t have a parry ability or Shell Spells to use). Take your time, get those hits in, and analyze the timing of the attacks to dodge without being harmed. It’ll take a few tries to get Nephro’s move set, but you’ll get the hang of it.