Stuck - Conch shells/breathing underwater

[Oeg]

Getting towards the end of the game here but am unable to get enough conch shells from the crab o' the sea (if I'm remembering their name correctly) to give to the ship merchant for the underwater breathing apparatus. I had killed all the ones on land earlier in the game and only came up with 1 shell. There doesn't seem to be any more crabs anywhere on land. I can occasionally find one or two swimming underwater as I dip down to look for them, but oftentimes when I kill them they don't give up a shell. Any advice or cheat to offer so I can do the underwater city? Otherwise I'll have to delete the game off the hard drive and call it good for now. Appreciate any help.

[Radek]

There are many crabs in the sea. It should be sufficient to wait for random encounters.
Tip (Not checked by mine but the sources are trustworthy): If you meet a crab, try to steal the shell from him. It is possible and you will ALWAYS get a shell. If you kill the crab first then the crab may or may not drop the shell.

[Bungleau]

Welcome to the boards, Oeg! May your fishing in the Gael Serran be fruitful and often!

As Radek said, try stealing the shells. With stealing, you can keep trying until you get it. With killing, you get one chance for a shell... period...

Also, make sure you've got your spawn rate set to high. That gives you the greatest chance for an encounter.

Remember also that you can buy some breathers and helms ahead of time. He does have some in stock... and you could leave part of your party at the inn in Brimloch Roon until you've got enough breathers.

There's also the "breath of air/heal" combination, whereby you cast breath of air to gain some air (which takes away health), and then cast heal to get the health back. As long as you've got mana, it works...

All the breathers do is to extend how long you can hold your breath. So you don't actually need them (as Tia learned in his adventures).

One tip: when you hear that you've noticed a crab, always check behind you. For some reason, they seem to appear behind me more often than in front of me.

[bsftcs]

Welcome to the board, Oeg. [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]

You can, as Radek pointed, out steal the shell from the crab. That way you can be sure to get it. It is not always that they drop it.

You can also...

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Use the infinite shell trick as explained by Mikeyg123 on page four of our own best tips thread. I have not tried it myself, but it sounds promising.

[Wyvern]

Welcome to the board, Oeg!!!

Some players opt for not trying to equip all their characters, taking a smaller party to Collasium and leaving the rest in the inn until done. Do you have the scouting trait? What I did to find shells was to sail around the Enchanted Sea area while playing close attention to my scouts. When they said there were crabs about, we would jump in the water and hunt them down.
The bay around Brimloch and also over by Skull Castle have been reported to be good crab hunting grounds but that may vary from game to game.

Hope you find all the necessary shells soon!

Wyv

[WillowIX]

Welcome to the board Oeg. [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] I see you ahve been given some excellent advice. A hallmark of this wonderful board. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Bungleau]

The infinite shell trick sounds like a variation of the Assassin's Dagger trick, and probably only works in the unpatched game. Still, if one wishes to take advantage...

[Oeg]

Thank you all for your tips. It was extraordinarily helpful to change the respawn rate. I had forgotten that I lowered it way back when. Doing that immediately brought out a few crabs and I got my first 3 shells. I hadn't done any stealing in the game (I'm playing as "good" and try to keep it that way, crabs excepted), so it took a while, but that's the way to go.

I have to say the cheat doesn't work about getting multiple breathers. My game is patched; perhaps that's it. But I now feel I've got a "second breath" so to speak and can go back and get at least one more set of shells and eventually go to the sunken city with a pared down party.

Thanks so much for everyone's help.

[Bungleau]

The "pass the item" cheat disappears with the patch. In the unpatched game, you could do things while the quest-giver talked to you, including trading the quest item away to another character. Then the quest-giver would give the reward again. Then you'd give the quest item away again. Then.... you get the picture.

With the patched game, you have to listen to the quest giver until he or she completes their little speech, at which point they take away the quest item, if appropriate.

[Bungleau]

Forgot to mention that I see you're from Tulsa. My in-laws are in Jenks [img]smile.gif[/img] Howdy, somewhat neighbor!