Nipper

Nipper is the giant hermit crab occupying a small beach near the entrance to Treasure Trove Cove in Banjo-Kazooie. His green body and large pincers protrude from a pale pink shell with darker reddish stripes and a deep red opening. Raised yellow-brown bumps cover parts of his face and claws, and his large yellow-rimmed eyes sit above a broad mouth. The shell remains planted on the sand while he reaches forwards to attack, leaving the bear and bird room to retreat beyond his claws. To reach the world, pass Gruntilda’s Lair’s first fifty-Note Door and complete the Treasure Trove Cove picture with two Jiggies, then enter through the opened treasure chest. From the arrival dock, head onto the beach and turn left through the low opening beneath the wooden walkway. Nipper is immediately beyond it, facing the sandy approach beside the water. Coming close starts a conversation in which he declares the beach his own and insists that the visitors will find nothing without his help. Kazooie responds by calling him Crustacean Brain. He threatens to clip her feathers, and her further challenge turns the exchange into a fight. He also has separate reactions to being hit, landing a claw attack and having eggs fired at him, including a boast that the eggs cannot penetrate his shell armor. His dialogue uses the same growling voice sounds heard from Klungo. The name and voice are recalled elsewhere in the original game through Grunty’s Furnace Fun, whose sound questions can identify him as Nipper the Hermit Crab. The similarly named biting fish encountered around Chris P. Bacon in Tooie are separate enemies, rather than this beach-dwelling crab moving to another world.

Battle Procedure and the Shell’s Treasure

Nipper attacks by swinging and snapping his pincers four times before pausing to recover. Stay outside their reach during this sequence, then run towards his face when the claws stop. Jump and use Kazooie’s Rat-a-tat Rap, the airborne pecking attack taught in Bottles’ Spiral Mountain attack tutorial, to hit his eyes. Retreat immediately afterwards rather than waiting beside his face for another opening. A successful hit makes him complain and resume attacking more quickly; subsequent pauses are shorter, so begin the approach as soon as the recovery animation starts. Three successful hits defeat him. Talon Trot can help close the distance during an opening, but taking time to enter the stance while already within claw range can expose the pair to the next attack. Ordinary Blue Eggs do not substitute for striking his face and instead provoke his shell-armor taunt. A later return visit also allows the Wonderwing learned in Clanker’s Cavern to be used, although it consumes Golden Feathers and is unnecessary for the normal first encounter. After the third hit, Nipper pulls back into the shell and leaves its entrance open. Walk through that opening and follow the curved passage into the larger interior chamber, collecting the Musical Notes along the way. There are ten Notes inside, with Blue Eggs and two green Snippets around the central room and a Jiggy available for collection. Deal with the smaller crabs before stopping to gather the remaining pickups. Nipper himself is not found waiting inside, and the game does not explain where he goes after withdrawing. The battle opens access to the treasure rather than dropping the Jiggy directly onto the beach. In the Xbox Live Arcade release, winning the fight unlocks the fifteen-Gamerscore achievement Knock out Nipper, separately from collecting the Jiggy afterwards. The original Nintendo 64 version has no Xbox achievement. Leaving Treasure Trove Cove and returning restores Nipper outside his shell, allowing the encounter to be repeated, but an already collected Jiggy does not reappear. Revisiting the shell therefore cannot produce additional copies of its reward.