Welcome back to another episode of Crossover Battles. To commemorate the impending release of Subnautica: Below Zero, in this battle, we’ll pit aquatic predators from 2 different worlds against each to see which one will win: the Opee Sea Killer from Star Wars, or the Crabsquid from Subnautica. But before we can do that, we need to take a look at their stats first. To start us off:
Contestant 1: Opee Sea Killer
In this corner of the depths, we have Naboo’s Opee Sea Killer from the Star Wars universe.
The Opee Sea Killer is a large crustacean/fish-like predator with reddish-brown armored plates native to the oceans of Naboo. This creature averages about 20 meters long when it’s fully grown. For comparison with Earth animals, this is about the largest reliably recorded size of the female humpback whale. When you start comparing your predators to large baleen whales, you know you’re dealing with a big one.
The Opee Sea Killer borrows its propulsion method from creatures like squid and octopuses. It sucks in water through its mouth, and then expels it back out through pores underneath the armored plates at the rear of its body. This technique, combined with the 3 pairs of shrimp-like legs in the back and its largish pectoral fins allows it to accelerate quickly, making it a pretty good ambush predator.
The Opee Sea Killer’s primary weapon is its massive maw. Said maw contains a double row of razor-sharp fangs, allowing it to rip apart even larger creatures with ease. Everything else is in aid of those fangs. The pair of antennae on top of its head act as lures, drawing smaller creatures towards the maw. The Opee even has a long, sticky, purple tongue nearly the length of its own body that it can use to grab smaller prey and draw it in like an underwater chameleon.
Contestant 2: Crabsquid
In the other corner of the depths, we have 4546B’s Crabsquid from Subnautica.
The Crabsquid is a mid-sized crustacean/cephalopod-like predator native to the oceans of 4546B. Specifically, the Crabsquid can only be found in the deeper areas of the Crater region of the planet, like the Deep Grand Reef, Blood Kelp, and Lost River biomes. I guess like the Opee, it just prefers deep waters.
Unfortunately, we don’t have an exact size listed for the Crabsquid. We can only make an educated guess. Seeing as how it’s about 3 times taller than your character in Subnautica, counting its legs and assuming an average height for a human male at 1.8 meters, conservative estimates would place it at least 5.4 meters (17.7 feet) tall, and around 3.6 meters (11.8 feet) long at the widest point on its body.
The Crabsquid has 2 main weapons. Its first weapon are its crab-like claws and legs, along with a rather complex set of mouthparts. These allow it to rip and tear apart prey into manageable pieces, as well as dig into gaps in armor. Its second weapon is the ability to emit an omnidirectional electromagnetic pulse around itself. While in-game, this EMP blast only affect electrical devices and vehicles, your PDA mentions that it was likely evolved as a way to fight back against electrical predators like the Ampeel. Thus, it must affect organic entities as well.
The Battle
Now that we have the stats, all we need is a famous words from a certain announcer:
Skill doesn’t really matter here, since both the Opee Sea Killer and the Crabsquid appear to be non-sapient. However, the battlefield location still plays a critical role in who will win. With Subnautica: Below Zero about to launch on May 14, let’s move the battle to the Deep Grand Reef in celebration. And to be fair, the depths of Naboo are little different, so it doesn’t really give the Crabsquid any advantage here over the Opee.
Scenario: Deep Grand Reef
At first glance, it does appear as though the Opee Sea Killer has the advantage here. It’s much larger than the Crabsquid, and has much bigger teeth and more powerful jaws. It looks as though the Opee would win without a fight by just grabbing the Crabsquid with its tongue, and reeling it back in to be crushed by the double row of fangs. If an Opee managed to catch a Crabsquid completely by surprise, this might very well be the case.
Fortunately (or unfortunately), the Crabsquid does have one advantage: its EMP blast. Such a blast would at the very least stun the Opee Sea Killer, and give the Crabsquid time to flee or counterattack. Given that the Crabsquid will viciously attack your Cyclops submarine in the game, despite the sub being much larger than it, there’s a good chance the Crabsquid will go for the latter option. While the Opee Sea Killer does have a lot of armor, that armor is segmented and has noticeable weak spots like the eyes. The Crabsquid’s claws are well equipped to pry into those weak spots to attack the Opee Sea Killer through them. Even better, the Crabsquid can fire off its EMP relatively quickly and its omnidirectional nature means that it can attack the Opee even if it can’t see it. The Opee Sea Killer would either have to flee or slowly and painfully become dinner.
Young Opee Sea Killers would be even worse off. The EMP would have more of an effect on them, and the Crabsquid would tear it into pieces with its claws, leaving no way for the Opee to counterattack or eat its way out of the Crabsquid like it would with larger carnivores.
I’d call this match a 60-70% in favor of the Crabsquid. That EMP blast is really OP, especially underwater.
Conclusion
If you were to place a population of Crabsquid and a population of Opee Sea Killers in the same environment, there’s a good chance that the former would wipe out the latter. It wouldn’t be easy or long, but it’s likely. Electrical predators trump non-electrical predators here. I guess 4546B managed to produce a better predator than Naboo. Maybe in the next Crossover Battle against aquatic predators, we’ll see a Star Wars victory.
