Man-Eater Shell | Dark Souls Wiki

Man-Eater Shell
382 ~ 420	191 ~ 210	478 ~ 525	382 ~ 420	344 ~ 378
268 ~ 294	306 ~ 336	D	D	S
HP	740 ~ 865 (NG+ 1161 - 1358)
Drops	200 - 1000 Souls (NG+ 400 - 2000) Purging Stones Twinkling Titanite

Man-Eater Shell is an Enemy in Dark Souls and Dark Souls Remastered. Enemies are hostile creatures that respawn when players rest at a Bonfire or upon death. Special enemies that do not respawn are classified as Bosses, Mini Bosses or Invaders.

Man-Eater Shell Information

Large clam shell creatures that walk about on five thin legs; their mouths are full of human skulls, and unlike most foes, upon death they do not disappear but fall down with their shell open instead. Dangerous foes to those caught unaware, but useful for farming, as they drop two extremely rare and useful items.

Drops

• Purging Stones (10% Chance)
• Twinkling Titanite (30% Chance - Ash Lake)
• Twinkling Titanite (20% Chance - Crystal Cave)

Attacks

• Shell Bash: The Man-Eater Shell angles down its shell, braces itself, and then bashes forward, dealing heavy damage and knocking the player backwards off his feet if left unblocked. Can be blocked or backstepped, and followed up with an attack of your own.
• Shell Swipe: The Man-Eater Shell angles down its shell and then swings side to side, dealing moderate damage and knockback; often comes in twos. Poor forward range.
• Devour: The Man-Eater Shell flaps its shells before lunging forward and grabbing the player with its mouth, requiring mashing the L1/R1 buttons in order to get out with minimal damage. Easily side-stepped and a good time to land return strikes.
• Arm Thrust: The Man-Eater Shell thrusts two of its arms out in a rapid motion, dealing moderate damage and low knockback. A very fast attack that is particularly troublesome when you're in the middle of an attack of your own, and the reason to always approach shield up.

Notes

• The Man-Eater Shell is worth 1000 souls and drops two very useful and otherwise hard-to-attain items, making it attractive for farming. Just warp to the Crystal Cave bonfire, aggro the six Man-Eaters in the room beforehand one by one, and collect your items.
• The Purging Stones in particular prove valuable when facing Seath the Scaleless, as his crystal attack has a high chance of inflicting Curse status. Their appearance in the room before is not a coincidence.

Strategy

The Man-Eater Shell is fairly slow-moving, but its attacks hit for a lot of stamina, so if you see yourself running low move backwards until you can recover. If your strong attack is strong enough to stagger it, a one-two strong attack followed by a backward roll is a generally effective combat technique. Always approach with your shield up and make sure to hit second, responding to its attacks rather than risking getting bashed away in the middle of a swipe. On larger weapons ( Bastard Sword and up) knowing your weapon's range is helpful here, as you can outdistance all of its attacks

Another effective strategy, though time consuming & most effective with a ring of fog equipped, is to remain at a distance & shoot them with two poison arrows in rapid succession to inflict the poison status on them and wait. It will greatly reduce their health, making them much easier to finish off with melee attacks, or you can just hit them with a couple of back-to-back poison arrows again in which case it will quickly finish them off.

Locations