Everything is Crab Glossary: Key Terms Explained

Everything is Crab starts sounding much more technical once you move past the joke and into the actual systems. A new player can hit the homepage, open the deeper guides, and almost immediately run into terms like Affinity, Splicing, Boss Fruit, POI, Carcinisation, and Codex.

This page exists to translate those terms into plain language. It pulls together the vocabulary that shows up across the homepage, Evolutions, Genetics, Achievements, Bestiary, POIs, and Biomes, so you do not have to keep decoding the same words from scratch.

The quick glossary version

Darwin: the creature you control in a run. If a page talks about Darwin’s stats, affinities, or evolutions, it is talking about your current animal build.
Evolution: a mid-run upgrade. This is the core word for the pieces you pick during a run to change stats, attacks, movement, and utility.
Genetics: pre-run starting modifiers. They define your opener before the run even begins.
Splicing: the official system for combining two Genetics into one more specialized start.
Affinity: the game’s lane-reading system. It helps describe what kind of creature your run is becoming and nudges later evolution offers in that direction.
Mutagen Points: a special resource language used by some Genetics, POIs, and reward systems.
Progress: the growth meter that pushes you toward your next evolution level.
POI: short for Point of Interest, which usually means an event-like map node with choices and tradeoffs.
Biome: an environment that changes what the run punishes. On this site, biomes are treated as pressure filters, not just scenery.
Bestiary: the creature reference layer, including enemy groups, boss families, stages, and broad drop patterns.
Codex: the wider in-game tracking layer for progression and completion.
Pressure: the scaling challenge ladder. Higher Pressure means stricter run conditions and harder progression checks.

Character and build terms

Darwin

Darwin is the player character. When outside pages or wiki material say Darwin, they are not talking about a separate NPC or a lore-only creature. They just mean the animal you are controlling and growing during the run.

That matters because a lot of system language is written as if Darwin were a scientific specimen. So when you read phrases like Darwin’s Affinity, Darwin’s Evolution, or Darwin’s stats, the game is really just describing your current run body.

Evolution

An Evolution is a run-time upgrade. It is the main system that turns a weak opener into an actual build.

The site’s evolution language usually splits them into four big buckets:

Passive: stat growth, passive effects, and background systems
Attack: your equipped attack tools
Ultimate: a bigger active tool with its own slot
Movement: dash, traversal, or movement-shaping tools

So when a page says an evolution is strong, weak, risky, or late, it is judging one of those mid-run picks rather than your starting setup.

Branching Evolution

A Branching Evolution is a more direction-changing kind of evolution pick. On this site, it usually signals a stronger fork in build identity than a simple early stat increase.

That is why it shows up in Genetics text so often. If a Genetic says your first level up becomes a Branching Evolution, or that every twelfth level becomes one, it is changing how fast your run reaches bigger identity decisions.

Specialisations

Specialisations are more focused follow-up branches inside the evolution system. They are one reason build pages do not only ask “What did you pick?” but also “What did that line unlock later?”

In practical terms, a specialization is a sign that a route has moved from generic growth into a more committed lane. That is also why the Expert Genetic matters: it makes Specialisations trigger earlier.

Pre-run and progression terms

Genetics

Genetics are the game’s pre-run opener modifiers. You choose them before the run starts, so they shape your first few minutes rather than your midgame.

If Evolutions answer “What am I becoming now?”, Genetics answer “What kind of start am I walking into?” That is why Genetics pages on the site keep talking about stability, opener identity, and whether a route feels safe before it has time to scale.

Splicing

Splicing is the official term for combining two Genetics into one more specialized starting setup. Once Splicing is available, the question stops being only “Which single Genetic is best?” and starts becoming “Which pair creates the cleanest opener?”

That is an important shift. A lot of beginner advice can survive on one good starter trait, but later route planning usually starts caring more about pair logic, support pieces, and whether two traits solve the same weakness or create a better shell together.

Affinity

Affinity is the game’s way of tracking what kind of evolutionary lane your run is leaning toward. The most important practical idea is simple: scattered Affinity usually leads to scattered future offers.

The wiki material and this guide agree on the same core point: standard affinity points make later evolutions from that lane more likely to appear. So when a build page says a route has cleaner Affinity, it means the run is more likely to keep seeing follow-up pieces that belong together.

You do not need to memorize every lane immediately, but it helps to know that Affinity is not just flavor text. It is one of the systems that makes early direction matter.

Carcinisation

Carcinisation is the game’s most famous theme term. In real biology, carcinisation refers to crab-like convergent evolution. In Everything is Crab, it is the crabward identity lane that turns the internet joke into an actual build language.

On the site, the word usually does not mean “all life literally becomes a crab right now.” It usually means one of three things:

a crab-forward body plan
a shell-heavy or claw-heavy route
a theme-first build that still needs real combat logic behind it

So if a page mentions a Full Crab Carcinisation route, read that as a specific build identity, not just a meme.

Progress

Progress is essentially your evolution-growth meter. Many pages mention food progress, non-food progress, or effects that reduce the Progress needed to evolve.

The simplest way to read it is this: if a choice gives Progress, it is helping you reach your next evolution level faster. If a route loses Progress tempo, it falls behind even if it still looks alive for the moment.

Mutagen Points

Mutagen Points are a separate special resource that appears in several systems rather than in one clean beginner-only menu. You see it in Genetics like Simple and Stubborn, in achievements, and in POIs such as Frozen Specimen.

That is why Mutagen usually feels different from normal leveling. It is less about passive growth and more about extra flexibility, special rewards, or more unusual choice windows.

Boss Fruit

Boss Fruit is not just ordinary fruit with a dramatic name. On this site, it is treated as a boss-specific progression hook.

That is why the Bestiary page keeps a separate Boss Fruit Related label. It helps separate boss-side reward logic from standard food-family logic like Fish or Meat.

Map and encounter terms

POI

POI means Point of Interest. In plain language, POIs are event-like map nodes that ask you to make a choice.

The important thing is that POIs are not all the same kind of reward. Some are:

simple stat forks
healing stops
Progress accelerators
day and night control nodes
defend-the-objective events
conditional utility checks
charm or mutation-style special events

That is why the site keeps warning players not to treat POIs like flavor buttons. A POI can change the whole route of a run.

Charmed allies

Charmed allies are companion-style creatures or ally effects created through charm-oriented systems. This term matters most on social builds, Gregarious-style routes, and POI or Genetic effects that mention charm directly.

In practical reading, charm language usually means your run is trying to get value from animals as helpers, distractions, or extra pressure sources instead of relying only on personal damage.

Biome

Biome is one of the most important words on the site, because the site treats biomes as pressure environments, not just map themes.

The fast version looks like this:

Grass: the baseline readable biome
Sand: heat and mirage pressure
Snow: cold, blizzard, and freezing pressure
Water: movement and pathing pressure

So if a build works in one biome and suddenly feels fake in another, the site’s reading is usually not “bad luck.” It is that the environment is finally exposing a weakness the route was already carrying.

Bestiary

Bestiary is the creature-reference layer. It is not only there so you can identify monsters by picture. On this site, the Bestiary also helps players read:

enemy group labels
boss families
stage labels such as Base, Mid, and Late
broad food-drop patterns
which entries belong to special boss-side logic

That makes Bestiary reading practical rather than cosmetic.

Normal Enemy, Boss, Final Boss, Boss Baby

These labels are exactly what they sound like, but it helps to know how the site uses them.

Normal Enemy: regular hostile creature lines
Boss: major encounter lines with larger fight importance
Final Boss: the run-ending boss layer
Boss Baby: separate boss-child or boss-offspring style entries that the site often excludes from simpler grouped comparisons

If a page says a build is good for bosses but weak for normal enemies, or the reverse, it is using this classification logic.

Base, Mid, Late, Baby, Final

These are stage labels used in the Bestiary and related reference material.

Base: the default version
Mid: a stronger middle-stage version
Late: a further-upgraded late-stage version
Baby: a boss-baby or offspring form
Final: reserved for the final boss layer

Knowing these labels helps you read tables faster instead of treating repeated names as duplicates.

Meta-progress and completion terms

Codex

Codex is the game’s wider progression and collection frame. On this site, Codex usually appears when a page wants to explain the difference between:

the public platform-facing layer
the fuller in-game tracking layer

That is especially important on the Achievements page, where the site separates the public Steam list from the larger in-game achievement and Codex structure.

Achievements

Achievements can mean two different things depending on context:

the official Steam achievements
the broader in-game achievement / Codex system

If a page talks about unlock rates, it is probably using the Steam layer. If it talks about fuller progression structure, completion categories, or a bigger internal list, it is usually using the in-game layer.

Pressure

Pressure is the scaling challenge ladder. When you see terms like Pressure 5, Pressure 10, or Pressure 15, those are not random milestones. They are harder versions of the game’s run structure, and many Genetics unlocks are tied to beating specific Pressure tiers.

That is why the site treats Pressure as more than just difficulty bragging. It is a progression language, an unlock gate, and a way of judging whether a build is truly stable or only barely good enough for easier runs.

Endless

Endless is the continuation layer after a normal clear. It changes the question from:

“Can this build finish one run?”

to:

“Can this build still move, recover, scale, and survive once the run keeps asking for more?”

That is also why some build pages keep separating first-clear good from Endless-ready. A build can beat the final boss once and still fall apart immediately after that if it has no long-term movement, sustain, or scaling plan.

The shortest way to connect all these systems

If you want the one-paragraph version, it is this:

You start a run with Genetics. As the run grows, you gain Progress and pick Evolutions. Those picks build Affinity, which influences what kind of creature Darwin is turning into. POIs and Biomes keep testing whether that route really works under pressure. The Bestiary helps you read what you are fighting. The Codex, Achievements, Pressure, and Endless layers define what the game expects from you over the long term.

That is why the site keeps these pages separate but connected. They are all answering the same bigger question from different angles: what kind of run are you building, and does it still make sense once the game gets harsher?