How to destroy Umami Purple Blocks in Another Crab’s Treasure

While exploring the depths of Another Crab’s Treasure, you occasionally come across large purple bricks with Umami-charged symbols that you can’t destroy no matter what you do.

Given they have the Umami symbol, you’d think using a shell’s Umami ability would break them, but that’s not the case. You need to find an ability much later on to smash them open, so be prepared for a lot of traveling and backtracking to find out what was inside them all.

Another Crab’s Treasure: How to Destroy Umami purple blocks

To break open purple Umami blocks in Another Crab’s Treasure, you first need to fight the secret boss of the Expired Grove area, Topoda, to get his Adaptation ability, Mantis Punch.

You reach Topoda after beating the main boss of the area, Heikea, and grabbing the map piece you need for the main story. Before you go back, head towards the locked door in the boss room, and to the right, there’s a drop that takes you toward Curdled Village.

Climb Curdled Village’s nearby hill, where a sniper crab will be firing at you, until you come to a grove with the corpses of other crabs. You’ll then start one of the game’s more brutal optional boss fights.

After beating Topoda, you won’t have his ability yet. You need to talk to him first; he will allow you to use the purple crystals you acquired to upgrade your other adaptations before telling you about his secret technique.

After the text box, you can finally get Mantis Punch and equip it on the main menu. Use this new ability to destroy those pesky purple blocks.

Destroying purple blocks either opens up a new path to a secret area with treasures to find, or reveals rare items hidden underneath them. There are lots to find later in the game, so snag this ability as soon as you can.