I’m Luke Summerhayes and I love Dwebble.
Hermit crabs are fascinating creatures. Small crustaceans which lack the hard protective shell of most crabs, they find discarded shells from other creatures and wear them as though they were their own. With big black eyes, and poking their heads and claws out from a little shell, they can be kind of cute in their own way. Even more adorable is when they line up from smallest to largest on a beach and trade their shells up from ones they’ve outgrown.
Of course, the image of a hermit crab using something unusual as a shell is always appealing. Crabs using cans, bottles or other pieces of trash are more and more common. An infamous artwork shows a crab using a human skull. And in Monster Hunter, the Daimyo Hermitaur and Shogun Cenataur use giant dragon skulls as shells.
In Pokémon we have dwebble, a rock and bug type Pokémon which resembles a hermit crab making its home in a small rock.
Black
This Pokémon can easily melt holes in hard rocks with a liquid secreted from its mouth.
White
It makes a hole in a suitable rock. If that rock breaks, the Pokémon remains agitated until it locates a replacement.
Dwebble dwells in a pebble, and similarly the Japanese name is Ishizumai, from stone and home.
Shield
It first tries to find a rock to live in, but if there are no suitable rocks to be found, Dwebble may move in to the ports of a Hippowdon.
This sounds kind of cute, but the implications are more horrifying in Pokémon Sword.
Sword
When it finds a stone appealing, it creates a hole inside it and uses it as its home. This Pokémon is the natural enemy of Roggenrola and Rolycoly.
As Dwebble grows, just like a real hermit crab, it must trade in its pebble for a larger home. At level 35, Dwebble can evolve into Crustle.
Crustle is a bigger Pokémon, though it’s crab-like portion looks pretty similar to how it looked as dwebble. The rock on its back has been replaced with what looks like a cross-section of the Earth’s surface, complete with different layers of sediment. It’s a walking geology lesson!
At first glance, Crustle could appear to be carrying soft dirt, but the Pokédex clearly describes it as a boulder.
Black
Competing for territory, Crustle fight viciously. The one whose boulder is broken is the loser of the battle.
White
It possesses legs of enormous strength, enabling it to carry heavy slabs for many days, even when crossing arid land.

The name Crustle combines Crust, as in the Earth’s crust, and castle. The Japanese name is Iwapalace, with Iwa being rock.
Sword
This highly territorial Pokémon prefers dry climates. It won't come out of its boulder on rainy days.
Shield
Its thick claws are its greatest weapons. They're mighty enough to crack Rhyperior's carapace.

While Crustle can use these great weapons – access to spikes and also shell smash mean it has competitive potential – its one of those Pokemon that never really appears in the competitive world because other Pokémon fill the same niches better.
In researching this episode, though, I did find a video by the youtuber Pimpnite in which a Dwebble with shell smash swept an opponent’s team. That video was made in tribute to the youtuber’s dearly departed pet hermit crab and so let’s end by saying shout out to that little guy. 7
Music for Luke Loves Pokémon is composed by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork for the show is by Katie Groves. Writing, Producing and Editing is by me, Luke Summerhayes. Funding is provided by my lovely listeners. If you’d like to join them, to help keep the show online and find other podcasts by me and my pals, head over to Patreon.com/PodcastioPodcastius.
Coming up are scraggy and sigilyph, so if you thoughts about those or any other monsters, hit me up with a DM @LukeLovesPKMN or an email to LukeLovesPKMN@Gmail.com. And of course, I’d love if you could leave a 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Even if you don’t feel like doing any of that, thank you so much just for listening.
I love Dwebble. And remember. I love you too.