Naxen Shade should be the only quest enemy in the mine. By the time you are clearing the mine, you don’t have the quest for it. It’s easy to miss the pitcreepers and then you have to backtrack. I’m sick of it.
Yeah it is annoying, but it could be solved by having the mine entrance locked until you get the quest.
I don’t personally have much trouble with the mine (think I’ve missed the crabs twice in 30+ levelings), but I still agree 100%. We have a quest to kill the other crab boss, why not this one too? Why just some random obscure little crabs?
I always drop a portal at the mine entrance, rescue the survivor down south, reactivate the wards and get the mine quest. in there i skip Naxen (except i want the belt on a fresh playthrough) i think that’s the fastest way to do all the barrowholm quests. takes around 15 mins or less, including Larria. with the quest active you see the crabs on the minimap, there are more than the six you need.
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This is the way.
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I used to do that. Lately I just go into the mine and clear it. There are 8 of the pit creaper crabs - which might as well be indistinguishable from the other crabs because (to my eyes) the difference is very subtle. Agree about having the boss be the quest objective and the other thing I would add is having a portal appear after defeat of boss to shortcut to mine entrance or a shortcut door similar to the Dermapterin lair.
Is there a problem with having “I have already killed those pit creepers” as an option for this quest? Works for all (?) other quests
it works for this quest too, see Naamari, but it doesn’t count if you didn’t actually preemptively kill the full quest amount
and that’s the reason i make sure to do a full mine sweep these days 
, since i’ve also missed a crab once or twice in a hundred chars, just to have it not count instantly when handing in the first quest
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Or have the quest appear once you enter the mine
The quest is retroactive, but you need to clear the quest targets in one go.
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Yes, you can do it in advance of getting the quest, but you need to get all 6, and they are a little hard to spot. Ofc if you just full clear the mine then it’s fine.
There is no information about this in the game though.
I always clean the mine while doing the other missions, and then I accept the mission and it gets completed. I always clean the mine completely, but since it’s a small map, I don’t see any problem with it.
As far as i’m aware, all kill x enemy quests complete retroactively.
I tried to visit every area of the mine this morning, and the quest still broke. This quest should be changed so that it’s impossible for it to break. Either put the pit creepers in choke points on the way to the boss. Or better yet delete them from the game and make the boss the quest enemy.
The only annoyance for me is the mine not having an exit at the back. Most dungeons and side areas have an exit or circle back to the entrance, why not this one?
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Agreed - very inconvenient! I make it a point to drop a portal and come back after heading south to clear the area. Having a way out at the end would be great!
This has also been my experience in the past. Even if I full clear the mine it didn’t think I cleared it when I get the quest 
I’ll keep an eye out next time I decide to make friends with these people.