The development of biocrust significantly affect and change the physiochemical properties of the surface soil, which in turn affects the penetration resistance. In order to investigate the effect of biocrust on soil penetration resistance, this study took moss-dominated biocrusts and bare soils from aeolian and loessal soils on the Loess Plateau as the test materials, compared the differences in penetration resistance between biocrusts and bare soils, and investigated their differences in penetration resistance under different water contents by using the high precision soil penetrometer. At the same time, the influence of biocrusts on soil penetration resistance and its relationship with soil properties (water content, bulk density, organic matter content, particle composition) were quantitatively analyzed. The results showed that the maximum penetration resistance was 0.38-3.74 MPa for aeolian soil with biocrust and 0.43-8.01 MPa for loessal soil with biocrust, which was about 2.14 to 9.45 times (P=0.001) and 1.38 to 6.27 (P=0.051) times of the same depth of aeolian and loessal soils without crust, respectively. The effect of moss crust on the penetration resistance of aeolian soil was 2 to 12 mm (P=0.028), while the depth of influence on loessal soil varied greatly under different water contents, ranging from 3 to 24 mm. At the same time, the penetration resistance of the bare soil increased linearly with the increase of soil depth. The penetration resistance of soil with biocrust increased first and then decreased with the increase of depth in the crust layer, while it was linear in the lower layer of the crust. In addition, the lateral and the longitudinal penetrating resistances were significantly different (P ≤ 0.03) for soil with the biocrust, but not significant for soil without crust (P ≥ 0.052). The penetration resistance of soil with biocrust had a significant power function relationship with water content (P<0.001), but was linearly correlated with bulk density, organic matter and sand contents. These factors are important ways for the biocrust to change the penetration resistance of the surface soil.