Bugsnax beginner’s guide, tips, and tricks

In Bugsnax, you find yourself on an island surrounded by colorful characters and dozens of food-like bugs. Your job: Capture each of the game’s creatures in inventive ways, and unravel the mysteries of the island.

In Polygon’s Bugsnax beginner’s guide, we’ve assumed our best tips and tricks to help you capture them all.

Scan with the SnaxScope, read the Bugapedia

Your SnaxScope allows you to scan information about your surroundings including Bugsnax, other characters, and important objects. If you want to catch all of the Bugsnax in the game, it is essential that you scan every creature you come across, because scanning new critters adds crucial information about them in your Bugapedia.

The Bugapedia details everything you need to know about the Bugsnax that inhabit the island. It breaks down each biome and shows you how many critters you’ve scanned, how many you captured, and the number of creatures you have yet to discover.

Image: Young Horses via Polygon

Scanning also reveals information about each creature, including their type, what they like and dislike, as well as clues about how you might be able to capture them.

Scanning a creature also reveals its movement path. This is especially helpful when capturing Bugsnax that require the use of other tools to capture, like the Trip Shot.

You should also use your SnaxScope to gain more information about each character you meet. Scan every new Grumpus you encounter to reveal some fun details about them. You can even scan objects in the game, such as the various statues you come across as well as other items that might be helpful in your journey.

How to use the Snak Trap

The Snak Trap is the primary way that you capture creatures Bugsnax. At first, it can feel kind of finicky, especially because has its own physics — can be knocked over, launched, or even destroyed by some Bugsnax.

The most common way to use your Snak Trap is to scan a Bugsnak first, so you can see its trajectory. Usually, a Bugsnak will flee once it sees you, but if you’ve scanned it, then you know what path it will take. Place your Snak Trap down on its tracks, and hide from a safe distance. When the creature feels safe, it’ll resume its walking pattern.

Image: Young Horses via Polygon

When the Bugsnak is in the range of your trap, the light on your wristwatch will turn from white to blue, and you’ll hear a ping to indicate the perfect time to activate the trap. Once the critter is in your trap, a countdown begins. Run back to your trap and collect it before the timer runs out and the snak escapes.

Upgrade your Snakpack backpack

At first, you can only hold a few Bugsnax in your backpack at a time. As you progress further into the game, you may want to hold onto more creatures at once — especially if you’re working on a mission that requires you to catch and feed several Bugsnax to a particular character.

To upgrade your backpack, Gramble must first return to your town. You’ll find him in Simmering Springs. After he returns, he’ll eventually ask you to do a quest called “Empty Nest.” To complete it, donate six Bugsnax to his barn. Once you complete the task, your Snakpack will be upgraded, allowing you to hold more Bugsnax.

Continue donating more Bugsnax to the barn, and you’ll keep growing your inventory space.

Restocking sauce

Loading up your Sauce Slinger with various sauces is important for catching Bugsnax that require some persuasion to catch. In most cases, the sauces you need will be located on flower patches near the Bugsnax that require them. However, that’s not always the case. Further, there may be times where the nearby plants simply don’t have enough sauce for your needs.

To get more sauce, you can always stock up on the small farm that Wambus tends to back at town. Each time you encounter a new sauce plant, Wambus will have that sauce plant available back at his farm the next time you return. Make it a habit to stock up on all available sauces each time you make a visit to your home base.

Talk to everyone for quests and boss fights

After you get a new villager back to town, interview them right away. These conversations are important for multiple reasons. One of your main quests involves interviewing everyone on the island, and completing this task also opens up each characters’ side quests.

After you get a new Grumpus back to Snaxburg, they will begin asking you to take part in optional side quests to further flesh out their stories. In most cases, these smaller missions provide nothing more than some extra story about the residents you share the island with. A few of them — Chandlo, Cromdo, Snorpy, and Wiggle — eventually lead to optional boss fights.

Signs of unavailable Bugsnax

If you’re looking to capture every Bugsnax, chances are you’ll have a few empty spots in your Bugapedia as you go. Your guide shows you how many creatures exist in each of the game’s regions, but it isn’t always clear where they might be hidden on the map. If you can’t find a critter while you visit an area of the game, try looking for signs of them.

Image: Young Horses via Polygon

If a creature only shows up during certain times of day or special conditions like rainy days, you’ll find traces of them near where they will appear.

Use your SnaxScope on these bits and pieces to figure out when you should return. Most Bugsnax can be found at all times, but these telltale clues will tell you when to find the game’s most elusive Bugsnax.