Bugs are tiny neutral creatures found in small groups throughout the world. Although they cannot be directly interacted with, some of them flee from nearby creatures or fly around them. They can either be found in swarms, which always stay relatively close to a defined spot, or individually wandering across the room.
When rain is about to start, bugs burrow into the ground to hide. They also emerge at the beginning of each cycle, although this can never be seen directly - they only do so while the 
Slugcat is in another room.
The bug species that avoid creatures only avoid one creature at a time, and only do so if the creature is alive, within visual range, and large enough to warrant fleeing from it.
Bugs are sensitive to explosions caused by 
Grenades, 
Explosive Spears or 
Cherrybombs, which kill them if they are too close. Additionally, most of them can be killed with 
Spore Puffs, except Flies and Fire Flies.
No bugs can be found in 
Five Pebbles (further mentions of bug locations exclude this region from the list).
Flies are the smallest species of bugs, along with Fire Flies. They are the most common species and do not have any noticeable features.
Flies constantly fly at very high speed in erratic directions. They very rarely go far away from their swarms, and tend to prefer flying 4 tiles away from terrain. If they see a dead creature, or a starving Slugcat, they have a small chance to fly closer and buzz around it.
Flies can be found in all regions, and especially in 
Farm Arrays, 
Chimney Canopy and 
Garbage Wastes.
They appear as tiny black squares with motion smear.
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| Swarm of Flies |
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Fire Flies are the smallest species of bugs, along with Flies. They are the only bug emitting light.
Fire Flies constantly fly around at medium speed, much less erratically than Flies. They tend to prefer flying 4 tiles away from terrain.
Fire Flies can be found in 
Shaded Citadel, especially in Memory Crypts, as well as in one room in 
Subterranean. They never appear in swarms.
Fire Flies appear as tiny glowing squares with motion smear. Their color is individually randomized between yellow and orange. In dark rooms, each Fire Fly casts a faint light of the same color, which slowly pulsates at a semi-random rate.
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| Flying around |
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| A Fire Fly's light pulsating |
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| Color palette |
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Tiny Dragonflies are small green or blue dragonfly-like bugs.
Tiny Dragonflies alternate between flying towards a chosen spot at medium speed, and hovering there for up to 3 seconds until they choose another. They rarely go far away from their swarms, and tend to prefer flying 5 tiles away from terrain. They swiftly avoid nearby creatures.
Tiny Dragonflies can be found in 
Sky Islands, and, much more rarely, in 
Outskirts, 
Shoreline, 
Drainage System and 
Industrial Complex.
Tiny Dragonflies can be found in two varieties, depending on the region. In Sky Islands, their color is individually randomized between blue and purple; in other regions, it ranges from green to cyan. Their wings are white, leaning towards the color of the fog. Their bodies flicker when they face downwards left, presumably reflecting the sunlight coming from upwards left.
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| Flickering |
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| Swarm of Tiny Dragonflies |
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| Color palette in Outskirts (wing color on the right) |
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Rock Fleas are small black bugs, similar in appearance to rocks.
Rock Fleas behave differently depending on whether they are on the ground or in water.
- When on the ground, they alternate between hopping to a new location, and sitting there for an average duration of about 6.9 seconds before hopping again. They can land on floors and walls, but not on ceilings. They attempt to hop back towards their swarms if they end up too far away, and away from nearby creatures. The proximity of a creature, as well as sitting in an enclosed space, makes them stressed and more likely to hop. The height of their jumps is random but depends on their size and level of stress. They keep slightly vibrating, which helps differentiate them from rubble when they sit.
- When in water, they move by swimming at high speed. They have a swimming cycle which makes them go faster as they move their legs backwards in a propelling movement. Submerged Rock Fleas do not attempt to stay close to their swarms. They avoid nearby creatures, whose proximity makes them swim faster.
Rock Fleas can be found in all regions except Chimney Canopy, especially in Drainage System and, in lesser numbers, in Shoreline.
The size of Rock Fleas is individually randomized; the biggest Rock Fleas are twice as large as the smallest. Their color is individually randomized as well, between black and a slightly lighter shade from the palette of the room.
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| Hopping |
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| Vibrating |
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| Swarm of Rock Fleas swimming around |
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| Swim cycle |
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Grass Hoppers are small grasshopper-like bugs. Although they are similar to Rock Fleas, they are noticeably thinner and much more colorful.
Grass Hoppers alternate between hopping to a new location, and sitting there for an average duration of about 7.2 seconds before hopping again. They can land on floors and walls, but not on ceilings. They attempt to hop back towards their swarms if they end up too far away, and away from nearby creatures. The proximity of a creature, as well as sitting in an enclosed space, makes them more likely to hop. The height of their jumps is random but depends on their level of stress.
Their behavior is similar to that of Rock Fleas. However, Grass Hoppers' hops are lower, and they need to wait for up to half a second before hopping again. Additionally, they dislike enclosed spaces more than Rock Fleas.
Grass Hoppers can be found in Farm Arrays, and more rarely in Outskirts.
Their color is individually randomized between black and different color shades from the plants in the room; yet the latter is so much more likely that less than 5% of Grass Hoppers actually lean more towards black. The fact that plants themselves are very diverse makes for a potentially wide variety of colors; however, they actually only appear near green plants in Outskirts, and red ones in Farm Arrays.
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| Swarm of Grass Hoppers |
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| Hopping around |
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Red Swarmers are red dragonfly-like bugs. Although they are similar to Tiny Dragonflies, they are noticeably bigger.
Red Swarmers alternate between flying towards a chosen spot at medium speed, and hovering there for up to 0.15 seconds until they choose another. They may go somewhat far away from their swarms, and tend to prefer flying 3 tiles away from terrain. They swiftly avoid nearby creatures.
Their behavior is similar to that of Tiny Dragonflies. However, Red Swarmers are slightly faster than them, but more importantly fly across longer distances and move on towards new locations much more quickly. Additionally, their movement is more unpredictable, as they do not follow their paths as closely and tend to fly farther away from their swarms.
Red Swarmers can be found in Farm Arrays, as well as in one room in Garbage Wastes.
Their color is individually randomized between red and reddish orange. Their wings are lighter, leaning towards the color of the fog. They are more affected by the darkness of the room than Tiny Dragonflies.
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| Swarm of Red Swarmers |
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| Color palette in Farm Arrays (highlight and wing colors on the right) |
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Ants are tiny bugs appearing subtly in the background.
Ants alternate between slowly crawling in random directions across the background walls for up to 5 seconds, and halting for up to 2 seconds before starting again. They may go far away from their swarms but always remain within a radius of 20 tiles from where they initially spawn.
Ants can be found chiefly in Industrial Complex and Garbage Wastes, and more rarely in Outskirts, Farm Arrays, Shaded Citadel, Drainage System and Subterranean.
Ants only appear at certain depths, which creates the illusion that they walk on the hidden surfaces of the background and make their way between the different layers. Each ant can only appear on one layer, which is individually randomized. This also determines their color, as a darker version of the color of that layer.
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| Swarm of Ants |
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| Halting |
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Beetles are black beetle-like bugs.
Beetles alternate between flying at medium speed in semi-random directions until they hit a solid wall, and sitting there for an average duration of about 6.9 seconds before taking off again. The proximity of a creature makes them more likely to take off - though less than for Rock Fleas and Grass Hoppers. They rarely go far away from their swarms. They flee from nearby creatures, but with low priority, and are big enough to be afraid of fewer creatures than most other bugs.
Beetles can be found chiefly in Farm Arrays and Outskirts, and, in lesser numbers, in Industrial Complex, Sky Islands, and even more rarely in Chimney Canopy and Subterranean.
Beetles are black, with white wings leaning towards the color of the fog. They only show their wings when flying, otherwise retracting them as they land.
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| Flying around |
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| Landing |
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Water Glow-Worms are black aquatic bugs with glowing segments. They are the biggest species of bugs.
Water Glow-Worms swim at high speed. They do not attempt to stay close to their swarms. They swiftly avoid nearby creatures, whose proximity makes them swim faster, but are big enough to be afraid of fewer creatures than most other bugs.
They can be found in Shoreline and 
Submerged Superstructure, as well as in one room in Subterranean.
Water Glow-Worms are made of a varying number of segments, individually randomized between 3 and 4. Each segment has two legs and a glowing spot - though unlike Fire Flies, the latter does not actually produce light and only appears as a lighter spot. Although they have a swimming cycle like Rock Fleas, it is purely cosmetic and does not affect their speed.
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| Swimming around |
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| Swim cycle |
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Wasps are dark green wasp-like bugs.
Wasps alternate between flying at high speed in semi-random directions until they hit a solid wall, and sitting there for an average duration of about 2.1 seconds before taking off again. They tend to land much more rarely than Beetles, as they avoid nearby walls. They do not attempt to stay close to their swarms. This, along with their great rarity, their speed and the fact they only appear in open rooms, makes them difficult to see before they leave the screen with sometimes little chance to come back.
Wasps can be found chiefly in Farm Arrays, in lesser numbers in Outskirts, and much more rarely in Chimney Canopy, Shoreline and Sky Islands.
Their color is individually randomized between green and turquoise, but in a very dark shade which makes it little distinguishable from black. Their wings are lighter, leaning towards the color of the fog. They are more affected by the darkness of the room than Red Swarmers.
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| Flying around |
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| Landing |
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| Color palette in Outskirts (wing color on the right) |
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Moths are white moth-like bugs.
Moths alternate between flying at medium speed in semi-random directions until they hit a solid wall, and sitting there for an average duration of about 2.4 seconds before taking off again. They have a flying cycle which makes them go up as they flap their wings. Unlike Beetles and Wasps, they need to wait for up to 2.25 seconds before taking off again, but also only have a 50% chance to land when touching a wall. They rarely go far away from their swarms. They flee from nearby creatures, but with low priority - although they are small enough to be afraid of more creatures than other bugs.
Moths can be found in Chimney Canopy, Industrial Complex and Shaded Citadel, and more rarely in Shoreline, especially in Looks to the Moon.
Their color is a much lighter version of a light shade from the palette of the room, and leans towards the color of the fog.
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| Swarm of Moths |
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| Landing |
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- Like other creatures, bugs are pacified by Echoes, and do not appear if one is active nearby.
- When killed, bugs fall onto the ground, and disappear upon hitting it. However, this only happens on flat grounds, which causes dead bugs that fall onto slopes to stay lying there until the room is left.
- When hit by a Spore Puff, Flies and Fire Flies do not die and fall, but still disappear if they touch the ground afterwards.
- Although there is a swarm of Water Glow-Worms in one room where there is no water, they can never be seen there, as they can only spawn inside water.
- Due to what looks like a mistake in the code, Ants have a 35% chance of having the foreground as their layer. They are however still affected by wall collisions, and can only be seen occasionally on the edges of geometry.
- Although Ants appear in three rooms in Farm Arrays, they can hardly be seen in two of them, as they are hidden by layers of pipes added above their own.
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| Ant on a foreground layer |
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SPOILER WARNING: GourmandThis section contains major plot details from Gourmand. If you have not made significant progress or completed the game as Gourmand, then read no further!
Spoilers end here.
| Creatures |
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| | Playable | | | | Hostile | | | | Neutral | | | | Edible | | | | Cut Content | |
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| Downpour Spoilers |
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| | Spoilers | |
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Slugcat is in another room.
Grenades, 
Explosive Spears or 
Cherrybombs, which kill them if they are too close. Additionally, most of them can be killed with 
Spore Puffs, except Flies and Fire Flies.
Five Pebbles (further mentions of bug locations exclude this region from the list).
Farm Arrays, 
Chimney Canopy and 
Garbage Wastes.
Shaded Citadel, especially in Memory Crypts, as well as in one room in 
Subterranean. They never appear in swarms.
Sky Islands, and, much more rarely, in 
Outskirts, 
Shoreline, 
Drainage System and 
Industrial Complex.
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Submerged Superstructure, as well as in one room in 
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SPOILER WARNING: Gourmand
Hunter Long Legs.
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