- "Huge bug" redirects here. For the consumable cockroach formerly identified as huge cockroach, see Insect.
- "Spider" redirects here. For the monstrous spider made up of human body parts, see Human Spider.
- For the bug colony, see Bug Nest.
| Bug | |
|---|---|
| |
| Location | |
| Entrance to Silent Forest Bug Nest Hideout - Random | |
| Behavior | Peaceful |
| Attack type | No attacks |
| Drops |  x1
|
| Health | 5 |
| Running Speed | Walk - 2 Sprint - 7 |
| Stamina | 200 |
| View Distance | 400 |
| Damage | 0 |
| Notes | - Can retreat into a hole - Can spread  during a nightly hideout infestation.
|
| Release | Initial release |
The Bug is a defenseless, peaceful creature in Darkwood. They live inside holes on the ground, many of which form a Bug Nest. Although generally harmless, bugs may pose indirect danger to the player at the hideout should they appear during the night.
Whereabouts
Preset
During the day, bugs are primarily found crawling around the vicinity of some hole on the ground in the wilderness. These holes form a Bug Nest, only appearing in the Silent Forest, the Old Woods, and the Swamp. However, they are first encountered in the Entrance to Silent Forest where it is filled with several holes and appears to have been made into an indoor bug nest.
Random
After nightfall, an infestation may occur with one or more random holes forming inside a hideout currently occupied by the player, indicated by sudden swarms of cockroaches. Numerous bugs will then climb out of the holes at short intervals and begin crawling around.
Variants
Two types of bugs exist in Darkwood: regular bugs and infesting bugs. Though they virtually look identical, their unique behaviors essentially set them apart.
Regular bugs
Regular bugs are the default variant that can be found outside their holes crawling around the immediate vicinity, alongside the ones still inside the holes. These bugs do not respawn once exterminated.
Bugs appear to possess rather high sensory awareness, capable of detecting and reacting immediately to the player's nearby presence. Due to their harmless nature, when alerted by the player, bugs will attempt to run away in the opposite direction and retreat into the nearest hole whenever possible. If for any reasons the bugs that were initially outside are then inside the holes, they will naturally reappear outside at the same spot again on the next day.
Bugs do not voluntarily climb out of their holes; however, they can be forced out. The only known way to flush out any bugs occupying a hole is with the use of fire.
Infesting bugs
An infestation may randomly occur where holes start spawning inside the hideout during the night, after which bugs will climb out of the holes one after another in quick succession.
Once out of the hole in a certain room, a bug may not necessarily linger in there but instead crawl into other rooms through any existing openings before staying immobile in place. If not dealt with in time, the bug will begin to bloat and squirt its bodily fluid on the ground for a while before imploding and spreading worms on the spot as a result. Death by its own implosion causes the bug's body to be obliterated and thus become unlootable due to the body despawning.
Unlike the regular variant, these infesting bugs ignore the player entirely and do not attempt to run away or retreat back into their holes, for their only purpose is to infest the hideout with toxic worms.
Stats
Much like rabbits, bugs are extremely frail that all sorts of physical traumas can kill them. However, what they lack in resilience, they make up for in their speed and size as they are remarkably nimble and can run almost as fast as the player, capable of avoiding combat and quickly scampering away, preferably back into their hole, at the first sign of danger.
Loot
When a bug is killed by external factors, its body becomes squashed on the ground, and simultaneously, a swarm of harmless cockroaches can be seen pouring out of the dead bug, from which a single Shell can be salvaged via searching it.
Strategies
Due to how agile and tiny in size bugs are, the player may have a hard time dispatching them without properly understanding their movement. However, their health is low enough that they can be killed by anything in one hit.
- Using just a melee weapon, it is possible to rush a bug with a short sprint and squash it with an accurate quick attack.
- If weapon accuracy while moving seems unreliable, the player can instead have a bug retreat into a hole while running ahead of it to that hole's entrance and then squash the bug before it can escape into the hole.
- Alternatively, the player can use a cheap ranged weapon such as a Bottle to set up a Broken glass trap or to simply throw at a bug to kill it from a distance.
- If a bug goes back into a hole, the player can either return the next day for it to reappear or create a fire on top of the hole's entrance to flush it out, along with any other bugs hiding inside.
- A nice throw of a Molotov is guaranteed to disrupt the bugs, forcing them to resurface beside the hole.
- Another much cheaper method to set the hole aflame is by pouring Gasoline on the hole's entrance until a puddle is formed (at least 20 units of fuel) and then lighting it on fire. A single Matchstick will do the trick as it is a cheap and fairly abundant resource. Note that a lit Gasoline trail is insufficient to create a big enough fire and thus will not yield the same result.
- During a bug infestation, it is usually a good idea to proactively look for the sources of cockroaches suddenly swarming the hideout before the bugs come out. Once the holes have been determined and pinpointed, it will be easier to keep the infestation under control. Plus, this hideout event makes for an easy source of Shells to craft Light armors.
Trivia
- One of the Alpha updates removed bugs appearing in the Dry Meadow hideout and instead introducing their mechanics to the player in the Cottage, which was later changed into the Entrance to Silent Forest.
- In the older versions, the bug was identified as "huge bug". It is unknown when the name has been changed to just "bug".
- Developers will often refer to bugs as "spiders" in the changelogs, most likely to disambiguate between two meanings of the term: one that means the creature in-game and one that means the game bugs. Game files also refer to them as Spiders.
- Igniting a fire directly on the mouth of the hole will not set the fleeing bugs aflame when they all appear outside. It is unknown whether this was ever possible before.
- Bugs killed during a hideout infestation appear to have an inventory of 4 slots while dead regular bugs only have 2 inventory slots, indicating they are two differently-coded, unique kinds of bugs. Regardless, both variants look visually similar and carry only one Shell on their dead bodies.
- Bugs appear to be impervious to Stones as the player's throw never seems to connect even if the Stone travels directly over them. It is unclear whether this is intentional or the bug's hitbox is simply too small for the tiny Stone to ever make contact.
| Creatures | |
|---|---|
| Aggressive | |
| Banshee (Baby) • Burning Villager • Centipede • Chomper (Black • Red) • Elk • Floor Gore • Huge Dog • Human Spider • Mushroom Man • Shadow • Swamper | |
| Carnivores | |
| Banshee Baby • Centipede • Chomper (Black • Red) • Dog (Huge) • Human Spider • Swamper | |
| Passive | |
| Dog • Pig • Savage (Horned • Rock • Stick) • The Sow • Vines | |
| Peaceful | |
| Black Substance • Bride • Chicken • Crow/Raven • Glare • Growths • Huge Bug • Rabbit • Savage (Hole) • The Snout • Worms | |