Catch 'em all with this Bugsnax tips guide

Bugsnax guide
(Image credit: Young Horses)

You'll need a great Bugsnax guide if you want to catch all of those half-bug, half-snack critters. The bugsnax of Snagtooth Island are a curious and inquisitive bunch, roaming the world's biomes without a care in the world. It's your job to snap up those snacks with precision and expertise.

In Bugsnax, you're given a creature-catching toolkit to aid you on your journey, but you'll need more than the best equipment if you want to become an expert.

Below you'll find some Bugsnax tips to give you the very best advice for catching all the little anthropomorphic foods, both for beginners and experienced players having trouble getting that one last snack. From the smallest scuttling cookies to goliath pizza monstrosities, you're going to learn how to effectively catch them all.

Bugsnax guide: My top tips for catching 'em all

Scan everything with the SnaxScope

When you first arrive on Snaggletooth Island, your BFF Beffica will give you the SnaxScope, a handy piece of equipment that lets you learn more about the bugsnax. If you want to catch all the snacks in the game, it's vital you understand their behaviours. Scanning them with the SnaxScope will provide lots of useful info.

Spotting a bugsnax you've never seen before is pretty exciting, but always ensure to scan them before you attempt to catch them (or get distracted by something and let them scurry away, if you're anything like me). When you've completed your scan, dip into your Bugpedia to see all the info you've gathered.

(Image credit: Young Horses)
Food Fusion

Bugsnax

(Image credit: Young Horses)

Bugsnax might seem like a whimsical world with charming characters, but beneath its surface lies a sinister underbelly of food-infused body horror. Those poor snacks didn't stand a chance.

Combine your equipment for expert trapping

Many of the bugsnax on the island can be caught with the most basic trap, but some of the more pesky ones need a little more thought. Snacks found later in the game, especially in the colder regions, require some planning to successfully ensnare. 

This is when you need to start combining your equipment. Having trouble guiding a bugsnax into the Trip Shot to paralyse them? Set the Trip Shot above a Launch Pad so the snack is launched directly upwards into the trap. Is a particularly angry bugsnax giving you grief? Before you unleash the Snak Trap, guide them into some water with the Buggy Ball to cool off. Getting creative with your tools is one of the best things about Bugsnax.

Upgrade your Snakpack ASAP

When you begin your snack-hunting journey, you can only hold a few of the critters in your backpack, but there is a way to expand how many you can hold at one time. 

After convincing Gramble to return to town, he'll open up his farm where he keeps his bugsnax as pets. This also unlocks a string of quests where you can donate bugsnax to his home. By completing these missions, you can upgrade your Snackpack to hold more bugsnax. The more the merrier. 

(Image credit: Young Horses)

Grab those sauces

Bugsnax are attracted or repelled by certain sauces. Using this to your advantage is key to catching them. Unfortunately, you can only carry a certain amount of sauces at one time, so grab a bunch whenever you see a plant nearby to keep your inventory full.

If you forget to collect them when out in the wild, Wambus has plenty of sauces on his farm in town and they regenerate pretty quickly. Remember to swipe a bunch of his sauces whenever you return to town and you'll never be sauce-less again. 

Look for traces of Bugsnax

Bugsnax vary in their routines and habits, so if you're struggling to find a particular snack, it's probably because it's only around at certain times of the day and/or in specific weather conditions. 

To find these snacks, start by looking for 'traces', usually sticky blobs that appear on rocks or across the ground. If you approach one of these blobs and scan it with your SnaxScope, it will offer information on what time of day and what kind of weather the snack is active in. Luckily, the weather on Snagtooth Island changes regularly, so if you sleep in a bed to skip forward a few hours, it won't take long to get the right conditions to snag that snack. 

(Image credit: Young Horses)

Don't forget to chat with the locals

A bugsnax catcher can get so caught up in finding all those food-infused creatures that they can easily forget to chat with the locals. Completing quests for the island's 'Grumps' residents not only progresses the story, but unlocks new biomes and new equipment to use in your pursuits. 

Make sure you regularly chat with characters and you'll even get to experience some pretty exciting side quests (one of which involves a giant, angry watermelon). Also, don't worry about catching all the snacks before you complete the story. Once the credits roll you can jump straight back in and continue where you left off. 

Rachel Watts

Rachel had been bouncing around different gaming websites as a freelancer and staff writer for three years before settling at PC Gamer back in 2019. She mainly writes reviews, previews, and features, but on rare occasions will switch it up with news and guides. When she's not taking hundreds of screenshots of the latest indie darling, you can find her nurturing her parsnip empire in Stardew Valley and planning an axolotl uprising in Minecraft. She loves 'stop and smell the roses' games—her proudest gaming moment being the one time she kept her virtual potted plants alive for over a year.