Grox/Trivia

This page consists of various trivia facts about the Grox as a spiecies and an empire.
 * In the Creature stage and Tribal stage, a spaceship occasionally will appear and abduct creatures and plants from the player's home planet. Using the spyglass or clicking on the ship will show what ship it is. Sometimes this is a Grox ship.


 * Their asymmetry is likely a symbol of their evil in the Spore universe, where nearly every other living creature is perfectly symmetrical.


 * If you ally with the Grox, go to one of their cities to hear their anthem. The player will hear only static and keening, but if the player waits enough, the static will disappear and one of the Grox will start singing happily in a deep, strangely not robotic, voice. (see below) This has been likened to the poetry of the Vogons from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.


 * The Grox are believed to be based largely on The Borg from the Star Trek series, in fact their name in the coding (and original name) is groB, which is Borg backwards, and sometimes when they declare war, they will say "Resistance is futile", a famous Borg quote.


 * It's probable that the first name Maxis gave to the Grox was Grob. One proof is that if you open the Spore_game.package (files with all contents on the game, found on the "Data" folder) using a special program and go to prop/#02CB089D (where information about the badges are located) there will be two files called "grobally.prop" and "grobdefeat.prop" (notice it's written grob, not grox). Both have information about the "Badge Outta Heck" and "Dance With the Devil" badges which you acquire defeating and allying with the Grox.


 * They may also be based on the idea that humans are becoming more dependent on technology, and how we (humans) may not even have been able to survive this long without our intelligence.


 * If you end your alliance with the Grox, they will take it a bit harsh, saying that anyone else would love to ally with them.


 * The Grox can be dragged and dropped into the creature editor, provided one can find the PNG, when loaded. Clicking on an asymmetric part instantly turns it symmetric, the parts do not have morph handles and the robot cranium is VERY glitchy when symmetric, they also can not be saved without a Hack unless the eyes are removed and the cybernetics are taken off


 * The followers of the Books of Science call them an experiment that has not run its full course. Despite the vagueness, there is seemingly more for the Grox in the future.


 * The Grox often make humorously poor threats and compliments due to their misunderstanding of the culture and personality of normal species, like "You will not get a holiday card this year" and "Good work! You are a credit to all slow thinking carbon based lifeforms".


 * When the Grox declare war on you, their message declaring war to you finishes with the words "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!", a reference to Dalek from the Doctor Who series.


 * Strangely enough, playing as the Grox causes you to be called the The Grox Empire in space and your color is a bright red, as opposed to their signature dark maroon.


 * If the player is allied with the Grox and uses the hologram scout near one of their cities, if the player looks at a citizen, they will see that the bright red usually seen on them is not in the detail section and, they will see a magenta-maroon color instead, this is possibly an explanation to why playing as the Grox has your color be the same bright red as seen on the Grox individual in the communication screen.


 * When a Grox colony surrenders, the transmission reads "Grox Surrender. Does Not Compute" This is a reference to robots in popular culture doing something outside of their capabilities, or when one actions against their will.


 * It is still possible to ally them without breaking Galactic Code


 * The Grox have a unique kind of eye, resembling the Beady Eye with visible eyelids, it has been nick-named "Cute eye" or "Grox eye" (though when pressing "i" over it, its name will be "Eyebissed". Parts very similar to it have been released to players in Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack they are called "Necrye" and "Hubba Hubba".


 * When pressing "i" near a cybernetic part of the body, you will see its properties. The parts all have the same name and stats as a normal part from either the Creature Editor or the Space outfitter.


 * Contrary to popular belief, the cyborg parts are not clothing from the space outfitter, but creature parts, possibly an attempt by Maxis for players to not access the bionic parts.


 * Occasionally, the Grox in the communication screen will say [the voice, not the text] "Arb zarb zub zub worb", which are common alien names/language in pop culture.


 * You cannot trade with the Grox. The button for the trade window is always grayed out, no matter how high your relationship meter is.This is most likely due to the fact that nobody would ever want to trade with them,due to their extreme hostility (however, they can still steal equipment from defeated empires, yet they do not).


 * Rather strangely, the Grox seem to not be affected by dense gravity, if they were their muscle and bone mass would shrink and weaken beyond use.


 * If Soothing Song is used on the Grox, all empires in a close distance will wage a war on your empire.


 * Some state that the Grox become tougher when Patch 3 is installed, this has sparked rage in the spore community because many players "have had enough of the Grox".


 * The number of the planets the Grox control is 2400. Backwards, this number is 0042 (42). This could possibly mean that the Grox are the antithesis to Life, the Universe, and Everything.


 * Allying with the Grox will give you a -200 in your relationship with all other empires. There will be lots of incoming messages.


 * There is a Maxis creature named "Knot The Grawx". It sounds a lot like "Not The Grox" and looks a lot like a penguin.


 * The name "Grox" was used as a name for a concept creature on SporeWiki as early as in 2006. This is almost certainly a coincidence.


 * The Grox is also name of cow-like reptile in the board game Warhammer 40k background.


 * The equivalent of the Grox in Spore Creatures DS is Gar' skuther, despite differences such as Gar' skuther being a singular entity of an unknown species, as opposed the Grox being an empire. Gar' skuther also has cyborg parts, but these are in fact normally usable without cheating.


 * If you ally with Grox and then take an archetype-changing mission from another empire, the Grox will now also have an archetype-changing mission in their mission list. However, they automatically decline, saying only "***".


 * You are able to use Galactic Code-breaking weapons against most of the Grox planets, without this damaging your relationship with other empires. This is due to the Grox being the only spacefaring race in a huge area.
 * If you manage to get past the outer Grox planets and towards the galactic core (probably using cheats, or by defeating them systematically), it's a good idea to colonize some planets to keep you supplied with weapons.


 * If you have set up some colonies in the Grox empire, there's a chance of other nearby planet becoming space faring. They are usually T1 planets, so it's a good idea to improve their planets to T3 and use the race advancing tool to improve your relationship and speed up their advancment process.


 * Sometimes, an empire will reference the Grox in its dialogue. When Ecologist empires contact you from out of a solar system, they sometimes say "As long as you are not machine life, we welcome you", referencing the Grox. Additionally, when a Warrior empire is telling you about their philosophy, they will say that "there is only one empire that [they] cannot defeat, but you are not them".


 * Sometimes the Grox will scream when you enter the galactic core.


 * During your first few missions, you will have to visit a new planet. On this planet a few drones will attack you and say "Grox999". It is noted that with volume on the Grox's random gibberish sometimes will go into a frequency change, and during which the Grox will make a sound that is like grobnineninenine. (grob999)