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Grox is a Featured Article
"Grox" has been featured, meaning it was deemed an article of interest by the Community.
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“Being useful to the Grox is good for your survival.”
- - The Grox
The Grox are a species of cyborg aliens that are the primary antagonists of Spore's Space Stage and serve as the final obstacle towards the player's goal of reaching the Galactic Core. Controlling 2400 systems in an approximately 2000-parsec circumference around the Galactic Core, the Grox possess the largest and most formidable non-player empire in the Space Stage. The Grox are innately territorial and hostile to all other empires in the galaxy (including the player), and possess a unique and unobtainable archetype.
Overview
Characteristics
“The Grox are the ultimate evil in the galaxy. They are machines that exist entirely outside of nature.”
- - Stones of Life 5
Concept art of the Grox, provisionally named Grob
All in-game information regarding the Grox (with the exception of the Books of Science) unanimously view them as the primary antagonistic force of the galaxy; an extremely hostile machine race with unnatural characteristics that have established a massive territory around the Galactic Core. Other in-game information, such as the Scrolls of Harmony theorise that the Grox were 'created' for unknown reasons and purposes, though many other sources surmise that they are protecting, or guarding against something of value hidden within the galactic core. The view of the Grox being unnatural beings is reasoned by their ability to survive solely on T0 planets; they cannot survive on planets of a higher T-score, and abducted Grox are immediately destroyed, being categorised as 'too toxic for your Cargo Hold'. The abundance of T0 planets within the vicinity of the galactic core allow for the Grox to spread and colonise planets rapidly as part of the game's mechanics to keep the Grox as a formidable obstacle. The Grox are far more distrusting than Warrior archetypes (an innate relationship modifier of -70 as opposed to the Warrior archetype's -15 or -30) and are immediately hostile to the player. As a result, the Grox are difficult to either defeat or ally due to their aggression and survivability.
Concept art of the Grox spaceship
Almost all philosophy archetypes are mutually hostile to the Grox. Scientists and Diplomats do not actively hate them; Scientists treat them neutrally as a scientific curiosity, and Diplomats view them as a potentially powerful ally. Bard archetypes comically view them as "no fun at all", and accuse them of "not explaining what ticks them off". Warrior and Knight archetypes belligerently view them as rivals who present the 'ultimate challenge', while Traders view them as enemies of universal happiness and prosperity. Archetypes such as Zealots, Shamans and Ecologists are far more acrimonious towards the Grox, with Zealots treating them as anathema to Spode. Shamans and Ecologists view them as perverse and against the harmony of the natural order. They are uninamously viewed as enemies due to the contested ownership of the galactic core, which all archetypes treat with desire.
Creature
The Grox as they appear in-game
The Grox are unique in that they possess ten creature parts that are both unique to them and are asymmetrical (which was impossible to replicate prior to Patch 1.05). Due to the game's restrictions by way of their unique parts, the Grox are unplayable creatures in-game and cannot be accessed without removing the unique creature parts or with third-party mods. The remainder of the Grox creature's parts that are accessible to the player are notably low-level parts that are available from the beginning of the Creature Stage.
The ten Grox parts are shown below, independently of the Grox creature. These parts are unavailable to the player without third-party mods.
Buildings and Vehicles
Unlike other non-player empires whose buildings and vehicles are randomly chosen, the Grox are assigned unique assets that are inaccessible to the player without being edited. Multiple identical replications of the Grox's assets are available via Sporepedia and SporeWiki.
- Buildings
- Vehicles
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Strategy
Notes
Trivia
Spore - The Grox Anthem
- The Grox have a unique, non-procedurally generated anthem which can be heard if the player hovers over a Grox-owned city (video).
- A crashed spaceship can sometimes be found during the Creature Stage, which will remain on the planet throughout the game. If it is a Grox ship, it will have a purple cloud floating over it (with no effect on the player).
- In both the Creature Stage and Tribal Stage, spaceships will occassionally abduct creatures from the player's planet. More often than not, the ship is the Grox Spaceship.
- The Grox's resemble the cryptid aliens from the Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter
- As it takes over one billion years in-game to reach the Space Stage, it is assumed that the Grox are at least as old due to their encounters in earlier stages.
- Little is mentioned about the Grox in Spore's owner manual. It only states to 'beware the Grox, as they do not understand relationships'.
- If the Grox are defeated and the player starts a new game, the Grox will not appear once the player reaches the Space Stage.
- During the game's beta stages, the Grox were named Grob.
- If you end your alliance with the Grox, they will take it quite personally. They will say that 'anyone else would love to ally with them', despite being universally hated by all other empires.
- It is impossible to trade with the Grox. The trade button will always be greyed out, no matter how high the player's relationship is. However a rare glitch will allow one to trade with them. If one were to meet the Grox before any other empire, one may trade with them, although they will not have the 'advanced technology' that other empires claim they have.
- The Grox offer twice the payment for their missions. For example, an eradication mission usually pays 75,000 Sporebucks, but the Grox will offer 150,000.
- If the Soothing Song ability is used on the Grox, all empires within a certain distance will instantly lose a number of relationship points, usually resulting in declaring war.
- Allying with the Grox will lower relationship points by 200 for every empire in the entire galaxy to instantly declare war. If one uplifts a planet with a Monolith, they will also instantly declare war once they reach the Space Stage.
- The Grox are believed to be based largely on the Borg from the Star Trek series. In fact their internal name is ‘Grob’, which is ‘Borg’ spelled backwards.
- Sometimes, when they declare war they will say “Resistance is futile!”, a famous Borg quote, or “EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!”, a reference to the Daleks from the Doctor Who series.
- In “Oh, Say Can You Say?” (A Dr. Seuss book) there is an animal called a Grox.
In-Game Dialogue
The Grox's unique archetype gives them a distinctive voice, characterised as a series of machine-like sounds with wildly fluctuating and 'glitched' character:
The following dialogues are cut from the final game:
PNGs
Game-compatible PNGs for the Grox's assets, including the Grox creature itself, are available here to download:
