Rockgrub (Subnautica)
The Rockgrub is a very small, passive fauna species that mostly dwells in cavernous areas. Despite superficially resembling an invertebrate, the PDA states that it is a possible relative of the Sand Shark, meaning it must be a small vertebrate.
Statistics
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Attitude | Passive |
| Health | 30 |
| Active During | Cathemeral (Day and Night) |
| Debug Spawn | rockgrub |
Appearance
The Rockgrub is a tiny-sized creature with a translucent body that glows a bright bioluminescent green color. It lights up a small spherical area around itself. It has a slim, round, segmented body with two swimming fins on either side, and a larger flipper serving as its tail.
The Rockgrub has five appendages on each side of its body and a circular maw containing many small teeth.
Biology
The Rockgrub's small size would allow it to consume small bits of coral or vegetation clinging to the cliff faces that surround its habitat, as well as corpses or debris that float past it. It is unclear in-game if the species is subject to predation; however, the Rockgrubs can be seen evading larger organisms.
A powerful tail gives Rockgrubs the ability to move quickly in linear directions, but they are slow to react when turning because they lack dorsal fins and a horizontally flexible tail. Like other organisms in the mountain biomes, Rockgrubs have a chitinous plating around their bodies, forming a bioluminescent exoskeleton around their internal organs. This bioluminescence seems to light up the area around them, possibly aiding in finding food, but their lack of visible eyes indicates that it is a vestigial mutation not used by the current population. Alternatively, the eyes may be extremely small and almost invisible in this species.
Data Bank Entry
A small, luminescent scavenger, roughly thumb-sized. This creature may be a distant relative of the sand shark, sharing that species' unusual limbs, segmented exoskeleton and burrowing behavior.
- Jaw: Its circular set of teeth is designed to tear up clumps of coral and sea grass caught on the rocks.
- Limbs: Five legs, two arms and a large flipper allow the rockgrub to cling to and walk across rock faces in search of food, and swiftly swim to safety when under attack.
- Green Luminescence: Glowing green in the dark would seem like a poor survival strategy, but this adaptation may be a mating behavior or other specialized process, engaged in by only a fraction of the total population at any one time. Or perhaps being eaten is simply part of the rockgrub's lifecycle.
Assessment: Harmless
Source: Scan
Biomes
The Rockgrub is found in the following biomes:
Gallery
Bioluminescence
Size comparison with the player
Trivia
- Code in the shared assets refers to the Rockgrub as the Rock Puncher Larva. By contrast, an early Trello card refers to them as "RockPuncher Food".
- Rockgrubs are the smallest Fauna in Subnautica.
- At night, it can be difficult to see the actual Rockgrub because of its extremely bright bioluminescence.
- The Rockgrub is the only fauna to make a glow that can actually light up the surroundings.
- The Data Entry for the Rockgrub states it has five legs; however, in-game images show that it has five pairs of legs, a much more likely endowment.
