Gotta Catch Bugs!

Gotta Catch Bugs! drops you into an underground lab where 5,000 mutant insects have just gotten loose, and hands you a net. Myth Indie's cozy first-person catcher launches on Steam on November 24, 2026, and this guide walks through the catch-carry-return loop, the gear upgrades, all 25 bug powers you can steal from your catch, and the route planning that makes a 500-species collection manageable.

What Is Gotta Catch Bugs!?

You are intern Peter P., and it is your first day at an underground lab. The day goes badly fast: a mutant plant smashes the control panel, the staff evacuates, and 5,000 mutant bugs scatter across three floors. The scientists are gone. The bugs are everywhere. Someone has to round them up, and that someone is you.

The pitch is pure cozy: no combat, no timers, just sweeping a net through overgrown corridors and listening to jars clink. The lab setting gives it structure that most bug-catching games lack. Three floors and more than 30 rooms form a hand-built space to clear room by room, and the mutant plant that started the mess promises some kind of escalation as you dig deeper.

Steam's community tagging places it in Creature Collector, Collectathon, Hidden Object, and Cleaning territory alongside the obvious Casual and Cozy labels. That combination tells you how it actually plays: part sweeping job, part seek-and-find. Bugs hide in overgrowth, under furniture, and in dark corners, so the hidden-object DNA is as important as the net physics.

The scale numbers are the eye-catchers: 5,000 bugs loose in the lab, 500 species to collect, and 25 powers to earn from your catch. That is a genuine collection game, not a two-hour toy.

How to Play: Catch, Carry, Return

The loop is three beats, and the store page states it plainly: catch, carry, return. You swing your net at bugs, tip your catch into a jar, and bring every bug back to its terrarium.

The Catch

Netting is a first-person action. You aim the net and swing through a bug or a cluster of them. Small bugs go down in one pass. The 5,000 loose insects include everything from fireflies to scorpions, so expect the later floors to hold catches that do not cooperate.

The Hidden Object tag matters here. Not every bug announces itself. Some sit still in the overgrowth until you sweep close, and dark rooms hide species you will only spot once a light power is in rotation. Scan each room slowly before sweeping: a missed bug is the reason a "cleared" room still shows movement ten minutes later.

The Carry

Your jar holds what you catch, and jar capacity is one of the core upgrade tracks. Full jars mean a walk back to the terrarium, so the game has a natural push-pull: push deeper into the lab for rarer species, or bank what you have and return. Carrying several partial jars beats one overfilled jar if the rare you came for shows up mid-run.

The Return

Every bug goes back to its terrarium. Returning does two things: it registers the species in your collection and it earns you that bug's power. Powers are the real progression currency, which makes what you catch matter more than how many.

Your Gear Grows

The kit upgrades as you play, and the store page lays out the arc:

The vacuum cleaner is the headline upgrade. Swarms are the natural counter to a net, and 5,000 bugs implies a lot of swarming. Once the vacuum joins your kit, the floors that felt tedious open up.

The 25 Bug Powers

Catching bugs earns you their powers. Three are named on the store page and they hint at how the rest are structured:

• Web traps pin or slow targets, which turns escape-prone bugs into easy catches.
• The grasshopper's jump adds vertical and horizontal mobility, opening parts of the lab you cannot reach with a walk.
• Firefly light brightens dark corners, and underground labs have plenty of those.

Twenty-five powers across 25 groups of species maps cleanly: each species group carries one power. That gives the collection real direction. If a room is too dark, you are hunting the firefly group. If a high shelf hides a rare species, you are hunting the grasshopper group. Read your missing powers as a to-do list.

The Collection: 500 Species

The numbers break down neatly: 25 groups of 20 species each make 500 species total. The confirmed range runs from fireflies to scorpions, which suggests the groups split along habitat and behavior lines rather than pure appearance. Ground bugs, flying bugs, glowing bugs, swarming bugs. Each group holds 20 variants to sweep up.

A collection this size needs a plan. Work floors systematically rather than chasing the first bug you see, because the terrarium (your collection hub) shows what you have registered and, by extension, what a floor still owes you. Completionists should expect the 5,000 total insects to include many repeat individuals per species: the species count is 500, the pest population is much larger.

Reading the Lab: Floors and Rooms

The lab is small enough to learn and big enough to lose an afternoon in. Treat each floor as a chapter with its own identity, and clear it before descending:

Thirty-plus rooms sounds like a lot until you realize most rooms hold one solution: a species group you need for a power you want. Walk in, scan for movement, sweep, check the terrarium register, move on. The rooms that resist that rhythm are the ones holding a power species, and those are worth the extra ten minutes.

The overgrowth is doing narrative work too. The mutant plant smashed the control panel, and the deeper you go, the more the lab looks like its territory. Environmental storytelling in a bug-catching game is rare, and Myth Indie is clearly spending some of their art budget on making the descent feel like a descent.

Power Routes: Order of Operations

Because every power comes from a specific species group and every power solves a specific obstacle, the fastest completion route is the one that unlocks problem-solving powers early. Build your route around these three dependencies:

Darkness first. Underground labs gate their best content behind visibility. Fireflies are common, easy targets on the upper floors, so registering the firefly group early pays off for the rest of the game. Once firefly light is on rotation, dark rooms stop being dead ends and start being hunting grounds.

Mobility second. Shelves, ducts, and overgrown ledges hide species that walking cannot reach. The grasshopper's jump converts those unreachable corners into catchable space, and a lot of the mid-floor species count lives up there. Grab it before you commit to a deep-floor sweep.

Control last. Web traps fix the problem you meet in the deep floors: fast bugs that outrun a net swing. By the time you need them, you will already have light and jump, which means you can see and reach the web-spinners that grant the power.

This ordering is deduction from the confirmed power set and lab layout, not a published walkthrough, but the logic holds for any collector structured this way: unlock sight, then reach, then control, and the rest of the collection clears itself in order.

Tips for First-Day Interns

Clear a room before moving on. Thirty-plus rooms is the game's own suggested pace. Leaving one bug behind in a cleared room is how floors turn into backtracking chores.

Upgrade the jar early. Bigger net range feels good, but jar capacity cuts return trips, and return trips are the real time cost of the loop.

Save the vacuum for swarms, not singles. Single bugs net faster. The vacuum earns its slot when a corridor boils with tiny fliers.

Hunt powers with purpose. Every missing power is a tool for a specific problem. Stuck on darkness, height, or fast bugs? The fix is a species group you have not cleared yet.

Re-check rooms after new powers. A room you cleared in the dark was not fully cleared. Return with firefly light and the corners you skipped will cough up hidden species.

Watch for the mutant plant. It smashed the control panel and started everything. An instigating hazard that big is almost certainly part of the deeper floors. Expect the lab to get stranger the further down you go.

It launches November 24. The store page is live now. Family Sharing is supported, so one purchase covers the household.

FAQ

When does Gotta Catch Bugs! release?

November 24, 2026 on Steam for Windows.

How much does it cost?

Myth Indie has not shown a price on the store page yet. Wishlist it and Steam will notify you the moment it unlocks on November 24.

How many bugs are in the game?

5,000 individual bugs are loose in the lab across 500 collectible species, organized into 25 groups of 20 species each.

What powers can you get?

25 powers total, earned by catching their source species. Confirmed examples include web traps, the grasshopper's jump, and firefly light.

Is there combat?

No. This is a catching and collecting game. The net, the jar, and later the vacuum cleaner are your entire toolkit, and nothing in the store description suggests enemies that fight back.

How big is the lab?

Three floors with more than 30 rooms, all overgrown after the mutant plant broke loose.

Is it good for kids?

The tone is cozy and the Family Sharing support makes it easy to share. Bug collection, no violence, no timers, and Steam's community tags include Family Friendly. As always, check the store page's age rating at launch for the official word.

What languages does it support?

Eight at launch: English, Russian, French, German, Spanish (Spain), Simplified Chinese, Portuguese-Brazil, and Japanese. All interface text; no full audio in any language.

Does it work on Steam Deck?

The store lists Steam Deck compatibility as unknown before launch. The first-person, mouse-and-keyboard-style controls suggest checking reviews after release before buying for Deck.

Is it like Bugsnax or Kabuto Park?

The closest comparisons are first-person creature collectors with a catching tool and a collection hub. Gotta Catch Bugs! differs in structure: a single hand-built lab instead of an open world, and a powers system that turns every catch into an ability rather than pure collection fodder.

Do bugs escape or respawn?

Nothing in the store description mentions bugs escaping the lab or de-spawning. The framing is containment, not a stock that drains, so treat the population as a fixed 5,000 waiting to be sorted.

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Last reviewed by Game How To Editorial. We play each game, verify controls against official sources, and update guides when game mechanics change.