It was supposed to be a normal day in Terraria. I logged in. The sun was shining. The trees were happy. The Dryad was yapping about corruption again. I stepped outside to do some casual fishing.

And that’s when I saw It.

Grubby.

A little wriggly guy, sittin’ there. Innocent. Defenseless. 5 HP. Just a critter, right?

Wrong.

I swung my Bug Net.

The screen turned red.


The music stopped. My NPCs screamed in chat and vanished one by one. The Guide combusted. The Tax Collector bled pixels. My health dropped to zero with no damage number.

I respawned.

It was still there.

Just… vibing.


I thought it was a glitch.

I switched to the terra blade and went back.

Didn’t even get to swing it.

The moment I got close, Grubby launched into the air like the Eye of Cthulhu doing meth, spun 360 degrees, and ejected a beam labeled "delete.sys" that hit me so hard my Steam profile picture changed.

I went to the forums. No help. All the posts about Grubby were just:

“Don’t.”
“He sees you.”
“We warned you.”



I wasn’t gonna take this. I wasn’t going to let some larvae disrespect me.

I grinded. I farmed every boss in the game. I killed the Moon Lord so many times he started dropping restraining orders.

I built an arena the size of a continent. Platforms, teleporters, heart statues, buff stations, a full Nurse-on-demand delivery service, Buffed every potion in the game. Even the ones with ??? as the tooltip.

I dropped a single Grubby Cage in the center of the arena.

And waited.

Grubby spawned.
But not like before...

It was glowing.

Grubby's name bar just said:


Grubby dashed. I dodged.
Grubby summoned clones. I killed them.
Grubby turned my Nurse into a Pigron mid-heal. then turned me into a Pigron. then... turned my world into a Pigron...

Halfway through Phase 3, Grubby screamed in Morse code and summoned Sans. From Undertale. In Terraria. I don’t even HAVE that mod installed.

By Phase 5, Grubby was throwing entire biomes at me. Entire biomes. I got hit by a jungle. Took 9999 damage from a TREE.

My Zenith broke. Not ran out of durability. It broke. The game popped up a tooltip:

“Too much wriggle. Can’t swing.”


I had 1 HP. No potions. Everything gone. My NPCs were watching from purgatory on Discord.
I pulled out the only item Grubby hadn’t disabled: a single Copper Shortsword, reforged to “Broken.”

I jumped.
Grubby wriggled.

We touched tips mid-air...
Everything went white...


i reloaded my world...

Everything was still..

Then…

“Grubby has been defeated.”

The sky started raining stars. My screen filled with loot:

Grubby’s Spleen (mount)
Grubby Head (vanity, whispers when worn)
Grub Wormhole (teleports you to places that don’t exist)
1 Dirt Block
Dev Note: “We didn’t code this. Who ARE you?”

My game now launches with a splash screen that just says “Champion of the Critter.” The Moon Lord sends me passive-aggressive letters. The Traveling Merchant gave me 50% off.

I put Grubby on the wall.


I don’t sleep anymore...
not because I’m no longer afraid of Grubby...
but because I miss him...