How I Destroyed the Grox Empire in Spore on Hard

[@caliperstorm8343]

Imagine being the Grox, ruling at the center of the galaxy and terrorizing other species for millions of years, only to be completely destroyed in a relative instant by a determined speedrunner lol

[@Tirocoa]

This is basically what happened to the Achaemenid Empire.

[@bengoodwin2141]

It has to be at least 4 billion, because there's a Grox probe in the intro cutscene

[@WarFoxThunder]

​@@bengoodwin2141WOW

[@jonathanpilcher337]

​@@Tirocoanot quite, it was already in the process of falling

[@Toileetpapr]

@@jonathanpilcher337 the Grox might’ve been in a decline too. I might just be coping though.

[@Archer690Channel]

if you ally the grox every empire hates you, but if you destroy them no one says thanks? smh the hypocricy congrats on completing this run.

[@perrytran9504]

There is a Soviet Union/Nazi Germany joke here somewhere just waiting to be told.

[@Furufoo]

To be fair, I think I'd be pretty wary of an empire that committed the mother of all genocides. Even if it was against the Grox

[@bingusbongus9807]

@@Furufoo yeah, id want to be on their good side so id send a thanks

[@goldengolem4670]

@@bingusbongus9807 Maybe they just want to pretend they dont even exist, keep their heads down and all that.

[@pro-hz7kx]

Well they don’t know for what reason you decided to destroy Grox, whether to save them or just retake the throne

[@Infovorousness]

Imagine watching an unknown alien race with an invincible ship, impossibly ally the most feared empire in the galaxy, almost immediately betray them, and proceed to destroy their entire civilization one planet at a time. It’s like something out of a sci-fi horror story

[@ultmateragnarok8376]

Also those other two empires getting singled out, all surrounding competitors obliterated, and then left to grow for goals I doubt they understand.

[@JarvisTastic]

*left to grow and then asking to learn more about their culture, becoming devout adherents of their ways, and then immediately switching to something else, AND THEN coming right back afterwards and learning anew from the beginning. Truly an indecipherable intelligence that these aliens have!!

[@BaronSterling]

The only thing I could think of that could be even harder than this would be the complete inverse of this challenge. Ally the Grox, and then wipe out every other empire that ISN'T the Grox.

[@TwoHeadedMeerkat]

Then you could betray the Grox at the end and just let them destroy your home-planet, so _only_ the Grox are left

[@mistersmith2549]

Use the planet buster on every single planet in every single star system until there are no colonizeable planets left in the galaxy.

[@danmueller4021]

It's been done

[@draig8259]

@@danmueller4021 It has? By whom?

[@Alphacuremom55]

​@@danmueller4021I gotta see that 😂

[@perrytran9504]

Stellaris players: "God late game wars are so tedious." You: "AMATEURS."

[@Raymuk]

Stellaris players: "What was that, punk?!"

[@cabbage426]

I can't believe I'd never thought of this, but the overlap between the Spore and Stellaris fanbase must be massive. A lot of Stellaris players probably grew up on Spore as kids.

[@perrytran9504]

@@cabbage426 That's the whole reason I got into Stellaris as an adult, it looked like everything space stage should've been and it is. I also made a bunch of custom empires based on Maxis creations and the space stage archetypes.

[@SwitchyWitch_]

@@cabbage426 Yep! Grew up on Star Control II and Spore (mostly Spore since SCII is, quite hard, but VERY memorable) and eventually moved to Stellaris Though after playing Stellaris for quite a few times (613 hours as of currently, not that long but longer than most my games played) I've sadly gotten quite tired of it lol

[@ESALTEREGO]

​@@SwitchyWitch_ yeah, stellaris is probably (certainly) the most shallow paradox game

[@Wikarian99PL]

I learned so many new thing about Spore from this, Archetypes, Personality, Grox have different type of city, there is a map to see whole galaxy

[@TheIzzlzzy]

Agreed! :0

[@kikiretzorg1467]

It’s been almost 16 years since I played Spore for the first time and only today did I learn that if you end an alliance with The Grox the game treats it like an awkward breakup

[@Crow_Rising]

Same. Never expected such an aggressive and antisocial civilization to be secretly lonely. Seems their aggression is a result of their own insecurities rather than a genuine hatred for the other civilizations, which kind of reminds me of Invader Zim.

[@davidh8271]

VanillaCold straight patching a crash bug in a 20 year old game. That's some impressive work!

[@glass7923]

I don't know why, but hearing that Spore got a mod in 2024 makes me a bit happy. Also based.

[@lambybunny7173]

Spore modding community is fairly active!

[@biffney]

@@lambybunny7173 yup. there's an active server dedicated to modding with mods updating and releasing every week or so

[@bdura2021]

​@@lambybunny7173It's pretty sleepy right now, if I'll be honest. I've been checking a lot, haven't been seeing anything new crop up. But with a nigh-completely fixed flora editor now, we are so balling

[@Toileetpapr]

@@lambybunny7173 wait what?! Where?

[@Alphacuremom55]

​@@lambybunny7173 Really had no clue, where??

[@jurjen909]

I just realised the Badge for destroying the Grox is literally just mounting their head on a medal.

[@thatguywhoanimids]

That’s brutal, for the grox that is

[@Donyas5]

i was there during the finale, watched the whole stream

[@lollovec]

Ye

[@TheIzzlzzy]

🫡

[@TaioTube]

Vanillacold's a real one ngl

[@JarvisTastic]

Truly the MVP of spore for all time

[@clawfoot3786]

I like how the Grox take you severing the alliance very personally. Good work on the run!

[@gigaszef8985]

u can make any empire grow to lvl 4/5 from lvl1 in 20min. U just have to make an allience with em, then pay em to attack someone and fly there to make sure they ll win :) this way u can easily force any empire to expand.

[@KinglyValence]

That's a good idea, I didn't think of directing another empire to attack to capture more territory quickly!

[@Steffchouu]

Let's go! Crashes... The Grox super weapon 😂

[@ThisIsABadIdeaSrsly]

I remember slowly absorbing the grox by buying their colonies. For some reason, they always accepted the minimum possible offer for any and all systems. Probably because of the T0 habitability in every one of their colonies.

[@SockyNoob]

I remember when they said this would take 100 years to accomplish lol.

[@Strix2031]

Lmao the Grox breakup message

[@MrRyanroberson1]

when i had beat the grox, i remember doing a very incremental strategy- start by carving out a section with the staff of life, each one destroys a grox system immediately. then just gradually eat away at their border, establishing colonies and farming among yourself to get more colonies and so on to distract from your now tier-3 inhabitable systems as made by the staff of life. i did this with allied ships in my party

[@sylnz97]

really love how active the spore community is

[@medic885]

Maybe I am just tired right now and brainrotted from listening to ASMR, but you have a really pleasant and charismatic sounding voice imo.

[@XYZB0RG]

using refillmotives at the end is the cherry on the top

[@susaac9755]

The guy that fixed the game is the GOAT

[@АлександрГоготов-д7ь]

GG! Your dedication is inspiring. It never fails to amaze me how complicated this old game of my childhood is and how one can constantly learn something new about it for over ten years.

[@themachodolphin7565]

“We will not be cheating” “now let us duplicate all this spice” 😂

[@1980woodpixie]

That`s a glitch, not a cheat.

[@hansmoleman2666]

Semantics really, but cope and sneed.

[@PaddySacker]

So the thing is, this could be considered cheating if there were any formal rules to this challenge. But this challenge doesn't have a competitive scene because it's very hard and tedious and Spore is not super popular as it once was. I think it's permissible because infinite spice production is actually pretty easy after you get enough planets, which setting that up only takes a fraction of the time the full challenge would take. But constantly worrying about getting full containers of spice naturally would make the challenge take ages more. The end result is technically the same, just one method is faster. Not that anyone is really concerned or needs to think about it this hard.

[@thebiolibrary5572]

Just giving yourself money is a no go. Duplicating purple spice? Ain't no jokers here, you didn't touch the console so who cares?

[@TARDISES]

@@1980woodpixie Which is an important distinction because this was never stated to be a glitchless run. Nor would there ever be a glitchless category for this.

[@RichPhillibob]

I’ve always wanted to do this and now I know what it’s like. Great video!

[@Lunaboops]

Next Challenge: Conquering & Settling every single star system in the galaxy, true Galactic Unification I can't even begin to imagine how long it would take. 52 hours to kill the grox, without even replacing the colonies with your own.

[@Delmworks]

That would be absurd even in Stellaris

[@grantfomin6829]

Do it but also make every planet T3

[@borntopwnyou]

Great Crusade%

[@Delmworks]

@@borntopwnyou The current world record has taken 40k years and counting!

[@kanix01]

i love spore how cool is the fact that you can visit your other saves in game personally i just capture and terraform 42 (iykyk) grox systems per save and now (after over 600 hours) i took about half of the grox

[@JarvisTastic]

This video is gold for a handful of reasons, but I think the anti crash fix and the galaxy view downloads are at the top of the list. Excellent work!

[@Zapdos0145]

this better hit the recommended of every spore enthusiast

[@sylviancreedmarsh9171]

You’re incredibly cool for making this and getting into streaming about it!! Congrats on such long project.

[@infinite7887]

VanillaCold is a real one for that

[@lilben9441]

Glad I could see this happen live ! Congrats again for the VICTORY !

[@marrowpetaldrainingroot2452]

Been trying to kill all grox lost so many saving glad to see their is a badge for killing them GG

[@Swaggerpede]

its been amazing folliowing you on this journey

[@Detrebio]

This was an entertaining view, with a very clear exposition and a relaxing voiceover. Nice.

[@Steffchouu]

17:41 Hey nice cameo 😂

[@sabrasabranise3335]

hehe congrats

[@sigismvnd]

I was so happy to see 18:15 as well :^)

[@Steffchouu]

​@@sigismvndIndeed!

[@agentmem-678]

I tried to get all space badges once but didn't have the balls to do it. And you made a speedrun of it. Huge respect.

[@mizzikitti4952]

good work man, thats a lot of dedication

[@MissNulle2000]

For giving us a Grox free galaxy you are LEGENDARY.

[@rorystockley5969]

What a ridiculous badge. Maxis was on something when they decided all the badge criteria for this game

[@WasabiKitCat]

To be fair you don't really need to unlock the really difficult badges, they're more like challenges you could try to complete but aren't required to. I'd be a little disappointed if there _wasn't_ a badge or really any kind of reward for defeating the grox, it's a pretty natural train of thought to make doing so a goal so it makes sense that Maxis would add a badge to acknowledge the efforts of especially determined players.

[@Delmworks]

Probably thoguh people would actually play the space section seriously and ignore the rest and not the other way round

[@deputyhobbs9683]

there would be no point in destroying the grox if there wasn't a badge, maxis actually acknowledged it as possible and gave an achievement for it. most games that put out a nearly impossible task that's supposed to never be done don't reward the one psycho that actually succeeds.

[@davidmende3409]

VanillaCold is an absolut legend for that fix

[@FlyingFairyS2]

And even a save for a grox free galaxy! Now I can grow my pacifist little monsters so free and peacefully, I think, and free of evil, probably. Thank you, my cute prince.

[@joshuahwieland8676]

The streams were awesome

[@ni-dirus]

Vamillacold is a real human being and a real hero

[@sabrasabranise3335]

Congrats !! That seemed hard to do !

[@cleanerben9636]

even with cheats, I never had the determination to wipe out the grox. well done.

[@voguishthrone5887]

These were such fun streams!

[@GRIFFIIIIITH]

i love this man's dedication

[@mostlyghostey]

It's so great to see your face!!!

[@magimagi5004]

14:08 love that Grox plane having a stroke

[@Youmu_Konpaku_]

Dang you actually pulled through it all. Fascinating that it took way less than i expected Someone could probably do this without exploits but add 20 more hours of refueling and stuff. Anyways GG :D

[@cc1drt]

Although I didnt interact much in chat, I watched about half of this speedrun live. you're the goat bro. Do you think theres any merit to optimizing the consequence traits in the earlier stages then converting to shaman in space stage to get return ticket?

[@KinglyValence]

Thanks! The only other consequence trait that could have been better for Space would be Carnivore/Red out of Cell Stage for the Power Monger, but I think getting Shaman early for the invincibility is still better. I'd want to switch to Fanatical Frenzy later still since that is the best once we are invincible. And switching the Shaman later for the Split Personality missions requires using Paint or Sculpting tools on 150 different planets, which would take a pretty long time. I think the consequence traits we got in this run are pretty good!

[@cc1drt]

@@KinglyValence oh that makes sense, the carnivore trait is just inconsequential with the strategies you’ve put together. thanks!

[@wartime550]

I need to learn how to play the space stage haha seems like there’s so many things to take care of. It’s been fun re-learning a classic game like spore

[@light6666]

Pov you just noticed 5 collonies where destroyed by 1 tiny ship with endless nukes: "darn why did we meet this bloodthirsty species"

[@yasinhenfs4540]

Time for the next Video reaching 1M+ view in some time. (maybe adjust the title to "... the entire Grow Empire"? just a thought as it makes clear how you literally obliterated every city of the almost uncountable planets)

[@KinglyValence]

That's a good idea, I might try experimenting with the title and see how it goes! :D

[@internal.galaxy]

I love Spore. Cool video! 😊

[@WellSwolen69]

Next up, destroy all life in the Spore Galaxy

[@sourfrogstin]

All things said that is a really good time, cheers

[@khmnc]

back when the game first came out i killed the grox. it took a loooong time. i developed these sort of hit and run tactics where i'd go to their worlds as quickly as i could and continuously flew forward while terraforming the world. they wouldn't be able to catch me and once i brought the atmosphere up a level all the cities on the planet would be destroyed.

[@Golden_wings_of_demise]

the Grox alliance messages if to fuckin funny

[@shepherdsnowleopard331]

You sound like a huggable plushie~

[@truthert]

I personally prefer to use the planet terraforming tools to kill the grox. It certainly is slower, but you get actual liveable planets from out of it

[@kolpere1625]

The great crusade against forgettable xenos. Colourized

[@Scurwesyn]

Now it's time for taking whole galaxy for yourself.

[@eliteknight2137]

2:57 I never had in any of my playthroughs moon with anything else than yellow or red spice. And you got the rarest purple.

[@danlt1497]

It took me like 4 months to wipe them... on Hard and no cheats. Basically after colonizing a system near their area and develop/find species to do trading to get stacked on resources, I ventured to the center then do my HQ on the center wiping the area of Grox while defending colonized planets and developing ally species in there. Then after making a larger area free of grox the planet buster and Zealot power spam came in to avoid hostilities on the center. It became repetitive because of such meta of storming in>bomb>convert but managed.

[@evervirescent]

vanillacold is such a goat fr

[@Geskawary234]

Wow, you actually did it!!!

[@tapejara1507]

Spore trophies are something else

[@tearlach47]

It has not been 5 months... there's no way!

[@KinglyValence]

Can't believe it myself!

[@augustussantos]

All Hail Vanillacold!!

[@apostleoforder]

congrats on completing the run!! i always smiled when i saw you start streaming again! i can't seem to find which video it is where you talk about setting up Grox trading, but do you know if trading is still available for other save games if you delete the save you first set it up on?

[@KinglyValence]

Thanks! Here's the video about trading with the Grox :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIjRpmudgs2Ajac The Grox trading should still work even if the first saved game that activated the trading is deleted. As long as it was saved once, that whole galaxy I think should still work!

[@apostleoforder]

@@KinglyValence thank you so much!!

[@ihaztehSNIPAH]

I forgot about spore.... I bought it on release, played every stage up until the space stage a ton, and dropped it. I don't think I've seen half of what the space stage offers even a little bit. Strange move past me!

[@bio-garbage]

Destroying every single planet is the Galaxy.

[@UserNameHere-yb5fu]

Hello, how many hours do you think you have in spore? Love the content too man thanks for what you do

[@KinglyValence]

Thank you so much for the super!

[@peteriter]

First Warhammer and now the prince of Persia. Sargon it’s everywhere now.

[@nonreligionist]

So glad you avoided cheating by cheating

[@diehorribly9333]

Man why did this pop up on my youtube, gonna make me reinstall after all these years. The sporepedia still down? Can't believe they did that.

[@nandorv.8876]

Congrats!

[@cometnight0]

We aren't going to use the games cheat console, however I am going to perform an infinite spice and invincibility glitch lol Just to be clear i dont have a problem with it, i just find it funny

[@Swolegard]

loved the streams

[@ismailagasiev]

Can you please check what happens with all grox related mission in game after their empire gone?

[@AttmozGlaishur]

Soft lock on that quest specifically

[@gigaszef8985]

congratulations

[@GutsFromGerk]

Based Nicol Bolas profile picture

[@novak1348]

What a legend!

[@eggegg3787]

I love your videos!

[@Visigothicc]

Babe wake up new spore vid

[@Al-ombre]

thx for translate your good video ^^

[@uberfreak2]

I miss my old file. I kept a filter mouth on my creature and ended creature stage as just one segment with a filter mouth (made tribal stage harder)

[@mrnobody.4069]

in my experience putting the graphics to maximum and trying to put your graphics cache to somewhere in the middle will reduce your chances of crashing significantly.

[@Orzech66]

That was crazy man

[@Spooksreal]

Wonder how many game crashes where caught during the streams 💀

[@KinglyValence]

Maybe close to 100 lol

[@abe-danger]

would a video on the topic of how to install spore mods be something for the (near-) future?

[@KinglyValence]

I might show off some more mods in the future but thankfully modding Spore was really easy and there's a whole discord that can help too! discord.gg/YUcJWtb

[@davidunbekannt1178]

Awesome! I would love to see a Spore Rework? :) Can we make it happen?

[@Phobic_Nova]

i still wish i joined at least one stream o this-

[@notchitsusu5922]

You are the face of Spore

[@andrew.r.lukasik]

The very last badge to unlock should be called "Autism".

[@peter-rg9jf]

Pick this galaxy back up and conquest the universe

[@nekoman8560]

At 16:48 you say clearing a planet takes 20-30 seconds. How long does it take to raise a Grox planet’s T-score to 1, which kills all the Grox and conquers the planet instantly

[@KinglyValence]

I timed it and it took about 45 seconds with just the energy based terraforming tools, or about 35 seconds also using a volcano/one of the ammo terraforming tools to raise a Grox planet to T1. It also took a lot more spaceship energy to use the tools which would probably end up taking longer needing to buy a lot more Energy Packs. Also unfortunately we can't just drop a volcano and leave because we need to be present on the planet when the terra score is at least 1 for the grox cities to be destroyed. The terra score is still improved not being on the planet, but the grox will still exist there until we return to the planet.