Palia Bugging Out Quest Guide | How to Catch Infected Insects

When first exploring the Elderwood you may have tried to catch a Rockhopper or other insect that was covered with a black aura. The bag goes right through and a prompt comes up you need something to suppress that aura. Bugging Out, a main quest that can occur after The Nature of Shadows, gives you the ability to catch infected bugs in the Elderwood of Palia.

Palia | Bugging Out Quest Walkthrough

Bugging Out can be started right after The Nature of Shadows if you select insect catching as your interest for animal specimens. Otherwise the quest will become available after you complete the one you select, either Something Fishy or Shot in the Dark. 

Regardless of the order you do the quests, Subria will direct you towards Auni, the resident bug catcher, to help with your endeavor. Auni can often be found in front of Zeki's shop, in the Ormuu's Horn, or near his tree house. Checking the Kilima Valley map will show his exact location when you're looking for him. 

Once found ask for his help in catching infected bugs. He gets very excited in being able to assist you in ridding the Elderwood of evil. After chatting he'll head off to Najuma's house where you are to meet him. Head to Bahari Bay to speak with the explosives expert. Auni runs off at the end of the dialogue. Before you dash after him Najuma will give you a list of what she needs to make special smoke bombs. 

• Batterfly Beans x3
• Piksii Berries x3
• Staircase Mushroom x3
• Infected Essence x10
• Optional: Find Auni in the Elderwood

You'll want to find Auni as he's gotten himself in a bit of a bind. The marker will show you the way to his location in the Deep Woods where he's stuck up a tree. Chat with him before you help him down to the ground. He heads back home, ending his role in Bugging Out. 

After you've found all the items for Najuma, return to her house in Bahari Bay. She'll thank you while wondering what kind of fireworks she could make out of the infected essence. When she focuses on the task at hand she'll hand over Elderwood Smoke Bomb x20 and the Elderwood Smoke Bomb recipe.

Elderwood Smoke Bomb x20 Recipe

To make your own Elderwood Smoke Bombs, you'll need the following ingredients:

• Whitestone x1
• Silk x1
• Infected Essence 

If you selected Bugging Out as the first way to collect living creatures for Subira after The Nature of Shadows, the quest will continue. If it's one of the secondary acitivities, the quest will end here. 

To continue the quest, you'll get new instructions on what Subira needs:

• Infected insects from the Elderwood x5
• Infected Essence x50

You can catch any bug in the forest using the Elderwood Smoke Bomb. These don't work in Bahari Bay and Kilima Valley, though. Since they use essence to make I only used them to catch infected insects and used other smoke bombs for the regular critters. Catching an infected bug will earn you essence, the amount dependent on the rarity of the creature. No matter what you'll get at least Infected Essence x5 each time. 

When you've collected the required five insects, meet Subira in the Elderwood Central Stables to hand them over. The following dialogue can be a bit shocking, but the quest ends with you earning 25 Renown. The next main story quest, One Step Behind, has you taking on a new role instead of continuing your observations on the infection in the forest. 

You want to take the opportunity at this point to speak with the Watcher to start the other two quests enabling you to hunt and fish infected animals:

• Something Fishy
• Shot in the Dark

These are still considered main quests under the Quests tab, but won't have the second part of needing to bring specimens to Subira. You also won't earn Renown for completing them, but will unlock the ability to get those infected animals.