Considering that the Creepy & Cute Parts Pack (C&C) and Galactic Adventures (GA) DLCs appear as standalone games in the Steam library, it can be kind of confusing to understand how to play Spore the right way.


To be sure you have access to all the content while playing, first install in this order: Spore (the base game), C&C and GA. Don’t pay attention to the size of installations indicated by Steam, the files of Spore will be about 6 GB at the end.

Then, always run GA to play, because it is the only one that allows to use the complete content. Remember that you need to keep all three games installed for this to work.
Also, never try to launch another game than GA if you have already a save in that one. The base game and GA do not work on the same version, and running an earlier version of the game may corrupt your save file.


After that, make sure you have access to C&C parts in creature creation mode. At the top of the screen, just below the part type tabs should be two icons, one for base game parts and one for C&C parts.



If you don't see the C&C parts icon, you must follow these last few steps:

• Browse the game files by right-clicking on it in Steam > Manage > Browse local files
  
• Copy the BoosterPack_01.package file found in bp1content folder
  
• Paste it in the DataEP1 folder

If you want to be able to share your creations and download those from the community, you must log in to the game with your Spore account. Easy to say, but it’s not that simple when playing through Steam.


Whether you want to create a new account or sign in with an existing one, you’ll need to register the Spore game key on your EA account (so create one if you don’t have one yet). The problem is that since 2021, it has become stupidly difficult (if not impossible) to find the key of the game if it comes from Steam.
If you still want to try this way, here's a sublime guide explaining several ways to do it, but there is a chance that none of it will work for you.

What worked for me was to contact EA support via live chat and ask them to add Spore and its DLCs to my EA account. If you purchased the game on Steam, you can request a copy of it on EA without any problem.
I recommend you check out the "Some tips for getting help from EA support" section of this guide if you have never tried it before or if you are having trouble doing so.

Attention: please note that you'll be using your EA account to log in to Spore, so the email and password will be exactly the same for authentication. Because the Spore game does not support certain symbols, your password must be composed only of letters and numbers.


When you have the game on EA, you will first need to download the EA app and then download Spore through that app. Launch the game and sign in or create an account, but always with your EA credentials.
Login should work and your EA account should be linked to your Spore account. You are now free to choose wether to play on Steam or EA, but remember to keep only one version installed as it can break your game having multiple versions of it on your PC.

To check that everything is right, go to the official Spore website[www.spore.com] and log in with your EA account. You should see these badges under your profile:



There is a badge for the base game and each of its DLCs. Each serves to certify that you own the content in question so that you can use the creations of Sporepedia which use this content.
If you don't see all the badges on the Spore site, you can always go back to EA support and ask them to manually activate them.

Now that you have access to the game, its DLCs content and that you can use its online services, I have something to tell you: there is actually a third DLC that you may not have heard of.

This is the Bot Parts Pack (BPP) DLC, a promotional extension released in 2010 which was initially obtainable by buying a bottle of Dr. Pepper. Since the offer was limited in time and available only in the US, this DLC became a little controversial and rather obscure to the rest of the world. But hey, this is official extra content for Spore!


Although it was a limited offer, the DLC content has been available for free since then, and you can easily find several download links on the web for this.
Here is the link I used to download it (found on this great guide):
https ://www .mediafire .com/folder/qjnpj51tm38vi/Bot_Parts

Copy the link and paste it in your browser by removing spaces, Steam does not really like Mediafire links.

You'll notify that there is two files to download. The BP2_Data.package file is the official BPP content package, while the DavosBP2_Data.package file is a community-made patch for mouth parts, because for some reason they don't have the ability to sing and can make your game crashes when trying to socialize with creatures. So make sure you download both files.

Then add the packages to your game files:

• Browse the game files by right-clicking on it in Steam > Manage > Browse local files
  
• Copy and paste the two downloaded files into DataEP1 folder
  
• Make sure to do this only after you have installed Spore and its DLCs correctly

You should now be able to access BPP parts in creature creation mode like for C&C parts.
But if you want to use the Sporepedia for creations using BPP parts, you'll need to have the DLC activated on your Spore account. The only way to do this is to contact EA support and ask them to manually activate it, explaining the particular situation of the DLC.
Again, see the next section of the guide if you need help doing this.

If the DLC was correctly granted to your account, you should see this new badge under your profile on the Spore website[www.spore.com]:

The fastest way to get help from EA is to contact a support agent via live chat, but you might need help even to get help because EA doesn’t really make things easy...


First, you need to find your proof of purchase of Spore and its DLCs. Here's how to do this:

1. Log in to Steam on your browser and go to your purchase history
   
2. Search for the purchase including Spore and click on it (use Ctrl + F if necessary)
   
3. Find Spore in the list at the bottom of the page and click on it (under "Which product are you having trouble with?")
   
4. Then click on "I would like to view or print the receipt for this purchase" and take a screenshot of the entire page
   
5. If the purchase is too large to fit in one screenshot, you can right click on the page and select "Save as PDF"

If you did not buy Spore on Steam, you'll have to find a way to get your proof of purchase. Also, if you bought the base game and DLCs separately, don't forget to get proof of purchase for each.


Once you got your proof, go to the EA Help support site, select Spore and choose the topic that best suits your case (I'd choose "I'm looking for something I bought / earned"). You can log in or not, it doesn’t really matter, and then you should see a button "Chat with us".

Clicking on it will create a new support case for which you need to enter the subject of your problem and you can attach files. Here do not forget to attach your proof of purchase. Although I met support agents who could simply give you permission to attach files through the chat, for some obscure reason they will sometimes tell you that you need to open a new case to attach a file to it.


After that, a support agent will be assigned to you in the next few minutes. Describe your problem as best as you can and you'll eventually get what you want after some basic verifications (check your EA account email, your Steam username...).

Please be patient and polite with the agents, keep in mind that they are actual humans.

You'll probably have to go through several cases, as agents do not always have the ability or knowledge to help you. Just try again and you may find someone who can truely help (look out for Aphrodita and Rajat, they are the ones who helped me).


Finally, if you can’t find the "Chat with us" button, log out of EA and it should appear again. It seems that EA prevents you from opening multiple cases in a short period of time.

Some other things that are not so important, but are interesting to know:

• You might see some Spore profiles that have two extra badges on their account, these are for logging in via the game Spore Creature Creator and its trial version.
  
  
• There is a Sporecast (collection of creations that can be subscribed from the game) called "Maxis 100 Pointers" by Creeper1212 which brings together 27 official adventures of Maxis lost among the large amount of creations in the Sporepedia.

Lastly, if I have not been able to solve your problem, you may find help in these guides (they are the ones that helped me):

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=582350678
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2601443452
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2877021506
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=769409865