“We actually have this strong passion to ensure our games can stand the test of time and keep updating through history,” said Morgan. “There’s a strong desire on our side to make sure that our games are preserved.”

While he did note that the original Grounded won’t be getting any new updates that bring in new content to the survival crafting game, the title will still be updated to fix bugs. However, for players that might be interested in seeing how the story of Grounded continues, they will have to start playing the sequel.

“Now, are we going to be doing content and these story expansions to Grounded 1?” he continued. “No, that’s the continuation of Grounded 2. But even as recently as April we released our [update] 1.4.7 to Grounded 1, so there’s a maintenance and a desire that that game will always exist. So we’ll keep that up; it’s not going anywhere if people still want to play Grounded 1 as well.”

“But we are, in terms of where we’re moving the story, where we’re expanding things: if you want more Grounded, we’ll be more into Grounded 2 versus Grounded 1. We’re pushing things forward with Grounded 2.”

Morgan, explaining why the original Grounded isn’t at risk of being lost from having its servers taken down, said that the title was structured to make use of peer-to-peer connections for its multiplayer. While this is considered an older and antiquated way of doing things, he did note that, thanks to a combination of peer-to-peer multiplayer and shared worlds, players can make use of what is essentially a “cloud save” to play with their friends.

“So it gives that experience of being able to have a more dedicated server vibe, but it doesn’t have that same requirement of actually having servers,” he said.”

“And this is no commentary on the Stop Killing Games stuff or anything like that,” he added, referring to a consumer rights movement that has been gaining some ground in the EU and UK. “More to say it does establish [Grounded 1] so it can exist into the future a lot easier than if you’re on the other side, where you are more of a server-based game.”

Grounded 2 recently got a new trailer ahead of its early access launch. The trailer focuses on the game’s main story, and how Omniment—the company that was previously responsible for shrinking experiments—is once more returning.

Grounded 2 is coming to PC (via Steam and Microsoft Store) and Xbox Series X/S in the form of a Game Preview/Early Access release on July 29, and is priced at $29.99. The game will get continuous support through the form of regular updates for bug fixes as well as additional content as it gets closer to its full release. For more details, check out our feature exploring the differences between Grounded and Grounded 2.

The latter comes in the form of Grounded: Fully Yoked Edition, which brings update 1.4 to the title. Among its many notable additions are intimidating new foes (or possible allies) in the form of Royal Ant Queens, a New Game Plus mode that will take you to “alternate dimensions with remixed challenges”, new buildings, pets, and equipment, new quality-of-life features, and much more. Obsidian says this is the final major content update for Grounded, and it’s certainly looking like the developer is closing things out with a bang, given how meaty this new update is.

You can check out the full patch notes below, or watch a deep dive video for the update, along with Grounded: Fully Yoked Edition’s launch trailer.

The next Microsoft game getting a multiplatform release is Sea of Thieves, which launches for PS5 later this month.

PATCH NOTES:

ADDITIONAL NEW FEATURES

“BUGS FIGHT EACH OTHER” CUSTOM GAME OPTION

• By default, natural enemies will fight each other if they are near each other, and neutral creatures will fight each other if struck accidentally. This can now be turned off (useful in Playgrounds when designing encounter rooms for the player).

ADDITIONAL PLAYGROUND FEATURES

LINK COLORS

• Links now have 5 color options for distinguishing them while editing.

QUALITY OF LIFE FEATURES

MULTIPLAYER LOAD GAME

• You can now load a save while in the middle of a multiplayer session. All connected clients will load into the new world once the load is complete.

RECOVER PETS

• A new Game Repair button has been added to recover any pets that are not currently following you.
• Pets allocated to a pet house will also teleport to their house, in case they are outside of the terrain.

OBJECT CAPACITY

• An object capacity meter can be found on the pause menu that tells you how many objects, either in a Playground or a standard game, you have in your level. This is useful to know if you are sharing worlds with lower end machines to make sure the game can be played reliably on all hardware.
• If you have no intention of having your yard be as crossplay compatible as possible, this capacity limit can be changed in the Game Settings menu to match your platform’s suggested limit or have no limit at all.

PLAYGROUND LINK COPY/PASTE

• There are now buttons available to copy and paste the configuration of a Link in a Playground.

PLAYGROUND BROWSER FILTERING

• Community Playgrounds can be filtered by keywords, player count and genre while browsing.

REPORTING PLAYGROUNDS

• Community Playgrounds can be reported by players if they violate rules.

NEW CONTENT

NEW BUILDINGS

• 12 Ant Queen-related buildings
  • Chaise Lounges
  • Chandeliers
  • Stuffed Queens
  • Head Mount
• Yoking Station
• New Floor Rugs
• Termite King Pipe Organ
• REDACTED

NEW PET

• 3 new Baby Ant Pets to befriend.

NEW EQUIPMENT

• Over 20 new items and equipment.
• Over 20 new trinkets.

A lot of these will be found only in New Game+

NEW MUTATIONS

• Antbassador – Become one with the ants of the yard.

NEW SIGNS

• A new sign-set that can only be purchased in New Game+

4 NEW ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2 for the base game
• 2 for New Game+

FULL JAPANESE VOICE OVERS

• The game now has full Japanese voice over, including voices for the teens, BURG.L, cutscenes, and audio logs. Select Japanese Voice Over from the Game Options menu to enable this feature.

PLAYGROUNDS NEW CONTENT

There are a number of new props that are now available to be placed in Playgrounds. This includes the Jack o Lantern, Ice Caps Box, Big TazT, Big Dice, Wendell Chair, Big SCA.B Mesh, Stump Bark and Pulp, Rash, Yoked Girth and Yogi Swole, Quarter, Garden Light, Milk Molar Bottle and Lid, Gnome, Baseball Bat, Trash Bag, Pink Slip, Anarchis, Lab Dome, Pink Flower Petals, Cattails, Honeycomb, Lilypad, Shovel, Cacti, Charcoal Bag, Moldorc’s Castle, the Bird Bath, and more.

OTHER CHANGES / TUNING

COMBAT

• Attack speed slow effects no longer stack.

ANIMATION

• Stagger animations for all ants and stinkbugs now physically displace them.

ARMOR AND WEAPONS

• Increasing scythe attack speed by 15%.
• Lowering attack speed bonus granted by battle axe combo finishers by 5%.
• The Mighty upgrade path now applies an additional status effect to weapons, much like the Sleek upgrade path for armor.

ITEMS

• Trinket items that previously appeared as brown bags now have a new shared trinket model.
• Gold cards are not required for 100% on the Report Card.

UI

• Quest objectives on the map show the quest name now when hovered over.
• Trailer Marker names are shown on the map when hovering over a Trail Marker icon if a name is set.
• Improved image quality of item icons on lower end hardware.

AUDIO

• New audio track added for New Game+

PLAYGROUNDS

• Ziplines created in Playground edit mode cannot be recycled or renamed in Play mode.

OPTIMIZATION

• Significantly reduced the CPU load of the game.
• Significantly reduced the CPU load during defense events.
• Reduced memory usage across the game.
• Saving the game is now faster.

BUG FIXES

MAJOR FIXES

• Audio logs that were collected but not showing up in the Data tab will properly show up now.
  • This was affecting some people from getting 100%.
• Animations and audio work correctly for clients when someone else uses a dandelion tuft.
• Some buildings placed in very specific locations will no longer be unsupported upon loading the save.
• Fixed a problem where certain stacks of ladders could cause a saved game to never finish loading.
• Non-grid buildings attached to grid buildings will now appear and disappear correctly on clients.
• Bugs will interact with the world around them more often (Lady Bugs chasing Aphids, Aphids dropping Honeydew, etc.)

OTHER FIXES

• You can steal from aphids while wearing sleek aphid slippers.
• “Read To Me” will now read building customization sliders correctly.
• Buildings cannot be placed inside stem pallets.
• Digging up Koi fish bones and scales as a client no longer has them float up quickly and teleport back.
• Weapon upgrade icons on the HotPouch no longer disappear after hitting something.
• Black Ants properly navigate from outside the Trash area back to their ant hill.

PLAYGROUNDS FIXES

• The building distance axis will now be properly conveyed to clients in Playground Design Mode.
• Preplaced grid buildings placed in the air can no longer be induced to collapse in Play Mode, unless Building Damage is enabled.
• Non-building actors placed on slopes will no longer change rotation slightly when relocated.
• Placed objects with simulated physics now correctly simulate physics in play mode and not in edit mode.
• If an object is rescaled while being relocated, clients will now see the correct scale.
• Pre-existing scene objects will no longer disappear when loading the game after trashing them and then undoing the trash.
• In edit mode, destroying a building with other buildings attached to it will now reliably destroy the dependent buildings as well.
• The Toggle Grid Snap radial menu option now works even outside of placement mode.
• Slime Mold Grass will no longer become uninteractable after being relocated.
• Double-clicking a building supporting Place Many in the Playgrounds build menu will no longer immediately place a copy.
• Buildings placed on scaled buildings will no longer sometimes appear at the wrong height.
• Mushrooms will no longer lose their stems when relocated.
• Undo operations cannot be redone if another player makes conflicting changes to the same actors.
• The Lab Control Panel now faces the correct way when placed on walls.
• Dandelion D can now be placed and trashed in Playgrounds.
• Cacti can now be copied and relocated.
• Dice can now be copied and relocated.
• Mushroom Curved Doors will no longer rotate and break after cancelling connection from them.
• ASL Terminal and Resource Surveyor screens will appear correctly after undoing destruction.
• ASL Terminal and Resource Surveyor will actually reappear when destruction is undone.
• Players can no longer become stuck on the Frankenline when transitioning between Play and Design mode.
• Strange Spore is easier to place.
• Table B can now be stacked.

For starters, on April 16, alongside its previously announced Nintendo Switch launch, Grounded will also be coming to PS5 and PS4. Fellow Obsidian-developed game Pentiment will also be releasing for PlayStation consoles alongside the Switch. Additionally, Sea of Thieves is set to release for PS5 on April 30.

Grounded and Sea of Thieves will support cross-platform multiplayer across all platforms, so players on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC will be able to play with and against each other.

Earlier this month, Microsoft had announced that it would be bringing four of its first-party titles to other platforms. The latest announcements make it clear that the four games are Pentiment, Grounded, Sea of Thieves, and Hi-Fi Rush, as reports had previously suggested.

Grounded is set to release for the Nintendo Switch in less than two months’ time. An announcement trailer showcases the game in action on the platform, offering a brief lowdown of its crafting, building, and survival mechanics. Presumably, the game will launch on Switch with all of the updates that have been released for it up to this point, while the trailer also confirms that cross-platform multiplayer will be supported.

Grounded is set to launch for Nintendo Switch on April 16. It is currently available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.

To kick things off, the update will allow players to build their own levels across two distinct sandboxes: the Backyard and the Grassbox. While the former is essentially the setting for the title’s core game mode, the latter is an empty backyard where players can start their levels from scratch.

As part of the new creative features, the update also gives players a host of tools to help them build their levels, as well as the ability to share their Playgrounds by using a unique code ID.

Aside from the creative options, the update brings a host of smaller quality-of-life features to Grounded, including expanded options for custom games, a change to how the game’s difficulty modes are balanced, and a cooldown for consumables.

The combat is also getting overhauled, including various aspects like combo damage balancing, and charged attacks getting buffed for nearly every weapon. The map also now has a completely new UI, coupled with a revamp of the game’s ramdomised repeatable BURG.L quests. Check out the complete patch notes below.

Showcase Feature: Playgrounds

Introducing Playgrounds: our ambitious new game mode that allows you to create, share, and play new Grounded experiences, using a new suite of tools built directly into the game. Populate your very own backyard with an array of items — Chunky Chubbs baseballs, toy army men, spiders galore — and that’s just the start.

Playgrounds are powered by these core elements: Design Mode, Play Mode, Publish, and Play:

• Design Mode
  • Design mode is where you create your Grounded experience by placing and arranging game objects and linking them up to make unique and fun play spaces.
• Play Mode
  • Test your creation at any moment by swapping into Play Mode. In Play Mode, your yard will look and play how others will experience it. When you’ve tested enough, you can switch back to Design Mode, resetting everything back to its unplayed state.
• Publish
  • Once you’ve built a Playground you’re proud of, you can publish it for the whole world to see. Each Playground has a unique code that you can share with others. This means your incredible game modes, obstacle courses, or scavenger hunts could become the next big thing in the Grounded community!
• Play
  • You can experience any Playground published by the community by entering the matching unique code to download a copy to play whenever and wherever!

Design Mode

When starting a new Playground, you will be placed in Design mode. In Design mode, you can run around as your selected teen or as Handy Gnat, placing and arranging game objects to make fun and unique experiences.

Place Most Game Objects

You have access to most objects that exist in the game, including:

• Over 300 objects used in the backyard: baseballs, army men, juice boxes, and more!
• Over 400 items, like equipment, resources, and consumables.
• Over 100 harvestables like acorns, pebblets, and berries.
• Over 400 buildings you already know and love.
• All creatures. Yes, including bosses.

Free Placement and Rotate Freely

• Objects can be placed anywhere in the yard (including labs and anthills) and even floating in the air.
• Objects can be rotated freely in all three dimensions. Objects can be placed sideways or upside down.
• Existing objects, including foliage, can be moved or erased.

Gizmos and Gadgets

Also introduced in Playgrounds are a host of Gizmos and Gadgets that will add interactivity to your designs. Gizmos are invisible during Play Mode. Gadgets are visible in both Design and Play Mode.

• Buttons, Switches, and Volumes
  • Button
  • Standard Switch
  • Lever Switch
  • Pull Switch
  • Timer
  • Transmitter
  • Receiver
  • Pressure Plate
  • Rectangular Trigger Volume
  • Rectangular Blocking Volume
• Gameplay Gadgets
  • Telepotty
  • Fan
  • Super Bounce Pad
  • Landing Pad
  • Laser Cannon
  • Laser Pillar
  • Shock Pillar
  • Power Up
  • Score Board
• Gameplay Gizmos
  • Time of Day
  • Speaker
  • Music Changer
  • Effect Spawner
  • Quest Marker
  • Creature Spawner
  • Player Spawn
  • Equipment Equipper
  • Inventory Filler
• Logic Gizmos
  • Counter with Condition
  • Switch Gate
  • Switch Gizmo
  • Random Chance

Trigger Events and Actions

Many of the objects listed above can “trigger” actions on another object.

A few simple examples include:

• A placed Button can toggle a Plant Lamp on and off each time it’s pressed.
• A placed Timer Gizmo can trigger a Laser Cannon to fire every 3 seconds.
• A player walking into a Trigger Volume can activate a Creature Spawner to spawn five Black Widows around them.

An advanced example:

• A Basketball Hoop increments a Scoreboard and Counter with Condition each time a shot is made. After 10 shots are made, Fireworks shoot into the air and the Door blocking your way unlocks, letting you into the next room of the dungeon.

You can set up events by creating a “Link” from any object that has a Link Trigger to any object that has a Link Action. Once you have a Link between two objects, you can Customize the Link to set the triggering Event and the Action to take on the Linked object.

Many of the Gizmos and Gadgets above support Linking, as do a myriad of existing items, buildings, and objects already in the game.

Design With Friends

In addition to designing Playgrounds by yourself in single-player, you can also design in multiplayer and utilize Shared Worlds with this new feature.

New Playground Map: Grassbox

Not only can you design in the canonical backyard you know and love, we’re also introducing a new map called Grassbox for Playground mode. Grassbox is a smaller, blank-canvas yard for you to Design in if you so choose.

The Grassbox comes with some empty, premade areas for you to quickly design in including:

• Small bodies of water
• Empty lab spaces
• Empty ant hill spaces
• And more!

Additional New Features

New Custom Game Options

To help you customize your Grounded playthroughs (and your new Playgrounds!), we have added additional Custom Game Options:

• Building Enabled
  • Whether or not players can build and relocate buildings.
• Crafting Enabled
  • Whether or not players have access to the crafting menus.
• Time of Day Speed
  • How quickly the time of day will progress in the game.
• Thirst Burn Rate
  • Multiplier that affects thirst loss.
• Hunger Rate
  • Multiplier that affects hunger loss.
• Resource Respawn Rate
  • Multiplier that affects how quickly resources are respawned.
• Creature Health Scaling
  • Multiplier that affects the amount of health that creatures will have.
• Fall Damage Scaling
  • Multiplier that affects the damage received from falling.

On top of that, all of the custom game options have been grouped under sub-categories for better navigation and clients will be notified whenever the host changes a custom game option during gameplay.

Payback Attacks Reward Science

Defending attacks from Factional Reactivity or from the Waft Emitter will reward you Raw Science for each creature defeated. Stronger factions reward more Raw Science per kill.

New BURG.L Quest System

We are revamping the randomized, daily, repeatable BURG.L quests by introducing a series of “Apprentice Quests” that unlock sequentially. Once you complete the first quest, you’ll unlock the second, and so on up to the final, most challenging quests. There are roughly 100 in total! After you’ve tackled these milestones, that’s it for the Apprentice Quests—your journey is complete.

But don’t worry, daily quests aren’t going anywhere; we’re just changing how you unlock them. After you’ve finished the first 20 Apprentice Quests, a new Daily Quest section will become available in the ASL Quest menu. These dailies offer a mix of objectives based on your progress on Apprentice Quests. You’ll gradually unlock more options in your daily quest pool as you complete more of the Apprentice Quests, enhancing the questing experience for all players.

Quality of Life Features

Map Improvements

• Collected Milk Molars and SCA.Bs will show up on your map to help you know which collectables you are missing. Go ahead and cross reference those online wikis now .
• Each icon category can have the visibility of the entire group toggled on and off in the map so you can have your map as clean or as cluttered as you wish.

Name Ziplines

• You can now name individual ziplines to more easily find the right path to zip down.

Drop / Transfer / Trash Amount

• When doing drop, transfer, or trash actions on items, you can now specify a number of items to affect.

MIX.R Preview UI

MIX.Rs now display what creatures are involved in the defense attacks as well as the raw science reward before starting them.

“Place Many” Improvements

• Many roofs, stairs, and awnings can now be placed with “Place Many”.
• Spiral staircases will alternate correctly when using “Place Many” downwards.
• Buildings being placed using Place Many will be shown even if they are unsupported.

Basketball Improvements

• New “Basketball” items to craft.
• Dribbling and shooting animations.
• New shooting mechanic that adjusts your shot distance based on how long you hold the attack button.
• Basketball hoop now has reactive physics and has new audio.
• Making a basketball shot can be used as a triggering event in Playgrounds.

Improved Stickied Quest Display

• Stickied Quest Objectives on your HUD will now cycle between the different types instead of showing a wall of quest objectives in extreme cases.

First Person Handy Gnat

• You can now toggle between Third Person and First Person while using Handy Gnat.

New Content

New Equipment / Items

• Berry Basketball and Pupa Basketball
  • Two new equippable basketball items that are made from different materials. While a basketball is equipped, holding the attack button will start a charged basketball shot that goes farther the longer you hold it.
• Three new early game trinkets added for various play styles
  • Each new trinket corresponds to a classic RPG role—so whether you fancy yourself a tank or an archer, you’ll find a trinket tailored to your playstyle.

New Buildings

• Gnat Lamp
• Pupa Leather Ottoman
• Target
• Standing Target
• Target Dummy
• 2 Broodmother Décor buildings
• 2 Mantis Décor buildings
• 2 Wasp Queen Décor buildings

Over 40 Half and Quarter Wall/Floor/Stair Pieces! (Trumpet fanfare)

• 6 Vertical Half Walls
  • Grass
  • Grass Crenelated
  • Stem
  • Palisade
  • Mushroom
  • Ash
• 2 Half Awnings
  • Clover
  • Crow Feather
• 2 Half Foundations
  • Pebblet
  • Clay
• 10 Half Stairs
  • Grass
  • Corner Grass
  • Interior Corner Grass
  • Mushroom
  • Mushroom B
  • Corner Mushroom
  • Interior Corner Mushroom
  • Acorn
  • Corner Acorn Stairs
  • Interior Corner Acorn Stairs
• 3 Half Floors
  • Grass
  • Stem
  • Bur
• 4 Quarter Walls
  • Grass
  • Stem
  • Mushroom
  • Ash
• 4 Quarter Triangle Walls
  • Grass
  • Stem
  • Mushroom
  • Ash
• 3 Quarter Floors
  • Grass
  • Stem
  • Bur
• 3 Quarter Roof pieces
  • Clover
  • Crow Feather
  • Pinecone
• 3 Quarter Flat Roof pieces
  • Clover
  • Crow Feather
  • Pinecone
• 2 Quarter Foundations
  • Pebblet
  • Clay

New Mutation

• Battle Buddies
  • Reduces friendly fire damage dealt and received.

New Signs

• Added new sign set to the Forgotten BURG.L Chip found in the Brawny Boy Bin.
• Added a new sign that automatically unlocks after a certain point in the story. The sign is the Grand Prize Winner from the Grounded Sign Art Contest.

Other Changes / Tuning

Difficulty Mode Changes

Medium Mode

• • Reduce all enemy damage by 10%.
  • “Pets Invincible” is now enabled by default.

Woah Mode

• • Player damage buffed from 75% to 80%.
  • Building health buffed from 50% to 100%.
  • Item durability buffed from 75% to 100%.
  • Durability penalty on death from 10% to 30%.
  • Creature health increased from 100% to 120%
  • Time of day speed decreased from 100% to 80%
  • Fall damage multiplier increased from 100% to 120%
  • Death behavior changed to drop all items on death

Creative Mode

• • Creative With Bugs and Creative with no Bugs have the following options enabled by default:
    • Unlock all Mutations
    • Fully Yoked
    • Pets Invincible

Consumables

• Some consumables now have a 4 second cooldown before they can be used again.
  • Bandages, Smoothies, and Meals all respect this new cooldown
  • Snacks and all other miscellaneous consumables ignore this new cooldown
• Doubling the effect of all healing items.
• Bandages now provide a burst heal when used in addition to their heal over time.
• Bandage heal over time heal per tick tripled.
• Bandage heal over time duration reduced.
• Quesadillantlion and Omelant thorns damage has been doubled.

Smoothies

The “default” smoothie has been changed to help better communicate its purpose as a basic healing potion.

• Questionable Slop is no longer craftable.
• Unlocking the smoothie station will now also unlock the “Soothing Syrup” smoothie.
• Soothing Syrup provides a basic heal and is cheap to craft.
• All smoothies have had their healing amount doubled.
• Smoothies respect the new 4 second consumable cooldown.

Dandelion Tufts

Dandelions no longer need to be equipped, and players no longer have to decide between equipping a tuft or a trinket. Instead, tufts are single-use items with no durability. To balance this change, tufts can be stacked, and dandelions yield more tufts when chopped down.

That being said, the “Fluffy Dandelion Tuft” trinket now has unlimited uses, enhancing its value and making it more of an interesting accessory choice.

Combat

Combo system overhauled:

• Combo damage of weapons changed from 50% → 100% → 150% to 100% → 100% → 125%.
  • First and second hit of the combo now deal the same amount of damage.
  • Third hit now deals 25% bonus damage compared to the other hits in the combo.
  • All weapon damages adjusted with this change
• Charge attack damage increased for almost every weapon.
• Players now have a default chance to crit without any crit chance boosting effects.
• Most Thorns effects have been increased substantially.
• Increased base damage of all turret ammo types.
• Two-handed swords and the two-handed axe have new attack animations with slightly faster timing than before.
• Two-handed club attack animations are slightly sped up and updated, and the first-person camera movement on them has been heavily reduced.

Movement

• On Gamepad, players sprint by default. Pushing the sprint key will toggle you into walk mode. This can be changed in the options with the new Sprint Mode option.
  • Keyboard / Mouse players will still default to Hold Sprint to run but can change to the new toggle modes in the options.

Animation

• Two-handed swords and axes come with new and slightly faster attack animations.
• Two-handled club attacks have faster animations now. The first person camera movement during these attacks has also been reduced.
• Third person throwing animations have been updated.
• Third person diagonal crouch walking animations have been added.
• Stagger animations for ladybugs and larva have been updated, they will no longer move back to their original position after being staggered.
• Sit on the Broodmother Throne as if you are destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow.

Creatures

• Black Widow Changes:
  • Resistant to Spicy, Mint, and Salty
  • Weak to Sour
  • Neutral to all other damage types
  • No longer immune to poison damage
  • Now has 2 new attacks in its arsenal
    • Can shoot a ranged web at the player, which spawns a black widowling
    • Can consume a living black widowling to heal and temporarily increase its attack speed

• Wave creatures take even more damage from turret attacks.
• Larva and Ladybug stagger animations have been updated
• RUZ.T flat damage reduction reduced
• RUZ.Ts now have a smashing damage weakness
• Stun cooldown on most non-boss creatures reduced

Faction Attacks

• Anger thresholds for certain factions to send a base attack have been adjusted.
• Wave cooldown and spawn variance has been adjusted.
• Number of creatures that can be active in a wave during multiplayer games has been increased.
• Spawn weights for various creatures have been adjusted.
• Spawn weight thresholds for wave defense difficulty brackets have been adjusted.
• Total number of creatures that can spawn in each difficulty bracket has been adjusted.
• Maximum number of creatures that can be active in a wave has been adjusted.
• Termite Kings can now spawn in termite faction raids.
• Additional faction waves are now able to be angered via the Waft Emitter.
  • Stinkbug
  • Roly Poly
  • Ladybug
  • OMINENT
  • Moth
  • Black Widow

Bosses

• Infected Broodmother drop rates improved.

Mutations

• Sour Sensation thorns damage increased sixfold.
• Substantially increasing stamina restored by Parry Master.
• Spore Lord
  • Quintupled the chance for the damage up effect to proc.
  • Doubled the chance for the Heal over Time and speed up effect to proc.
  • Added stack caps of 50 to all buffs provided by Spore Lord.
• Apex Predator effect added for Blaster of the Moldy Matriarch.
• Sharpshooter now increases crit chance with bows and crossbows instead of reducing sprint stamina.
• Chopper defense down proc duration reduced.
• Javelineer thorns damage doubled.

World

• A pre-cracked Milk Molar in the Hedge lab has been added to help players get their first Milk Molar earlier in the game. The Milk Molar in the Minotaur Maze Chest has been removed to compensate for this new Milk Molar.
• Dandelions now drop triple the tufts.
• Acorns are now guaranteed to drop their top.
• Small Feather nodes are now guaranteed to drop at least 2 feather resources.
• MIX.Rs and Super MIX.Rs now reward more science on completion.
• Improved the Hedge Ascent. Our goal was to smooth out the difficulty curve in this area.
  • A new quest objective has been added to the Hedge lab quest to point to the area where you enter the hedge.
  • Spiderling spawns in the Hedge Ascent moved off of the branches and into the various lab outposts.
  • Removed one of the two RUZ.Ts from the resource surveyor outpost in the hedge.
  • Added hedge trimmers and additional lights in the lower hedge area to improve visibility and navigation.
  • Added a bed in the first outpost lab.
  • Added and changed branches to help navigation in the area before the Hedge lab.
• The small Pond Lab Outpost will now be locked by default when exploring the pond.
  • The doors will open automatically now at a later point as a result of progressing through the main Pond Lab.
  • The doors further inside these smaller outposts will remain locked behind the assistant manager key.
  • The loot found in the initial explorable area in the outposts has been improved.
• Added REDACTED to REDACTED for REDACTED.

Armor and Weapons

• Elemental upgrade paths now provide the same amount of damage boost as the Mighty path.
• Black Ant Armor set bonus “Pincushion” thorns damage has been doubled.
• Prod Smacker’s damage increased.
• Pinch Whacker now triggers its lightning AoE on its combo finisher instead of having a chance to trigger every hit
• Unique elemental melee weapons now have a proc effect on their combo finisher unlocked after getting to +6
  • Mint Mace: Area of Effect mint attack.
  • Coaltana: Increased parry window buff. If an attack is parried while this buff is active, your next attack gains a significant damage increase.
  • Sour Battleaxe: Increased attack speed.
  • Salty Morningstar: Applies a bleed to the target.
• Mother Demon and Moldy Matriarch armor sets
  • Increased DR.
  • Increased durability.
  • Now considered heavy armor.
• Moldy Matriarch Armor set
  • Dynamighty proc chance doubled.
  • Dynamighty explosive resist down debuff duration halved.
  • Explosive Stun has been replaced with Big Boom.
    • Explosive attacks have a chance to provide a stacking crit damage buff.
• Shield Changes
  • Tier 3 shields now provide even more block strength
  • Having a shield equipped now lowers the damage you deal
• Acorn armor set crafting ingredients changed to require the player to venture to other tier 1 biomes
• Grub armor status effect changed. Now increases damage dealt to tier 1 creatures.
• Clover armor status effect changed. Now increases defense against tier 1 creatures.
• Clover armor set bonus changed to trickle regen.
• Mosquito Needle and Tiger Mosquito Rapier can now be used underwater
• Spider Fang Dagger and Widow Dagger now poison enemies underwater
• Rusty Spear now applies infection to enemies underwater
• Black Widow armor set bonus Death’s Impetus effect changed
  • Old: Movement Speed increase on kill
  • New: Trickle Regen + Attack Speed increased on kill
• Black Widow armor status effect values normalized so they’re all equal instead of being different per piece
• Aphid Slippers sleek effect changed from sprint stamina to Aphkid
• All club weapons now attack 15% faster
• Widow dagger now applies venom instead of poison
• Added new animations for 2 handed sword and axe attacks, increasing their speed by about 20%
• Dropped weapons and equipment in the yard will no longer despawn over time.

Items

• Ammo base stack size increased.
• Plank and log clusters can despawn after some time like loose planks and logs do.
• Crafted equipment and tools will no longer despawn when left in the world for a while.
• Wasp Queen trinket arrow refund chance increased.
• Fancy Fletching now speeds up exhaustion recovery even more.
• Broodmother and Infected Broodmother trinkets now double the damage dealt by player summons on top of their other effects.
• Mantis Trinket effect changed:
  • Combo finishers grant a stacking crit chance buff until you crit.
• Most Ominent Employee Badge trinkets have had their numbers increased for either the positive or negative effects:
  • Biomedical Badge
    • Heal over Time value tripled
    • Food drain tripled
  • Entomologist Badge
    • Attack up effect increased
  • Defense Badge
    • Damage Resist up increased
    • Attack down effect increased
  • Intern Badge
    • Hauling amount increase
    • Movement speed slow increased
  • Compliance Badge
    • Damage resist reduction increased
  • Health and Safety Badge
    • Lifesteal percentage increased
    • Damage over Time changed to damage resist reduction (same value as compliance badge)
  • Doubled proc chance of rotten berry charm
• Speed Droplet no longer reduces sprint stamina.

Crafting

• Lint Rope is now crafted at a 1 to 1 ratio at the spinning wheel.
• Whetstone cost for mighty globs and jewels lowered

Building Placement

• Palisade Gate can no longer be placed unsnapped and overlapped with other buildings.
• Wall-mounted buildings cannot be placed on player backpacks.
• It’s now easier to control the depth of buildings that are placed partially in the ground.
• Buildings can be zooped farther at one time, but only along a single axis.

UI

• The Map will now show an icon on the legend for players who have hidden their map markers.
• The Building Facing arrow has received a glow up.
• Pets, Summons, and Fellow teens will be prioritized lower than hostile creatures when it comes to what health bar is shown on the UI.
• The “Select a Teen” interface has had a makeover.
• Peeping an O.R.C creature will now properly show Sour as one of their weaknesses
• Improved the enemy health bar priority system so your pet or summon no longer shows instead of the enemy or boss health bar.
• The Koi fish now has a creature card you can PEEP to unlock.

Audio

• The teens will chat less frequently about the bug they are looking at.

Accessibility

• Colorblind modes will now adjust the game view in addition to certain interface colors.

Optimization

• When large numbers of buildings are collapsing, dropped items will be grouped together to improve performance.
• Clients loading into worlds with large bases will experience less lag and desyncing.
• Improved performance in the Pond and Stump labs.
• Improved performance around the BBQ area.
• Reduced CPU usage across the game.
• Reduced GPU usage across the game.
• Reduced memory usage across the game.
• Reduced Auto-save hitching.
• Reduced loading saves time.

Bug Fixes

Crash Fixes

• Fixed a random crash that could happen when processing physics collisions.

Major Fixes

• You can save and load again while playing with no internet connection.

Other Fixes

• Gotta Peep Them All achievement now unlocks the moment you peep your final creature as opposed to the next time you load your game after peeping all creatures.
• Achieving 100% on the Report Card properly checks for gold creature cards.
• Fixed some cases where buildings can be built into configurations that will cause a collapse, without any error message.
• Half Corner Stairs can now be replaced by other types of half corner stairs when standing alone.
• Hit droplets from dew collectors will now fall off on clients.
• Floors can no longer be placed directly into unsupported configurations in some cases while using Place Many.
• Fixed the first building placed using Place Many sometimes not being placed when Place Many was started in an unsupported position.
• Blaster of the Moldy Matriarch now has a HUD marker when dropped.
• Rough Reload now properly delays stamina regen.
• Corrosion status effect now has proper tags (should have no change on the effect itself).
• Sickly Roly Poly now displays its weakness information.
• [REDACTED] Gong can now be repaired.
• Well Rested buffs now have a max stack size of 1 to prevent them from stacking in rare cases.
• O.R.C. creatures now properly inherit the weaknesses of their base creatures in addition to being weak to sour instead of only being weak to sour.
• Lifesteal provided by Mosquito Rapiers and Tick Macuahuitl now only applies to attacks made by those specific weapons.
• Chopper defense down proc icon changed to red to reflect it’s a debuff.
• Infinite spawning boss adds can no longer give gold cards.
• Characters will no longer make backpack comments about certain other types of containers.
• The Join Game browser now has better layout in Arabic.
• You can no longer place sap catchers on trash cans.
• Teens no longer break their ankles walking on Weed Stem floors.
• Fixed the game getting locked to 60 FPS when closing the game options window in a certain way.

Playgrounds mode gives players a full suite of design tools, and allows the use of either the pre-existing backyard, or an empty sandbox from which players can start creating their own levels. Players can create buildings, put down furniture, obstacles, and even creature spawners.

According to game director Adam Brennecke, the update was inspired by the modding community, and was essentially a way by the studio to give players tools to create their own unique experiences in Grounded.

“This feature has been on the backlog for a very long time,” Brennecke says. “Giving people the opportunity to extend the lifetime of the games they enjoy is always really cool, which was very important to us. We’ve always wanted to see what the community can make with these tools.”

The creation suite in Playgrounds mode gives players access to just about every object that can be found in the game’s regular backyard setting. This includes laboratory pieces, small and large creatures, and all of the foliage. Players can further get down into the weeds with the use of the Gadgets and Gizmos suite, which allows for further customisation of the level.

Alongside including buttons and various other objects, the Gizmos and Gadgets suite also allows players to essentially add simple scripting to the game by giving them access to a few logic-based objects to put down.

The following titles will be available at launch:

• Among Us
• Descenders
• Dishonored 2
• Doom Eternal
• Fable Anniversary
• Fallout 4
• Fallout 76
• Forza Horizon 4
• Gears 5
• Grounded
• Halo 5: Guardians
• Halo Wars 2
• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
• Human Fall Flat
• Inside
• Ori and The Will of the Wisps
• Psychonauts 2
• State of Decay 2
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Note that the game library may vary by country. More titles will be announced before the service’s launch in September. New games will be added two to three times yearly, though how many at any given time is unknown. Those currently subscribed to Xbox Live Gold will automatically switch to the new plan with no change in pricing.

Games with Gold officially ends on September 1st. Any Xbox One games redeemed through it are still accessible if you subscribe to Game Pass Core or Game Pass Ultimate. Xbox 360 titles obtained through the same will remain in your library, even without a subscription.  Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

One such deal that the company agreed with was with Nvidia, with Microsoft pledging to bring its games to cloud platform GeForce Now for at least the next 10 years. That process has now begun, with Gears 5 being the first Microsoft-published title to become available on the streaming platform.

Meanwhile, more Xbox titles will soon be making their way to the streaming service as well, with Arkane Studios’ Deathloop and Obsidian Entertainment’s Pentiment and Grounded set to become available for GeForce Now next week, on May 25.

Along with the wasps are drones and mini-hives, but there is a main nest. Explore enough, and you might find the new boss – the Wasp Queen. As for the item duplication machine, it’s called Super Duper (surprise) and produces copies of items and gear. You’ll need to collect a Duper Disc to use it and even more to upgrade it and clone higher-rarity equipment and items.

Raw Science is also necessary, but it’s very helpful – imagine duping a set of gear for your friends, helping them catch up to your level. Another new feature is Base Coziness, which can unlock new recipes for decorating buildings, new emotes, buffs that gradually heal while reducing the drain on hunger and thirst, and even a mutation that helps in base building.

Check out some of the patch notes below and the full notes here. Grounded is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

The Super Duper Update

New Features

Wasps Swarm the Yard

Get ready to buzz with excitement as wasps invade the yard. Battle with wasps and drones that guard their mini hives across the upper yard. Keep your eyes peeled for the hidden main nest as well. A word of caution: piss off their kin and you’ll release the full fury of the hive.

New Boss: Wasp Queen

• Cozy within her hidden hive, the ominous queen of the skies awaits.

Super Duper (Item Duplication Machine)

Introducing the Super Duper!

• The Super Duper is a new piece of equipment installed in the Oak Lab that duplicates gear and items using Raw Science.
• Find Duper Discs in the yard labs, which upgrade the Super Duper to clone even more items. The first disc unlocks operation of the Super Duper, while the other discs unlock duping of higher-tier equipment and items.
• Any equipment that is duped will include all the item’s Smithing upgrades.
• Higher-tier equipment costs more Raw Science to dupe.
• It can even duplicate trinkets, unique items, and upgrade stones!
• Example: Duplicate an upgraded equipment set for your friends if they are joining your party mid-way through your adventure!

Chillax at your Base

Bases are more than just protection against giant insects that want to eat you. They are also for making you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

• Buildings now exude cozy vibes when you are nearby. If you are around enough cozy buildings, your level of coziness will rise.
• For each new level of coziness you reach, you can unlock new things:
• New decorative building recipes
• A mutation useful for base building
• New emotes to expand your body language
• Being in a cozy location will also give you status effects that decrease your hunger and thirst drain and slowly heal you.
• Multiple buildings of the same type don’t give you the same level of coziness. For example, one bed will provide lots of coziness, but a second bed of the same type will only give you a little more coziness.
• There are five levels of coziness. Your current coziness level will show on your HUD if it is at least 1.
• Note: Some existing decorative buildings are now unlocked via the coziness system instead of by analyzing a material (such as the Grandfather Clock).

Handy Gnat Helps You Build

Have a large base renovation in mind? Tired of gravity holding you down? Then see what the buzz is about and call on your local construction pro: Handy Gnat!

• As Handy Gnat, you can fly around to build and customize bases to your heart’s content.
• In order to use Handy Gnat, you must have the “Handy Gnat Unlocked” custom game option toggled on. This option is on by default in Creative and Creative with Bugs game modes. For
• Survival game modes, you must convert your game to a Custom Game first in the Game Settings menu to enable this feature.
• Once enabled, Handy Gnat can be activated in the Crafting menu or the Construction radial.
  Handy Gnat can build from storage near your teen and even haul Grass Planks and Weed Stems.

All story and quest progress is reset for early access saves due to early dialogue and quests being revised. Player bases, unlocked recipes, and other progress will remain, but you’ll have to start from the ravine again. Thankfully, there’s plenty of new content, from new areas like the entire Eastern Upper Yard to new secret labs and the UnderShed.

New creatures, armor sets, weapons (including a new weapon type in Staves) and a brand new boss, the Orchid Mantis, have also been added. New Mutations and quality of life changes for better inventory management have also been implemented. Check out some of the patch notes for a number of the changes and full notes here, along with the developer’s newest Vlog.

Patch Notes for Update 1.0.0 – Go Big!

The Full Story!

• You can now “beat the game!” The complete story and mystery of the backyard is now available to play and experience.

All Lines Fully Voiced

• This includes full voice acting passes on previous dialogue that was missing voice overs as well as all of the new dialogue added in 1.0.

Story and Quest progress will be reset for saves made during Early Access.

• A lot of the early dialogue and quests have been undergone revisions and thus the story and quest flow are now different. Story and lab content will need to be traversed again to progress the new story flow. You will be placed back at the starting ravine.
• Don’t Worry: All inventory, player bases, unlocked recipes, milk molars, science purchases, and other unlocks will carry over and not be lost.

New Areas

The Entire Eastern Upper Yard

• A huge sprawling and wild land full of towering household items and new angry bugs. Complete with explorable tunnel systems and new plants and resources to discover.

New Secret Labs!

• [REDACTED – OMINENT]

Existing Lab Room Changes and Secrets

• [REDACTED – OMINENT]

The UnderShed

• A large, dark, and dank zone under the Shed where the mystery of the backyard continues…

New Features

Cinematic Cutscenes

• Starting a new game (or loading a save prior to 1.0) will start the game on a fully rendered intro cinematic.
• You will also encounter other rendered cutscenes during the game that divulge more of the story and mystery.

Trinkets

• The Glider slot is now the “Accessory” slot.
• There are now a variety of Trinkets to equip to the Accessory slot.
• Some trinkets are lucky loot drops which you can find them many times over, other trinkets are unique items in the yard.
• Most Trinkets will apply an additional status effect to your character that matches the Trinket.
• Dandelion Tufts will still equip via this Accessory slot.

New Achievements

• 9 new achievements added in 1.0 for you to unlock! Hidden ones include story spoilers.

New Battles / Bosses

Orchid Mantis

• Find the Orchid Mantis home in the flower planter in front of the Shed.
• She must be lured out with a craftable treat: the Orchid Mantis Kebab.

[REDACTED – OMINENT]

Other New Creatures

New creatures for you to encounter in the upper portion of the yard!

• Moth
• Spiky Water Flea
• Tiger Mosquito
• Tick
• Worker Fire Ant
• Soldier Fire Ant
• Black Widow
• Black Widow Spiderlings
• [REDACTED – OMINENT]