Grounded is a refreshingly innovative open world, multiplayer survival game that sees you a bunch of mates shrunken down to the size of an ant as you seek to make your way to safety through a back garden realm filled with danger. With Grounded boasting a broad range of exploration, survival and base building elements, our handy Grounded beginner’s guide has all the key game tips to get you started and keep you alive in the early going.
Stay Hydrated in Grounded And Keep Your Belly Full
Before you do anything else, the two most essential things you should do in Grounded are the two most essential things you do in real life – stay hydrated and fill your belly with grub (though perhaps not literal grubs). Anyway, until you craft a water canteen, which should really be one of the very next things that you do, you’re going to have to make do with water wherever you find it in the nearby environment. As such, you can reliably nab water from the many water droplets that are hanging off of the blades of grass which permeate the world (hitting them can help bring the water droplets down to you) or from around any of the five big juice boxes that are dotted around the world. Dirty water on the other hand should absolutely be avoided unless your thirst is completely outstripping your health, since gurgling this foul stuff will result in a protracted loss of the latter. When it comes to the food side of things, chowing down on the mushrooms that are plentiful throughout the world will see you right for the most part.
Make Sure You Craft That Canteen – Seriously
I wasn’t joking about having to craft a canteen, it really should be the first thing you craft, not least because it’ll allow you to carry a bunch of water on the fly, allowing you to quench your thirst in a tight spot where water might not be so immediately abundant. Thankfully, crafting a canteen is pretty simple as all you will need is two lots of crude rope and three grub hides. The crude rope can be made simply by harvesting six lots of plant fibre, while the grub hides can be nabbed by smacking up some common grubs which can often be found around the Oak Tree.
Mess With Grounded’s Ants And Find Out
Though many enemies appear obviously dangerous and exude a fearsome aura, such as the numerous spiders and ladybirds that inhabit the world, it’s also worth remembering that the humble ant can also fall into that category if you’re not careful. For the most part, ants in Grounded are harmlessly curious creatures. As you’re building your base (more on that in a bit), ants will occasionally pop around to see what all the fuss is about, before going off on their way. No harm, no foul right? Well, if you happen to injure one of these curious insects by accident during your base building activities, or worse, deliberately kill one because you’ve had a bad day, your day will get a whole lot worse when a bunch of double-hard soldier ants rock up to your doorstep to get some revenge for their fallen bro.
Explore And Analyse Everything You Can
Crafting new gear and items is absolutely key to making any sort of progression in Grounded and you’ll need precious recipes in order to do so. Happily, new recipes in Grounded can be unlocked simply by exploring and analysing items as you discover them in the environment, with more sophisticated recipes being available in the higher level areas. It’s also worth noting that you should pace yourself accordingly too, returning regularly to the Resource Analyser to deposit your discoveries and prepare yourself for the next outing.
Building A Base In The Right Place
In the early days of Grounded building a base is pretty much essential, but you need to be somewhat choosy as to where you decide to construct your home away from home. While building a base at ground level might be a good idea, don’t be surprised to see some larger predators, including massive damage dealing spiders, decide to take a peek at you during the night. Equally, building your base inside ant tunnels isn’t ideal either, since you run the risk of annoying those not so little critters and bringing an ant apocalypse down on top of your head. Ideally, you’ll want to build your base close to the Resource Analyser so that you can return and unlock new recipes fairly quickly. Finally, building your base high off the ground is advisable too, not least because it’ll greatly lower the probability of you running foul of the various spiders, ladybirds and so on that routinely patrol the ground below.
Get Grounded’s Workbench Built As Soon As Possible
Another crucial thing that you’ll need early on in your Grounded career is the workbench. One of the most important items that you’ll ever create, the workbench is essentially your gateway to fashioning the sort of special equipment and higher level gear that you’ll need to progress through the later stages in the game. Most crucially, the super useful workbench also allows savvy players to create armour glue too, enabling the much needed repair of damaged armour and other items. The workbench can be crafted using four sprigs, two pieces of sap and three grass planks, all of which should be readily available.
Make Sure You Are Properly Equipped To Go Into Battle
There’s no escaping the fact that you’ll have to throw down frequently through Grounded against all manner of insectoid beasties and as such, it is essential that you are prepared to do so. At the beginning of the game, this means crafting the acorn armour set which not only gives a good chunk of defence against incoming attacks, but it also provides a bonus to your maximum health and overall armour durability too. A three piece set, to craft the acorn leg plates you’ll need two acorn shells, four saps and four woven fibres, while the acorn chestpiece requires one acorn shell, five quantities of mite fuzz and three woven fibres to be created.
Finally, in order to craft the acorn face mask you’ll need to have three acorn shells, six clover leaves and four woven fibres. Additionally, you’ll also want to ensure that you have a means with which to deal damage at range too. Early on in the game the Sprig Bow is perfect for that very function and can be easily crafted with three sprig, four gnat fuzz and two lots of woven fibre.
In Grounded Spiders Are Not To Be Trifled With
One of the most dangerous foes you’ll ever encounter in the game, the spiders that you’ll come across in Grounded should be largely avoided for the most part, at least until you start approaching mid-game/end-game gear quality anyway. Extremely fast and capable of dishing out a ridiculous amount of damage, the various spiders that can be found in and around the Oak Tree are a dangerous lot and should absolutely be avoided early on in the game. Trust me, these angry arachnids are not playing around.
