? Join Shyla, Obsidian's Social Media Manager, as you find out what new areas have been added, who the new "neighbors" are in the game, and so much more in this 1.0 Full Release update for Grounded.

Official Site – https://grounded.obsidian.net
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Twitter – https://twitter.com/groundedthegame
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NOTE FROM THE DEVS

Welcome friends, old and new, to Grounded 1.0!

We want to give a big and special thanks to our community who helped us in our two year journey from Game Preview/Early Access to full release. Now that we've hit 1.0, your top question might be, “What is going to get wiped?”. Lucky for you the answer to that is, not a lot! The Grounded team is happy to inform you that your bases, recipes, and other unlocks will carry over. You will be placed at the New Game starting location to ensure there aren't any issues and all Milk Molar points will be refunded (more on that later!). The story quests and content for this full game release will be reset but your beloved bases, unlocked recipes, and inventory items will be there when you open your save.

Now that you know what you'll be able to carry over, let's get into what's new in the 1.0 release.

THE COMPLETE STORY

We’re excited to announce that the story is now available to play in Grounded!

Since the start of your time in the backyard, there have been some questions that we've all wanted answers to. Why are we so tiny? How did we wind up in this backyard? Who did this to us? Gear up and get ready because you’ll be able to experience the full adventure the next time you load the game. As the story unfolds, you’ll expose the mysteries surrounding the backyard by traversing through areas, old and new. Venture forth and discover the secrets that will help you go big and go home!

NEW AREA, NEW CHALLENGES

Eastern Upper Yard

Come check out the vast, sprawling wildland full of towering manmade items found in the Eastern Upper Yard. You'll be able to explore a brand new tunnel system, meet new angry bugs, and discover new resources for you to use.

Super MIX.Rs

Looking to mix things up? We added three Super MIX.Rs across the upper yard. The Super MIX.R is harder than the MIX.Rs you’ve encountered in the yard, but it will give extra Raw Science when completed!

Labs

Along with the Eastern Upper Yard, you will now be able to find new secret labs. You may notice that some of the existing labs and secrets have been--[REDACTED].

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS

Accessory Slot

The glider slot is now the accessory slot. “What? Why would I need that?”

Glad you asked! We have added what we call trinkets into the game. Trinkets, such as the Insulating Larva Spike, are items you can equip for special bonuses like Sizzle Protection to help you with your time in the backyard. You can find some of these unique trinkets in the yard and, if you’re lucky, they will appear as a loot drop.

Dandelion tufts will automatically be in the accessory slot if it was equipped in your glider slot but please note that they need to be re-equipped after using trinkets to help prevent you from falling to your death.

Hot Deposit Plus

Coming in hot is the hot deposit! You're now able to Hot Deposit to all nearby storage containers, which can be done using the new Hot Deposit Nearby Storage action.

Inventory Management

Items will now remember what slot they were last in and will attempt to return to that slot when being added back to your backpack via reequipping or picking up a death backpack. Keep your inventory organized and sorted the way you intended it!

Other Adjustments

Milk Molar unlocks have been refunded due to the new additions this release brings. With that said, you can reallocate them and get yoked! When you go through to apply them again, you may notice that the Hunger Drain and Thirst Drain upgrades are now a single purchase upgrade. In addition, Mega Milk Molar stack size upgrades have been increased from 3 to 5.

There’s also a new personal upgrade for the Milk Molar system called Healing, which will increase the health you will receive from healing items.

Additionally, there are six new mutations for you to discover and we’re excited to have you try them!

ARMOR/WEAPON UPGRADE SYSTEM

Quartzite and Marble

Adjustments have been made to the weapon and armor upgrade system based on the wonderful feedback provided by our community. We have renamed Stones of Toughness and Rocks of Style to Quartzite and Marble, and Tough Nuggets and Style Nuggets to Quartzite Shards and Marble Shards.

Plus, there’s an additional crafting step added to the weapon and armor upgrade process, where you now must process the Quartzite and Marble into usable upgrade resources called whetstones and armor plating.

You’ll still unlock alternate crafting methods for each tier of upgrading resources as you progress through the game, but now you’ll be able to craft whetstones and armor plating instead of Quartzite or Marble. We hope you enjoy these marble-ous changes!

Tier 3 Upgrade Crafting

The tier 3 crafting recipes for creating supreme upgrade materials have now been added to the game. Instead of Rad Tough Nuggets and Style Nuggets, players can craft Supreme Plating and Supreme Whetstone to get their weapons and armor to +9. Go on and craft to your heart’s content!

Crafting with Flavor

We’re bringing a new candy flavor: sour! You can unlock this unique flavor by locating and harvesting everyone's favorite candy, Wormholes.

With that said, check out a brand new weapon type: staves! You can craft staves out of different candy shards you find in the yard, each with its own unique attack style. You can craft three different types in total, but it will be up to you to figure out what they are. It’s time to fight enemies with some flavor.

...and MORE!

We’ve got new crafting recipes for you to unlock! Are you tired of food going bad after a day in the yard? Introducing the Fresh Storage, a smaller capacity storage container that keeps food from spoiling! Looking to spruce up and strengthen your base? The Tier 3 Building Set is the highest form of defense for your base, and you’re going to need a new building material – ash! There’s also over 50 Sign Frame options for you to try and we’ve added the Pebble Path if your base needs a walkway. There’s so much more for you in store and we’re eager to see what you can come up with for your base!

New Creatures (and story bosses)!

There are some new neighbors joining us in the backyard. We know you love mosquitoes so say hello to the tiger mosquito! The lovely black widow and its black widowlings are coming to this update too. Other new members of the creature club include the moth, spiky water flea, tick, worker fire ant, and the soldier fire ant. Oh, and don’t forget to visit the beautiful pink Orchid Mantis over by the shed!

We've also included some more story bosses, but who or what they are is up to you to uncover. They’ll be waiting for you so gear up, explore, and have fun!

It’s been an amazing 2 years of Grounded and we’re very excited to have players check out 1.0, our biggest release of content ever! We couldn’t have done it without the love and support of our community members with their amazing feedback and suggestions – you guys are what made Grounded special from the ground up. We’re super stoked to have players “beat the game!” and there’s much more for you in store. For more information on what this 1.0 release update brings with it, check out the Patch Notes below!

Patch Notes for Update 1.0.0 - Go Big!

Welcome to the official 1.0 version of Grounded: the complete game and the biggest release of new content to the yard!

First and foremost, we'd like to extend the biggest thanks to all of the players who joined the backyard during the last two years. Your huge amount of support and feedback was absolutely fundamental to the growth and success of Grounded. We would not be where we are at today without everything you all have done.

As a special thank you gift, for those of you who joined the yard during Game Preview / Early Access, we have included a special Sign Set that unlocks in any game you play if it is detected that you have an Early Access save on your account. This set includes 4 signs that let you show your Early Access swag and some nods to some certain events you may have witnessed over the last two years.

If this is your first time in the yard, welcome to the amazing community. We're excited to have you all experience the full story and mystery of the yard.

For all players, new and returning: remember, Stay Safe and Stay Grounded (And also, have fun!)

- The Grounded Team

Here's what's new:

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]

New Candy Flavor: Sour

• A new sour flavored candy exists in the yard: Wormholes!
• Sour shards can be harvested from Wormhole candy and tools can be upgraded down this new flavor path.

New Crafting Content

New Weapon Type: Staves

• New high tier weapons mimicking their magical-like counterparts.
• You can craft a Staff out of each of the different candy shards you find in the yard, each with their own unique attack style. 3 in total!
• Unlocked in a late game BURG.L chip.

Other Gear

• 5 new Armor Sets
• 2 additional headpieces
• 9 additional weapons (not including staves)
• 2 new shields
• 2 new pet hat variants
• 3 new arrow types
• 2 new unique weapons to find in the yard
• Loads of Trinkets to find
• Flares
• [REDACTED - OMINENT]

Buildings

• Fresh Storage
  • A smaller capacity storage container that keeps food from spoiling.
• Tier 3 Building Set - Ash
  • The highest defense base building material you can find.
• Pebble Path
  • For when your base needs a walkway.
• Over 50 new Sign Frame drawings
  • A majority of these were added to already existing Sign Set unlocks to give you more Sign Frame options. More sign sets added to unlock these as well.
• New Trap
  • [REDACTED - OMINENT]

Other Additions

• 6 New Mutations
  • 1 new "class" mutation.
  • A mutation reward has been added for successfully defeating the Assistant Manager.
  • A mutation reward has been added for collecting gold cards.
  • 3 more mutations related to new content.
• Coaltana Recipe Unlock Challenge
  • The Coaltana recipe unlock method has changed and is no longer a simple pickup you can sacrifice your body to easily unlock. A challenge must be completed in order to acquire it.
  • Because of this change, the Coaltana recipe has been removed from your known recipes list when loading a pre-1.0 saved game. You must complete the new method of unlocking the Coaltana recipe to get it back.
• Better Item Management
  • Items now remember what slot they were last in and will attempt to return to that slot when being added to your backpack via unequipping or picking up a death backpack.
  • You can now Hot Deposit to all nearby storage containers. This can be done using the new "Hot Deposit Nearby Storage" action in the Executables radial or by pressing "N" using keyboard controls.
• Super MIX.Rs
  • 3 Super MIX.Rs added across the upper yard which are harder but give extra Raw Science.
• More SCA.Bs
  • More SCA.B schemes have been placed in the yard to find.

Changes / Tuning

Factional Reactivity

• Faction payback attacks note what creature faction is attacking.
• The cooldown of days between payback attacks has been reduced as it was tuned high for the Home Stretch update.
• The minimum number of creatures that participate in attacks has been slightly increased, as it was tuned too low for the Home Stretch update.

Systems

• Weapon / Armor Upgrades
  • Stone of Toughness has been renamed to Quartzite. Rock of Style has been renamed to Marble.
  • Tough Nugget has been renamed to Quartzite Shard. Style Nugget has been renamed to Marble Shard.
  • The tier naming convention has been changed from N/A, Cool, Rad to Brittle, Sturdy, Supreme.
    • I.E. Brittle Quartzite, Sturdy Quartzite, Supreme Quartzite. Brittle Marble, Sturdy Marble, Supreme Marble.
  • An additional crafting step has been added to the weapon and armor upgrade process; you must now process the Quartzite and Marble in to usable upgrade resources.
    • Quartzite → Whetstones. Processes at a 1 to 1 ratio.
    • Marble → Armor Plating. Processes at a 1 to 1 ratio.
    • You'll still unlock alternate crafting methods for each tier of upgrade resource as you progress through the game, but now you'll be crafting whetstones/plating instead of Quartzite or Marble.
  • Tier 3 crafting recipes for creating Supreme upgrade materials have been added into the late game.
• Milk Molars:
  • All Mega Milk Molar stack size upgrades have been increased from +3 to +5.
  • The Hunger Drain and Thirst Drain upgrades have been combined into a single purchase upgrade.
  • A new personal upgrade to purchase has been added: "Healing". The more this is increased, the more health you receive from healing items.
  • All personal Milk Molar points have been refunded when loading a save from Game Preview / Early Access so you can apply your points to the new categories as you see fit.
  • There are now enough Milk Molars and Mega Milk Molars placed in the yard to fully max out your character.

Waft Emitter

• Additional creatures can now be pissed off by the Waft Emitter:
  • Fire Ants
  • Black Ox Beetles
  • Bombardier Beetles
  • Charcoal Larva
  • Tiger Mosquitos
  • Wolf Spiders

Mutations

• Natural Explorer now requires more POIs to unlock each tier
• Javelineer now also increases damage dealt when throwing spears

Movement

• New jump animations for the player.

Tech

• Playthroughs are now limited to 10 manual saves max. Game Preview saves and auto-saves do not count towards this limit.
• Xbox users can now swap profiles at the Main Menu.

Camera

• BURG.L's conversation camera has been adjusted for better framing with various player / wall collision scenarios.
• Improved existing in-game cutscenes.

Audio

• New music track that occasionally plays while in the Grasslands.
• Dropping or throwing items on various surfaces will now have correct audio play based on the surface type.
• Teens will remark about things in the yard more.

Accessibility

• New options for adjusting the size and opacity reticle have been added.

Combat

• Defeating the assistant manager now awards a unique mutation.
• Auto-saves now trigger right before any MIX.R is activated, any boss fight is manually triggered, or any Payback base attack begins.
• Creature stat scaling when multiple players are fighting a creature will no longer decrease if one of the players goes away while that creature is still in mid-combat.
• You will now see the "Gas Hazard" warning icon on your HUD while in the middle of a Stink Bug gas attack or inside of the radius of any gas arrow attack.
• You can no longer hurt yourself when throwing an item.
• Throwing weapons does more damage on hit than before.
• Spears now have their thrown damage scale up in several ways
  • Higher tier spears have a default higher thrown damage
  • Weapon upgrades affect thrown damage
  • Javelineer now additionally increases thrown damage of spears

Pets

• Pets that are stored at a Pet House will no longer show a Pet icon when you are away from them.

Interface

• Map has a new art style.
• Map has better feeedback for when map marker has been toggled on / off.
• Improved map panning on Gamepad.
• Any save made during early access will display a warning noting the save is from Early Access and has a chance of not working properly (much like the old "Ancient Save" warning).
• Game Preview / Early Access elements removed.
• The Player List now asks for confirmation before kicking a player.
• The load screen has a new animated loading graphic.
• Dragging and dropping items in inventory / container screens with the mouse is less visually janky.
• Respawning will now have the game do a quick fade from black.
• Survival Quests that have a key control attached to it will show a button backing behind it.
• Improved gamepad navigation of the Data page using gamepad.
• User-generated strings are now filtered for profanity while playing in multiplayer.
• Languages in the language dropdown are now shown in the current language as well as their own language.
• Lab resource surveyors are now unlocked when found, instead of when the lab POI is unlocked.

World/Resources

• Food items found in labs or chests no longer spoil before you find them.
• Husky weed takes fewer chops with stronger weapons.
• Daffodils have new art.
• Rose bush has new art.
• You can no longer save scum to get better loot.

Creatures

• Drowned creatures no longer drop loot. This includes gold cards. (No cheese!)
• Flying creatures will start flying if they fall off something.
• Scarabs will burrow sooner after fleeing from the player.
• Creatures will no longer take items from dropped backpacks.
• There are no more Burrowed Larva near the Oak tree.

New Game Experience Improvements (First few game days)

• Larva no longer randomly roam the starting grasslands during the day and stay closer to their home territories.
• Wolf Spiders sleep through nights 1 and 2 on a new game.
• A tutorial popup explaining how to swap First / Third person camera will trigger during gameplay.
• The "Build a Lean-To" Survival Quest will point you to the nearest Clover and Sprig to help you find those resources since night will be shortly approaching.
• Kid case now has a light on it so you don't spawn in pure darkness if you spawn there.
• New tutorial quest for crafting a torch on the first night or entering into a dark cave will show you where the nearest Sap is since that is the hardest resource to find.
• Block tutorial now triggers shortly after equipping your first weapon you can block with. Tutorial now mentions Perfect Blocking as well.

Bug Fixes

Major Fixes

• SCA.B themes are properly saved and restored for clients.
• Antlions should no longer launch the player (or other bugs) to the moon with their burrow strike.
• Players who join a game after a non-repeatable boss is defeated will unlock the mutations associated with defeating said boss.
• Dew drops on grass will now be correct after loading a saved game.
• Game works on Win 7 and Win 8.0 again.
• Simplified and Traditional Chinese will now use appropriate Chinese fonts.
• Fixed random crashing on Xbox One and Xbox Series S when loading into the yard.
• Loading a save made while incapacitated no longer causes a soft lock.

Shared Worlds

• You will no longer sometimes load into a Shared World as if the game was a New Game due to a save download failure.
  • The player will receive a "Failure to Host Game" message instead and stay at the Main Menu.
• You will no longer see that you are hosting your own world and not be able to load it if you happen to have a crash while playing and then try to rehost the world again.
• Preventing crashing that could happen when interacting with the Shared World system.

Other Fixes

• You can no longer instant craft all items in a processing building queue by canceling the item currently in production.
• Scrolling the map with gamepad is more smooth and reliable.
• Using Quickshot properly syncs the arrow portion of the crossbow reload animation.
• Pupa, gum, koi scales, and sunken bones no longer count toward the Rock Cracker mutation.
• Zipline Wall Anchors can no longer overlap each other.
• Visiting the Four-leaf clover area no longer keeps a green overlay on your screen.
• Fixed Ants going on a weevil murdering spree and leaving noses everywhere.
• Clients see dew drops again after joining a saved game.
• Ants no longer loot dead pet gnats, causing potential item loss.
• Spiders and other large bugs should no longer phase through soda can openings during attacks.
• Saves made in the Hedge lab no longer say "Unknown" as the location.
• All parts of the shed deck can now be built on.
• The cursor will no longer jump to the end of the Storage/Pet name input box after typing.
• Replacing doors with walls and vice versa can no longer cause the walls to stop supporting.
• Half-screen interfaces will correctly display the target object when playing in Arabic.
• You will no longer gain negative reputation towards ants when exploring empty cave systems that have nothing to do with ants.
• Fixed issue where you could not navigate the Share with Friends menu if all of your friends were already on the Shared World Shared With list.
• The Crafting recipe list properly sorts recipes by tier.
• The Crafting menu no longer shows the "Missing Ingredients" element if you have all of the ingredients for the selected recipe.
• Wide Interaction can no longer be used to interact through lab walls.
• When starting building placement, the player will stop crouching.
• When the player holds Ctrl when starting building placement, the placed building will now snap correctly.
• Dropped player backpacks will no longer bounce infinitely on bounce webs.
• Fixed rare crash that could happen when a creature destroyed a Garden Patch that no player was nearby.
• UI Blurring properly works with HDR.
• "Go To Entry" will show the correct gamepad control when hovering a "Recipe Used In" on the crafting screen.
• Read To Me will no longer narrate speech-to-text chat messages.
• Read To Me will no longer redundantly read quickchat messages.
• Read To Me will now read harvestable and interactable interactions more reliably.

Bug Fixes - Xbox / Windows Store Builds

• When a controller disconnects, you can continue playing using a new controller.
• Renaming a save immediately after making it works on Xbox and Windows Store builds.