(Warning: There are major spoilers for the new content below - jump to the patch notes down below if you'd like to experience everything yourself!)
Grounded’s biggest content drop yet, the Hot and Hazy Update, is out now! Check out our newest trailer for a dose of hype!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsUvQaTi6nc
Check out the patch with Shyla!
🏡 Join Shyla, Obsidian's Social Media Manager, as we find out all the new areas, systems, and “neighbors” you might encounter in this new update! From new biomes, unlockable areas, weapon upgrades, and character stat upgrades, check out the video below to get a head start on all the new experiences that await you in the yard!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUYwSJvmxu8
Biome Update: The Haze
If you thought the Haze area was a deadly wasteland before, just wait until you experience the new dangers that hide within it now. Even more friends have been driven mad thanks to the poisonous fumes of the weed killer, and if they don’t get you, the fungi that smothers the land explode, killing whatever unfortunate souls that stray into their paths.
New Biome: The Sandbox
We know the Community has been keen to get this one, and the team has worked tirelessly to deliver it. The sizzling heat of the Crab Sandbox is now available for exploration! But be warned: if the heat doesn’t get you, new friends lurking in the sand may not take kindly to intruders in their domain. Stay out of the sun, and look for buried treasure that's been hidden away in the sand. Who knows what secrets may be lurking here…
New Explorable Environments
The Black Anthill
Hidden away in the depths of the western side of the yard, black ants have made their home. Venture down there and discover the secrets they guard at your own peril!
The Trash Heap
One man’s trash is … well, in this case, it’s still just trash, but at your size, even the smallest morsel could become a treasure. You’ll just have to fight back some of your neighbors who think the same way.
The Picnic Table
Roll for initiative! It seems that someone left their game of Minotaurs & Myrmidons atop the picnic table along with some tasty treats they were enjoying. Hm, maybe it was the hive of bees that decided to make their home there, but at the very least, you’ll want to avoid the cuddly bees who don't take kindly to threats to their hive.
New "Friends"
Some not-so-familiar faces
Infected Ladybug, Infected Larva, Infected Gnat can now be found in The Haze - they have unique attacks that fit the Infected creature theme. They drop fungal growths as loot in addition to normal loot!
And more…
New Armor and Weapons!
With new challenges come new rewards! New gear can be crafted by challenging the black ants, roly-polies, and antlions.
And new armor doesn't just look good - they come new set effects and bonuses! Check them out below:
Antlion Armor Set
- Status Effect: Protects the wearer from the sandbox sizzle effect
- Set Bonus: Faster reload speed in combat with bows and crossbows
- Status Effect: Blocking attacks builds stun gauge on enemies (normally only builds on perfect blocks)
- Set Bonus: Chance on block to repair currently equipped shield
- Status Effect: All attacks build extra stun gauge
- Set Bonus: Reflect a portion of damage dealt back to the attacker
You might find some old armor sets have some new set bonuses - for instance, the Grub set's old set bonus decreased the rate of thirst but now decreases the stamina used when attacking. Check out the patch notes for the full list of changes!
There are also new weapons! In addition to the Antlion Greatsword and Black Ant Sword and Shield, you may find a few new arrows in a variety of flavors, and (this is a secret between us), a secret new weapon of unparalleled power.
Get Yoked! Milk Molars help you grow stronger
The popular "Yoked Girth Milk Molar" vitamins for growing teens are strewn across the yard for you to find. Harvesting their dense vitamin-infused pulp centers gives players the ability to upgrade personal or party-wide stats at BURG.L.
Find and crush those Milk Molars to get points you can put towards bonuses like Max Health and Max Equipped Mutation Slots, or, should you come across the rarer golden Mega Milk Molars, you can upgrade party-wide bonuses such as increased max ammo and food stack sizes! Any new players that join your game will instantly have those points to spend or party-wide bonuses unlocked, so don't worry if any new friends want to hop on!
Weapon Smithing and Combat Updates!
We've overhauled the weapons systems! All creatures in the backyard now have innate strengths and weaknesses to certain damage types, so you might find yourself dealing extra damage to, say, a ladybug with a hammer than with a spear. Check out our full patch notes to see the whole list of changes and attributes - there are a lot!
Additionally, players can now upgrade their tools at the new Smithing Station. Tools and weapons can be upgraded using Quartzite Shards and various upgrade Globs. Quartzite Shards, for instance, can be used to upgrade weapons up to +5, increasing damage each time.
Additional upgrade globs can be unlocked via BURG.L chips and baked at the Oven:
- Quartzite Globs → Turns Tough weapons (level 1-5) to a Mighty weapon (level 6+)
- Mint Globs → "Fresh" augmented weapons
- Spicy Globs → "Spicy" augmented weapons
- Salty Globs → "Salty" augmented weapons
New Mutations
New mutations are available! Find even more mutations that suit your playstyle and choice of weapon… Or even find a few that may be a little more explosive.
Updated Systems
Brainpower
When you analyze new materials in the world, you will gain levels in Brainpower, which will help you unlock new tiers of items without having to find specific materials or purchase them. Rarer materials will unlock more brain power, so be sure to head to your nearest field station to analyze any new or exotic materials you might come by!
It's not Pete's parents' brussels sprouts, but new food is here!
The food system has been overhauled! Food will now either be counted as snacks or meals, with snacks being exclusively used to stave off hunger. Meals, however, will give you the Well Fed buff, alongside a bevvy of other beneficial effects (like 8-10 minutes of zero hunger depletion), so be sure to head to your nearest oven to cook them!
Full Patch Notes
New Explorable Environments
Note for the test: The new areas are still in active development. We encourage players to build in these areas for feedback and testing purposes, but please keep in mind that the terrain and objects in these areas might shift or move before the official 0.11 release. Please do not expect any new bases to work completely when moving over to a non-test build. Thank you!
The Sandbox
Dig up buried treasure and find ways to survive the sweltering heat of the Sandbox, or wait until night and venture forth in the dark. Either way, you'll have to discover new ways to survive while avoiding your new antlion friends!
The Black Ant Hill
Introducing a new sprawling an thill in the western yard full of black ants and other secrets. This dungeon allows players to uncover new craftable weapons and armor, and includes a new mini-boss within its depths.
The Trash Heap
Too precious to throw away, but not precious enough for the Trash Heap! Here, players will be able to uncover some of the trash left in the backyard. From food items in the knocked-over trash can to the AARTZ 3000, it'll be interesting to see what the players designate as treasure of their own.
The Picnic Table
Something's abuzz over at the Picnic Table! Joining the beehive, players will now find trash from yesterday's lunch, along with the latest and greatest in tabletop RPGs, Minotaurs and Myrmidons vol. II! While the players will be too tiny to play, they can have fun exploring some of the components.
Haze Revamp
Although this biome has been in the backyard since the beginning, players will experience a new Haze with this update. Avoid exploding fungi and survive the highly dangerous new friends that roam this battlefield to plunder the lab and its secrets.
New Bugs
3 New Infected Bugs
Infected Ladybugs, Infected Larvae, and Infected Gnats can now be found in The Haze!
- They have unique attacks that fit the infected-creature theme
- Creatures here will drop fungal growths as loot in addition to the normal loot
5 New Additional Bugs
Black Worker Ants
- Just as busy and cute as their red ant cousins on the other side of the yard
- Not as cute as the Black Worker Ants, but just as busy trying to keep you out
- Maybe all that time near the trash cans isn't such a good thing for these little guys
- There is only one thing in the yard that they hate more than ants, and that's YOU
- What's better than gnats? MEATY GNATS! The meatier the gnat, the bigger the BOOP!
1 New Mini-boss
[WITHDRAWN]
New Crafting Content
Antlion Equipment:
-Antlion Greatsword
-Antlion Armor Set
- Status Effect: Protects the wearer from the sandbox sizzle effect
- Set Bonus: Faster reload speed in combat with bows and crossbows
Sickly Roly Poly Equipment
-Crusty Roly Poly Armor Set
- Status Effect: Blocking attacks builds stun gauge on enemies (normally only builds on perfect blocks)
- Set Bonus: Chance on block to repair currently equipped shield
Black Ant Equipment
-Black Ant Sword
-Black Ant Shield
-Black Ant Shovel
-Black Ant Armor Set
- Status Effect: All attacks build extra stun gauge
- Set Bonus: Reflect a portion of damage dealt back to the attacker
Other additional Items:
-New Secret Tier 3 weapon
-Flavored Arrows
- Fresh, Spicy, and Salty Arrows
New Smoothie Base: Gum Nugget
-Creates "Sticky" Smoothies
- "Sticky Smoothie?" provides a regeneration buff on top of the default initial heal
- Sticky recipe smoothies provide status effects that last double the duration of normal smoothies
New Features
Milk Molars
The popular "Yoked Girth Milk Molar" vitamins for growing teens are strewn across the yard for you to find. Harvesting their dense vitamin-infused pulp centers gives players the ability to upgrade personal or party-wide stats at BURG.L.
Milk Molar Upgrades (Personal):
Every Milk Molar found gives each player 1 Milk Molar point to spend.
- Increase personal stats like:
- Max Health
- Max Stamina
- Max Hunger
- Max Thirst
- Max Equipped Mutation Slots
Smithing Station
Players can now upgrade their tools at the new Smithing Station!
Tools and weapons can be upgraded using various upgrade globs.
- Quartzite Shards can be used to upgrade weapons up to +5, increasing damage each time.
- Additional upgrade globs can be unlocked via BURG.L chips and baked at the Oven:
- Quartzite Globs → +6 and higher
- Mint Globs → "Fresh" augmented weapons
- Spicy Globs → "Spicy" augmented weapons
- Salty Globs → "Salty" augmented weapons
Mutations
4 New mutations to discover:
- Blademaster
- Spicy Safety
- Parry Master
- Truffle Tussle
Additional Features
- New Photo Mode Pose: "Pet"
- Pets now have a small, accessible inventory
- You can now "Drop" bombs instead of always having to throw them
Changes / Tuning
Systems
- Gas masks no longer take durability damage in the haze.
- They still take durability damage from stinkbug gas.
- Maximum durability has been reduced to compensate.
- When players log out of a server, they take their active pet with them.
- A text notification is posted when an unhappy pet leaves you.
- Default stamina regen delay reduced to what it was before Shroom and Doom.
- Default maximum equipped mutations reduced to 2.
- Max total after upgrading is now 5 slots via spending Milk Molars.
Creature Damage Resists
All creatures in the backyard now have inherent strengths and weaknesses to specific damage types.
For example:
- Ladybug
- 75% damage taken from Stabbing (arrows and spears) and Chopping (axes and daggers)
- 100% damage taken from Generic (clubs and misc)
- 125% damage taken from Smashing (hammers)
- Stabbing
- Chopping
- Smashing
- Generic
- Explosive
- Fresh
- Spicy
- Salty
Armor Rework
All armors now classified as "Light" "Medium" or "Heavy":
"Light Armor"
- Reduces the stamina regen delay when equipped
- No change to the stamina regen delay when equipped
- Lengthens the stamina regen delay when equipped
- For example, Firefly Headlamp is now considered "Heavy Armor", and has the appropriate DR
-All "Light" and "Medium" armor pieces received a 20% damage resist buff
-All "Heavy" armor pieces received a 10% damage resist nerf
All armors have had their status effects and set bonus looked at, and some have been changed or adjusted:
Grub
- Status Effect:
- Unchanged: Max Stamina Increase
- OLD: Thirst Rate Decreased
- NEW: Attack Stamina Reduction
- Status Effect
- OLD: Running stamina use down
- NEW: Arrows build stun gauge on creatures
- OLD: Arrows build stun gauge on creatures
- NEW: Arrows have a chance to Cripple (slow) enemies
- Status Effect
- OLD: Movement speed increase
- NEW: Attack stamina reduction
- Unchanged: Stamina regen rate increase
- Status Effect
- Unchanged: Max Stun/Shield gauge increase
- OLD: Passive HP regen
- NEW: Chance to apply temporary regen buff when blocking (normal or perfect) an attack
Raw Science Economy Changes
Raw Science economy changes:
- Costs of all purchases have been adjusted: important items now cost much less, while vanity/esoteric items cost much more.
- Upgraded recipes (+ variants) now all cost 1,500
- New recipes and recipe packs now all cost 2,500
- Mutations now cost 3,000
- Sign packs now cost 4,000
- SCA.B radar upgrades now cost 5,000
- Increased science reward from analyzing a resource by 50%
Snacks
- Exist exclusively to reduce hunger
- Common snacks provide very low hunger
- Rarer snacks provide up to 25% of hunger bar
- Can stack in the inventory - default is 5 per slot
- Never spoil
- Do not activate passive health regen even when filling your hunger all the way
- Can provide a "Well Fed" buff on top of hunger
- Prevents hunger from depleting for 8-20 minutes (real time)
- Cannot stack in the inventory
- Can spoil
- Activates passive health regen
- Meals are obtained via "Cookbook" unlocks on BURG.L chips.
- Benefits scale with the tier of the meal
- Meal Duration: 8 Minutes
- Passive Regen: Half
- Number of Meal Effects: 0
- Meal Duration: 12 Minutes
- Passive Regen: Normal
- Number of Meal Effects: 1
- Meal Duration: 16 Minutes
- Passive Regen: x1.5
- Number of Meal Effects: 1
- Meal Duration: 20 Minutes
- Passive Regen: Double
- Number of Meal Effects: 2
Garden Updates
- Small Mushrooms and Sprigs now have a green thumb chance.
- New Fertilizer introduced: Rotten Food
- Increases the green thumb chance of the current plant.
Brainpower
When you analyze new materials found in the world, you will gain more Brainpower, another avenue to unlock crafting recipes.
- Materials can be Common, Uncommon, and Rare. Rarer materials award more Brain Power.
- Picking up materials will no longer award recipes. You will need to analyze the material to unlock the recipes.
- Some materials awarded too many recipes and were rebalanced.
Controls
- Horizontal and vertical controller and mouse sensitivities can now be set independently.
- The controller movement stick can now be inverted on either axis in the Controller options.
- Increased the maximum possible value of both controller and mouse sensitivities.
- The game will now pause if your controller is disconnected.
- Some controls that previously displayed long names such as "Left Bracket" will now display short names such as '['.
Mutations
Fresh Defense has been changed
- Now a 3 level mutation
- Gained by eating mint instead of picking it up
- Level 1
- Unlocked by eating 1 mint total
- 25% gas and burning damage resistance
- 25% Sizzle rate reduction
- Unlocked by eating 5 mints total
- 50% gas and burning damage resistance
- 50% Sizzle rate reduction
- Unlocked by eating 10 mints total
- 50% gas and burning damage resistance
- 75% Sizzle rate reduction
- Now refunds stamina used to attack when harvesting grass in addition to the bonus damage
- Amount of stamina refunded increases per level of the mutation
Coup De Grass has a second tier.
Class-Based Mutation Rework
All "class" mutations have been changed:
- No longer provide a passive increase to damage
- Each weapon type has a different on-hit proc effect
Chopper provides axes with a chance to Stagger
- Interrupts the current action of the target
- Slows the attack speed of the target
- Attack damage bonus while raged
- Unable to perfect block while raged
- Damage over time that stacks with other sources (poison, gas, etc)
- Disabled movement for a short time
- Movement speed slow
- Restores durability to the weapon
Camera
- The game window reveals more space horizontally with wider screen aspect ratios. This provides better support for ultra widescreen monitors.
Audio
- Ambient background audio now has its own volume slider.
- The Haze has new background music.
Combat
- Poison damage is no longer reduced by Damage Reduction (for both players and creatures).
- Bow and Crossbow damage with all ammunition types increased by about 25%.
- Creatures will flee much further when fleeing at low health or when evading a player that they cannot reach.
- The player's glide will now be canceled if they flinch.
- Mint Mace's power level brought up to tier 3 club power.
Interface
- The Smoothie Station and Oven UIs now show the names of each ingredient required and how many of each the player currently has.
- Added Graphics option for toggling the Chromatic Aberration effect.
- Added a text box to the Crafting menu for filtering crafting recipes, when using a keyboard.
- A mask overlay is displayed on the screen in first-person mode when equipped with the Gas Mask.
- A UI element showing your Gas Mask durability is displayed on the screen when inside of The Haze with a Gas Mask equipped.
- Recipes you craft at the Oven now show up in the normal Crafting UI as well (with the Oven requirement displayed).
- Knocked-out players will display a highlight outline around them if you have the "Highlight Objects" accessibility option set to anything higher than "None".
- When Read To Me is enabled, interaction prompts will be narrated.
- The game will now prompt the player to configure accessibility settings on the first launch.
- The game can now be paused during cutscenes.
-Item context menus are now available in the Container interface.
- Player backpacks will no longer automatically transfer items when opened unless all the items can be taken.
- Shields now display Defense rating bars.
- Main Menu is now extra Hot and Hazy!
- The Damage and Stun item rating bars have been tuned to account for the newer high tier weapon values and the bonus damage that can be gained via the Smithing Station.
- Recipes available for purchase in the BURG.L Tech Chip Swap Shop now show if they require a special building to be able to craft the item.
Building Placement
- Improved snapping of walls to existing grid buildings during placement.
- Wall-mounted buildings are less restricted by the target surface angle.
- Other minor building snapping behavior tweaks.
- Buildings cannot be relocated into creatures.
- Zipline Wall Anchors no longer support other wall-mounted buildings.
- Improved ground alignment of several Storage & Utility buildings.
Crafting
- Repair costs for bows and crossbows are now consistent within a tier.
- Lure recipes are no longer learned from flower petals. They now require a BURG.L chip purchase.
- 2 new Sign sets are available to purchase from BURG.L once their chips are discovered.
- Mint Mace is no longer crafted with raw mint. Now requires processed "Mint Globs".
- Now also requires mint shards to repair
- Paint Can BURG.L chip has been removed
- Recipes have been spread out to other relevant chips
Optimization
- Improved CPU and network performance in multiplayer games with large bases.
- Improved CPU performance of creatures walking when playing a multiplayer game
- Multiplayer Latency/Ping has been improved by 20-40%.
- Additional general CPU performance improvements.
- Saved game screenshots are smaller in disk size.
World/Resources
- Mint in the anthill is now guaranteed to show up every ~6 days.
- Mint Chunks renamed to Mint Shards
- Spoiled Meat now stacks (considered a "food" for stack sizes)
- Ant eggs of all types take twice as long to hatch.
- Quartzite nodes now grant 4-11 shards instead of always granting 7.
- Backyard perimeter fence posts have updated art.
Creatures
- Infected Mite tuning pass
- HP increased
- Damage lowered
- Now prioritizes using a ranged attack
- Ranged attack applies an explosive damage resistance debuff
- Infected Weevils can now be attacked/killed to interrupt their explosion attack
Bug Fixes
Major Fixes
- Creatures will spawn less frequently in locations they shouldn't (inside of rocks, under the terrain, inside of labs, etc.)
- Wolf Spiders will no longer be walking around during the day when starting a new game.
- The Options menu will no longer scroll wildly after rebinding a control with mouse and keyboard.
- Hot Pouch settings properly restore for clients when rejoining a game.
- BURG.L Chips on the map display for clients as well.
- All Sign Sets for Sign Frames are unlocked by default on Creative modes.
- Ants no longer steal your storage items through walls.
- Fixed a rare crash relating to physics collisions.
- Players and bugs should no longer launch into space when randomly stepping on dropped/chopped items.
- The controlled deadzone options actually work now.
Game
- The Accessibility and Log Out buttons on the main menu can now be narrated when hovered
- Fixed some cases where hotkeys would stop working in UI windows
- Selected hotbar and equipment slots will remain selected after tabbing away from and back to the inventory tab
- Gamepad controls can now be rebound more than once without closing and re-opening the options menu
- Inspected recipes are properly remembered for clients when rejoining a game (the "!" icon next to recipes)
- BURG.L Chip locations on the map cannot be hovered over while they are still hidden (prior to helping BURG.L)
- Unicode newline characters can no longer be pasted into single-line text input boxes
- Block and Toggle Ammo Radial controls no longer conflict with each other.
- 'Snap to Grid' control can be rebound.
- Mounting a ladder can no longer clip the player inside solid objects.
- Ladders can no longer be relocated while a player is climbing on them.
World
- Player backpacks and items in water will no longer sink after loading a saved game
- The player will not be stuck in place when bumping into objects while gliding
- BURG.L Explore quest Trail Markers will now be removed when abandoning the quest
- Buildings cannot be placed in Field Stations
- Building rotation no longer operates in the opposite direction when a building is snapped as when it is unsnapped
- Peaked and Straight roofs can no longer be placed floating in the air in certain configurations
- Grass and Log curved doors will no longer behave strangely while placing them on slopes
- Frankenline dials can now be used even after a player has died on them
- The camera will not switch to first-person after pausing on a Frankenline dial
- Buildings being placed can no longer be relocated by other players
- Porch drainpipe no longer has excessively large collision.
Items/Equipment/Resources
- Pebblets now sink in water
- Dropped Acorn Shells no longer clip with walls when Demolishing wall-mount heads and signs
- Basketball hoops can no longer be stacked on each other
- Basketball hoops can now be repaired
- Wall-mounted buildings can no longer be placed on fired arrows
- The hover highlight effect will no longer get stuck active on ladders
- Items stuck in droplets no longer become frozen in place
- Droplets with multiple servings now correctly save and restore their size
- Dew on grass blades now plays the correct effects and audio when hit
- Dew on grass blades will now fall when directly impacted
- Dew on grass blades can now be directly consumed
- Players fall off of ladders when incapacitated.
- Players cannot revive other players from ladders
- Players do not lose stamina when holding the sprint control while zipping
- Bombs will destroy grass and weeds more consistently
Creatures
- Solider Ants no longer count for "Hunter - Worker Ant" quests
- Burrowed larva now count for "Hunter - Larva" quests
- Distant flying creatures will no longer fly into the terrain of the upper yard
- TAYZ.Ts in the Haze lab no longer respawn
Pets
- Naming a pet using the letter 'Q' will not withdraw the pet
UI
- Key prompts will now correctly change when control is rebound
- Some numbers, such as the player's science available and the total items available in recipe displays, will be displayed as "1.5K" when they are too long
- The Crafting category buttons in the crafting menu again properly display the "!" icon if you have a recipe in that category that has not been inspected
- Oven recipes show what tier they belong to.
- Resource Analyzer shows unlocked recipes in an auto-scrolling box instead of having them overflow off of the UI space.
Ominent Practical Technologies
After much [REDACTED] between various team members, [OMITTED] has been decided to be [REMOVED] and thus we have [CENSORED] [EXPURGATE]
