Grounded shrinks you to ant size in a 1990s suburban backyard and asks you to survive insects that now outweigh you by a factor of ten thousand. Obsidian Entertainment released the full 1.0 version on September 27, 2022, after two years of early access, and the game has since drawn over 20 million players across Xbox, PC, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch [1]. The premise sounds whimsical — acorn caps become helmets, dewdrops become canteens — but the difficulty ramps fast once you wander past the safe zone near the Mysterious Machine.
This hub guide covers starting priorities, bug threat levels, base placement, Milk Molar upgrades and the gear progression system that gates your access to every biome. For deeper coverage of specific mechanics, see our linked spoke guides as they publish.
Quick-Start Checklist: Your First In-Game Day
Your first 15 minutes determine whether you spend the next hour progressing or respawning. Follow this priority order — each step unlocks the next.
- Grab 3 Pebblets, 2 Sprigs and 1 Woven Fiber from the ground near spawn to craft a Pebblet Axe — your first real tool.
- Drink from a dew droplet on a grass blade. Thirst drains faster than hunger and kills you first.
- Harvest Plant Fiber (×6) to make Crude Rope, then craft a Pebblet Spear — you need a weapon before dark.
- Eat a mushroom from the ground. They spawn everywhere and solve early hunger without cooking.
- Walk toward the Oak Tree (largest landmark) and enter the Oak Lab. Find BURG.L inside — he gives your first quest line and unlocks the crafting tree.
- Pick up the Grasslands BURG.L Chip next to BURG.L. This unlocks the Smithing Station (100 Raw Science) and early building recipes [4].
- Gather Clover Leaves (green 3-leaf patches near the Oak Tree) to craft Fiber Bandages — your only healing item until mid-game.
- Build a Lean-To (2 Sprigs, 3 Clover Leaves) near the Oak Lab. Sleeping sets your respawn point and skips night, which is when wolf spiders patrol.
| Player Type | Day-1 Focus | Skip or Delay |
|---|---|---|
| New player | Follow checklist exactly — craft Lean-To before dark, stay near Oak Lab | Don’t explore past the Oak Tree area until you have a full set of armour |
| Casual | Rush BURG.L chip + Pebblet Axe, build Workbench for armour | Skip mushroom farming — craft a Roasting Spit for cooked Weevil Meat instead |
| Hardcore / optimiser | Rush Acorn Armour + Insect Hammer before first night for Milk Molar farming | Skip Lean-To — use night for Aphid Slipper grinding (Aphids still spawn) |
| Completionist | Analyse every new material at the Resource Analyzer immediately for recipe unlocks | Don’t fight anything until the SCA.B scanner is unlocked via BURG.L |
Difficulty and Customisation
Grounded offers four preset difficulty tiers — Mild, Medium, Woah! and Creative — plus a Custom mode that lets you toggle individual settings independently. Most beginners should start on Mild or Medium. The difference is punishing: Woah! increases bug damage, adds hunger/thirst drain speed and makes death penalties harsher.
Custom mode is where Grounded stands out from other survival games. You can crank spider aggression to maximum while keeping resource abundance high, or disable base raids entirely while leaving combat difficulty untouched. This granularity means you never have to accept a difficulty setting that ruins one system just to challenge another.
Arachnophobia Safe Mode
Separate from difficulty, Grounded includes a 5-level arachnophobia slider in the Accessibility tab. At level 1, spiders look slightly simplified. At level 5, they become featureless floating blobs — legs, eyes and fangs all removed [10]. The slider changes only visuals. Spider behaviour, damage and health remain identical regardless of setting. This is one of the best accessibility features in any survival game and removes the biggest barrier new players report.
Bug Threat Levels: Which Insects to Fight and Which to Flee
Every bug in Grounded occupies a specific threat tier, and the difference between engaging a gnat versus an orb weaver at the wrong time is a full inventory loss. The table below ranks the 12 most common bugs you encounter in the first half of the game, with the gear tier you need before engaging each one.
| Bug | Danger (1–5) | Gear Tier | First Encounter Advice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aphid | 1 | None | Passive. One hit to kill. Farm for Aphid Slippers (movement speed). |
| Gnat | 1 | None | Passive until provoked. Two punches. Farm Gnat Fuzz for the Sprig Bow. |
| Weevil | 1 | None | Passive. Kill and roast for Weevil Meat — best early food source. |
| Mite | 1 | Pebblet Spear | Aggressive but fragile. Appears in groups near the Mysterious Machine. |
| Grub | 1 | Acorn Shovel | Underground. Dig up for Grub Hide (needed for Canteen: 2 Crude Rope + 3 Grub Hides) [3]. |
| Larva | 2 | Pebblet Spear | Aggressive. Found underground. Acid spit has range — dodge sideways, not backwards. |
| Worker Ant | 2 | Pebblet gear | Neutral until attacked. Injure one and soldiers arrive within 30 seconds [3]. Never fight near a colony. |
| Soldier Ant | 3 | Acorn Armour | High damage, armoured head. Circle behind. Always arrives in pairs or more. |
| Bombardier Beetle | 3 | Acorn Armour | Ranged acid spray. Close distance fast or use a bow. Drops Boiling Gland for explosives. |
| Stinkbug | 3 | Acorn Armour + Gas Mask | Poison gas AoE. Found near Oak Tree. Do not engage without a Gas Mask — the cloud lingers. |
| Orb Weaver | 4 | Tier 2 (Insect Axe/Hammer) | Slow wind-up on attacks makes perfect-blocking viable [7]. Drops Spider Fang — unlocks Tier 2 weapons. |
| Mosquito | 4 | Tier 2 + Sprig Bow | Fast, unpredictable flight patterns [7]. Ranged weapon mandatory — melee is inconsistent against airborne targets. |
Rule of thumb: if a bug has a danger rating of 3+, scout it from a distance first. Watch its patrol route, check whether it’s alone, then decide. One death in Grounded costs you your entire carried inventory, which means one bad engagement can erase an hour of gathering.
Base Location Guide
Your first base should satisfy three non-negotiable requirements: proximity to clean water, elevation above ground-level patrols, and access to the Oak Lab [8]. The Oak Tree area checks all three boxes for the early game.
Best Early-Game Base Spots
- Elevated roots in front of the Oak Tree — Insects cannot climb to this height, juice box nearby for water droplets, and the Oak Lab (BURG.L + Resource Analyzer) is a 10-second walk. This is the safest Day-1 location.
- Log fence tops near the Oak Tree — Flat building surface, acorn drops for Acorn Armour materials, sap nodes for crafting. Requires a few grass stairs to access.
- The baseball near the Mysterious Machine — Maximum elevation safety, juice box water source below, but further from the Oak Lab. Better for a second outpost than a primary base [8].
Base Design Priorities
- Lean-To first — sets respawn and lets you skip night.
- Roasting Spit — cooked Weevil Meat restores more hunger than raw mushrooms.
- Dew Collector (unlocked via analysis) — eliminates reliance on random dew drops from grass.
- Workbench (4 Sprigs + 2 Sap + 3 Grass Planks) [3] — required for all armour crafting.
- Storage chests — keep materials here before exploring. If you die, chest contents are safe.
Avoid building inside ant tunnels. The colony treats your structures as an invasion and sends waves of soldiers to dismantle them [3]. Similarly, avoid the Haze area until you have a Gas Mask — the ambient poison kills before you can finish placing walls.
Milk Molars: The Upgrade System Most Players Miss
Milk Molars are teeth scattered across the backyard that function as a permanent upgrade currency. There are 78 normal Milk Molars and 45 Mega Milk Molars hidden throughout the map [5]. You spend them at BURG.L to buy stat boosts — max health, max stamina, thirst drain reduction, hunger drain reduction and more.
Why Milk Molars Matter More Than Gear
Gear can be lost on death. Milk Molar upgrades are permanent and persist through death. Investing 10 Milk Molars into max health early effectively gives you a free armour tier of survivability that you never lose. Prioritise health and stamina upgrades first — thirst and hunger reductions are quality-of-life improvements, not survival necessities.
How to Find and Collect Them
- Normal Milk Molars require an Insect Hammer (or Black Ox Hammer) to crack open. Underwater Molars spawn pre-opened but surrounded by Soggy Root — you need a Spider Fang Dagger or Bone Dagger to cut through [5].
- Mega Milk Molars are rarer and found in hidden areas. Their upgrades affect all players in the world, not just the player who purchased them — a massive co-op advantage.
- In New Game+, normal Molar upgrades reset to level 0 but the bonuses stack. You can buy the same upgrade again for double the benefit [5].
| Upgrade | Priority | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Max Health | 1st | Directly reduces death frequency. Each level adds a meaningful HP buffer that compounds with armour. |
| Max Stamina | 2nd | More dodges per combat encounter and faster exploration. Stamina = survival in boss fights. |
| Thirst Drain Reduction | 3rd | Reduces trips to water sources. Quality-of-life, not survival-critical. |
| Hunger Drain Reduction | 4th | Food is abundant once you have a Roasting Spit. Lowest priority. |
Gear Progression: From Grass to Spider Fang
Grounded gates biome access behind gear tiers. You physically cannot harvest certain materials without the correct tool tier, which means gear progression is your actual progression system — not quests, not levels.
| Tier | Key Materials | Weapons / Tools | Armour | Unlocks Access To |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 (Starter) | Pebblets, Sprigs, Plant Fiber | Pebblet Axe, Pebblet Spear | None | Grass, sprigs, basic mushrooms |
| 1 (Early) | Acorn Shell, Sap, Woven Fiber, Grub Hide | Insect Axe, Insect Hammer, Sprig Bow | Acorn Armour (+Max Health), Grub Armour | Acorns, sap deposits, underground grubs, Milk Molars |
| 2 (Mid) | Spider Fang, Berry Leather, Silk Rope | Spider Fang Dagger (poison), Insect Bow | Spider Armour (Stamina Regen), Ladybug Armour (blocking) | Orb Weaver loot, Hedge biome, deeper lab areas |
| 3 (Late) | Mint, Rust, Sunken Bones | Mint Mace (BURG.L unlock), Rust weapons | Koi Scale, Roly Poly Armour | Pond Lab, Haze Lab, endgame bosses |
The critical bottleneck is the Tier 1 → Tier 2 jump. You need Spider Fangs to craft Tier 2 weapons, which means you must kill an Orb Weaver — a danger-4 bug — with Tier 1 gear. This is the skill check Grounded uses to gate mid-game content. Perfect-blocking the Orb Weaver’s slow wind-up attack is the intended method [7]. Practice on Soldier Ants first — their attack timing is similar but less punishing if you miss.
If you enjoy Grounded’s crafting-driven progression, our Best Survival Crafting Games 2026 roundup covers 15 games built on the same tier-gated resource loop.
Co-op Multiplayer Tips
Grounded supports 1–4 players in online co-op with full cross-play between Xbox, PC, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch [1][9]. One player hosts the world — if the host disconnects, the session ends for everyone (unless using the Shared World feature, which stores the save online and lets any authorised player host).
What Carries Over and What Doesn’t
- Base structures, chests and placed items — shared. Anyone can build, move or destroy.
- Inventory and equipped gear — individual. Each player keeps their own.
- Milk Molar upgrades (normal) — individual. Each player buys their own.
- Mega Milk Molar upgrades — shared. One player buying a Mega upgrade applies it to everyone in the world [5].
- Quest progress — shared. Completing a lab unlocks it for all players.
- For performance tips in co-op, see our Grounded Steam Deck settings guide covering 6 tweaks that lock 40fps.
- Grounded Base Defense Guide
- Grounded Armor Tier List 2026
- Grounded: 10 Items to Analyze First, Ranked by Unlock Value
- Grounded Resource Respawn Guide
- Grounded Tier 2: The Mid-Game Wall That Stops Most Players
- Grounded vs Valheim in 2026: Best Co-op Loop vs Best Solo Arc — 5 Differences That Settle the Debate
Co-op Strategy
Split roles early. One player focuses on base building and resource stockpiling while the other explores and fights. In a 4-player group, assign a dedicated builder, a scout, a combat lead and a material runner. This division cuts early-game setup time roughly in half compared to everyone freelancing.
If the survival-horror tone appeals to you but you want something with more environmental storytelling, our Don’t Starve Together Beginner’s Guide breaks down another survival game built around cooperation and seasonal threat escalation.
To get more out of post-game and co-op sessions, see our guide to the 10 best Grounded mods for 2026, covering co-op install rules for every mod and the UE4SS multiplayer workaround.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Grounded on Game Pass?
Yes. Grounded has been included in Xbox Game Pass (console and PC) since its early access launch in July 2020 and remains available as of 2026 [1]. This is one of the main reasons the player count reached 20 million — the barrier to trying it is effectively zero for subscribers.
How scary are the spiders?
Subjectively, Grounded’s spiders are among the most unsettling in gaming because the shrunken perspective makes them building-sized. Orb Weavers are the first you encounter and their eight-legged animations are detailed enough to trigger genuine arachnophobia. Wolf Spiders — the nocturnal hunters — are significantly worse: faster, larger and accompanied by audio cues designed to create dread [7].
Can you turn off spiders?
You cannot remove spiders from the game, but the Arachnophobia Safe Mode slider (Accessibility tab, levels 1–5) progressively strips their visual features until they become abstract floating shapes at maximum setting [10]. Their damage, health and behaviour stay unchanged — you still have to fight them, they just stop looking like spiders.
How long is Grounded?
A focused playthrough of the main story takes roughly 40–60 hours. Completionists collecting all Milk Molars, BURG.L Chips (11 total) and exploring every biome should expect 80–100+ hours [4]. Co-op groups tend to finish faster because labour splits across tasks, but the world scales its content rather than its difficulty for multiple players.
Looking for more survival crafting options? See our 12 games like Grounded guide, ranked by base-building depth and co-op quality.
Sources
[1] Grounded (video game) — Wikipedia
[2] Grounded’s Full Release Launches September 27, 2022 — Obsidian Entertainment (grounded.obsidian.net/news/grounded/groundeds-launch-september-27-2022)
[3] Grounded Beginner’s Guide — Green Man Gaming
[4] BURG.L & BURG.L Chips Guide — Basically Average
[5] All Normal and Mega Milk Molar Upgrades — Gamer Guides
[6] Ultimate Guide for Grounded — MetaForge
[7] Grounded: Toughest Bugs, Ranked — GameRant (gamerant.com/grounded-toughest-bugs-ranked/)
[8] Best Base Location Guide — GameWith (gamewith.net/grounded/article/show/20725)
[9] Grounded Cross-Platform Support — Obsidian (grounded.obsidian.net/cross-platform-support)
[10] Arachnophobia Mode Gameplay Differences — GameWith (gamewith.net/grounded/article/show/21233)
[11] r/GroundedGame — Reddit (reddit.com/r/GroundedGame/)
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.