Survival games test the player in many ways. Staying warm and avoiding enemies are two of the most common concerns, and players will inevitably want to seek out shelter and craft equipment. But there's one set of needs even more basic: finding food and water. The best armor in the world means nothing if its wearer dies of thirst.
Grounded shrinks its child protagonists and traps them in the backyard of a suburban home, challenging them with turning everyday objects and resources like grass and berries into the raw materials for their survival. Being stuck in a backyard doesn't make it easy to find a safe drink. Here's everything the player needs to know about finding clean water.
Updated April 19th, 2024 by Russ Boswell: Water is an incredibly important resource in Grounded. Although players can drink dirty water at any time to quench their thirst, doing so can drain their health and cause their hunger to worsen. Players that go too long without water will eventually perish, so it's important that players ensure they have access to clean water at all times. Thankfully, it isn't particularly hard to find clean water in Grounded if players know exactly where to look. To better help players get clean water in Grounded, the following guide has been updated with a video.
Thirst And Unsafe Drinks
Keeping one's Thirst Meter full is vital in this game. Characters who collapse due to thirst will drop their backpack, requiring the player to venture back to wherever it fell. If the character collapsed near a spider's den or a swarm of mosquitos, that's easier said than done, even with the best mutations. Thankfully, there are several options when it comes time to get a drink in Grounded.
Whether trying to figure out how to get into the sandbox or just doing a bit of exploring, the player will do a lot of traveling in Grounded. There are pools of water scattered all around the backyard, but they are stagnant puddles in the dirt. Drinking from these will make the player sick. The same goes for the gigantic Pond: there's more water than the player could ever need, but it's unclean and unsafe. Taking a drink from either of those sources is a good way to make the character sick, sapping their health as well as causing their Hunger to skyrocket.
How To Find Clean Water
The best source of clean water is Dew Drops. These giant, glistening droplets can be found clinging to the underside of Grass as well as other surfaces. Seeing a water droplet bigger than the character's head is a sure sign that one's thirst will soon be quenched, but there's a problem: in most cases, the Dew is out of reach. Dew hanging from a stalk of Grass can be knocked down by hitting it with a projectile or cutting down the Grass itself. The character can then safely drink the Dew.
New Dew Drops spawn every day, so even after the player has filled their belly with all the water in a given location, they can always come back later for more. It's a chore having to search for Dew whenever one is thirsty, especially if the player has to be well-armored to fend off spiders, so it's a good idea to craft a Canteen for drinks. Liquid containers in Grounded can only carry one substance at a time, however. For example, if the player is already carrying around Juice, they will have to empty the container before they can fill it with water.
Another, more sustainable option for obtaining clean drinking water is through a Dew Collector, which the player can craft after obtaining Silk Rope. With a Dew Collector setup at the player's base, Dew will appear there automatically, eliminating the need to scour the backyard. With a Dew Collector and Canteen, the player will never go thirsty again.
Grounded is available now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.