With spring in the air, Obsidian Entertainment is pulling players back into the yard with today's Grounded Super Duper update. The free 1.2 content drop for Xbox and PC sees a ton of new craftable items, along with fresh creatures to run into, and implements a Base Coziness system to buff characters with impressive dwellings.

This content isn't just deemed the Super Duper update due to the whopping amount of new things packed in. Super Duper stems from the Super Duper machine players can now find within Grounded's Oak Tree Lab. And with it, backyard adventurers and their co-op friends can now duplicate items and equipment using Raw Science materials in-game.

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Utilizing the Super Duper machine requires the locating of Duper Discs throughout the game. Once the Duper Discs are discovered, players can spend Raw Science to duplicate an item of choice - upgrades included. The new enemy haunting the yard comes in the form of wasps. These intense insects will guard hives throughout the upper yard. If angered, players risk dealing with the wrath of the entire wasp colony. And somewhere out there in the lawn is the Wasp Queen that offers special new rewards in craftable items and a fresh armor set upon defeat. Grounded beginners should think twice before attempting to greet this royalty.

Base building is seeing massive improvements in the Grounded Super Duper update. Not only are there various quality-of-life improvements to help make things less tedious, but there's also a new companion in the Handy Gnat that can be summoned to help carry the load. The Handy Gnat is an ally that can be called upon to help construct and gather materials in the title's Creative and Creative with Bugs modes. And turrets have also been streamlined, combining the Pebble and Pollen Turrets into one new Acorn Turret with various ammunition options.

The new Base Coziness feature that's rolling out is designed to reward those that take the time to create an impressive home. Constructing buildings, crafting furniture, and adding decorations now all add to the game's coziness level. Higher coziness levels lead to new recipes for the best food in Grounded, mutations, as well as emotes that can be used for communicating with friends. And with the Super Duper update bringing in over 100 new crafting items, there shouldn't be any problems finding ways to spruce up the place.

Finally, Obsidian Entertainment announced that Grounded is now listed as an officially supported title on the Steam Deck. To celebrate another great game being Steam Deck Verified, it will be free to play on Steam from April 27 through May 1.

The Super Duper Update

Hey there Grounded fanatics! We're totally stoked to reveal a rad new update packed with awesome new features and improvements.

New Features

Wasps Swarm the Yard

Get ready to buzz with excitement as wasps invade the yard. Battle with wasps and drones that guard their mini hives across the upper yard. Keep your eyes peeled for the hidden main nest as well. A word of caution: piss off their kin and you'll release the full fury of the hive.

New Boss: Wasp Queen

Cozy within her hidden hive, the ominous queen of the skies awaits.

Super Duper (Item Duplication Machine)

Introducing the Super Duper!

  • The Super Duper is a new piece of equipment installed in the Oak Lab that duplicates gear and items using Raw Science.
  • Find Duper Discs in the yard labs, which upgrade the Super Duper to clone even more items. The first disc unlocks operation of the Super Duper, while the other discs unlock duping of higher-tier equipment and items.
  • Any equipment that is duped will include all the item's Smithing upgrades.
  • Higher-tier equipment costs more Raw Science to dupe.
  • It can even duplicate trinkets, unique items, and upgrade stones!
  • Example: Duplicate an upgraded equipment set for your friends if they are joining your party mid-way through your adventure!

Chillax at your Base

Bases are more than just protection against giant insects that want to eat you. They are also for making you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

  • Buildings now exude cozy vibes when you are nearby. If you are around enough cozy buildings, your level of coziness will rise.
  • For each new level of coziness you reach, you can unlock new things:
    • New decorative building recipes
    • A mutation useful for base building
    • New emotes to expand your body language

  • Being in a cozy location will also give you status effects that decrease your hunger and thirst drain and slowly heal you.
  • Multiple buildings of the same type don't give you the same level of coziness. For example, one bed will provide lots of coziness, but a second bed of the same type will only give you a little more coziness.
  • There are five levels of coziness. Your current coziness level will show on your HUD if it is at least 1.
  • Note: Some existing decorative buildings are now unlocked via the coziness system instead of by analyzing a material (such as the Grandfather Clock).

Handy Gnat Helps You Build

Have a large base renovation in mind? Tired of gravity holding you down? Then see what the buzz is about and call on your local construction pro: Handy Gnat!

  • As Handy Gnat, you can fly around to build and customize bases to your heart's content.
  • In order to use Handy Gnat, you must have the "Handy Gnat Unlocked" custom game option toggled on. This option is on by default in Creative and Creative with Bugs game modes. For Survival game modes, you must convert your game to a Custom Game first in the Game Settings menu to enable this feature.
  • Once enabled, Handy Gnat can be activated in the Crafting menu or the Construction radial.
  • Handy Gnat can build from storage near your teen and even haul Grass Planks and Weed Stems.

Additional Custom Game Options

  • All Mutations Unlocked
    • Start with all Mutations unlocked and available.

  • Fully Yoked
    • Start with all Milk Molar infusions fully maxed out.

  • Handy Gnat Enabled
    • Allows you to activate the Handy Gnat build helper.

  • "All Recipes Unlocked and Free" has been split into two separate options.: All Recipes Unlocked, and All Recipes Free.

Loot Luck

Increase the chance of obtaining rare drops and receive more loot in general! Loot luck comes in 2 forms:

  • Generic Loot Luck
    • Increases drop rate for all items on all creatures.

  • Targeted Loot Luck
    • Greatly increases the drop rate for all items from a specific creature type (for example, "Loot Luck: Black Widow" will increase the drop rate specifically for black widows).

This new luck status effect can be found in various places, most easily by utilizing the new "Rub For Luck" feature on all the stuffed creature buildings!

Turret Improvements

  • The Pebblet Turret and Pollen Turret have been converted to be a single Turret called "Acorn Turret" that can load different ammo types like a bow.
  • When in the Turret, you can press 'R' or Right Bumper to swap ammo types on the fly. The new ammo types you can craft are:
    • Rocky Rounds
      • Pebblet rounds made smooth with bug acid. Pack a punch and push targets back.

    • Groundy Rounds
      • Sticky turret rounds that don't do a lot of damage but can ground flying insects with ease.

    • Pointy Rounds
      • Sharp and simple. Very small cooldown between shots.

    • Sappy Rounds
      • Gooey rounds that are perfect for slowing down enemy crawlers.

    • Burny Rounds
      • Hot little suckers that can set the ground around them ablaze.

  • Pollen Turret recipe and Pollen Turret Science Store entry have been removed.
    • If you previously purchased either the Pollen Turret or Pebblet Turret, you will have access to the new "Acorn Turret" building recipe.
    • If you previously purchased both Turrets, you will be refunded 4,000 Raw Science.

  • Turret aiming angles have been increased so you can aim higher and lower.
  • You can now see the health of the turret while inside of it.

Yoked Gardening

  • Muscle Sprouts can be grown in the Garden Patch now.

New Achievements

  • Three new achievements added related to the new features and content.

Photo Mode Improvements

  • Added Depth of Field slider.
  • 5 new poses added.

Steam Deck Support

Grounded has been updated to include official Steam Deck support. Fixed issues and improvements include:

  • The game now boots past the initial loading screen.
  • The Xbox log-in window properly displays.
  • Tuned the default graphics settings for Steam Deck to provide an enjoyable experience. Also includes some Steam Deck-specific optimizations.
  • Steam Deck virtual keyboard pops up when selecting any input text field in the game (entering a multiplayer game password, naming your trail marker / storage, pet, etc.)
  • Control prompts no longer flip flop between displaying gamepad and mouse/keyboard controls when using the touch pad or gyro.
  • Note: The Steam store page will not reflect this official support until after the 1.2 Public Test period is complete.

Quality of Life Features

View Enemy Status Effects

  • Status Effects applied to creatures now appear beneath the enemy health bar while you are attacking them.

Building: Hold to Place Many

Tired of placing one wall at a time? Then utilize Place Many!

  • You can press and hold the build action and move your cursor to place many structural buildings all at once. You can also bind the "Place Many" control (default unbound) to start Place Many with one button press instead of using the "Hold Build" action to activate.
  • Example uses:
    • Place a horizontal line of 10 foundations all at once.
    • Place a vertical set of 8 walls all at once.
    • Use both directions to make a 10x10 set of walls all at once.

  • Cool Extra Examples:
    • Quickly build a vertical spiral staircase.
    • Quickly build a fireplace with a chimney as tall as you want.

Relocate Walls / Floors / Roofs / Foundations

  • You can now relocate walls, floors, roofs, and other structural buildings as long they are not the sole supporter of another building.

Mutations

  • You can now configure 4 Mutation loadouts and quickly swap between them using the new Mutation Loadouts radial.
  • The default binding to open the new radial is Right D-Pad on controller or T on keyboard.
    • To make room on the controller, the emote and chat radial have been combined into a single radial.

  • There are five new mutations to unlock.
  • Active Mutation status effects display in the UI next to your other status effect icons.

Shared World Backup Saves

  • Shared Worlds now create local backup saves on the last host's machine anytime a save is made.
    • These saves are not stored in the cloud like the primary Shared World save and thus only the host that made them has access to them.

  • Backup saves can only be loaded if you were the last host for the Shared World when the backup save was made.
    • This is done to prevent multiple players from loading very old backup saves that stomp over the current playthrough progress.
    • Beneficial use case example: Your base is completely destroyed and the current host wants to load a backup auto-save from 15 minutes prior when the base was still standing.

New Content

New Equipment / Items

  • Wasp Morion
  • Wasp Breastplate
  • Wasp Greaves
  • Bard's Tudor
  • Bard's Bow
  • Wasp Queen Trinket
  • 6 secret trinkets
  • Pollen Arrows
  • More smoothies and meals

New Buildings

Over 90 new buildings have been added for your base building needs!

Utility

    • Large Storage Chest
      • Holds 60 items.

    • Large Plank Pallet
      • Holds 60 Grass Planks.

    • Large Stem Pallet
      • Holds 60 Weed Stems.

    • Hot Tub
      • Seats up to four tiny teens, who gain the "Hot Springs" status effect upon soaking in it.

Decor

    • Bunk Bed
    • Petal Bed
    • Pupa Leather Couch
    • Trash Can
    • Ant Candle
    • Spider Candle
    • Acorn Shelf
    • Koi Scale Shelf
    • Pinecone Shelf
    • Toenail Chandelier
    • Fireplace Hearth
    • Fireplace Chimney
    • Fireplace Half Chimney
    • Fireplace Chimney Clover Roof
    • Fireplace Chimney Crow Roof
    • Fireplace Vent
    • Picture Frame
    • Pinecone Table
    • Pinecone Armoire
    • Short Pinecone Dresser
    • Tall Pinecone Dresser
    • Vase D
    • Vase E
    • Vase F
    • Weevil Statue
    • Aphid Statue
    • Koi Statue
    • Yoked Girth Statue
    • Moldorc Statue
    • [REDACTED] Statue
    • [REDACTED] Statue
    • Standing [REDACTED] Brazier
    • Sitting [REDACTED] Brazier
    • [REDACTED] [REDACTED]

Base Structures

    • Clay
      • Half Clay Foundation
      • Curved Clay Foundation

    • Pebblet
      • Half Pebblet Foundation
      • Curved Pebblet Foundation

    • Clover
      • Clover Peaked Roof
      • Clover Peaked Dome Roof
      • Clover Valley
      • Clover Awning
      • Clover Awning B
      • Clover Awning Corner
      • Clover Awning Diagonal
      • Clover Awning Diagonal B

    • Crow Feather
      • Crow Feather Valley
      • Large Crow Feather Peaked Roof
      • Crow Awning
      • Crow Awning B
      • Crow Awning Corner

    • Grass
      • Grass Outer Curved Floor
      • Corner Grass Stairs
      • Interior Corner Grass Stairs
      • Corner Grass Half Stairs
      • Interior Corner Grass Half Stairs
      • Grass Valley

    • Weed Stem
      • Stem Outer Curved Floor
      • Log Valley

    • Acorn
      • Acorn Stairs
      • Acorn Half Stairs
      • Corner Acorn Stairs
      • Interior Corner Acorn Stairs
      • Corner Acorn Half Stairs
      • Interior Corner Acorn Half Stairs

    • Mushroom
      • Mushroom Stairs B
      • Corner Mushroom Stairs
      • Interior Corner Mushroom Stairs
      • Mushroom Valley

    • Pinecone
      • Pinecone Roof
      • Pinecone Roof Corner
      • Pinecone Roof Squared Corner
      • Pinecone Roof Interior Corner
      • Pinecone Flat Roof
      • Pinecone Flat Triangle Roof
      • Pinecone Peaked Roof
      • Pinecone Peaked Dome
      • Pinecone Valley

    • Ash
      • Ash Valley

    • Other
      • Bur Outer Curved Floor
      • Buoyant Foundation Ramp

Wall Mounts

    • Infected Wolf Spider
    • Infected Gnat
    • Grub
    • Wasp
    • Wasp Queen

Stuffed

    • Infected Wolf Spider
    • Infected Gnat
    • Grub
    • Wasp
    • Wasp Queen

Other Changes / Tuning

Audio

  • Updated pickup and equip sounds for weapons, armors, and items.
  • Many more objects will now play the proper material impact sounds when hit.

BURG.L Quests

  • Raw Science reward values granted from Kill quests have been simplified:
    • Passive Creatures = 50 per kill
    • Tier 1 Creatures = 100
    • Tier 2 Creatures= 200
    • Tier 3 Creatures= 300

Conversations

  • BURG.L now plays talking animations during conversations.

Milk Molar Upgrades

  • There's now a sixth level of the "Health" upgrade.
  • Health has been rescaled.
    • Previously: 30 → 50 → 65 → 75 → 80
    • Now: 30 → 55 → 75 → 90 → 100 → 105

  • Stamina has been rescaled.
    • Previously: 20 → 35 → 45 → 50 → 55
    • Now: 25 → 45 → 60 → 70 → 75

  • Hunger and Thirst rates have been rescaled.
    • Previously: 80% → 70% → 60% → 55% → 50%
    • Now: 80% → 65% → 55% → 50% → 45%

  • Healing upgrade has been rescaled to have diminishing returns like all other upgrades.
    • Previously: 15% → 30% → 45% → 60% → 75%
    • Now: 20% → 35% → 45% → 50% → 55%

Combat

  • Creatures now have a stagger cooldown to prevent them from being stun-locked, ranging from 1 second to 20 seconds depending on tier/creature.
  • Perfect Blocks now deal significantly more stun damage to flying creatures.
  • Mosquitos now have an extended hit box to make them easier to hit with melee weapons.
  • Increased stamina to swing club type weapons.
  • Base unarmed damage reduced because it ignores resistances.

Bosses

  • The Broodmother has been updated to provide a slightly harder challenge.
    • You can no longer hurt the Broodmother as she slowly descends from the ceiling.
    • No longer receives specific damage type resistances as her phases change.
    • Now applies various debuffs on her attacks.
    • Idle time spent between attacks has been reduced.
    • Health has been slightly increased.
    • Broodmother no longer attempts to leap to specific egg sacs after a phase change.
    • Added a new "backwards dodge" attack to the Broodmother.

Mutations

  • Lil Fist:
    • Bonus damage stacks now clear when you take damage.
    • Mastery bonus proc chance reduced.

  • Trapper PEEP.R final tier now requires 60 gold cards instead of 59 to even out the tiers (20 → 40 → 60).
  • Meat Shield bonus health value increased.
  • Buff Lungs bonus stamina value increased.
  • Cardio Fan stamina regen buff increased at all tiers.
  • [REDACTED] Stranger:
    • Proc chance doubled.
    • Damage of [REDACTED] summon increased.

  • Shocking Dismissal proc chance increased.
  • Grass Master bonus damage increased.
  • Rock Cracker bonus damage increased.

UI

  • Survival tutorial quests can be toggled off in the options menu.
  • On Steam, the Main Menu will not ask you to log into an Xbox account until you access multiplayer features.
  • Recipe lists in recipe buildings are now sorted by tier.
  • Some of the buttons on the UI have been modified to look more like buttons when using the keyboard.
  • Additional clarification on weakpoints has been added to the creature cards.
  • Weapons that maintain their original damage type after upgrading down an elemental path should be communicated more clearly
    • For example, an axe that's upgraded down the "spicy" path should now communicate that it's spicy + chopping

World

  • Treasure chest in Black Anthill storage room now always gives 2 crow feathers instead of randomly giving 0 to 5.
  • The Stump Lab has been improved to have less frustrating platforming.
  • Added a quest objective and map marker for finding the Hedge Ascent for the Hedge Lab quest.
  • Wolf Spiders will not wake up on their own for the first 3 nights of starting a new game.
  • Large Feather nodes can now drop up to 10 feather resources, up from 7.
  • Small Feather nodes can now drop up to 3 feather resources, up from 1.

Pets

  • Pets will jump to their homes or masters when the party rests.
  • Active pets will magically appear near the player if they are very far away.

Optimization

  • Notably reduced the amount of network traffic between hosts and clients when playing Multiplayer.
  • Improved framerate on extended playthroughs with larger bases.
  • Creature pathing will not fragment memory so much, which should help prevent out-of-memory crashes.
  • Improved CPU performance of based built on top of buoyant foundations.
  • Improved CPU performance when items are floating in water (example: Lint in the Undershed water).
  • Other general CPU performance improvements.

Buildings

  • The "Copy" action is now mapped to R3 for Gamepad. It was previously unmapped.
  • Sitting in chairs slows your hunger and thirst drain.
  • Roof Interior Corners are now placed by flipping Roof Corners (default 'G' or Y button).
  • Several types of buildings will now conform better to the ground during placement.
  • Player can hold the Drop button to drop all hauled items into storage buildings.
  • Minor performance improvements on saves with large numbers of static freeform buildings, such as partitions, stuffed creatures, and vases.
  • The Grinder will now work with nearby palette storage.
  • Asymmetric Ash buildings now have a flip option.
  • Aligning buildings with the terrain will be smoother, particularly close to the player.
  • Ceiling-mounted buildings can now be optionally grid-snapped.

Armor and Weapons

  • The repair hammer now repairs buildings when thrown.
  • Crossbows now grant the "Rough Reload" effect.
    • Block canceling is enabled after firing a shot.
    • Damage is significantly reduced on the next shot if fired faster than the normal reload duration.

  • Spears:
    • Rusty Spear base damage reduced.
    • Thrown base damage decreased across all spears.
    • Melee range increased across all spears.

  • Ant Club base damage reduced.
  • Bonus poison damage granted by spider armor sleek effect reduced.
  • Super Gas Arrow damage reduced (normal gas arrows unchanged).
  • Sleek Ladybug armor extra healing effect slightly reduced.
  • Toenail Sword base damage increased.
  • Fire Ant Club charged attack damage increased.
  • Prod Smacker base damage increased.
  • Salt Morning Star base damage increased.
  • Sour Battle Axe stun damage increased.
  • Pinch Whacker:
    • Damage from AoE shock increased.
    • Stun damage from AoE shock increased.

  • Sour Arrows:
    • Stun damage when used in crossbows increased.
    • Stun damage when used in bows increased.

  • Mint Staff base damage increased.
  • Sour Staff:
    • Base damage increased.
    • Damage per pulse on charged projectile increased.
    • Stun damage from direct hit of charged projectile increased.

  • Mosquito Rapier:
    • Base damage increased.
    • Charged attack damage increased.

  • Tiger Mosquito Rapier:
    • Base damage increased.
    • Charged attack damage increased.

  • Spiky Sprig attacks now apply a small bleed DoT.
  • All poison DoTs provided by weapons and armor now have the same tick rate.
  • Increased Poison Nova's damage per tick to compensate for new slower tick rate.
  • Increased [REDACTED] Club's bonus venom damage from [REDACTED] perk effect to compensate for new slower tick rate.

Items

  • Roasted meats now heal the same amount as base smoothies, instead of that of beefy smoothies.
  • Unarmed bonus attack triggered from the power droplet base damage reduced.

Crafting

  • Reduced crafting cost for most meals.

Bug Fixes

Crash Fixes

  • The game will no longer crash when dropping certain items directly from a chest.
  • Fixed a rare crash linked to Building Integrity.

Major Fixes

  • The player will no longer clip into objects at the end of a zipline trip.
  • Clients no longer always see the Oak Lab explosion flames when joining a game after BURG.L has already been rescued.
  • Mantis fight no longer lags when the Mantis attacks.
  • Using Photo Mode for long periods of time while hosting a Shared World will no longer make the Shared World appear as if it is not being hosted anymore.

Other Fixes

  • Player's head will appropriately render when interacting with beds or in conversation.
  • Boss music will correctly play after retriggering a boss fight after loading a save game.
  • The player cannot sit in chairs when the seat is obstructed by something.
  • The player can no longer place overlapping grid-snapped buildings by looking straight up.
  • Wolf spiders will not wake up until the third night (second fix).
  • Sunken Bones no longer jump around when digging them up on clients.
  • The Garden will now ask the player for confirmation when they cancel production using the hotkey.
  • Triangle Ash Walls can no longer be walked on.
  • Acorn Shells dropped from wall-mounted heads will no longer clip into walls.
  • Items on ziplines will no longer clip through objects.
  • Fixed collision on car tire rim to allow player to properly drop through small holes.
  • ORC Disruptors will drop ingredients when destroyed by the player.
  • ORC Disruptors will now play audio correctly on clients.
  • Gnats will no longer continue playing animations while dead.
  • PEEP.R '???' UI element no longer can get stuck on screen when a creature walks out of PEEP.R view.
  • Highlighted key words in item descriptions no longer have large spaces around them when playing the game in aspect ratios smaller than 16x9.
  • Grubs now have a hit reaction animation.
  • The player's weapons will no longer be shown while zipping after loading a save.
  • The player will no longer become oddly stretched when loading a save while on a zipline with a shield.
  • Copying unflipped buildings will set the building being placed to unflipped.
  • Deposit All can no longer overfill plank and stem pallets.
  • Half Stairs can now be placed directly against walls.
  • "Take All" will work correctly on Sap Catchers after loading a save.
  • Guard Dog mutation and turret damage bonuses now properly work on wave versions of Lawn Mites, Antlions, Larva, Orb Weavers, Orb Weaver Jrs, Ticks, Tiger Mosquitos, and Fire Ant Soldiers.
  • The player's facing direction on the map now faces the correct way when they are ascending ziplines.
  • Player nameplates will fade out in the correct locations on aspect ratios other than 16:9.
  • Curved walls can now have curved floors placed in the middle of the wall's inner side more reliably.
  • Foundation Ramps can no longer be placed up against and clipping through walls.
  • Items will no longer become stuck on the hotbar when consuming the last item while entering zipline placement mode.
  • The player can no longer relocate walls with wall-mounted buildings attached to them.
  • Camera monitor feeds no longer show labs with missing art.
  • Certain destroyed buildings, such as diagonal walls and straight roofs, will no longer leave floating buildings they previously supported.
  • Creatures will no longer sometimes be improperly deleted on load.
  • Freeform buildings optionally-snapped to grid buildings will now properly collapse when the supporting buildings are destroyed.
  • [Redacted] was asked to hum less.
  • Water Containers will display the correct levels after loading a save.
  • Lure arrows and gas arrows will now have correct textures when loaded in bows.
  • Adjusted the position of a few pre-placed ziplines to make them easier to reach when going up them using the ZIP.R upgrade.
  • Diagonal walls will now appear at the correct rotation when changing their material.
  • Filtering lists like the Recipe list is now correctly case-insensitive in non-English languages.
  • Clubs no longer lose their generic damage type when upgraded down elemental paths.
  • Power Droplet no longer triggers the Quickdraw effect
  • Infected Wolf Spiders no longer sometimes die while jumping.
  • Dead aphids will no longer become stuck in mid-air when falling onto a choppable plant.
  • Players with the ZIP.R upgrade will now consistently start zipping in the direction they are facing.

Grounded is available for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

MORE: Grounded's Success Proves Obsidian Games Don't Always Have to Go Bigger

Source: Obsidian