In Grounded, you are shrunk to the size of an ant and must survive in the beautiful yet perilous micro-world of a suburban backyard. This harsh and dangerous landscape can be navigated solo or with up to three additional players in co-operative multiplayer, as you work together to progress through thrilling story-based missions or explore the farthest reaches of the intricately detailed game world.

You hear the voice of a mysterious robot named BURG.L. He seems to know what’s going on and lets you know that the machine to turn you back to normal size is currently out of order. For now, everything in the backyard is trying to kill you and it’s up to you – and up to three friends, if you’re playing co-operative multiplayer – to survive the perilous landscape.

The backyard is rife with different kinds of ants, flying insects, and spiders. You must gather, craft, and build bases from scavenged items found in the backyard, searching for life-saving resources such as the dew off grass to quench your thirst or transforming an acorn shell into body armor to defend against a host of unpredictable creatures. Can you thrive against the hordes of giant insects, fighting to survive the perils of the backyard?

This addition to the backyard brings in brand new features, community requested features, and the game’s first boss.

First up, the Shroom part of the update. While mushrooms have been around the yard since the beginning, players are now able to harvest mushrooms for their mushroom bits and, using the new grinder and oven, turn them into mushroom bricks to allow them to build their own castle-like fortifications.

Of course, to get the recipes for the grinder and oven, the correct BURG.L chip is needed, so players should prepare themselves to enter the newly opened (and still in progress) haze lab. Though adventurers be warned: a new ranged variant of the TAYZ.T, the ARC.R roam the lab ready to attack would be intruders.

That’s not the only enemy waiting to confront players in the backyard. Those who joined the backyard last year when Grounded first went into Game Preview will remember the Broodmother who was waiting for those brave enough to scale the branches in the hedge. That encounter didn’t meet the team’s expectations for what a boss means in Grounded, so the Broodmother went into diapause. But now with a new lair and a terrifying new look inspired by the real-life demon orb weaver spider, the Broodmother has once again returned and is ready for all challengers.

Those brave enough to take on the Broodmother will find a multi-phased boss fight that is not to be taken lightly. She is the most challenging creature in the backyard so far and it is highly recommended that players bring along friends to take her down. Those who do defeat her can get items to craft a special new item, so gear up, make sure mutations are equipped, and good luck!

That’s not all! The Shroom and Doom update is packed with new building items. To name a few, there is the new roof made of crow feathers, curved doors, half walls, half curved walls, and pillars! There is even ability to flip certain structures like the spiral staircase, the acorn railing, and the triangle walls. The base building possibilities are getting even stronger.

The Grounded team isn’t done there, though. Throughout the Game Preview process, the team has been listening to community feedback and working on bringing in some highly requested community features into the game. With this update, the team is proud to announce that three of those features are about to see the light of day!

First up are pets! One of the most requested features in the game, players will now get to try out the first phase of the pet system by taming their own pet aphid or weevil. They can even give it a name of their own and feel all the worse when something bad happens to it in the backyard. Second is the ability to take a breather and sit. No really, people really have wanted to be able to sit and the team is giving it to them. And finally, achievements! Those who want to work on increasing their gamer score (and bragging rights) can now do so with the first pass of achievements.

The Grounded team is always happy to take all the great feedback the community has given to make the game even better as they build out the game more and more prior to the 1.0 release.

To summarize, you want to: Go Big Or Never Go Home.

Available through Xbox Game Preview with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Steam Early Access, Grounded will be available for Xbox One digitally through Xbox Game Pass, and PC (Microsoft Store/Steam) in 2021.