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 Home Stretch update is notably lighter than previous ones as we have been putting most of our focus towards 1.0 work and polish which will be our biggest content release to date. The Home Stretch (0.14) is the final major update for Game Preview prior to our 1.0 Release in September. Thank you.

NEW FEATURES

Shared Worlds

Are ya ready everyone, because we are excited to bring to you Shared Worlds!

Shared Worlds are stored in the cloud, and you can share these with any of your friends so they can host that world while you are not online.

As a host, you can own up to three Shared Worlds at any time. But, you can be a part of 50 other Shared Worlds owned by your friends! This makes it easy for you and your friends to continue to have fun alone or together!

Check it out the next time you are playing with your friends!

The Cookery

Craft your delicious backyard meals in the cookery starting this update! This also makes cooking meals easier to get to when players are just starting out, meaning you can now go out adventuring longer than ever… at least before you start to get hungry that is.

Unlock it by purchasing the "Cooking 101" Science Shop unlock which is one of the default unlocks you can purchase once unlocking the ASL station, and then you're good to go.

Pet Gnat

You can now tame and own a bumbling little gnat pet! You'll just need to craft the new Rotten Meat Slurry and hope they enjoy it!

Now you and your gnat can go boop the other bugs in the yard together!

Armor and Weapon Upgrade Changes

The team has been hard at work revamping the Armor and Weapon Upgrade system, so thank everyone for sharing your feedback with us!

You will notice that we have removed Quartzite, Leather Scraps, and Leather Plates. Now when upgrading, you will need to acquire a unique, non-respawning resource called Style and Tough Nuggets found across the yard.

These can be found by harvesting Stones of Toughness or Rocks of Style. For more details, check out the description in the patch notes down below!

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer sat down with Grounded Game Director, Adam Brennecke, to share his personal thoughts on the game, his favorite elements, its evolution, and the invaluable feedback from the community during the game’s Early Access and Game Preview period. 

Phil and Adam further chatted about what new content players can expect when the full release of Grounded launches on Sept. 27, which includes a complete story mode, a huge new upper yard area, new enemies, and much more.

The full release will include all 12 updates already released during Game Preview/Early Access development, but now players will be able to unravel the entire mysterious story behind Grounded and their shrunken-ness. Find out how the teens got into the yard and the mad scientist behind it in the fully playable campaign — all of which can be experienced alone or with a group of friends.

The full release, v1.0, will also open an entirely new part of the Grounded world — the upper yard. This new section includes a ton more of the backyard to explore along with new armor recipes, new weapon recipes, and some secrets that we just can’t bring ourselves to spoil for you all. Nah, we will spoil something! The Mantis, an insect consistently requested by our incredible community. Finding its way into the yard as a new boss, it may be players’ undoing.

PATCH NOTES FOR UPDATE 0.14.0

NEW FEATURES

SHARED WORLDS

You can now create a Shared World as well as the Standard Worlds you have been doing since Game Preview launch. Shared Worlds are stored in the cloud and you can share them with any of your friends so they can host that world while you are not online.

• You can own up to three Shared Worlds at any given time.
• You can have 50 worlds shared with you at any given time.
• Any Standard Worlds from before can be converted to a Shared World via the Save / Load menu.
• Any Shared World you own or have been shared with you can copy as a local Standard World for you to play on your own.
• Shared Worlds can only be played by hosting it as a Multiplayer game.
• Only one person can host a Shared World at a time (others will be able to join the current player who is hosting).
• Any game progress that happens while anyone is hosting a Shared World will be properly restored regardless of who hosts the world next.

NOTE: This feature is considered beta and could have issues and could require online shared saves to be reset / lost as bugs are ironed out. If you test this feature out with a save with lots of progress, make sure it is not the only working copy of the world you have on your account. The shared save service could also go offline at any time during this testing phase to account for issues or updates as needed.

CONVERT NON-CUSTOM GAMES TO CUSTOM

You can now convert any non-custom game into a custom game at any time while playing to be able to tune values on any game as you go.

GNAT PET

You can now tame and own a bumbling little gnat pet. Pets are also more helpful and less squishy as outlined in tuning changes further below.

REST TIME-LAPSE

Upon resting, you will see a quick time-lapse of the yard as the 8 hours pass.

BURG.L MOVES!

BURG.L has acquired enough chips to remember he can roll his treads to inspect the Oak lab and fulfill his assistant duties.

NEW FEATURES: WINDOWS STORE BUILDS

IMPORT SAVE

The "Save Game" interface now allows importing Steam saves into the Windows Store version of the game.

Note: The old way of importing saves into Steam via placing them in a specific folder in Windows no longer functions or is supported.

NEW CRAFTING CONTENT

ROTTEN MEAT SLURRY

• For taming Gnats.

COOKERY

• Meals are now crafted at the new Cookery building instead of the Oven.
• Meals can be created much earlier in the game now.
• Unlocked by purchasing the "Cooking 101" Science Shop unlock which is one of the default unlocks you can purchase once unlocking the ASL station.
• 2 new meals have been added to the game!

CHANGES / TUNING ARMOR AND WEAPON UPGRADE CHANGES

• Quartzite, Leather Scraps and Leather Plates have been removed from the game.
• Upgrades now require a unique, non-respawning, resource found across the yard
  • Armor upgrades require "Style Nuggets"
    • Levels +1 through +5 require "Style Nuggets"
    • Levels +6 and +7 require "Cool Style Nuggets"
    • Levels +8 and +9 require "Rad Style Nuggets"
  • Weapon upgrades require "Tough Nuggets"
    • Levels +1 through +5 requires "Tough Nuggets"
    • Levels +6 and +7 require Globs similar to before, but are crafted out of "Cool Tough Nuggets"
    • Levels +8 and +9 require Jewels similar to before, but are crafted out of "Rad Tough Nuggets"
• Cost of upgrades has been dramatically reduced
  • Levels +1 through +5 cost
    • Weapons start at a cost of 2 and increase linearly: 2 → 4 → 6 → 8 → 10
    • Armors start at a cost of 1 increase linearly: 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5
  • Levels +6 and +7 cost
    • Weapons start at a cost of 5: 5 → 10
    • Armor starts at a cost of 2: 2 → 4
  • Levels +8 and +9 cost
    • Weapons start at a cost of 5: 5 → 10
    • Armor starts at a cost of 2: 2 → 4
• Tough Nuggets can be found by harvesting Stones of Toughness. Style Nuggets can be found by harvesting Rocks of Style.
• Style and Tough Nuggets can also be found in lab chests and laying in nooks and crannies around the yard.
• At certain points in the game you'll unlock crafting recipes to create Style and Tough Nuggets, transitioning the resources from finite to infinite.
  • Note: Rad Nuggets will not be able to be crafted until 1.0 but a finite amount of them have been placed throughout the yard.

FACTIONAL REACTIVITY / MIX.RS / WAFT EMITTER

• The amount of destruction that can be done to larger bases has been lowered.
• Each faction now has a different reputation value requirement before it becomes upset at the player.
• Players will no longer be attacked by lots of larger creatures at the same time.
• Larva have been added to Factional Reactivity and the Waft Emitter.
• Buildings destroyed by defense event creatures now drop a small amount of the resources it took to build it.
• Base attack difficulty will slowly ramp up over the course of a playthrough instead of being able to instantly go from easy to extremely hard over a short period of time.
• Base attacks no longer trigger while in a lab or underground.
• The Waft Emitter will no longer work in the Haze while the haze is still active.
• Improved creature spawning locations for base attacks.
• An Auto-Save will attempt to trigger right before a Payback attack or MIX.R event trigger.

MOVEMENT

• You no longer will be occasionally launched sideways after hitting your head while jumping.

ANIMATION

• Updated and improved a handful of run/walk/attack third person animations.

AUDIO

• Assistant Manager boss has new music.
• Volume and distance attenuations of creature sounds adjusted to better inform the player about what's nearby.
• Unique ambient sounds added to help diversify soundscape.
• Improvements to overall mix and clarity.

CRAFTING

• Crow feather arrows awarded per craft increased from 2 to 5.
• Glue Factory name changed to Glue Masher.
• Glue Masher has updated art.

LOCALIZATION

• Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean now use correct fonts for those languages.

ACCESSIBILITY

• Various tweaks and improvements to the Read To Me feature have been made throughout the UI.
• When navigating dropdown menu options, the index of the selected option will be narrated.

COMBAT

• Final encounter in the Haze lab has been tuned:
  • Default number of enemies reduced.
  • Additional enemies are added based on difficulty level.
  • Additional/harder enemies are added based on player count.
• Bows now do bonus damage when fully charging a shot as opposed to snapshotting.
• Spicy Coaltana can now trigger Burr Traps when thrown.
• Swinging the Spicy Coaltana has upgrade visuals.
• The "Open Crafting Menu" hotkey has been set back to C for keyboard. "Customize" building hotkey changed from C to G for keyboard

PETS

• Pets will no longer leave the player when they are unhappy.
  
  • Pet happiness governs various other things, but will never cause your pet to leave anymore.
• Pet equipment now gives pets substantial defensive upgrades
  • +200% bonus max HP
  • Bonus DT based on tier of equipment
  • Bonus DR based on tier of equipment
• Passive buffs given for having an active pet have been tuned.
• Pet inventory can now be opened directly from the player inventory screen via a new "Pet" button.
• Weevil pet gravestone has new art.
• Pets can no longer drown.
• Pet Inventories count towards "Nearby Storage" when crafting.

INTERFACE

• The "Save Game" interface will only show saves from the current playthrough instead of all of your saves.
• Data page on the SCA.B has been improved
  • Items are now recategorized to better fit the story
  • Some audio logs and notes are now dated
  • Items are now sorted and it's easier to spot logs and items that are missing
• The password being typed while joining a multiplayer game is now hidden.
• Custom Game Settings (and thus the Game Difficulty setting) can be accessed from the Death screen.
• BURG.L quests can be acquired by double-clicking them.
• A button to view the Survival Guide has been added to the Death screen.
• The "Build a Lean-to" survival quest now displays the Building Radial control next to it.
• A line will show up on your SCA.B Health and Stamina bars to indicate where "100" health or stamina is at. This is to help show how much growth your health and stamina get from Molar upgrades or status effects.

BUILDING GENERAL

• Dead players will no longer bounce indefinitely on vertical bounce webs until they respawn.
• You can now exit Turrets using the Interact button (E on Keyboard default, X on Controller default)

BUILDING PLACEMENT

• Floors now support cells and walls underneath themselves.
• Floors require only 2 points of contact with the ground rather than 3.
• Sap Catchers can no longer be attached to Turrets.

OPTIMIZATION

• Save game sizes have been reduced.
• Reduced memory usage.
• Fixed small memory leaks.

WORLD/RESOURCES

• The Resource Surveyor switch has been moved from the end of the Hedge Lab to the small radar lab at the early portion of the Hedge.
• House patio wood panels have been cleaned up and holes have been patched.
• Cookie Sandwiches now follow the new "big food" structure introduced on hotdogs and apples in 0.13.
• Thistles should be easier to pick and require less cursor precision.
• Lab chest loot added to the Hedge, Haze, and Pond labs.

Creatures

• Hostile bugs tether more appropriately, including those pesky mosquitos.
• Scarab HP has been halved.
• Scarab peripheral vision cone has been reduced (it's easier to sneak up on them).
• Added new BURG.L quests for killing the following bugs: Black Ants, Antlions, Black Ox Beetles, Ladybirds, Dust Mites, Rolypolys, Termites, Tadpoles, Water Boatmen, Water Fleas, and Diving Bell Spiders.
• Ladybird Larva now drop up to 5 spikes each.
• Weevils will hoard less around dropped mushrooms.

ART

• Improved player shadows while playing in first person view.

BUG FIXES

Major Fixes

• Game no longer incorrectly prevents you from saving noting "base under attack" when there is no base under attack.
• Clients can now correctly use ladders that were previously broken when built in some areas.
• The player cannot unbind critical controls such as "UI - Select" by binding the key to a conflicting control.
• Multiplayer games that have been active for longer than 90 minutes no longer stop showing up in the Game Finder window or prevent players from joining via invites.
• Fixed issue with users having trouble hosting or joining multiplayer games after having the game open for long periods of time.
• The Crow Crossbow no longer occasionally misfires.
• Termite King should respawn more reliably.

Other Fixes

• Sleeping creatures will no longer attack nearby players immediately after loading a save.
• The player will now be able to crouch after entering a turret from a ladder.
• Furniture will no longer collapse when replacing the floor it's built on.
• Palisade Curved Gates can no longer have structures placed clipping into the tops of them.
• Flying creatures will no longer become stuck when trying to land while over water.
• Resource Surveyor will no longer detect rotten foods as sources of fresh food.
• The player can no longer pick up items through floors.
• Floors can no longer be built through diagonal walls.
• Accepting a BURG.L quest will now show one notification instead of two.
• The player can no longer attach grid buildings to the moving parts of palisade gates.
• Saved game "Time Saved" will now be displayed correctly when saves are shared across time zones.
• Chipsleuth quests will no longer complete if the game is loaded after collecting the chip and before turning it in.
• Droplets do not merge unless they are the same type of liquid.
• The hauling UI will display correctly after loading a game where the player was hauling.
• The Defrag tooltip is now translated.
• Items that fall through the world will now be destroyed, or returned to play if critical.
• The Rest button will properly activate if the Rest cooldown expires while you have the Rest UI open.
• Buildings cannot be built on big food harvest nodes.
• Wall-mounted buildings cannot be built on swinging doors.
• Cacti should behave more consistently and cause less instant deaths.
• Mom Genes can no longer trigger underwater.
• Cookie Sandwich Bits will no longer spawn under the ground when breaking cookies.
• Apple core chunk locations are properly synced on clients.
• Knocked down pupa locations are properly synced on clients.
• Disable Pet Home equip button when a non-equippable item is selected.
• Payback attacks can no longer trigger if a boss fight is active.
• The Pause Menu can no longer be triggered in between level loads by spamming ESC / Start.
• Achievements no longer unlock after loading a custom or a creative mode game.
• Relocating an armor dummy and customizing it no longer puts the camera back to the old location.
• Termite King should respawn more reliably.
• Aphids no longer stay in large groups doing nothing.

BUG FIXES - XBOX / WINDOWS STORE BUILDS

• Renaming a save game or playthrough will properly update the names such that they will stay renamed after restarting the game.
• Resuming the game from being Suspended will bring you back to the Main Menu if you were in a Multiplayer game when you went into Suspend mode.

BUG FIXES - STEAM BUILDS

• Fixed issue where playing another game that requires Xbox Live login while logged into Grounded would cause sign in issues.
• Fixed crash that could occur when signing out of your Xbox Live account in Grounded.

Available through Xbox Game Preview with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Steam Early Access, Grounded is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC in September 27, 2022 at $39.99. It will also be available with Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members.