A new free update for the backyard adventure game Grounded is now available and brings a range of new content and improvements to the yard. The game has been in Early Access on Steam and in Game Preview mode on Xbox and PC and also with Xbox and PC Game Pass since November 2020 and has built up a solid player base and community ever since. So far it’s hit 10 million players, even while still in Early Access mode.
In the latest developer update shared on Xbox Wire, new modes for how the backyard bugs engage with players have been introduced into the game. Mikey Dowling, Director of Communications at Obsidian Entertainment, explains that while players have been having fun over the last year and a half exploring the yard, the team at Obsidian have now decided to give the creatures who inhabit the game’s oversized world a chance to fight back.
First up, bugs will begin taking the fight to players themselves as part of Faction Reactivity. They’ll attack players’ bases, with it being more likely for players to be attacked if they annoy a particular type of bug too much. The team have also introduced a type of taunt mechanism with the newly-added Waft Emitter. This will enable players to purposely aggravate certain types of bugs, in order to make them attack your base.
Finally, the yard will now be home to new MIX.Rs, which are cooking up batches of Raw Science in different parts of the yard. The bugs won’t like this, so it’ll be up to players to defend the MIX.Rs as they whip up the necessary batches of Raw Science for Wendell.
Base building and base defence form a key part of Grounded’s new update, which also brings with it new items, armour upgrades and traps. For full details, you can check out the update notes over on Xbox Wire.
Grounded is available now in Game Preview on Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One and PC.