Grounded is scarcely recognizable when compared to its original launch state in July 2020, as the game has undergone an endless number of changes leading up to its fated 1.0 public release. Now that Grounded is putting the finishing touches on its epic survival-adventure story with a massive final content update, a huge influx of new players is expected — as well as some new issues.
The completed Grounded should be considerably more polished than during its initial debut. Still, it’s almost certain that some lingering bugs will make themselves known after more players get their hands on what is already one of the best Xbox games of 2022. We’ll be monitoring the game’s launch, and the official Grounded and Obsidian Entertainment channels, to collect every known issue and any nascent bugs, as well as recent or upcoming fixes and potential workarounds.
It should be noted that, while we appreciate reports on faults we may have missed or additional information on known issues, this is not how players should report problems to the Grounded team. For that purpose, players can head to the Grounded forums or Obsidian Support. There’s also the Grounded issue tracker, although this resource is not always the most up-to-date.
Grounded: All known issues and bugs
As more players begin to explore the Backyard in Grounded, more imperfections are bound to be discovered. We’ll update this section with any and all known issues we see reported by players and Obsidian Entertainment, as well as what we notice from our own time spent in Grounded. If workarounds are available for any more egregious issues, we’ll also include them below the bug in question.
Black Ants near Trash Pile cause performance issues
A peculiar issue is degrading the performance for many Grounded players, and it’s related to the Black Ant population in the Trash Pile biome. Black Ants are gathering absurd amounts of food underwater, resulting in poor framerates and stuttering in the Backyard. The Grounded team is investigating this issue.
Multiplayer games crashing on both Xbox and PC
Some players on both Xbox and PC are reporting that joining or hosting multiplayer games may result in crashes.. The Grounded team is actively investigating these issues. For players who experience crashes when attempting to join or play a multiplayer game, the Grounded team has indicated that a fix is coming in a future patch update.
PC players on Steam unable to join or host multiplayer games
Some Grounded players, especially on Steam, are reporting issues joining or hosting multiplayer games. Players who attempt to join or host a multiplayer game are repeatedly kicked, and are unable to do so successfully. The Grounded team is aware of these issues, and has suggested a workaround for players ahead of a more permanent fix.
Workaround: To resolve the multiplayer issues for Steam players, the Grounded team suggests the all players need to be friends with the host (through the Xbox app), and that all players join the host’s multiplayer lobby in Grounded before the game is started.
Players losing gear when disconnecting from multiplayer games
Grounded players are reporting that they are losing all of their gear whenever they’re forcefully disconnected from a multiplayer game. The Grounded team has investigated this issue and has indicated a fix is coming in a future patch.
Audio cutting out or degrading in quality
A small subset of Grounded players have long been affected by audio issues, including missing audio or quality degradation, and it appears these issues have continued into the game’s full release. Some players are reporting that, on both Xbox and PC, game audio may gradually disappear or sound more broken over time.
Performance issues and crashing during Mantis fight
Players enjoying Grounded on Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One may encounter crashes during the intense Mantis boss fight, while Xbox One players may experience degraded performance, overheating, and reduced power draw during the fight. The Grounded team is investigating these issues.
Grounded: Recent or upcoming patches, hotfixes, and updates
It’s certain that, as issues and bugs surface in Grounded, the team at Obsidian Entertainment will immediately begin working to resolve them. Here, we’ll list the most recent patches, hotfixes, and bug squashing updates for Grounded, so you can be aware when an issue plaguing your time in Grounded is fixed. We’ll also include any upcoming fixes or updates that are rolling out to players in the near future.
Grounded 1.0.4 — Oct. 21, 2022
Full changelog from Obsidian Entertainment.
General changes
- Creature Cards in the data tab are now sorted by creature tier
- The Game Report Card no longer requires Mutations to be unlocked for 100% completion as at least 1 mutation requires Multiplayer to unlock
Crafting balance changes
- All flavored arrows now craft in stacks of 10 for 1 piece of candy / salt
- Gas and Super Gas arrows now craft in stacks of 5 for 1 gas / super gas sack
- Super Venom Arrows now craft in stacks of 10 for 1 super venom gland
Creature balance changes
- Spiders are no longer immune to poison, and instead have 25-90% poison resistance depending on species / tier
- Black Widow being the exception, which is still fully immune to poison
- Black Widow no longer immune to Venom
- Increased the Mant’s phase based damage reduction by 20%
- The Mantis is now easier to stun
Item balance changes
- Tick Macuahuitl damage reduced by 15%
- Widow Dagger damage reduced by 10%
- Base damage of most poison effects (player and enemy) reduced by about 10%
- Broodmother Club’s Apex Predator effect now applies venom instead of poison (so it bypasses immunities and resistances)
- Mantis Scythe now costs 25% less stamina to swing
- Black Ox Armor’s “Overbearing” effect proc chance with a full set upped from 30% to 80%
- Black Ox Armor set bonus now adds much more stun damage to melee charge attacks
- Prod Smacker damage increased by 50%
- Moth armor set “Ranged Cut” effect proc chance with a full set upped from 15% to 60%
- Moth armor set “Ranged Cut” effect rescaled from 10 damage per second for 10 seconds to 20 damage per second for 5 seconds
- Tripled the stun value of the Sour Battleaxe
- Bee Armor’s “Bow Stun” effectiveness doubled
- Ladybird Shield’s “Block Free Attack” now applies to all attacks for 5 seconds instead of clearing on the first attack after it triggers
- Compliance Badge base heal reduced from 10HP to 8HP
- Mantis Trinket now grants stamina on crit 100% of the time instead of 50% of the time
- Mantis Trinket stamina granted on crit increased from 20 to 50
Mutation balance changes
- Corporate Kickback’s 100% lifesteal effect now works on all attacks for 5 seconds after activation, instead of just the first attack
- Natural Explorer movement speed increase changed from 3 / 6 / 10% to 20 / 35 / 50%
- Natural Explorer now gets disabled when fighting creatures
Crash fixes
- Fixed occasional crash that could occur when eating or drinking items
- Fixed crash that could occur while charging up a magic staff
- Fixed crash that could occur when opening up the Map screen
Major fixes
- The previously unobtainable “Mixing Rig” note has been placed in the yard now for pickup
- Game Report Card now checks for the correct number of SCA.B pickups and Yard data
- Clients who disconnect or save while incapacitated but not dead will no longer lose their equipment when they rejoin
Other fixes
- You will no longer always go up some ziplines when interacting with them
- In-progress drag-and-drop operations are canceled when you die to prevent item duplication
- Bomb arrows now properly deal damage when launched from a fully charged bow shot
- Bomb arrows now properly deal damage when under the effect of Quickdraw, the set bonus of the antlion armor set
- Waft Emitter rage bars properly fill up again
- Improved creature navigation issues around the trash biome
- Upgrading magic staves actually increases the damage done from them
Grounded 1.0.3 — Oct. 17, 2022
Full changelog from Obsidian Entertainment.
General changes
- Adjusted the audio for the Bounce Pad
Crash fixes
- Sorting large inventories with lots of items with stack sizes upgraded no longer crashes the game
- Improves performance of sort action as well
- Fixed random crash that could occur during gameplay
Bug fixes
- Night base music will play more appropriately for smaller bases
- Ziplines for clients will no longer have their positions occasionally become incorrect
- Ladybug and Ladybird now have distinctive names in other languages than English
Grounded 1.0.2 — Oct. 13, 2022
Original report from Windows Central. Full changelog from Obsidian Entertainment.
New features
- Added a “Sort” button to the Inventory and Storage screens
Game balance & difficulty changes
- Doubled base durability of most weapons and armors
- Doubled duration / durability of all torches
- Mosquitos in the Grasslands do not spawn until 1 Super Chip is turned in
- Damage and HP for some of the early tier 2 creatures have been lowered a bit
- Toxicology Badge now provides 90% gas damage resistance instead of full immunity
- Javamatic fight spawns less creatures in single player now to make it less difficult
Other changes
- Relocating a building will no longer be canceled if you stumble into combat with a creature
- BURG.L will now only give Artificer quests for items the player has not yet crafted
- Mant combo attacks no longer interrupted via perfect blocks
- Mant damage slightly increased
- Quartzite and Marble of all tiers now default stack to 99 (cannot be upgraded further via milk molars)
- Slightly increased the stamina cost of staff attacks
- Spiny Water Fleas now have a very small chance to drop Pond Moss when looted
- Text chat messages filter for profanity
- Edible mushrooms placed under all large mushrooms in the Upper Yard
- O.R.C. EMP Bomb applies a large DoT (damage over time) to to O.R.C. creatures that are hit with it
- The field station near the outskirts of the Stump area has been moved into the Stump itself for higher visibility and utility
- You can remove a Surveyor Resource waypoint from inside the default Map screen (no longer have to be at a Surveyor to do it)
- Slime mold light sources and the Firefly Headlamp light color has been desaturated a bit to not cast an overly lime green color on everything
- Getting a 100% on the Game Report Card requires completing all of the MIX.Rs now
Crash fixes
- Fixed crash that could happen if a creature is looted or despawns while an attack with visual effects was about to play
- Fixed crash that could occur when taming a pet
- Reducing Out of Memory crashes when loading a save
Major fixes
- Xbox and Windows Store players can rename Storage chests again as long as their profile allows User Generated Content to be shown
- If you progressed beyond the story of receiving the Embiggening Cell, but did not get it for some reason, the game will grant it to you on your next load of the save
- If you progress to the story point where you need to interact with the Javamatic but the game will not let you, the game will fix up the quest state on your next load of the save
- Loading an early access save will no longer trigger the “Analyze a Pebblet / Analyze Raw Fiber” quests if you have already done so. Fixes 1.0 saves that are stuck with this quest as well
- Players will no longer disconnect from multiplayer after being online for 4+ hours
- Doors at player bases will properly have the door open state synced if the open state was changed while a client was far away
- Wolf Spiders will more reliably sleep during the day
- Addressed some cases where you could not get a 100% on the Game Report card
Other fixes
- Addressed additional use cases where creatures could become stuck in the terrain
- Optimized the Mantis Pollen attack for Low and Medium quality settings (this includes Xbox One)
- Pinch Whacker now properly classified as a club instead of an axe, no longer deals chopping damage
- Prod Smacker now properly classified as a club instead of a greatsword, no longer deals slashing damage
- The “Got to Peep Them All” Achievement no longer requires having all Gold cards
- Jack-O-Lantern will no longer spawn on the porch during October if you have any base buildings in the way
- Poison immunity has been readded back to Spiders as that was not supposed to have been removed
- Backpacks that drop near the car batteries in the Upper Yard will be teleported to a safe location nearby to prevent them from getting stuck in instant death locations
- The workout monitors in the Pond biodome will correctly turn on after opening the biodome instead of after turning in the Super Chip to BURG.L
- You can no longer nab certain items through the walls or windows
- Your character name should no longer rarely show up over your own character
- The text filter in the crafting menu will be applied correctly after changing tabs or crafting an item
- Placement of the Sap Catcher provides better control over the placement angle
- Buildings will now actually display their Defense values in the building interface
- Items will now actually display their Stun values in item description boxes
- Mantis armor crit effects no longer sometimes apply themselves to the player
- Bomb arrows now cost stamina to shoot like every other arrow
- Sour battle axe now properly considered an axe
- Non-diagonal buildings can now snap to diagonal rotations at specific angles
- Fixed various terrain and foliage and floating dirt issues
- Loading an early access save will not reset dropped player backpacks
- This is not retroactive for any playthrough that has already made progress on 1.0 from an early access save
- Fixed some audio volume issues that would cause abrupt music stoppage
- Using photo mode no longer scales up creature damage
- Mutations on old saves will properly sync to their correct unlock level based 1.0 value changes
- Depositing partial stacks into containers works correctly
