Grounded ‘The Bugs Strike Back’ update brings new ways to engage, defend, and organize

Source: Xbox Game Studios

One of the most interesting titles currently in the works under the expansive Xbox Game Studios umbrella is Grounded, a survival passion project from a small team at Obsidian Entertainment. Grounded has already crossed multiple milestones in its early access era, and is still regularly adding new content over time to give players even more reasons to fall in love. On Tuesday, Obsidian Entertainment began rolling out Grounded’s 0.13.0 update, know as “The Bugs Strike Back,” to all Grounded players.

Grounded tasks players with surviving in a hostile and chaotic environment known as…the average suburban backyard. Players are shrunk down to the size of insects and must survive bug attacks, find shelter, food, and water to survive, research and collect resources for crafting, build an epic base in which to defend themselves, and more. With the release of Grounded’s 0.13.0 “The Bugs Strike Back” update, that gameplay loop is getting a lot more interesting.

Some of the features of the new content update include:

• New ways to interact with the bugs. Grounded is packed with a wide variety of critters, each with their own unique behaviors and personalities. With “The Bugs Strike Back,” players will have three new ways to interact with Grounded’s bugs, including:
  • Base sieges, in which hordes of specific insects can attack your base in an effort to exact revenge for invading their territory, killing their kind, and more
  • The Waft Emitter, which allows you to encourage a base siege to actually occur by spreading the scent of bug parts you’ve collected, all for the purpose of calling more insects to cull for resources
  • MIX.Rs, which are scattered around the yard and can provide you a ton of valuable Raw Science — if you’re willing to repel an onslaught of angry insects attempting to destroy it
• New ways to defend. Grounded isn’t just placing the player in more danger; it’s also adding new ways with which players can defend themselves, including:
  • Upgraded armor pieces, which can provide increased defense and even unique perks
  • New turrets for defending bases, including the slow-inducing Pollen Turret and devastating Pebble Turret
  • New traps, including the Explosive Burr Trap, which players can strategically set off at their discretion
• New quality-of-life features. The latest Grounded update includes plenty of community-requested features and quality-of-life improvements, including:
  • New PEEP.R cards, which can be collected for every Grounded critter and provide stats on strengths and weaknesses, locations and dropped resources, and how many you have killed
  • The ability to rename and better organize all your inventories and storage spaces
  • The ability to clean up your yard by clearing out any discarded item piles
  • And much, much more

The 0.13.0 content update is now available anywhere Grounded is, including Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (through the Microsoft Store and Steam). You can also play Grounded through PC and Xbox Game Pass. There’s a lot of content to explore in Grounded’s latest release, and Obsidian Entertainment isn’t done yet. The game is going to evolve even more before its eventual release out of early access to become one of the quintessential Xbox games you can play.

In case you missed it, Grounded officially crossed over 10 million players three months ago, and can only continue to grow as the developers add more content and features to their shrunken survival adventure.