Build mushroom castles, tame an aphid and make it your pet, take on the terrifying Broodmother, and much more in the upcoming Shroom and Doom update for Grounded!



The Shroom and Doom update for Grounded will launch on June 30th, 2021! See you in the backyard!

For more information on Grounded, check out our channels:

• Official Site – https://grounded.obsidian.net/
  
• Discord - https://discord.gg/GroundedTheGame
  
• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/GroundedTheGame
  
• Twitter – https://twitter.com/groundedthegame
  
• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@obsidian

Want some Grounded merch? Check out the Xbox Gear Store!

It's been a while since you've last heard from the Grounded dev team at Obsidian, and we wanted to update you all what's up and coming for Grounded.

We are approaching the one-year mark from the Game Preview/Early Access launch and we still have so much that we want to do for the game. Some of these larger features take time, and with a small team it's difficult to release content every month while balancing larger tasks that need to get done to finish the game.

We will be looking at doing larger and slightly less frequent updates moving forward, which will allow us to make our updates more meaningful with more and better content. Our goal is to find the right balance of keeping the game fresh with new things while giving the team enough time to make quality features. As always your feedback in this process is critical as we figure out a good release cadence as we continue on the path towards our 1.0 launch.

We are hard at work on the next update (0.10.0), which is one of our largest yet, which is on track to be released at the end of June. We have decided to not do an update for May and focus our efforts and polish on the larger update coming next month. The team is excited to share some of the details of what's to come.




With the next update, you will be able to flip some building pieces to get the mirrored version. For example, the spiral stairs can be flipped to fit your base.




We've heard that you would like more building pieces. We are adding more curved walls, more roof variations, and even pillars.




Giant food items, such as Billy Hogs, Archers Cookies, and apples, have been changed to be found more frequently. Ants will harvest their food from the large food through the day - if you follow them to the source, you can harvest a much better food item as a reward.




Photo mode has a few new features to get that perfect shot, including adjusting the time of day.




The latest in the range of modified TAYZ.Ts is an enhanced defense variant called the ARC.R. Outfitted with a capacitor stack and hefty arm cannon, ARC.Rs unleash energized balls of charged static for a greater challenge in lab combat.

And More!

We've done a few more things this month like add sprinting while climbing up ladders, and our programmers have upgraded to the latest and greatest version of Unreal (4.26.2), which now allows us keep up with the latest features of the engine that is used to build Grounded. For example, in the latest version of Unreal we will be able to take advantage of the new particle engine called Niagara.



This is a small preview of what's coming in June (we don't want to spoil the big stuff). As always, please join our discord and give us feedback on the state of the game - we love to hear what you think. Together we can make this game the best it can be.

Stay tuned for more information about the update, and thank you for being so supportive over the last year. See you in the backyard!

- The Grounded Team

🏡 Join Shyla, Obsidian's Social Media Manager, as we go over some new additions to Photo Mode (works in multiplayer now!), new items such as ladders, updated attacks for the handsome stinkbug, the ability to cancel attack animations when blocking, and so much more that came with today's update!






Ladders

• Unlocked via the Hedge BURG.L Chip

Curved Walls, Floors, and Railings

• 3 Curved Grass Walls
  
• 2 Curved Grass Floors
  
• 3 Curved Stem Walls
  
• 2 Curved Stem Floors
  
• 2 Curved Railings
  
• Unlocked via the Pond BURG.L Chip

New Mode Added: Creative with Bugs

• All the building and crafting perks of Creative mode but with all of the bugs spawned in the yard which are completely docile to you.

Photo Mode Multiplayer Support:

• All players enter and exit photo mode at the same time; the game pauses.
  
• Each player controls their character's pose and visibility.
  
• Each player controls their own camera location and settings.

Four new poses: Modish Max, Wallowing Willow, Heroic Hoops, and Perilous Pete.

• Building Recipes are now sorted by subcategories in the Construction radial and in the Crafting menu. Within subcategories, recipes are sorted by their tier.
  
• Added a take-all option for processing buildings like the Spinning Wheel.

• New combat music when fighting weaker bugs (Mites, Spiderlings, and Water Fleas).

• Save games are significantly smaller on disk.
  
• Playthroughs in the Save Game UI are grouped and collapsed together making for easier navigation of playthroughs with lots of saves across multiple playthroughs.

• Attacks can now be canceled into a block at any point during the animation.
  
• Attacks now consume stamina on startup rather than on the hit frame
  
• Stinkbugs have a new attack.

• Attack interaction display has been updated to match the new interact UI changes from last patch for consistency.

• Increased the draw distance of bases for hosts on higher graphics quality.
  
• Signs can be placed on walls more reliably.
  
• Egg hatching now plays visual and sound effects.

• Lure Traps and Spike Traps will now take damage as enemies use/interact with them.

• "Beefy Smoothie?" can now be crafted at the Smoothie Station

• Improved render performance with games with lots of buildings.
  
• Improved CPU performance with games with lots of buildings.
  
• Improved rendering performance for the Xbox One and Xbox One S.
  
• Reduced the delay before opening the main UI window.
  
• Reduced the delay before opening the Building radial.
  
• Reduced the delay before navigating to the Data page.

• Save games should now properly display the mode in the multiplayer lobby.
  
• Promised Chipsleuth quest science rewards will now be correctly shown to clients.
  
• Throwing grass blades or weed stems in third person no longer has most of them thrown to the side.
  
• Creatures no longer walk through walls when not looking at them.
  
• Crow Feathers despawn after a while if not harvested.
  
• Signs can be placed on walls more reliably.

• Underwater-capable buildings can no longer be built on bubbles.
  
• Floors can no longer be built entirely under the ground.
  
• Structures placed on floors will be invalidly invalid less often.
  
• The player can no longer zip off a zipline when zipping up it.
  
• Wall-mounted buildings can no longer be attached to dropped items.
  
• Structures can not be completed while a character or creature is inside of them.
  
• Buildings can now be placed in specific spots inside the Oak Tree where they previously couldn't be.
  
• Foliage such as grass blades that is moved between patches will no longer duplicate itself.

• Doors can now be built facing other doors.
  
• Weapon Wall Mounts and wall-mounted trophies no longer fall through the world when collapsed.
  
• Harvested flower petals will no longer spawn inside the flower.
  
• Spiral Stairs can no longer be placed underwater or inside blocking objects.
  
• Plank and Log Pallets will align to the terrain better during placement.
  
• Crow Feathers no longer respawn when harvesting them, walking away, and returning back.
  
• Stuffed Bee now properly swings after save/load.
  
• Wall-mounted buildings are easier to place on Stem Walls and Palisades.

• Ant eggs will now hatch properly while inside inventories.
  
• All types of creatures will now correctly create ripples in water.

• Depth of Field now applies properly when entering Photo Mode.
  
• Photo Mode can now be exited even when the HUD is toggled off.
  
• Blocking, aiming, and charged attacks now release upon exiting Photo Mode without firing.
  
• Lighting in dark areas is now properly applied in Photo Mode.
  
• Axes and Splatburst no longer stick to the free cam when falling.
  
• Film grain and chromatic aberration settings in photo mode now work in Low Quality.
  
• Photo mode free camera movement now uses remappable keyboard bindings.

• The interaction UI no longer displays when on a zipline.
  
• The Crafting menu will not lag so much when switching between certain items.
  
• Building UI's, such as the Container and Spinning Wheel interfaces, will be closed if the building is relocated too far away while they are open.
  
• Characters are less likely to appear headless when finishing a conversation with BURG.L or interacting with certain items.

Ominent Practical Technologies
[ CONFIDENTIAL ]

🏡 Join Shyla, Obsidian's Social Media Manager, as she takes you through this March 0.8.0 update and goes over some of the new content and features, including the first iteration of Photo Mode available in single-player games, allowing players to show their creativity and share images from their life in the backyard! Password-protected games, changes to the UI in multiplayer, updates to some of your favorite neighbors, and more are included, so check out all the changes now!



For a full list of everything that went into today's update, you can view the full patch notes on our website.

Thank you everyone for your continued support and reports, we appreciate them!

To stay current with the commonly reported issues and to follow their status, please visit our Grounded Issue Tracker.

If you are experiencing an issue that is not listed on the Grounded Issue Tracker, either email us directly at support@obsidian.net or fill out the Contact form located on our Support Site and include the following information:

Platform: (Xbox Console, PC Game Pass, PC Microsoft Store, PC Steam).
Multiplayer or Single Player Game. (If multiplayer, can you let us know how many players in total in the game, and their platforms if you know this)
Description of issue.
Last thing you did in the game before the issue occurred, if applicable.
Thank you again, and have fun out in the backyard!

It's that time, time for another update!

🏡 Join Shyla, Obsidian's Social Media Manager, as she goes over some of the Quality of Life updates that released today, along with some new craftable items and a few changes made to the overall survival aspect in the game!



For a full list of everything that went into today's update, you can view the full patch notes on our website.

Thank you everyone for your continued support and reports, we appreciate them!

To stay current with the commonly reported issues and to follow their status, please visit our Grounded Issue Tracker.

If you are experiencing an issue that is not listed on the Grounded Issue Tracker, either email us directly at support@obsidian.net or fill out the Contact form located on our Support Site and include the following information:

Platform: (Xbox Console, PC Game Pass, PC Microsoft Store, PC Steam).
Multiplayer or Single Player Game. (If multiplayer, can you let us know how many players in total in the game, and their platforms if you know this)
Description of issue.
Last thing you did in the game before the issue occurred, if applicable.
Thank you again, and have fun out in the backyard!

Hello all explorers of the backyard, both old and new, and welcome to another Early Access content update for Grounded: Patch 0.6, which will introduce flying creatures! Check out what's in store with Shyla in our developer vlog, or just head right in to the patch notes below it!

• Bee Armor Set (Face Mask, Shoulder Pads, Shin Guards)
  
• Firefly Head Lamp
  
• Stinger Spear
  
• Mosquito Needle
  
• Weevil Shield
  
• New consumable: Healbasa
  
• Two new stuffed friends: Stuffed Bee and Stuffed Firefly

• Barbarian Perk: Club damage increased

• Equipped items no longer take up Backpack space.
  
• Equipped items will stay on the player after death. Each piece of equipment will take a small amount of durability damage after you die.

• Container inventory contents are no longer replicated to clients until needed (an optimization)
  
• More reliable networking calls from clients to server
  
• Reduced the amount of network data sent between various systems.

• BURG.L Chips now award science when returned regardless of whether the corresponding BURG.L quest is active.
  
• Mint Mallet has been renamed "Mint Mace"
  
• Rotten bee equipment can now be analyzed to unlock the un-rotten recipes.

• Bone weapons have slightly less durability.
  
• Most unblockable creature attacks are now blockable with shields (still unblockable with weapons)
  
• Pollen can now be thrown.
  
• Previously-equipped off-hand items that were displaced by a two-handed weapon are restored when re-equipping a one-handed weapon.
  
• The arrow you have nocked on your bow reflects the arrow ammo type you have selected.

• Point of interest notification has been altered to be more responsive and look better.
  
• Notifications now will display what's in the queue to improve feedback with this system.
  
• Save game screenshots now work with Logout saves.
  
• Rest / Set Respawn UI adjustments
  
• A "New Resource" queue will display on the HUD if you end up picking up new items faster than the HUD can handle displaying the notifications for them.
  
• Layout revision to the OS Config menu to make viewing status effect icon / details better
  
• Weapons and arrows that are embedded in creatures will not display their floating icon until the weapon / arrow becomes dislodged. This cleans up some icon spam when using a bow.
  
• Items dropped in the world that use the temp loot bag model (armors, etc.) will have their item icon displayed on top of them.

• Nectar now spawns on top of flowers instead of below them
  
• Creatures will fade out / fade in when approaching their despawn distance to prevent visual popping (currently only works on host).
  
• Bratburst visual effects better match the ingredients that were used to craft it.
  
• Added "Recover Backpacks" in the Game Preview debug menu to help recover backpacks that have gotten stuck.
  
• Busted Acorns can drop more shells.

• Buildings will be invalid less often when placing them inside structures.
  
• Incomplete buildings are more visually apparent.
  
• Buoyant Markers can now be built in the lower pond.

• Creature Perception: Player noise now has a linear falloff as opposed to all heard player noise having the same value regardless of distance.
  
• Increased hearing range of Wolf Spiders from 2500 to 5000 to account for the above change.

• Foundations will no longer be invalid when snapping to other foundations that stick out of the ground too much.
  
• Clients can now dump canteens
  
• Autosaves no longer cause performance hitching.
  
• Fixed issue with clients failing to spawn in games that have huge player bases built.
  
• Fixed issue where clients would sometimes lose all of their inventory and mutations and spawn back at the start location when rejoining a game

• Fixed crash with clients joining a saved game where their loot bag was collected by another player.
  
• Incomplete doors will no longer have collision after loading.
  
• The player can no longer eat or drink items while gliding or zipping.
  
• The player will now drop all hauled items when starting zipping.
  
• The player can no longer attack while gliding.
  
• Air bubbles will no longer spawn in large clumps when first approaching sources of them.
  
• Door frames now have collision applied to them.
  
• Fixed issue where "Craft and Equip" could cause a random inventory item to get equipped.
  
• Characters will no longer fall when loading a save in which they were ziplining (not retroactive)
  
• Dew drinking while hauling is disabled to prevent issues where dew disappears without giving you any hydration.
  
• Fixed crash with clients joining a saved game where their loot bag was collected by another player.
  
• Structures that were anchored to certain objects, such as the baseball or flagstones, will no longer be considered unsupported.
  
• Fixed issue where kicked players end up having their inventory lost in the save data (does not retroactively restore inventory for players that have been kicked prior to 0.6.0).
  
• Fixed issue with depositing items into a full container with a controller.
  
• Hauled items will correctly be dropped when knocked down in multiplayer.
  
• The dropped web will properly display on clients.
  
• Fixed issue with depositing items into a full container with a controller.

• Muscle Sprouts will now respawn
  
• Dirty droplets no longer act like clean ones when drinking them
  
• Buoyant Foundations can no longer be built underneath the water in some situations.
  
• Buoyant Marker can no longer be placed on land.
  
• Objects without physics will no longer cause the bounce pad to bounce.
  
• The previous weapon, for the Equip Previous hotkey, now persists across saves
  
• Shovel+ now has a proper faster animation.
  
• Fixed some interaction issues with FrankenLine.
  
• Soda droplets will more consistently respawn.
  
• Punch-O Juice drops properly despawn after 72 hours so new dew can drip out.
  
• Items floating on the water will now despawn when appropriate.
  
• Bratbursts now visually work correctly for clients.

• Gnats will get happy after boops more consistently.
  
• Aphids will now face the correct direction when descending grass blades.
  
• Clovers will now save and restore properly.
  
• Grubs can no longer be dug up by the Repair Tool or the Mint Mace.
  
• Fixed issue where sometimes sleeping creatures were displaying as awake on clients.
  
• Mites no longer sometimes animate like they are walking while not moving.

• ​​​​​​​UI

• The field of view will no longer sometimes oscillate when sprinting sideways.
  
• Fixed issue with the "low O2" black vignette not working on clients.
  
• Fixed the third person camera occasionally being tilted after respawning.
  
• No longer showing the "Health Bar" for creatures that cannot be killed (BURG.L, Koi Fish, etc.)
  
• Fixed issue with pixelated lighting artifacts showing up on weapons when held up to the sunlight.
  
• Fixed some rendering issues with player eyes around lights.

• Fixed submerged audio getting stuck on clients after death if they died underwater

• [All information regarding the activities of Ominent Practical Technologies in this update are to remain confidential]

The latest update is here for you all! 🙌

🏡 Join Shyla, Obsidian's Social Media Manager, as she goes over some of the many changes made to the Pond and more that you'll notice with today's update. From changes to the Pond Lab, updates and changes made to combat, and even a few adjustments made to some building structures, this update is sure to improve the time you spend in the backyard!



For a full list of everything that went into today's update, you can view the full patch notes below:

• The Pond and Pond Lab have been revamped with additional puzzles, gameplay, and secrets to discover.
  
• New underwater caves to find and explore.
  
• New Pond Lab outposts.
  
• New Resources: Algae, Muscle Sprouts.
  
• New SCA.Bs to collect.

• Fin Flops+
  
• Diving Lantern+
  
• All smoothies now have a + version to unlock.
  
• NEW LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS
  
• Russian, Polish, Korean, Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese localization added.

• Spear weapons can now be thrown in water.

• The player can jump out of the water at any location instead of just the edges.

• The Koi Fish can eat creatures (and you!).
  
• Two-handed weapons now deal slightly more damage.
  
• Water Boatmen now flee at a slower speed and have less HP.
  
• Tadpoles flee at a slower speed.
  
• Adjusting Dazzling Riposte; now reduces enemy defense after perfect block instead of reducing enemy attack.
  
• Timing in between creature attacks is now random instead of it always being the same fixed amount of time.
  
• Stamina regen is now reduced while you're actively holding block.
  
• The blocked damage percentage is now based on weapon type instead of always being 75%.

• There is now a game option to display the distance over player nameplates to see how far they are.

• New caves to explore in the pond.
  
• The Koi can now push pond foliage out of its way.
  
• Juice Droplets despawn after 3 days, allowing new ones to drop out of the straws in case a spawned drop somehow got lost.
  
• Eelgrass now respawns over time.
  
• Holiday lights added to the house.
  
• Improved lighting in the Pond / Pond lab.
  
• Additional pond and pond lab set dressing.

• Some structures such as Foundations, Scaffolds, and Walls, now align to the ground from their corners instead of their center.
  
• Some other buildings such as the Jerky Rack, Zipline Anchor, and Dew Catcher, now sit on their legs instead of on their center point only.
  
• Tweaked the order of some buildings in the radial.
  
• The Squared Roof Corner will now block wall crenellations below it.

• The recipe for decoy bait has been adjusted.

• Audio improvements for drowning.

• Grid-snapping non-structural buildings on top of existing structures now work correctly.
  
• Underground blueprints can now be canceled, either by looking at them or with Cancel Nearby Blueprints in the Game Preview Debug menu.
  
• Fixed issue where dying in the depths would place your backpack at the starting spawn ravine.
  
• Clients will no longer experience twitchy movement when moving on large structures.
  
• Instances of "lame" were replaced or removed.

​​​​​​​

• Buildings can no longer be briefly placed on canceled buildings.
  
• Buildings can't be built on stuffed insects.
  
• Buildings can't be built on other players' unplaced buildings.
  
• Floating structures will stop bobbing if connected to solid ground.
  
• The player can no longer jump while gliding.

• Spike Strips can now be placed next to each other when snapped to a grid.
  
• Hedge berries will now float correctly inside the pond lab, should you somehow manage to get one there.
  
• Signs no longer flicker when they are being placed on walls.
  
• Signs can now be optionally snapped to the grid.
  
• Buoyant markers now float properly on the water's surface.
  
• Decoy Bait now properly behaves as a lure for both swimming and non-swimming creatures.
  
• Diving Bell Spider Chunks are now properly marked as a tier 2 material.
  
• Decoy Bait no longer causes non-swimming creatures to float in wacky ways.
  
• Fixed random crashes with Grass Plank Storage and Weed Log Storage buildings.
  
• Chair interaction not working for building or recycling has been fixed.

• Pond bubbles should pop before poking out of the surface.
  
• Koi collision better matches its animations to prevent the player from clipping into the model as much.
  

• [REDACTED] recipe added.

Ready to share the backyard with your friends? Well, this is the weekend to bring them in and learn to explore, build, and survive together!

Starting this Thursday, November 12th, and running through Sunday, November 15th, Grounded will be available to play on Steam for FREE!

Event period: Thursday, November 12th, at 10 AM PT, through Sunday, November 15th, at 1 PM PT.

So if you've been waiting to join the over 5 million other players in the backyard, now is the time to start! See you in the backyard!

We have a new trailer, a letter from the devs, an update full of previews, and patch notes! Welcome to Grounded's Early Access Update 0.4!




(Click to embiggen)


Text version (update continues below):

The team is thrilled that we've have had so many people enjoy Grounded, and we are very excited for today's release. We wanted to give you all a quick update on the development of Grounded and share a bit of what's on the horizon in future updates. Moving forward, the team is going to be focusing on larger content releases that are more spread out. This is a direct result of community feedback and will allow us to improve the stability, quantity, and quality each time we release meaningful content. We are still a small team, but regardless, we want to always provide features and content that we think will deliver the best experience possible. All of this takes time, and our priority is to get things right. Now, this doesn't mean we won't continue our monthly updates, but the next few will be focused on areas of stability, polish, and bug fixes. So, let’s dive deeper into the details for what we have planned in the coming months.

First, we have a bunch of quality-of-life fixes on our plates that we want to get to. This includes revamping how save games work for improved stability, inventory changes like having equipment not take up slots (this was more difficult than expected, but should be coming soon!), and improvements to base building. On the content side, flying creatures are a high-priority feature. We feel this will be a game-changer on how you defend and build bases while adding a bunch of cool new crafting items into the mix.

Like everything in Grounded, The Koi Pond is a work in progress, and we want to incorporate your feedback to make it the best it can be. This is just the start of development of this area, and our team is already hard at work adding more into the pond, including a large revamp of the lab in the depths which will add more content and variety of gameplay. Along with that we are adding more elements to all areas: new points of interest, new materials to find, more explorable content including underwater caves, tweaks to creature behavior, and more. Some of these improvements will be dropping in the next update in December.

For new areas, after the Pond, we are going to move our attention to the Haze and then the Sandbox. Once we feel all the content is in a good place, the next step is a story, quest, and content pass over all the existing labs. The goal is to unify the experience by adding quest connective tissue and a satisfying payoff for completing each lab. In an upcoming story update, you will be able to complete this quest, which will tie into what we are calling the first story chapter of Grounded. We will have more details on when this will land early next year.

With all of that, we still want to add more into existing areas, and we are continually discussing areas where we can refine. For example, we plan on re-adding and improving the Spider Broodmother in the Hedge to make her a challenging and memorable boss fight experience.

There is a lot of work to do and we want to thank you for your patience. We want the game to be the best that it can be, and with a small team that can take time. If you are curious where other features are going to land, check out the feature board that we update monthly. And as always, please provide feedback - we can't do this without you.

Thank you and see you in the Backyard!

The Grounded Team

Hello all explorers of the backyard, both old and new, and welcome to our first major Early Access update for Grounded: Early Access Patch 0.4, or, as we've been calling it, The Koi Pond Update. We know this is one that many of you have been waiting for, so let's dive in!










The Koi - This boss of the pond might only have one good eye, but it only needs one eye to notice you, and you never, ever, want it to notice you.



Diving Bell Spiders - You may blame these upon the players who used the pond to escape the poor spiders that can't swim. You're welcome.



Tadpoles - Cute! And, some say, delicious?



Water Boatmen - These peaceful swimmers just want to mind their own business and would appreciate it if you would not murderize them for their Fin Flops.






Koi Armor



Bubble Helmet



Fin Flops



...And more tools to help you light or fight your way through the depths.








Took a break? Welcome back! The dev team has continued to patch and add content to the game since launch, and, in addition to the fixes and adjustments we made, here are just a few things you missed while you were gone:

The Bird - we added a bird to the game! This feathered friend will sometimes drop... well, feathers, but those that are crucial making a few items that might make your arrows fly a little more straight and true.



New building blueprints - including ziplines to help you navigate the yard from on high!



Mutations - Unlock these to help you survive and fight!



And much more! Check out our full list of the Koi Pond update's patch notes below, or check out our website for a closer look at what we've been doing so far.

• The Pond has been revamped with new content
  
• New Threat: Koi Fish
  
• New Hostile Creature: Diving Bell Spider
  
• New Passive Creature: Tadpole
  
• New Passive Creature: Water Boatman
  
• New Armor: Koi Armor
  
• New Building: Buoyant Foundation
  
• New Building: Buoyant Marker
  
• New Material: Koi Fish Scale
  
• New Material: Fish Bone
  
• New Material: Tadpole Meat
  
• New Material: Water Boatman Fin
  
• New Material: Lilypad Wax
  
• New Material: Eelgrass Strand
  
• New Recipe: Gill Tube
  
• New Recipe: Bubble Helmet
  
• New Recipe: Fin Flops
  
• New Recipe: Pebblet Dagger
  
• New Recipe: Bone Dagger
  
• New Recipe: Decoy Bait
  
• New Recipe: Bone Trident
  
• New Recipe: Slime Lantern
  
• New Food Recipe: Cooked Tadpole Meat
  
• New Smoothie: Fluid Flippers
  
• Three New Mutations to Discover
  
• Three new SCA.Bs to find

• HUD Markers can be visually toggled off on your HUD on an individual basis in the Map screen.
  
• HDR support added with additional HDR options menu.
  
• Xbox and Steam game invites now supported. Added an in-game invite screen that works with cross-play.
  
• Added a "Fix Creature Locations" button in the Options screen so you can reset creatures in the yard back to their starting spawn point in the case too many creatures are under the level or are in weird locations.

• The player will now sit at the surface of water more easily when swimming.
  
• The player will no longer automatically jump out of water when at the edge; instead, they must press the jump control.
  
• The player now breathes through their face.
  
• Increased how much time the player can last underwater without air before dying.
  
• Running out of air underwater will now instantly kill you as opposed to slowly reducing your health.

• Doubling the bonus damage for all weapon-based "class" mutations.
  
• Doubling the effectiveness of the Juicy mutation.
  
• Doubling the effectiveness of the Meat Shield mutation.
  
• Doubling the effectiveness of the Buff Lungs mutation.

• Explosive damage can no longer be blocked.
  
• Reducing the rate at which Bombardier hazards deal damage.
  
• Bombardier shotgun spray attack now has double the windup time.
  
• Bows now deal a little bit more damage.
  
• Water Fleas will now attempt to attack.
  
• Poison effects now deal 50% more damage (to creatures and the player).
  
• Players can only attack with daggers, spears, and shovels while underwater.
  
• Bombardiers now have a new set of attacks to pick from.
  
• Fixed issue with Larva attacks so they miss less often.

• 
  
• HUD Marker Icons now fade out a bit as they approach the edge of the screen to reduce noise when there are lots of Trail Markers built.
  
• Increased the number of key items slots shown in the Data screen so if more than 30 are collected, you can view them all.
  
• Added "Unset Respawn Point" to the Rest/Respawn Point screen.

• Items floating on water will eventually drift to the edge.
  
• Reducing the cost of all tech chip science purchases by up to 40%.
  
• Fixed zipline lines disappearing for clients while they are riding it or when get far enough away.
  
• Shovels are easier to harvest underwater.

• Placing grid buildings that are snapped to other grid buildings should be much smoother for clients, especially at higher pings.
  
• Other buildings can be placed on top of tables.
  
• Signs can now be placed on the ground in addition to walls.
  
• Buildings can be placed on lily pads.

• Liquid Gills smoothie now grants additional underwater breath time instead of granting water breathing.
  
• Liquid Gills recipe has changed.

• Significantly reduced a large hitch when completing buildings in games that have a bunch of buildings already built.
  
• Improved render thread performance with games that have a lot of buildings built that emit fire.
  
• Improved CPU performance with games that have a lot of trail markers built.
  
• The game will no longer lag when in an interactive range of a building piece that's part of a large structure.
  
• Additional general improved rendering performance.

• Drowning now has a fade to black effect as you run out of air.

• New music added to the Upper and Lower Pond

• Harvestable objects in or near bodies of water can now respawn correctly (ex. Husky weeds).
  
• Clients can now successfully join games with large amounts of removed foliage.
  
• Fixed a random crash when loading into the yard.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when kicking players from a game.
  
• Fixed some issues with Cloud Saves not always properly redownloading when updating/reinstalling the game.
  
• Fixed a random crash that could happen when loading into the yard.
  
• Fixed issue where clients that save or disconnect while dead are not loading back into the game correctly on join.
  
• Cloud saves should properly delete when you delete a save game from the Save / Load interface.

• 'Craft' BURG.L quests for recipes can also be completed by crafting the upgraded version of the recipe, if available.
  
• Clients can no longer cause hauled items to float in the air by constructing buildings while hauling certain stacks of items.
  
• Fixed issue where conversations would stop working in-game (including the BURG.L conversation UI showing nothing when interacting with him).
  
• Fixed issue where the keyboard hotkeys on the Map screen stopped working after dragging your mouse.
  
• Fixed a handful of low frequency crashes for clients dealing with item replication.
  
• Science spawn points that were patched into the game and haven't yet been collected will now spawn correctly.
  
• Fixed issue where Raw Science spawns that were added in patches were not showing up for people who were loading a save from a prior patch.
  
• Client movement will no longer be blocked by dead bodies that were killed before the client joined.

• Analyzing Silk Rope now actually unlocks recipes instead of just displaying that it does.
  
• Floors can no longer be placed on top of foundations, clipping into them.
  
• Items and harvestables will no longer respawn while the player can see them.

• Orb Weaver Jr's now have proper death messages.
  
• Fixed issues with water creatures being able to get out of the water.
  

• The Motion Blur setting will now be properly reapplied when restarting the game.
  
• Drowning now has a fade to black effect as you run out of air.
  
• Fixed the O2 meter overlapping the Mutation Unlocked notification.

• Dramatically decreased the increased [REDACTED]

Thank you everyone for your continued support and reports, we appreciate them!

To stay current with the commonly reported issues and to follow their status, please visit our Grounded Issue Tracker Trello Board, or you can bookmark our Known Issues List.

If you are experiencing an issue that is not listed on either the Trello board or in the Known Issues List, either email us directly at support@obsidian.net or fill out the Contact form located on our Support Site and include the following information:

1. Platform (Xbox Console, PC Game Pass, PC Microsoft Store, PC Steam).
   
2. Multiplayer or Single Player Game. (If multiplayer, can you let us know how many players in total in the game, and their platforms if you know this)
   
3. Description of issue.
   
4. Last thing you did in the game before the issue occurred, if applicable.

Thank you again, and have fun out in the backyard!

Hello!

We have updated our Grounded public test branch! This test will allow players who own the game to hop into the game to help us test out new changes, features, and content for Update 0.4.0 before it is released for everyone.

Access to this branch will only be available for a limited time and may be unstable. We highly recommend that anyone who opts-in backs their saves up just in case.

• The content you are going to experience is currently in development. By participating in our Public Test Branch, you will be able to help us locate issues and fix them before the content is officially released to all platforms.
  
• Since this content is still in development, we ask that when discussing unreleased content to please respect those who aren't participating in the public test who may be waiting for the content to officially release. Use spoiler tags when you feel it is appropriate.
  
• It is important to remember that your save files might not be compatible between the public test branch and the release branch. This is especially true when moving back to the release branch from the public test branch, since the content in the public test save contains unreleased content.
  
• Those who are in the Public Test branch of the game will only be able to play with others who are also in that branch. You will not be able to play with any players on the default release branch of the game.

• Patch Notes
  
• How to Access the Public Test Branch
  
• How to Report a Bug