Grounded challenges players to find many different resources in its expansive Backyard open world, and Thistle Needles are one of the most important ones to hunt down if you like using a bow in combat. However, Thistle plants can be fairly tough to find, especially if you don't know where to look and what to look for.
In this Grounded guide, we'll go over everything you need to know about finding and collecting Thistle Needles. That includes where they're typically located, what you need to look for when searching, and what you can use Thistle Needles for once you've obtained them.
Thistle locations and where to find in Grounded
Thistle Needles are exclusively found on Thistle plants in Grounded, which means you'll need to find the plants themselves before collecting any needles. Thistle plants can be found in four biomes throughout the Backyard: the main central Grasslands area, the swampy Flooded Zone biomes on the eastern and western sides of the map, the Flower Bed biome to the east near the oak tree and Koi Pond, and the Upper Grasslands area to the north, past the Upper Yard Ascent and in the Shed Surroundings location.
Thistle plants are taller than most other types of vegetation and have a purple flower at the top that distinguishes them from other flora. The stem of the plant is covered in Thistle Needles that you can collect from the plant by climbing its various leaves and interacting with the needles as you go. Each Thistle plant has 70 needles in total.
What are Thistle Needles used for in Grounded?
Thistle Needles are almost exclusively used to create basic arrows to be used with bows, and are crucial to keep a large supply of so that you never have to worry about running out of ammunition for your long-range weapon. Note that you'll need some Mite Fuzz, too, which can be acquired from the Lawn Mites that frequently mill about the Grasslands and Flooded Zone biomes.
Some additional uses for Thistle Needles include crafting the early-game Spiky Sprig club weapon, cooking a Broodmother BLT that you can use to spawn the Broodmother boss in her lair, and creating base defenses like Acorn Fences and Spike Strip traps.
Grounded is officially out now on Xbox and PC for $30, and has quickly proven itself to be one of the best Xbox games of all time for fans of survival games thanks to its unique and creative theming, content-rich open world, and deep crafting, upgrade, and combat systems.
