Grounded opens up the first Public Test for its upcoming 'The Shroom and Doom Update'

What you need to know

• Grounded is an innovative survival game from Obsidian Entertainment and Xbox Game Studios, and it's currently in early access.
• During the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase at E3 2021, Grounded showed off its upcoming update, The Shroom and Doom Update.
• The Shroom and Doom Update is the game's biggest release yet, and it arrives with a ton of new features on June 30, 2021.
• If you want to try the update out early, Grounded just opened its Public Test ring, letting players test the update early and submit feedback.

Grounded is already one of the best Xbox survival games while in early access, but it continues to grow and evolve with new updates. Grounded has big features on the horizon with The Shroom and Doom Update, which was revealed during the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase at E3 2021. A ton of changes are included in The Shroom and Doom Update, and Obsidian Entertainment wants to test them all out before a public rollout.

That's why the Grounded Public Test ring is reopened for 0.10.0 The Shroom and Doom Update, which officially launches for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and PC on June 30, 2021.

The Public Test ring lets dedicated Grounded players get in on an upcoming feature update before its more widely available early access release, often at the expense of more bugs and issues. Grounded is likely starting Public Testing earlier than usual for The Shroom and Doom Update because of the sheer size of the release.

The full changelog for 0.10.0 The Shroom and Doom Update Public Test includes:

New features

Creatures

Boss — The Broodmother

• Find the new Broodmother Den to encounter the first-ever boss in Grounded!
  • She must be lured out with a craftable treat called the Broodmother BLT
  • 1 new Armor Piece and 1 new Weapon can be crafted from her parts!

ARC.R

• 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

Pets (Phase One)

• Weevils and Aphids can now be tamed as pets!
• Each requires a specific type of food to tame
  • Pets can be safely left in the base at a Pet House. Yes, you can craft Pet Houses now!
  • Can be equipped with various cosmetics
  • You can pet them!

Weapons

New weapon — Crossbow

• Higher damage than a normal bow
• Slower firing speed and reload time
  • Uses the same ammo types

Buildings

New structural pieces

• New Grass Buildings:
  • Half Wall
  • Curved Half Wall
  • Crenelated Half Wall
  • Crenelated Curved Half Wall
  • Curved Wall
  • Curved Door
• New Clover Buildings:
  • Flat Roof
  • Peaked Roof
  • Peaked Dome Roof
  • New Stem Buildings:
  • Half Wall
  • Curved Half Wall
  • Curved Wall
  • Curved Door
  • Curved Palisade
  • Curved Palisade Door
• New Stuffed Creatures:
  • Ladybug
  • Stinkbug

Building flipping

• A few buildings can now be flipped horizontally or vertically while placing them. This includes Spiral Stairs, Acorn Stair Railings, and Triangular Walls

Building wall replacement system

• Structure pieces (walls, windows, etc.) can now be replaced by other versions without first demolishing the existing piece. Just place the new piece over the old one and add the ingredients

New production buildings

• Oven
  • Cooks several materials into a new material or item. Build one to discover what you can do with it!
• Grinder
  • Breaks down materials into new materials. Just like the oven, you'll have to build one to discover what to do with it!

Mushroom Garden update

• Renamed Mushroom Garden to Garden Patch
• Garden Patch now requires items to be planted before producing materials
• Result item depends on what's planted:
  • Mushroom — Mushroom
  • Raw Fiber — Raw Fiber
  • Sprig — Sprig
  • Clover Top — Clover
• Fertilizers can be used to augment growth
  • Different fertilizers produce different effects
  • Spoiled meat will be able to help you with this, hooray!

New tier of base buildings

• Mushroom Brick Buildings are now available!
• Walls:
  • Wall
  • Half Wall
  • Crenelated Half Wall
  • Arch
  • Curved Wall
  • Curved Half Wall
  • Triangle Wall
  • Windowed Wall
  • Curved Windowed Wall
• Doors:
  • Door
  • Curved Door
• Crow Feather Roofs are now available:
  • 8 roof pieces total
• These are unlocked via a new BURG.L Chip in the WIP Haze lab (now accessible)!

New building type — pillars

• Pillars of various types can now be built:
  • Clay Pillar
  • Stem Pillar
  • Pebblet Pillar
  • Mushroom Pillar

Sitting in chairs

• Yes... you read that correctly

Achievements

• 20 Achievements have been added to the game (for all platforms)
• These are an initial set and more will be added as the game continues to grow
• We are currently working on the functionality to make them unlock if you have previously completed the task, but there is a chance this may not be possible. Certain achievements for completing tasks such as "kill a wolf spider" or "craft an item" will need to be completed again to unlock
• Note: Achievements will only be available for testing on the Steam version of the game. All other platforms will receive the achievements when 0.10 releases on June 30th

Photo Mode

• The Photo Mode UI has been redesigned to group related settings together into tabs
• Photo Mode has new features:
  • Rotate teen
  • Hide head armor, equipment, and weapon
  • Gamma
  • Time of day
  • Fog density
  • Sun angle

Mutations

• 2 new mutations to discover: Mom Genes and Mithridatism

Music

• New track added for the Broodmother boss

UI

• The Main Menu shows highlights of the latest update
• Unacquired BURG.L Chip locations are shown on the Map screen after you rescue BURG.L

Changes & tuning

Systems

• Players can sprint on ladders
• Giant Food Items (Billy Hog Hot Dogs, Archer Cookies, etc.) have been adjusted. Ants can no longer destroy the large food item, and the player harvests a better item than the ants do
  • Ants spawn normal versions of the food bits
  • Players harvesting the node are granted "Fresh" versions of the food bits

Combat

• Infected Weevils now apply a durability DoT to enemies hit by their explosion
• Creature scaling in multiplayer has been adjusted:
  • HP of creatures in multiplayer scales at a faster rate
  • Stun meter and duration scales at a slower rate
  • More creatures are affected by scaling
• Poison now has a unique death message

Interface

• Silk Rope now appears in the crafting menu

World

• Large mushrooms throughout the world can now be harvested
• Feather harvest nodes now grant 2-6 feathers instead of only 1
• The grill has temporarily moved to the retaining wall above the pond. Just below its new location is a patch of dry grass where players can now find bits of Charcoal. This is a temporary resource location until the area of the yard that features Charcoal is released

Buildings

• Spike traps now take 30% less damage from use
• New art for Clay and Pebblet Foundations
• Arachnophobia mode support for Spider Head Mounts
• Straight roofs can now support each other without additional structures
• Ceiling-mounted buildings can now be placed under roofs
• Basketball Hoops are no longer indestructible
• Slight Lure Trap Rework:
  • Cost half the resources to craft
  • Now last a specific amount of time (8 minutes)

Crafting

• Lowering the material requirements for the spike trap
• Stuffed Creatures are now buildings instead of deployable items
  • You build them in the building radial instead of at the workbench
  • Relocatable like normal buildings
• Green Machine smoothie recipe changed to require algae instead of raw fiber
• Human Food smoothie recipe changed to require fresh variants of apple, cookie sandwich, and hot dogs
• Clover Roof and all variants are now unlocked via the Multistory Bases BURG.L chip unlock

Optimization

• General CPU performance improvements

Other

• The durability of almost all weapons, tools, and armor has been increased by 25%
• Armor Glue and Super Armor Glue can be sent through the grinder for a partial material refund

Known issues

• Clients in Multiplayer Games will have their inventory reset if the game is saved or reloaded while they are sitting in a chair. To help prevent this, stand up from your chair before exiting or saving the game

Bug fixes

Top community fixes

• Grass Planks, Weed Stems, and Clover Leaves are buoyant in water again
• Added dither fade to some foliage to reduce objects in the distance visually popping in and out
• Player backpacks are buoyant in water again
• The game will no longer crash when destroying towers of standalone ladders

World

• Clients can walk through clovers much more reliably now
• Walls can no longer be placed such that they clip into foundations
• Structures can no longer be built clipping into the tops of palisades
• BURG.L Quest trail markers can no longer be relocated
• Ladders being relocated no longer support themselves
• Fixed Door buildings not snapping as readily to walls as they should
• Ladders will no longer highlight while the player is climbing them
• Buildings being relocated will now start at their current rotation
• Mysterious Machine can no longer be activated on Creative with Bugs difficulty mode
• Improved "Read To Me" narration for many UI windows
• The game will no longer rarely crash when "Read To Me" is enabled

Items, equipment, & resources

• The game will no longer crash when demolishing a zipline with a full inventory
• Fixed a case where wall-mounted torches could not be placed on some walls
• Fix a lot of cases where ingredients wouldn't fill in the ghosted building blueprint correctly

Creatures

• Ants will no longer have the Stealing marker stuck on them after they steal from a chest
• Players can no longer walk on the back of the bird

Audio

• The player will no longer "look ma, no hands!" when equipping a weapon while zipping