Grounded guide: All the changelogs for patches, content updates, and more

November Content Update 0.4.0 (November 10, 2020)

The biggest content update for Grounded up until this point, the November Content Update (also known as the Pond Update) added a colossal and mind-boggling amount of new features and additions for players. The pond biome was completely revamped, and filled with all kinds of life. From this also came new crafting recipes, building types, areas to explore, and a whole lot more.

Official changelog from Obsidian Entertainment. Original report from Windows Central.

New features

• 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

Platform changes

• 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

Xbox changes

• Mouse / Keyboard support added for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles
• Screenshots now display on the Save / Load screen for Xbox for manual and auto-saves

Movement changes

• 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

Mutations changes

• 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

Combat changes

• 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

Interface changes

• 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

World changes

• 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

Buildings changes

• 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

Crafting changes

• 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

UI changes

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

Audio changes

• New music added to the Upper and Lower Pond

Top community fixes

• 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

Game fixes

• '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

Items, equipment, & resources changes

• 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

World fixes

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

UI fixes

• The Motion Blur setting will now be properly reapplied when restarting the game
• Fixed the O2 meter overlapping the Mutation Unlocked notification

Patch update 0.4.1 (November 13, 2020)

Official changelog from Obsidian Entertainment. Original report from Windows Central.

Top community fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused blueprints to rotate when attempting to be placed
• Fixed a crash that could occur when accepting an invite for a game that has ended

Game fixes

• Fixed a progression blocker on the pond quest if you saved and loaded during some of the terminal unlock phases
• More informative error messages when failing to join a game (game is full, game no longer exists, etc.)
• Fixed performance issue with bases built on floating foundations
• Fixed issue where clients were not getting access to the SCA.B Scanners that were purchased via BURG.L's Tech Chip Swap Shop
• Fixing issue with status effects getting stuck when saving/loading with set bonuses active
• Fixed an issue with eating, drinking, and equipping item animations not working properly while underwater. Animations play only on the right hand now

Items, equipment, & resources fixes

• Items will now remain powered on (such as torches) when loading into a game
• Random crash fix for clients regarding Grass Plank storage and Weed Log storage buildings

World fixes

• Removed poison effect from Diving Bell Spiders
• Aphids will no longer disappear occasionally when fleeing from threats

Audio fixes

• Fixed player eating sounds being heard by all players at full volume regardless of distance

Patch update 0.4.2 (November 13, 2020)

Official changelog from Obsidian Entertainment. Original report from Windows Central.

Platform fixes

• Fixed the large frame drops that could happen when approaching the pond
• Opening the save / load screen when you have a lot of saves will no longer take multiple seconds to open
• Fixed issue where clients that join the game or respawn on top of a base building structure or on a base floor could fall through the world
• Fixed issue where sometimes trying to jump onto a lily pad could cause you to fall through the pond as if the water wasn't there

Xbox One & Xbox One S fixes

• Fixed the out of video memory crash that happens when approaching the pond or oak tree area.
• Fixed issue where creating a manual save in the Save / Load screen could cause an out of memory crash on the Xbox One and Xbox One S

Xbox & Microsoft Store fixes

• Fixed some issues with manual saves and client player data not syncing from the cloud correctly

Patch update 0.4.3 (November 18, 2020)

Official changelog from Obsidian Entertainment. Original report from Windows Central.

Platform fixes

• Made changes to fix the creatures who were sometimes spawning into the game oddly or not navigating around the yard after loading in

Xbox & Windows fixes

• Fix applied to the issue regarding character data reverting to an older save file for hosts or people playing single player