Grounded combat guide: How to kill spiders

Grounded is an excellent survival game from Xbox Game Studios' Obsidian. Already one of the best games on Xbox Game Pass, Grounded is a tough but accessible adventure where you're shrunk down to the size of a matchstick.

Stuck in a 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'-style nightmare, naturally, gigantic spooky spiders will make your life in the backyard all the more difficult. With some tips, though, they become a whole lot less scary. Here's how to kill spiders effectively in Grounded.

How to kill spiders in Grounded

Spider slaying in Grounded revolves blocking primarily. There are two types of blocking in Grounded: a passive block, and a "perfect" block. Simply holding down the block button will greatly reduce the amount of incoming damage you take, but you'll still take a hit, which means you could end up poisoned, severely reducing your chance of combat success. Ideally, you'll want to time your blocks close to the moment the spiders strike, which will prevent all damage and also prevent poison procs from occurring.

1. There are a few types of spiders in Grounded: an Orb Weaver and its smaller counterpart, the Orb Weaver Jr., a Wolf spider, Black Widow spiders, and the Hedge Broodmother. 
2. Orb Weavers  and Orb Weaver Jrs. have yellow patterned abdomens and skinny legs, Wolf spiders have big hairy legs and brown striped, and are much larger. Black Widows are solid black with an identifiable red hourglass marking. The Hedge Broodmother is the most recognizable of all spiders despite needing to be summoned for her fights due to its massive size and flat, spikey abdomen. 

3. Orb Weavers are far easier to kill, dealing less damage and moving more slowly. They open the fight by spitting webs from their abdomen, which you can easily dodge. Wolf spiders attack more quickly, deal poison damage, and also do a dive bomb attack, which can instantly kill under-geared players. Black Widow spiders feature a moveset similar to the wolf spider. However, they can inflict venom damage which bypasses protective mutations like Mithridatism. The Hedge Broodmother similarly behaves like a wolf spider in its attacks but summons hordes of Orb Weavers, Orb Weaver Jrs, and spiderlings to whittle the player's health away.
4. To increase your chance of success, consider getting a level 2 Insect Hammer or an augmented mace like the Salt Mace, as well as some level 2 Ladybug armor. For the Hedge Broodmother and Black Widow, level 3 equipment is recommended.
5. Before engaging any spider, take a moment to PEEP it. This can be done by pressing Y on a controller. Using your PEEP.Rs can allow you to glean valuable information from an enemy before you attack, such as any weaknesses or resistances to weapon augmentations.  To make it easier, we've included a handy table of each spider and its weaknesses and resistances here that you can reference, as well.

6. Approach your spider to aggro it. Its eyes will glow red, and it will focus on you with hungry, murderous intent. You can also use a bow and arrow to get some hits in first, using a vantage point to avoid getting hit. You'd need a ton of arrows to kill a spider this way, though. It's far more effective to simply beat them down.
7. Orb weavers start the fight by attempting to web you. Sidestep when they do this. Wolf spiders may jump up for a dive attack. You can perfect block this or run away out of range. Do not get hit, though, because it deals a crazy amount of damage.
8. Once the spiders have used their cooldown attacks, they will rear up and try to bite you. With some practice, it's easy to get the timing down. See the video above on how to block into a spider lunge. Especially on a Wolf spider, do not try and get more than one attack in after a block, or you won't have enough time to block the next spider lunge.
9. Wolf spiders have a far bigger attack range than Orb Weaver spiders, making blocking a bit more crucial. You can hug Orb Weavers and strafe sideways to simply avoid their bites, but it's better to perfect block. If you fail to perfect block, you may get poisoned. The mutation Mithridatism can help deflect some of this poison.

9. Hit the spiders in the head as much as possible. Three or four hits with a two-handed weapon like the Insect Hammer will stun them temporarily, allowing for a few free hits or charge up attacks.
10. Repeat this process until the spider is squished. Be wary of the Wolf spider, since it will try to dive-bomb on you again after a few seconds into the fight. Orb Weavers only try to use webs again if you run out of range.

You may want to create a lean-to and set it as your spawn point so that you are not too far away from your backpack if you do meet an untimely demise. This can be a particularly useful tactic against wolf spiders as you can continue to attack once you respawn and gradually chip away at the spider's health until you finally finish it off. This technique cannot be used against the Broodmother, however, as once all players have been vanquished, she will return to her hole and must be resummoned for another attempt.

Oh, and one more tip: watch your back!

Once you have killed the spiders, you can harvest their parts to make some mighty weapons and armor, so don't forget to grab that sweet, sweet loot.

$40 at xbox.com

Grounded

The yard is dark and full of terrors. Can you and your friends survive what lurks in the grass while uncovering the mystery of why there are ant sized teenagers being left to survive on their own?

Available from: Xbox | Steam