Grounded's Public Test for the 'Pond Update' gets new patch, makes changes and fixes bugs

Grounded Pond Update Diver (Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

What you need to know

Grounded, Obsidian Entertainment's budding open world survival game, is currently testing its largest update to-date with a Public Test.
The Public Test just got a new patch update for insiders that makes some changes, fixes some bugs, and more.
If everything goes well with the Public Test, the Pond Update should come to Grounded's early access soon.
The Pond Update overhauls the existing pond biome with new creatures, areas, and a giant koi fish.

Grounded is a surprise gem in the gaming world, coming out in early access and immediately amassing a sizeable playerbase eager to shrink down to the size of insects and survive in a brutal suburban backyard. Obsidian Entertainment's game has a decent chance of making our list of best Xbox games with its full release, especially with the upcoming Pond Update, which is currently undergoing a Public Test. That Public Test is now getting a new patch, hopefully bringing it closer to a final release sometime later this month.

Patch Update 0.4.0.2609 makes a ton of changes to existing features, as well as fixes some bugs. The changelog includes:

Features

Removed Private Games for the time being in order to further work on this feature

Changes / tuning

Movement

Running out of air underwater will now instantly kill you as opposed to slowly reducing your health

Combat

Bombardiers now have a new set of attacks to pick from
Fixed issue with Larva attacks so they miss less often

World

Shovels are easier to harvest with underwater

Crafting

Liquid Gills recipe has changed

UI

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

Audio

New music added to the Upper and Lower Pond

Bug fixes

Top community issues

Fixed issue where Cloud Saves were 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

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

Items and harvestables will no longer respawn while the player can see them

UI

Fixed the O2 meter overlapping the Mutation Unlocked notification

Ominent Practical Technologies

Dramatically decreased the increased REDACTED

Public Test changes

Added more Diving Bell Spiders
Fishbone harvest nodes are larger
Wedding Ring is now a discoverable landmark
Fixed the Pond Dome closing after save/load
Diving Bell Spiders will not attack all nearby Tadpoles for no reason
Added unique Moonpool door asset
Changed the bubble spawners to actually spawn bubbles instead of needing to interact with them
Additional set dressing art pass in the Pond
Better prevention of water creatures getting out of the water (Note: Use the "Fix Creature Locations" button in the Options menu to fix up any creatures that are already in bad locations)
Slight objective/quest adjustments to the pond quest
Audio pass for the pond lab and creatures
Tuned movement values for Koi to help them navigate better
Adjusted underwater fan VFX to be more visible
Fixed HUD Markers pointing in odd locations for dropped items
Lighting improvements/fixes in the pond
Added map icons for the pond discoverable landmarks
Fish bones respawn after 3 days now
Koi's aggro range and attack distance have been increased
Koi's attacks are no longer blockable
Diving Bell Spiders have a small poison effect on their attack
Diving Bell Spiders now drop a unique resource
Tadpole meat can now be placed on the Jerky Rack
Pebblets and clay have been added to the pond
Eelgrass harvesting will add the items directly to your inventory
Fixed some raw science spawns being inaccessible in the pond
Fixed diagonal walls not placing correctly
Removed Private Game option since it needs more work
Removed eelgrass from the shallow areas of the pond

Microscopic survival

Grounded

It's a big(ger) world out there.

Obsidian Entertainment makes its exclusive debut on Xbox One and PC with Grounded, a unique survival experience that literally makes all of your problems much, much bigger. Join your friends as you're shrunk down to the size of an ant and are forced to survive in a dangerous backyard.