Grounded 2 update guarantees acorn top drops and stops nasty mount surprises

A Grounded 2 update today has made a first wave of changes to the co-op survival game, and there's good news if you're exploring the park in Obsidian's early-access sequel. The new Grounded 2 patch notes bring a whole heap of bug fixes and performance improvements, along with some welcome tweaks to item drop rates, creature behavior, and the adorable red ant buggies.

Danielle delved into Grounded 2 early access for us, and is currently undecided whether it's a perfect sequel to one of the best survival games in recent memory, or if Obsidian needs more time to cook. So far, however, there's a lot to like about the shrunken-hero successor, and its developer has been quick to deliver some hefty Grounded 2 patch notes. "Thank you all so much for your patience," the studio writes, "your feedback, suggestions, and bug reporting skills have been incredible with helping us build this game together."

One of Grounded 2 patch 1.0.2's best changes is that acorn tops are now a guaranteed drop, so you won't spend ages seeking out Grounded 2 acorns only to miss out on its valuable cap, which was previously only a roughly one-in-three chance. The buggies, personal mounts hatched from Grounded 2 red soldier ant eggs, can now be summoned from a greater distance and will no longer surprise you by spawning as a hostile red soldier ant instead.

Elsewhere, there's more good news, as bees will now sleep correctly at night, giving you a bit more freedom if you're prepared to brave the darkness. Several gaps in terrain have been tidied up, parkouring up plant stems should behave a little better, and you'll be able to spot raw science orbs more easily from distance, helping you track them down. You'll no longer benefit from venom on all regular attacks from all daggers while wearing Wolf Spider armor, but on the plus side, you now won't stack up infinite 'sick' debuffs by drinking dirty water.

Building has been improved, and while Obsidian says it doesn't expect everything to be perfect yet, you should now have a lot more success constructing on dirt piles around the park, and placing decoration blueprints on walls and furniture. It's also resolved a problem blocking the S key from working during build mode, and fixed several naming inconsistencies. If you're on Steam, you should more easily be able to access Grounded 2 crossplay - arguably a must-have feature for what might prove one of our best co-op games of the year.

Obsidian has made some big steps towards optimization, although it warns, "We don't expect this to fix the performance problems as a whole." It estimates a "40-60% improvement" to overall stability. Alongside this, the ORC Bee near the blueberry bush will now correctly be able to be hit, and ORC creatures should correctly return to their intended locations if pulled away. If you've run into any seeming softlocks here, Obsidian instructs you to "please go to where you died last to find the ORC Creature Missing."

Grounded update 0.1.2 is out now. You can read through the full patch notes courtesy of Obsidian, where you'll find plenty more smaller bug fixes and tweaks to dig through.

We've picked out even more of the best crafting games in 2025 if you're eager for even more. Exploring the undergrowth with your friends? Grab the best gaming headset to make the experience even better.

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