Obsidian’s survival game Grounded 2 has launched into early access, and the developers have one of those old-timey roadmaps explaining how it will change before the 1.0 release, give or take a few teasing redactions. This being a game about miniaturised children fighting insects, of course, the road in question may be only a few metres long. A garden pathmap, perhaps? Let’s have a look, then.
Coming in a fall 2025 update, we can expect a building grid and quality of life improvements, a hotpouch for buggies, and a new boss called AXL, thought to be a spider. With AXL will come a new boss arena, crafting recipes, armor, weapons and furniture.
The next Grounded 2 update in winter 2025 will introduce Steam Deck verification and cross-play features using a Microsoft account, plus support for rival handheld the ROG Ally. There is also talk of a new park area, a scanning tool called PEEP.R 2.0, a special damage type called Sour 2.0, and a new base-levelling stat, Cosiness. There will be new tier three equipment and omni-tool unlocks, together with a new mushroom set for base-building. Wash that down with a bucket of bugs: new species such as crickets and earwigs, and unspecified variations of existing creepy-crawlies.
The third big Grounded 2 update lands in summer 2026, and is all about swimming and ziplines. Also smoothies that grant status effects, watery bases, watery equipment (and some tier 4 gear and omni-tool unlocks), and some watery critters. There’s an unnamed new park area on the way that is also likely to be aquatic in nature. Though I think it would be very funny if it turns out to be a large expanse of gravel.
After summer 2026, we enter the mist of Future Plans. These include more park areas, mutations, buggy customisation and progression, creatures, bosses, building options, and, well, just a whole lot of survival game junk, basically.
So far, the game seems to be doing well, amply exceeding the original’s launch player count on Steam. We don’t have a write-up for the moment, mostly because our team headcount is also in the process of being miniaturised, but freelance scribe Matt Reynolds has some guides to Grounded 2 grub locations and where to find thistle needles, among other challenges.
