In Grounded, you play as a shrunken teen that needs to survive the terrors of the backyard and find a way to return to normal size. Throughout your journey, you find out the nature of your predicament and make choices to hit the end goal.
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Part of the final stage of the story tasks you with protecting MIX.R Modules that various insects will try to destroy. If even just one of three modules gets destroyed, you have to start all over. Thankfully, there are some solid tactics you can use to keep the modules safe and get back to normal teen problems.
Place Tons of Traps
There are plenty of traps at your disposal, so don’t be afraid to be liberal with your placement of them. It’s a good idea to leave a number of traps at key areas of entry and in front of the modules themselves.
If you look around the immediate area, you’ll see that there are sections that can clearly be used to funnel the insects. You’ll need to block these paths to buy time, but it’s best to also place traps to deter them should they break through. The reason you also want to surround your modules is for strays that make it past blockades. This can happen since they’ll be coming from all sides, and will be both small and large.
Avoid lure traps near your modules and leave those for the first points of entry. Spikes will be your main trap of choice littered throughout, with Explosive Bur Traps being the big damage traps and trips being the last stand.
Build Fortresses For The Modules
Traps alone won’t be enough to protect your modules, especially because there will also be both airborne and large bulky enemies that will largely be unaffected by these traps. You’ll essentially be building a base again this time, with the main goal of creating an impenetrable fortress around all your modules.
Don’t scrimp on your materials here, because there will be plenty of waves trying to break through. Use mushroom walls for your castles, only using lower-tiered materials for extra podiums for scouting and defensive attacks. The more layers you have around your modules, the better. Put traps between layers and don’t make any doors, as you don’t want any entryways anyway. You can just put ladders in select areas to navigate around the fortress.
Carry Different Weapons For Insect Weaknesses
The O.R.C. insects will be relentless, so it’s not enough to put defensive measures in place. You’ll have to mow them down yourself, so make sure you have the proper arsenal to do so. While you may be accustomed to ants, small weavers, and bombardier beetles under the O.R.C. system, this event will trigger even more species.
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Although higher-tier weapons should be enough as all-purpose bug repellents, it’s better to have at least three different weapons on hand. This way, you can hit stronger insects with a weapon that has a perk to hit their weakness. Fireflies, dust mites, Black Ox beetles, Tiger mosquitoes, and ladybirds will pop up the further along your brew is. If you have the materials, keep the Salt Morning Star and Mint Mace handy for their elemental strengths.
Make Sure You Have Ranged Power
You’ll be covering a lot of ground, with both aerial and ground enemies coming from every direction. Whether you’re playing solo or in a group, you’ll want to have ranged weaponry on hand.
Build at least two turrets to have ample coverage of the area, and stock up on pebblets as these will serve as your bullets. The turrets can deal a lot of damage, so you may want to lean heavily on them. If you spot some enemies that aren’t in range, you may want to have a crossbow and some Bratburst bombs handy.
Block Entry Points With Walls
Aside from building walls and roofs directly around the MIX.R modules, you should also create walls on the four main points of entry around the area. These are pretty hard to miss and will have some elevated ground around them, making them perfect spots to create outer fortification.
Don’t just build one layer of wall for these parts, either. Double your walls with some flooring in between each layer so you can scout as needed. If you have spare materials, you can even set up some archer towers to protect these walls if they are at risk of breaking down.
Stock Up On Healing Items
There are plenty of healing items you can make use of, but a great choice to stock up on is the Healbasa. It’s more powerful than bandages and not as resource-hungry as other healing items. It also provides ample HP and has an area-of-effect range, which is good for healing more than one player at a time.
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The Healbasa is also a good choice because you can either use it on yourself or throw it at a distant player that is in urgent need of assistance. It can also be a quick means of healing should you be in a pickle and need to retreat while replenishing your health.
Equip Lady Bug And Roly Poly Armor
You may want to take on other high-tier favorites like the Black Ox armor, but some of the best armor sets you can use for this battle are Lady Bug and Roly Poler. Fully upgraded, both sets provide a high level of defense that gives you that tanky goodness you’ll need for a long fight.
They also have perks that will be very useful as you go through the final battle. The Lady Bug Set can give you healing perks and regeneration over time, which is useful when you’re out of healing items or simply don’t have time to patch yourself up. The Roly Poly armor is great for taking the aggro away from the MIX.R modules and toward yourself. Since walls can’t be repaired, you’ll want to be able to take a few hits and grab the attention of O.R.C. creatures as much as possible.
Defeat Schmector First
Because of the focus on creating the Embiggening Cocktail, one of the easy-to-miss parts of Grounded is the secret boss battle against Director Schmector. Take him on before turning on the JavaMatic, because defeating him will actually lessen the number of O.R.C. creatures attacking when you do get the modules running.
This can be a real boon that makes defending the modules much easier. It’s also an essential step in defeating Ominent and getting the good ending.
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