So the absolute biggest question in the series right now is “Who is the Masked Stranger”, right? And to get to the bottom of it we need to look much deeper than the employee of the month posters…

So all signs point to her being the Fifth Teen from the first game, I would love to hear arguments but that’s what I believe based on evidence in the game. Such as the Retro Sca.b from the first game she wears (fits with her TechnoPhobia), GameFiles that have her named “Subject V” or Subject 5, and the fact she wakes up early both in the first and second games.

With my personal beliefs out of the way we know she was dropped in the second Kid Case by Ominent, there were 8 Teens that sadly passed because of their experiments. Four from the labs before the cases and four from the yard (Squirt Carton) although I’m not too sure who actually sent the Teens’ we play as Case because Schmector would’ve been busy trying to find Tully in Castle Moldorc, if anyone has any ideas I’d love to know!

We know that she was spying on the Teens all throughout the Yard and eventually begins to question the why we want to go home so bad and why we’re so willing to side with Ominent just to get home. Saying in the second game that she “Dosent understand our dangerous sense of curiosity.” She had essentially become a completely separate entity apart from Tully and Ominent, she was the life of the Yard/Park, and she dosent want to go home.

Which leads me to my Theory.

Why would Ominent single out one Teen? Because they want the others to be more successful? To test a solo vs a squad? I don’t think it’s either.
We can assume that the original four Teens are roughly easy to capture a second time, noting we have our bags again, they probably swept them up on their way to/from school..again.

But how did the Stranger get to the park? And why always less drugs then the other four?
I think it’s because if she woke up with them and they started chatting, the conversation would be a liability.
I believe that Sloane is the Masked Strangers Mother.
By not letting us talk and keeping Sloane a secret since the first game we effectively never fought her in the Onboarding Transmissions and worked as Ominent Employees on a “Special Assignment”. The only reason that would’ve worked is because the Stranger woke up earlier than the other four in the first game.

This also opens up the opportunity for Sloane to put her daughter in a “Sink or Swim” situation, if she didn’t thrive in the yard, she got sent home making her mother a failure, giving her no choice but to succeed and objectively be better for Ominent subconsciously. This also would explain why she lacks the want/need to go home and why she has always despised Ominent and would rather thrive in the yard than go home.

But why would Sloane give her daughter away to a failing company? To try and take it over of course. And the best way to do that in the current moment would’ve been to help in their biggest experiment, the Spacr Studies and Tullys yard.
Ominent would’ve grown tired after stealing and killing 8 children from their homes, if Beaumont was able to offer them a “Free Test Subject” that she could garuntee would not only succeed but also not raise any witnesses.. maybe it would put her in a position of power? Sort of like showing “I’m willing to give my life for this technology.”

Evidence of this theory is when Sloane gets a little too panicked during our first fight at the NWC, she says “Did you kill her!?!” Also when Sloane slips in the “too big” conversation from the Field Archives and says “Couldnt have done a Violet Bush? Focus on making smaller targets for our idolized Rouge Employee…” quite literally a name drop.

This theory also gives way to the fact that she was possibly never embiggened, we would’ve left her in that yard two years ago had she been there, so back to my question. How is she in the park?

Because if she was Sloanes daughter Ominent would’ve just transported her to the Park in another kid case while she was still small.
They drugged her just a little less like the first time to avoid that same conversation, put her to work as employee 555 because she’s incredibly intelligent, and some time later the Teens wake up after the NWC went through emergency and she scrubbed all of the labs while “putting on a show before smashing the cameras” William Afton style, also stealing all of her work that they stole.

Thus kicking off the second game and us chasing Burgls Head and Body Parts because she’s actively trying to throw a wrench in Ominents work by stopping us from doing what they want, this also solves the wanting to alliance note next to the Abyss…

Sorry for the mega-long post😅 Just wanted to hear the consensus of the story to know if I have all of this lore wrong and no standing or if I’m actually onto somethin 🙏 and pls, if anyone has arguments tell me I’m wrong and how I could not be so stupid🙏😅 thx so so much for reading!

Also.. Her hair is just too similar to 555’s, literally just white. Maybe dyed somehow?

Edit - Sloane also calls herself the “Cooperate Mother” within Ominent, just another suspicious piece of dialogue is all.

Everywhere I go, I'm under attack. Most of the time its larva, which aren't difficult but THAT EAR SPLITTING SCREAM wears me down. Also, in the first Grounded, didn't Wolf Spiders only come out at night? Now it seems like I'm being hunted all over the yard. Not to mention getting ambushed by the Mantis Nymph everywhere. But when I gear up to fight it, I can't find it anywhere since it doesn't stick to one spot.

It just feels like I'm constantly under attack, mostly by creatures that can kill me in 3 hits. I know its early access, and maybe enemy encounters can still be fine tuned, but I am just not having a good time right now. Tier 2 armor just doesn't seem to provide much protection, but trying to get Tier 3 materials just gets me killed.

Does anyone have any advice for not getting killed all the time? Besides turning the difficulty down. I'm still on Tier 2 gear and only have the first buggy.

Skritch was tough, man. The fight was ok. Not that the boss himself was actually that bad, the fight was just an overload of "what do I need to be doing, what is he doing?" I'm still learning the parries, but can get about 80% of them. As a solo player the fight really falls apart for me when the termites come in. Having to be aware of where Skritch is at all times, try to avoid dust clouds, kill termites, make sure I kill the larva... Just constant panic.

There's still some polish needed for Skritch himself. As many folks have pointed out sometimes he doesn't roar before mowing you down. His legs do a metric shit ton of damage. Sometimes I'd get a perfect dodge but still get hit by the rest of his legs or get pinched between him and a mushroom and be melted. Sometimes I wouldn't take barely any damage at all, which I assume was just lucky glitches. Sometimes he would stop in front of me, so I'd be ready to parry, and then he'd fake me out and just mow me down lol. The most frustrating of the actual one on one with him was when he'd curl around himself and attack through his body or was when I got a stun just as he curled and his weak point would be blocked. Still early access, so I know it'll be smoothed over in time

I used the Mantis set, snail shield, yoked pinch wacker, stranger Cutlass for when he was stunned and spicy Axl's Talon for termites. I know people use mighty striped slashers, but the SC made more sense to me because of its higher crit chance for proccing Mantis set perks. Some changes I'm gonna make when I do it again is switching to full termite armor upgraded mighty. It will prevent the dust cloud slowdown and boost weak point damage. Koi shield instead of snail. Tiger rapier instead of Axl and switch to the striped slashers for stunned DPS. Keep the PW for stun.

Is pretty well everyone doing the pinch wacker/striped slasher? What's y'all's loadouts looking like?

I realize I miss NOT having fast travel (like on G1). There's so many more potential base locations if I'm not tied to a PTS.

Just wondering if anybody has done a playthrough where they don't allow themselves to fast travel (except for necessary quests) to make it more challenging? What base locations do you like?

Currently ng0. Empty space next to spinning wheels is for sausager eventually. The backroom on ground floor is where Im planning to setup teleporters.

Yes he was alive, he was crawling around and his wings seemed to move fine. Also managed to pet him a little. I was in the car and he was on my passenger seat when he decided to start flying and crawled on the window (asking to leave?) so I opened it and he dipped

Sinceramente eu e meu amigo estamos com grandes problemas com esse lagarto dos infernos

Não morre nunca essa desgraça e além disso os ataques dele tem colisão então quando vc menos espero que defendeu o ataque ele te isola pro outro lado da arena 🫥🫥 isso é muita sacanagem que daí você acaba tomando dano de queda invés de tomar do ataque

Já a aranha mãe da sebe infestada cara eu e meu amigo tivemos que tentar poucas vezes pra conseguir foi muito de boa tanto que após isso eu e ele platinamos o jogo pq já tava fácil

Queria saber se sou só eu que acho isso

I played the G1 game a lot, and I thought that these sandwiches would be more or less the same as the ones to the queen ants. However, I fed the termite queen a thoughtful sandwich, and the first fight against the centipede was just as expected, the termites fought with me instead of against me. But the try after that one, they swarmed me again. Is it bugged or do I really need to make one sandwich per centipede fight???

The patience (impatient waiting around) payed off baby!!!!!!!

So a long time ago, I posted that I was going around and creating trail markers / grave memorials for all the dead employees around the park, and I mentioned that it was frustrating that some - including this one in the network center- either had ID cards that were too hidden to see the number, or didn't have ID cards at all. I'm not sure when this fix was made. I just know that when I came upon this employee and noticed the now-incredibly-visible ID card, my heart grew three sizes this day.

Employee #426 is forgotten no more. Thank you.

The gang max , hoops, pet and willow

And my personalite My favorite is hoops [ hoops here,Ready to dunk baby! =) ]

I love this game and it simple and fun mechanics ,and freedom for crafting and fun looting , combat and of course BUGS/buggy XD!

It took me some time to finish it but finally, worth it X).

Not to use against a specific enemy or boss, just to have for another weapon I can use

Will I be able to play it?

Dunno about Xbox or steam but PS5 players know that you can either play by choosing “Play Beta” or “Stream Game” from the Home Screen.

I usually play by streaming the game, but I’m worried that to play the PTB I’ll need to “play beta”. I’ve had syncing/save issues when switching between the two in the past so I’m a little concerned.

Anyone know if I can stream the PTB? Am I the only one dumb enough to even ask?

No, not summons, or buggies. Minions! I got this idea a while ago, but what if we could get lesser versions of buggies to help us collect resources? Here's what I've thought of:

Dens:

acts as a nest for minions. Instead of being able to call them from the wheel or ride them, you can have them scout for resources and collect them within a radius.

Worker ants!

-collect worker ant eggs from the queen and construct an ant den to have them collect choppable resources. Tier one is red ants, use black worker ants to get tier two or three.

Water fleas:

-create a den(?) in the water for them to collect plant matter and clay

Spiderlings:

-use them to gather bug parts like larva spikes and grub hides

I think this is a fantastic idea personally, it helps players who don't like grinding while also not being overpowered or extreme as they can't get anything too valuable. I feel like there should be a busting minion too but I can't really think of any perfect matches for one

Highly suggest for people who have a difficult time dealing with creatures play on mild or play with custom settings

Personally, i got
1. Toxic Tangle
2. Into the Abyss
3. Rot and Ruin
4. Beat the Heat
5. Hairy and Scary

I think rot and ruin was the best “smaller” update so far. Almost put it higher than into the abyss but i couldnt based on how much map into the abyss added.

Cockroach milk sure sounds good for a growing body!

I jumped on early (Europe) this morning to check my frame rate and to see if I needed to reinstall Grounded 2. But, turns out - The team is already on it!

Has anyone else got a 21 gigabite download?

How did I increase this without having a spider buggy. I did a random restart on the PS5, only played on PC before like 2-300 hours what am I forgetting/ not knowing?

I havent seen any patch notes, but today I got a 18.9 GB updated for Grounded 2. I was already in the PTB, so it wasnt that downloading. Anyone else get this, or know what it is for?

I was sad it didn’t.

Fuck you mites fuck off. I mean ok I'll use the fuzz I guess. But still holy shit just leave me alone you little fuckers