A horde of bugs marches towards you. Build up the defenses. Get your weapons ready. It’s time to defend your base.

Obsidian, the developer of Grounded, has launched an update named The Bugs Strike Back. The new update introduces 3 new base defense modes. It adds new siege weapons, craftable items, creature cards, mid game difficulty adjustments, and more.

Base defense modes

Faction Reactivity is a new mechanic that will turn bugs against you if you intrude on their territory and start killing them. The more inspect species you add to the red book, the more they seek to defeat you to protect themselves from extinction.

The Waft Emitter allows you to provoke bugs based on the types of dead bug parts you add to the pile. See it as a corpse composter that infuriates insects by seeing dead bodies of their kind. The bigger the pile, the more they will want to avenge you for this act of cruelty.

MIX.R tanks are machines that can be found on the map. They can be activated later in the game. Once activated, you will need to protect the MIX.R tank from bugs that will swarm to destroy it. If you complete the challenge, you will be rewarded with Raw Science, which is a currency-like item used to buy blueprints or abilities. You will also gain a mutation perk and its phase increase to gain special effects that will improve your character.

Siege weapons, crafting items, and PEEP.R device

To improve the effectiveness of your base defense, you can build new turrets and traps. Do you see a large group of bugs approaching your base? Mount the turret and start blasting!

In the new update, you can also craft 2 new items. Charcoal Canteen allows you to purify dirty water while traveling. Charcoal Torch is another useful item. It lights up a larger area than a regular torch and is a repairable item, so you don’t have to worry about crafting new torchers every time they break.

If you want to learn more about the bugs, use the PEEP.R device to scan insects and collect data. It will unlock creature cards that will reveal a lot of valuable information about particular bugs, such as their weaknesses, strengths, health, and more.

The Bugs Strike Again introduces the complete rework of the armor system that applies new damage reduction modifiers. Additionally, the improved system allows you to upgrade your armor, which was only possible for weapons in the previous build.

Do you want to adjust your world settings on the go? Now you can change it without exiting your current session. A convenient improvement.

Grounded has improved a lot since the early access launch in 2020. According to Obsidian, the full game release is planned for this Summer on July 28, 2020. We can expect at least one more early access content update before the full game launches.

What do you think about this update? How do you like the new base defense modes? Let me know in the comments.