Grounded: Best Weapon Upgrades, Ranked (2024)

There are a lot of dangerous creatures in Grounded. Surviving the backyard requires a full arsenal of reliable and trustworthy weaponry. To that end, a Smithing Station will quickly become a key part of any player's home base, as this fixture allows weapons to grow stronger through enhancements. Eventually, players will have to commit their weapon to one of five upgrade paths: Mighty, Fresh, Salty, Sour, and Spicy. Each of these paths requires a different type of Glob, which are ingots forged in an oven out of resources found in the yard.

Each of these upgrades will give the weapon a different elemental damage type. They will also increase the weapon's overall damage and durability. Different creatures are resistant or weak to each damage type in the game, so it's important to diversify. That said, some damage types do have advantages over others.

5 Mighty

Staying The Course

See Also

How to Upgrade Weapons in Grounded | Gamer Guides: Your u...Smithing Station | Grounded Guide - Basically AverageGrounded: Unlock the Smithing Station and Upgrade WeaponsGrounded: How to Upgrade Your Weapons to Max | Stump Lab Unlock - Games Fuze

• Requires: Level 5 Weapon, 5 Mighty Glob

The Mighty upgrade path doesn't bestow any new forms of damage on a weapon, it just makes the weapon stronger. To that end, weapons that already have an elemental damage type, like the Spicy Coaltana or the Mint Mace, can only follow this path. Weapons without elemental damage types can enjoy a straightforward damage upgrade instead. Mighty weapons require Mighty Globs to upgrade, which are also much easier to come by than the resources associated with other upgrade paths.

The effectiveness of this upgrade path depends in large part on the type of weapon that uses it. There are a lot of basic damage types, like Busting, Chopping, Stabbing, and Slashing. Like the four elemental damage types, creatures will have different resistances and weaknesses to each, making it important to consider all options before deciding if it's wiser to stay the course or branch out.

4 Spicy

Turning Up The Heat

• Requires: Level 5 Weapon, 5 Spicy Glob

Spicy damage is largely analogous to fire damage in other games. In Grounded, this damage type has the unique benefit of pre-cooking the meat of food animals slain with it. That makes it useful for farming weevils for food, if nothing else. The Spicy Shards needed to unlock this upgrade path are somewhat rare, but like other candies, they can be found scattered throughout the yard.

There are a fair number of creatures that are weak to Spicy damage, including orb weaver spiders and red and black ants. The Hedge Broodmother, a particularly imposing spider boss, is also weak to Spicy damage. However, this is balanced out by a larger list of creatures who are resistant to it, primarily black widows, antlions, and most of the Infected creatures encountered in the Haze.

3 Salty

Dry Damage

• Requires: Level 5 Weapon, 5 Salt Glob

Salty damage is a distinctive damage type that will automatically convert the meat of slain creatures into jerky. This damage type has a pretty broad spread of creatures who are weak to it. Wasps and termites are some of the most prominent creatures who'll take extra damage from Salty weapons. Antlions are also weak to Salt damage, even though their dens are the most common source of the salt chips necessary to make them.

By contrast, there's a relatively small list of creatures who resist Salty damage. The ever-deadly black widow is one, as are Infected bugs from the Haze. Ladybugs and ladybirds, bulky foes who carry very valuable resources, also resist Salt damage, which is a pretty significant downside. For the most part, though, Salty damage will deal pretty well with most bugs in the yard.

2 Sour

Cutting Through Defenses

• Requires: Level 5 Weapon, 5 Sour Glob

The Sour Upgrade path is a bit hard to access. The sour candies required to craft Sour Globs are quite rare and can only be harvested by the Black Ox Hammer, a tier 3 tool. The reward for accumulating these globs, however, is a very versatile damage type that will be helpful against most creatures in the yard.

In terms of weaknesses, there aren't a ton of creatures who are weak to Sour damage. The most prominent enemies who are weak to Sour damage are the robots encountered in the research labs scattered throughout the yard. However, Sour damage is unique in that there are no creatures who are resistant to it. Even the black widow, which resists every other damage type, does not have any particular defense against Sour damage. For players who are low on other resources, a Sour weapon is a good catch-all option against every threat in the yard.

1 Fresh

Keeping It Cool

• Requires: Level 5 Weapon, 5 Mint Glob

The Fresh damage type is arguably the most prominent of the four elemental types. Most creatures in the yard will have some sort of reaction to it, either good or bad. It's also easier to get in the mid-game, as it only requires a tier 2 Insect Hammer to harvest the necessary Mint Shards. These Mint Shards can be hard to come by, but they're generally a lot more common than the other elemental candy chunks, especially early on.

A very large number of creatures are weak to Fresh damage, including particularly common foes like fire ants, ladybugs, and bees. Infected creatures are weak to Fresh damage as well, which makes this damage upgrade a must when exploring the Haze. This is balanced out by a pretty hefty list of creatures who are strong against it, including black ants and several bosses as well. Still, its relative ease of acquisition and broad range of uses make Fresh one of the most reliable damage upgrades in Grounded.

Grounded

Platform(s)

PS5 , Xbox Series X|S , Nintendo Switch , PS4 , Xbox One , PC

Released

September 27, 2022

Developer(s)

Obsidian Entertainment

Genre(s)

Survival Horror , RPG