Best Grounded 2 Mage Build

Grounded 2 offers players four main archetypes or playstyles to work with. Fighters serve as tanks for the party, using powerful melee weapons to get up close and personal with attackers, rangers rely on bows and special arrows to deal damage from afar, rogues use dual wield daggers and sneaking to land devastating sneak attacks on enemies, and mages use candy staves to inflict ranged elemental attacks and status effects on the target.

For players wanting to know the best way to play a mage in Grounded 2, here’s the breakdown.

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Best Mage Build in Grounded 2

Best Mage Weapons in Grounded 2

Weapon	Recipe	How to Get	Weapon Effects
Scorching Orb	Spicy Shard x4 Bombardier Part x3 Boiling Gland x1	Craft at a Workbench	Sizzling Attack: Attacks cause foes to sizzle and burn.
Glacial Sting	Mint Shard x4 Northern Scorpion Stinger x1 Pine Needle x2	Craft at a Workbench	Chilling Attack: Attacks cause foes to chill and freeze.

Both Scorching Orb and Glacial Sting are needed for this build to work. The goal is to use the right tool for the right job, with the aim of exploiting enemy weaknesses and sidestepping their resistance. Both weapons can be obtained very easily in the early game when players unlock the Tier 2 Omni-Hammer, thereby obtaining the ability to break Fresh Mints and Spicy Candies to obtain Mint Shards and Spicy Shards, respectively.

Heatwave is a unique candy stave that can be obtained from the middle of the Fire Pit area by players with Sizzle-resistant equipment. However, other than offering slightly more critical hit chances, it functions basically the same as the Scorching Orb. When players do obtain it from its hiding location, they should replace Scorching Orb, but the build works just fine without it.

Best Mage Armor in Grounded 2

Armor	Recipe	How to Get	Armor Set Bonus
Butterfly Circlet	Blue Butterfly Scales x4 Blue Butterfly Chunks x4 Mint Shards x5	Craft at a Workbench	Parrier Barrier (Circlet): Perfect blocks add a damage-reducing barrier that stacks a maximum of three times and is removed when hit or not in combat. Frosty Focus: Increases fresh damage when Parrier Barrier is active. Mage Armor: Staff attacks use less stamina.
Butterfly Robes	Butterfly Wings x2 Butterfly Scales x4 Blueberry Leather x5
Butterfly Boots	Butterfly Chunks x5 Silk Rope x3 Blueberry Leather x4

The Blue Butterfly Set is the best mage armor set in the game, especially useful when used alongside the Glacial Sting, as its special effect, Frosty Focus, benefits Fresh damage immensely. The Sizzling Set (obtained from Bombardier Parts) serves as an adequate alternative.

Best Mage Mutations in Grounded 2

Mutation	How to Get	Effect
Whittle Wizard	Tier 1: Kill 40 Creatures with staves. Tier 2: Kill 100 Creatures with staves. Tier 3: Kill 200 Creatures with staves.	Unleash the full power of candy staves. Sizzle burns brighter, and frozen foes shatter spectacularly.
Cardio Fan	Tier 1: Deplete stamina 100 times. Tier 2: Deplete stamina 250 times. Tier 3: Deplete stamina 500 times.	Exhausting your tiny body over and over again, your cells adopt a more efficient respiration process.
Parry Master	Tier 1: Perform 30 perfect blocks. Tier 2: Perform 80 perfect blocks. Tier 3: Perform 150 perfect blocks.	Your impeccable timing gives you an extreme advantage when blocking attacks.

Players can unlock the ability to equip three mutations at the same time by upgrading their Mutation capacity using Milk Molars. Whittle Wizard is a must-have for all mage characters in Grounded 2, as it provides a direct boost to Candy Stave damage and status buildup. Cardio Fan allows you to spam attacks more frequently, whereas Parry Master makes close-up encounters a breeze.

Best Mage Trinkets in Grounded 2

Trinket	How to Get	Effect
Blistering Boiler	4% chance to drop from Bombardier Beetles or O.R.C. Bombardier Beetles.	Deals extra 25 Spicy Damage and increases sizzle buildup by 40.
Shivering Scale	4% chance to drop from Blue Butterflies and O.R.C. Blue Butterflies.	Deals extra 25 Fresh Damage and increases chill buildup by 40.

The Blistering Boiler is an easier trinket to obtain overall, simply because of how common Bombardier Beetles are on the map, but it can still prove tricky if luck and RNG are not on your side. Consider using Astonishing Acid in the meantime.

How to Play as a Mage in Grounded 2

There are two ways to begin an encounter when playing as a mage in Grounded 2. The first option is to start the battle with a charged sneak attack, instantly dealing massive damage and dowsing the target with status buildup. It’s entirely possible to instantly burn or freeze the target using this method.

For more dangerous targets like Wolf Spiders, however, it’s better to start the battle while mounted on your Buggy. Attack the target with your Buggy, making it so that the enemy gets aggroed to your Buggy instead of your character. Then, dismount and start dishing out damage from a distance until the aggro shifts to you. As soon as that happens, remount your Buggy and repeat the process.

This is the safest method to engage powerful enemies, especially on higher difficulties when they can easily one-shot the player character in one move.

checking a red soldier ant resistances in grounded 2

It’s always important to scout your target’s weaknesses and resistances before the fight, ensuring you’re using the right damage type to deal the most damage. It’s also a good idea to have backup melee weapons, even if you haven’t invested in them. Candy Staves are also great at dealing with crowds of enemies using their charged attack, as the splash damage can hit groups very easily.

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