Most Important Upgrades to Prioritize in Grounded 2

Even though the park is a dangerous place in Grounded 2, you can make the most of your new tiny life by unlocking new upgrades that allow you to customize your base and obtain crucial supplies more easily. Raw Science is hard to come by in the early stages of Grounded 2, though, so which upgrades should you unlock first?

There are quite a few upgrades to choose from once you reach the first Ranger Station, and you can add even more options to the list by exploring the park and retrieving Optical Disks containing rare blueprints and crafting recipes. You'll still need to spend Raw Science to fully research these upgrades, but they're all well worth the investment.

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Base Building Recipes

The kids of Grounded 2 have already been shrunk once before, so they already know how to convert everyday objects like blades of grass and dandelion stems into fortified shelters to protect them from bugs and other hazards. You can unlock even more base-building blueprints right from the start of the game, however, and these will help you transform your grass hut into a grass home.

The Snackbar Ranger Station has quite a few expensive base blueprints to choose from, but you can easily afford them by analyzing the various bits and bobs you've collected to stock up on Raw Science. Multi-Story Bases is the most important of them all since it unlocks a ton of new parts, and the Pebblet Foundation upgrade will let you graduate from grass builds and move onto stronger stone base designs.

Hatchery

The Hatchery is unlocked via the main questline in Grounded 2, but you should prioritize unlocking it ASAP since it's the main way to unlock Buggies. Buggies are the main new gimmick of Grounded 2, which allows you to ride ants and other insects around the park for combat and resource gathering.

You'll unlock the Hatchery after collecting the Snackbar TURBO Optical Disk inside an anthill during the Missed Connections quest. If you can escape the anthill with the disk, you'll unlock the crafting recipe for the Hatchery. This mission also tasks you with retrieving a Red Soldier Ant Egg that you can place in the Hatchery to unlock your first Buggy.

Milk Molar Scanner

Milk Molars are incredibly important in Grounded 2 since they upgrade your character's stats, but they're quite hard to find. Thankfully, you can unlock a Milk Molar Scanner that helps you track them down. You can get it from the Ice Cream Cart Optical Disk located on the southern side of the park. Once you retrieve the disk, you can unlock the Milk Molar Scanner for a hefty Raw Science price.

Smithing Station

Gear upgrades are crucial to surviving the dangerous parts of the park in Grounded 2, but you can't make any improvements to your equipment until you unlock the Smithing Station. Thankfully, the main questline will take you straight to it. You'll find an Optical Disk containing the Smithing Station blueprint during The Art of War quest, which is unlocked after you hatch your first Buggy.

Once you've unlocked the Smithing Station, you can spend Brittle Whetstone and Brittle Plating to upgrade your weapons and armor. There are multiple upgrade tiers, and each level will incrementally increase your gear's stats. Upgrade materials are quite rare during the early stages of Grounded 2, so make sure you're only upgrading the best weapons and armor that you have.

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