Best weapons and armour in Grounded 2

You might not think it from its cutesy miniaturised setting and charming characters, but Grounded 2 can be a hard game, especially at the start when you’ve got bugger all to fend off the park’s most fearsome critters. And to start getting better equipment and materials, you need to somehow overcome those threats, like poisonous scorpions, hordes of spiders, gigantic cockroach queens, wolf spiders—the (horrifying) list goes on.

To have any chance of doing that, you’ll need the best weapons and best armour that you can get your hands on, along with enough handy trinkets to make a build. At the start of the game, I’d recommend sticking to the pebblet spear or warhammerlet, with the humble clover armour you’re introduced to in the early quests. When it comes time to upgrade your equipment, I recommend the following weapons and armour.

Best Grounded 2 weapons

Weapons are characterised by their type, which generally impacts what type of damage they deal, too. There’s everything from one-handed slashing swords to two-handed smashing clubs and stabbing bows with various ammo types. You can increase the damage and durability of all weapons by upgrading them using brittle whetstones (and brittle plating for armour).

Some weapons are certainly better than others, especially when Mutations are added to the mix, but it’s also important to consider what enemies are weak to—scan them with your PEEP.R to find out. In the case of tough enemies, it’s worth swapping your gear, even if it means ditching one of the best weapons below.

Red Ant Club

• Requires: 3x red ant mandibles, 4x red ant parts, 3x sap, 2x crude rope
• Type: Smashing
• Tier: II

Since it only requires materials from red ants, this tier two weapon is remarkably easy to unlock in the first few hours, and it’ll serve you well into the current endgame. In fact, it’s what I used to fight the final boss.

It’s a two-handed club, so it sacrifices speed in return for high damage and stun, even more so when it’s fully upgraded. But a slow attack speed doesn’t matter when you can stun the enemy in just a few hits, completely immobilising them, while you smash them with the weight of a truck. I pair it with the Smasher mutation and the Astonishing Acid trinket for additional stun and finale damage. You can also use charged club attacks to break enemy blocks, making them very useful in combat.

Mosquito Needle

• Requires: 2x mosquito beak, 2x silk rope, 2x mosquito blood sack
• Type: Stabbing
• Tier: II

Mosquitos are as pesky in Grounded 2 as they are in real life, but if you manage to take one down and analyse its parts, you’ll be able to craft the Mosquito Needle, a rapid rapier. What makes this weapon so special is that it has lifesteal, healing you for a portion of your damage dealt. With moderate damage when upgraded, paired with its naturally high attack speed, it’s a great way to stay topped off while also dishing out some serious punishment.

Mantis Blade

• Requires: 2x praying mantis claw, 4x praying mantis chunks, 3x lingonberry leather
• Type: Slashing
• Tier: III

Made from the remnants of a praying mantis, this two-handed blade packs one hell of a punch. It has high damage and moderate stun, with relatively good speed and stun considering it’s a greatsword.

Since it’s a tier three weapon, it’ll take you a while before you have access to the Mantis Blade. Until then, if you need a slashing weapon (remember to use PEEP.R mode to research enemy weaknesses), stick to the Crimson Saber.

Spider Stringer

• Requires: 2x orb weaver fangs, 3x orb weaver chunks, 3x silk rope
• Type: Stabbing
• Tier: II

Whether you’re going for a full archer build or not, it’s a good idea to bring a bow with you, and you can’t do better than the Spider Stringer. It’s made from orb weavers, so it’s really easy to craft and repair, and it has strong base stats. Plus, bows also have a variety of different arrows you can use to adapt to any situation, like gas or spicy arrows.

If you did want to take this bow to the next level, you can use the Nifty Needle to increase charged shot damage and Ranger armour like Grub, Bee, or, even better, the Marksman’s set. The others are pretty self-explanatory, but you’ll need to analyse a crow feather to unlock the Marksman’s set, like those found around the Statue region.

Ice Sickles

• Requires: Complete the defence challenge in a secret cave in the frozen fan in the Ice Cream Cart. Afterwards, you can craft it using 2x mint globs, 2x northern scorpion pincers, 6x northern scorpion chunks
• Type: Slashing, Fresh
• Tier: III

The Ice Sickles are a unique, legendary weapon you can only get by completing the defence challenge near the Frostbitten Key chest in the Ice Cream Cart. In return for all your hard work, you’ll get a pair of frigid blades that chill and freeze enemies. They also have a high critical hit chance and attack speed, which makes a crit-freeze build absolutely lethal—providing the enemy you’re fighting isn’t resistant.

Best Grounded 2 armour

There are a ton of armour sets in Grounded 2, each with different defence and resistance stats, plus perks based on their armour type. What you pick largely depends on your playstyle. Here are the three armour types and what they do:

• Ranger armour deals more damage to weak spots
• Mage armour makes stave attacks consume less stamina
• Fighter armour generates more threat (which isn’t that useful if you’re playing solo)
• Rogue armour makes the final hit in your three-hit combo have increased crit chance

At the start of the game, I’d stick with the Clover, Acorn, or Red Ant tier 1 armour sets until you’re ready to upgrade to one of the sets below. However, I’ll give a special shoutout to the Roach Greaves. These have the Feeding Frenzy perk, which heals you when looting bug remains. It’s not all that strong in the grand scheme of things, but you can actually keep a pair in your inventory and just slip them on if you need healing after a fight.

I’ll also point out the Sizzling armour set. Its perks aren’t the best for combat (they’re oddly not just a fire version of the Butterfly set), but the Sizzle Reduction perk can be very helpful if you’re struggling against certain enemies, like bombardier beetles or the final boss.

Ladybug

• Full set requires: 1x ladybug head, 11x ladybug parts, 11x blueberry leather, 6x flower petals
• Type: Fighter
• Perk: Bargain Block 1-3
• Tier: II

The Ladybug armour set is a great pick for virtually any melee playstyle since it comes with Bargain Block, which reduces the stamina consumption of blocking. Whether you’re blocking attacks with your weapon or using a shield, it quickly eats into your stamina, which in turn limits your ability to fight back. This set helps you stay on the offensive by making stamina management much more forgiving.

Snail Shell

• Full set requires: 12x garden snail fragments, 2x garden snail eyestalks, 9x lingonberry leather, 2x silk rope, 5x acid glands
• Type: Fighter
• Perk: Block Stun 1-3
• Tier: III

The Snail Shell set is effectively an upgraded version of the Ladybug, with higher overall stats and a similar perk, Block Stun, which builds stun on the enemy when you block. While it’s great for any melee build, it’s perfect for the club-based stun build that I mentioned earlier that uses the Red Ant Club, the Smasher mutation, and the Astonishing Acid trinket.

Unfortunately, it’ll take you quite some time to unlock this armour set, as you need to analyse a snail shell fragment. This requires you to either find one in a chest in the Ranger Outpost in the Statue gardens, or smash one yourself, but you need Omni-Hammer III for that.

Bee

• Full set requires: 13x bee fuzz, 1x bee stinger, 10x blueberry leather, 7x silk rope
• Type: Ranger
• Perk: More Better Draw 1-3
• Tier: II

Does it feel bad to kill peaceful, cute bumblebees? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. The Bee armour set is designed with archers in mind, giving you the typical Ranger Armour bonus to weak spot damage, as well as the improved charged attack perk.

Marksman’s

• Head requires: 5x crow feather piece, 5x blueberry leather, 5x silk rope
• Type: Ranger
• Perk: Bow Attack
• Tier: II

I’ve only discovered the Marksman’s Cap so far, but it’s the perfect headwear for an archer. Like the Bee set, you’ll get extra weak spot damage, but the Marksman’s Cap swaps charged attack for increased bow damage. It’s as simple as it sounds: your bow attacks are better than ever. Even if you only have one piece of this set, like I do, I recommend throwing it on anyway in conjunction with Bee pieces in the other slots.

Butterfly

• Full set requires: 8x blue butterfly scales, 9x blue butterfly chunks, 2x blue butterfly wings, 5x mint shards, 9x blueberry leather, 3x silk rope
• Type: Mage
• Perks: Parrier Barrier 1, Frosty Focus 1-2
• Tier: II

There’s no better Mage armour set than the Butterfly. Of course, you’ll benefit from this armour type’s standard boost to stamina efficiency when using staves, but this set gives you the Parrier Barrier and Frosty Focus perks. This lets you block an attack to gain a magic barrier that absorbs damage from a single hit. This barrier triggers Frosty Focus, increasing your fresh (ice) damage. Pair this with the Glacial Sting stave and you’ve got a chillingly strong ice mage build.