Without question the coolest new feature in Grounded 2 early access is the ability to breed and ride mounts, called Buggies, or just to have a multi-legged friend follow you around to help out with combat. Right now there are only two insects available, but if you’d rather not spend time wandering the park figuring out how to add these creepy buddies to your repertoire, then here’s a guide on how to unlock them both.
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How to Get Red Soldier Ant
The first mount you’ll unlock in Grounded 2 is the red soldier ant.
After just a couple hours of progression through the main story, you’ll get a quest to find the Snackbar TURBO Optical Disk and return it to one of the terminals found throughout the park. The disc in question can be found in an underground cave system on the western part of the map near the tutorial area, which you’ll be directed to as part of the quest.
You’ll find the disc on the body of a less fortunate shrunken adventurer hidden in the anthill’s depths and once you return it to the ranger station, you’ll unlock the ability to purchase the Hatchery from the Science Shop for just 500 Raw Science.
The Hatchery is very important, as it’s where you can incubate insect eggs that hatch into mounts. You’ll also gain the ability to build the Ant Nest facility, which serves as a home to store your ant pets when they’re not in use. And finally, and most importantly, you’ll gain the ability to hatch red soldier ants once you find their eggs.
Your next stop is to go and get an egg to hatch. You can find them in the southwestern part of the map inside a massive anthill that’s pretty near to the ant cave you entered previously.
This is one of the first real dungeons you’ll face in Grounded 2, so make sure to gear up a bit before heading out, as you’ll be fighting a whole bunch of red soldier ants who don’t take kindly to you stealing their unborn children.
Way down in the depths of the dungeon, you’ll find a pile of red soldier ant eggs that you can’t miss. Just make sure to not pick up the regular ant eggs that are white along the way, and ignore the paths blocked off by plant roots – you won’t be able to chew through these until you have an ant at your command, so don’t worry about them for now.
You can only carry one red soldier ant egg at a time and won’t be able to wield a weapon while doing so, so make sure to drop the egg if you run into any enemies, and book it back to your base to put it inside your hatchery.
After a certain amount of in-game time, your ant will be ready, and you can immediately start using it to dash across the map in no time at all, and making use of its ability to chew through branches and carry large amounts of building materials when you’re constructing a base.
This will be the only mount you’re allowed for a very long time, so feel free to grab an extra egg or two for a friend as needed, though you can only have one assigned to yourself at a time, so there’s no need to keep any in reserve in you’re riding solo. If your mount is killed in battle and you’re unable to revive them, don’t worry – they will return to your side after a short cooldown and cannot be killed permanently.
How to Get Orb Weaver
The second mount currently available is the orb weaver, but even if you happen to find the eggs required to hatch them, you won’t be able to make use of them until much later on in the adventure. Specifically, you’ll be required to complete all of the story content currently available in Grounded 2 – the entire first act – before you can hatch them. The process for doing so is pretty self-explanatory: just continue to complete whatever objective your quest log points you to until eventually you’ll have a major confrontation within the statue at the map’s easternmost area – currently one of the most dangerous parts of the map.
When you’ve bested the dangers waiting for you there, you’ll unlock the ability to hatch orb weaver eggs as well as the ability to construct an orb weaver nest that gives you a place to store your beloved spiders.
The last thing you need to do then, is actually find an orb weaver egg if you haven’t come across them already.
The place to do that is by heading to the middle of the map where you can see BURG-L’s decapitated body very clearly from just about anywhere in the park. Beneath the poor robot’s body is a nest of orb weavers guarding the eggs you’re looking for. You can come here at any point to find the eggs, though there’s little point in doing so before you’ve beaten the story content, since you won’t be allowed to hatch them.
Return the orb weaver egg to the hatchery and voila: you’ll soon be the proud owner of your very own spider Buggy.
The orb weaver has two powers, just like the red soldier ant: it can walk across and through spider webs without being slowed down – including across the cobweb bridges you’ll no doubt have seen around the park by now – and it has the ability to roar ferociously to scare off any would-be attackers – useful for avoiding a fight when you aren’t looking for one.
To be clear, this means you won’t be able to chew through roots or carry building materials while mounted as you’re able to do with the red soldier ant, but since you can have both Buggies assigned to your character at once and send them home or summon them back to you from anywhere on the map, there’s no need to worry about not having the proper insect friend at the moment you need them.
And there you have it! That’s how you can unlock both Buggy mounts in Grounded 2 early access. For more, check out our Resources guide, Grounded 2 mutations explained, and how to upgrade your Grounded 2 Omni Tool.