Grounded's Public Test for the 'Pond Update' gets new patch, makes changes and fixes bugs

Grounded Pond Update Diver
Grounded Pond Update Diver (Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

What you need to know

  • Grounded, Obsidian Entertainment's budding open world survival game, is currently testing its largest update to-date with a Public Test.
  • The Public Test just got a new patch update for insiders that makes some changes, fixes some bugs, and more.
  • If everything goes well with the Public Test, the Pond Update should come to Grounded's early access soon.
  • The Pond Update overhauls the existing pond biome with new creatures, areas, and a giant koi fish.

Grounded is a surprise gem in the gaming world, coming out in early access and immediately amassing a sizeable playerbase eager to shrink down to the size of insects and survive in a brutal suburban backyard. Obsidian Entertainment's game has a decent chance of making our list of best Xbox games with its full release, especially with the upcoming Pond Update, which is currently undergoing a Public Test. That Public Test is now getting a new patch, hopefully bringing it closer to a final release sometime later this month.

Patch Update 0.4.0.2609 makes a ton of changes to existing features, as well as fixes some bugs. The changelog includes:

Features

  • Removed Private Games for the time being in order to further work on this feature

Changes / tuning

Movement

  • Running out of air underwater will now instantly kill you as opposed to slowly reducing your health

Combat

  • Bombardiers now have a new set of attacks to pick from
  • Fixed issue with Larva attacks so they miss less often

World

  • Shovels are easier to harvest with underwater

Crafting

  • Liquid Gills recipe has changed

UI

  • Drowning now has a fade to black effect as you run out of air

Audio

  • New music added to the Upper and Lower Pond

Bug fixes

Top community issues

  • Fixed issue where Cloud Saves were not always properly redownloading when updating / reinstalling the game
  • Fixed a random crash that could happen when loading into the yard
  • Fixed issue where clients that save or disconnect while dead are not loading back into the game correctly on join
  • Cloud saves should properly delete when you delete a save game from the Save / Load interface

Game

  • Science spawn points that were patched into the game and haven't yet been collected will now spawn correctly
  • Fixed issue where Raw Science spawns that were added in patches were not showing up for people who were loading a save from a prior patch
  • Client movement will no longer be blocked by dead bodies that were killed before the client joined

Items / equipment / resources

  • Items and harvestables will no longer respawn while the player can see them

UI

  • Fixed the O2 meter overlapping the Mutation Unlocked notification

Ominent Practical Technologies

  • Dramatically decreased the increased REDACTED

Public Test changes

  • Added more Diving Bell Spiders
  • Fishbone harvest nodes are larger
  • Wedding Ring is now a discoverable landmark
  • Fixed the Pond Dome closing after save/load
  • Diving Bell Spiders will not attack all nearby Tadpoles for no reason
  • Added unique Moonpool door asset
  • Changed the bubble spawners to actually spawn bubbles instead of needing to interact with them
  • Additional set dressing art pass in the Pond
  • Better prevention of water creatures getting out of the water (Note: Use the "Fix Creature Locations" button in the Options menu to fix up any creatures that are already in bad locations)
  • Slight objective/quest adjustments to the pond quest
  • Audio pass for the pond lab and creatures
  • Tuned movement values for Koi to help them navigate better
  • Adjusted underwater fan VFX to be more visible
  • Fixed HUD Markers pointing in odd locations for dropped items
  • Lighting improvements/fixes in the pond
  • Added map icons for the pond discoverable landmarks
  • Fish bones respawn after 3 days now
  • Koi's aggro range and attack distance have been increased
  • Koi's attacks are no longer blockable
  • Diving Bell Spiders have a small poison effect on their attack
  • Diving Bell Spiders now drop a unique resource
  • Tadpole meat can now be placed on the Jerky Rack
  • Pebblets and clay have been added to the pond
  • Eelgrass harvesting will add the items directly to your inventory
  • Fixed some raw science spawns being inaccessible in the pond
  • Fixed diagonal walls not placing correctly
  • Removed Private Game option since it needs more work
  • Removed eelgrass from the shallow areas of the pond

Grounded

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Zachary Boddy
Staff Writer

Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter @BoddyZachary.