When is the Next Grounded 2 Update?
The next Grounded 2 update is coming this Fall 2025, featuring the terrifying AXL boss (likely a tarantula spider), new gear, furniture, and quality-of-life improvements. Look, I've been following Obsidian's update patterns since the first game, and they're sticking to a pretty ambitious schedule here – seasonal drops roughly every 4-5 months.
The Fall update should land sometime between late September and November, though they haven't locked down an exact date yet. Classic Obsidian, keeping us on our toes.
After years of waiting for news about Grounded 2, we suddenly got hit with that surprise announcement at the Xbox Games Showcase in June, and boom, the game launched into early access on July 29, 2025. The devs are taking a different approach this time around with "longer, meatier updates" instead of the rapid-fire patches we saw with the original. Director Chris Parker mentioned they want each update to feel substantial, and honestly? After seeing the roadmap, I'm here for it.
Here's what's coming in each update, if you're the type who likes to plan:
Fall 2025 Update:
-
AXL boss (that tarantula is going to be nightmare fuel, calling it now)
-
New gear and furniture sets
-
Building grid system (finally!)
-
Buggy pouches for your mounts
Winter Update:
-
A mysterious new park area (they've literally blurred out the name on the roadmap)
-
Sour 2.0 damage system
-
PEEP.R 2.0 binoculars
-
Ladybug buggy mount
-
Cricket and earwig enemies
-
Steam Deck verification (huge win for portable players)
Summer 2026 and Beyond:
- The roadmap gets hazier here, but we're looking at even more park areas, passive mutations, active mutations 2.0, more buggy types with customization options, new colossi bosses, and expanded language support, including Arabic, Korean, Polish, Russian, Thai, Traditional Chinese, and Turkish.
How to Get Grounded 2 Early Access Roadmap?
The Grounded 2 Early Access Roadmap is already available to all players — Obsidian shared it less than a day after the game went live. You don't need to jump through any hoops or sign up for newsletters; it's public information that the team actively shares through their official channels. Below is an early access trailer available on Obsidian Entertainment:
The roadmap itself is surprisingly detailed, showing seasonal updates through Summer 2026 and teasing future content beyond that. Features currently on the horizon with no clear release timeframe include even more park areas (with names intentionally obscured), Passive Mutations and Active Mutations 2.0, Buggy improvements including mutations and customization, new creatures, Park Bosses, and Colossi.
What I love about this transparency is how it shows they're committed to the long haul. That also means a 1.0 release is quite a long way out – Grounded 1 remained in early access for just over two years as a comparison. So if you're jumping in now, you're basically getting a front-row seat to watch this game evolve.
Grounded 2 Release Date
Grounded 2 launched in early access on July 29, 2025, at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM BST – a simultaneous worldwide release that had everyone scrambling to their Xbox Series X/S or PC. The game hit Xbox Game Preview and Steam Early Access on the same day, and if you've got Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass, you're already covered. The standard edition runs $29.99 during early access, though Obsidian's already warned us the price will likely increase as we get closer to the full 1.0 release.
Grounded 2
Grounded 2 takes everything that made the original special and cranks it up to eleven – we're talking bigger environments, rideable bugs (yes, you can ride a spider into battle), and a whole new setting in Brookhollow Park that already matches the original Backyard's size at just one-fifth completion. The sequel launched with more content than the original had at its early access debut, including a proper story act, multiple biomes ranging from an overturned ice cream cart creating frozen wastelands to mysterious anthills, and those game-changing buggy mounts that transform how you traverse and fight.
What gets me excited is how Obsidian and Eidos-Montréal are handling community feedback this time. They're all over Discord, forums, and social media, actively watching what players are building and battling. The Founder's Edition ($39.99) throws in some genuinely cool cosmetics – Minotaur, Myrmidon, Rogue, and Mant skins with custom emotes, plus a digital artbook and soundtrack that'll update throughout development. Even if you're just jumping in with the standard edition, everyone gets the Tools of Yore decorative set for free, which is a nice touch.
The technical side is impressive too – full cross-play between Xbox and PC, Xbox Play Anywhere support (buy once, play on both platforms with shared saves), and accessibility features like Arachnophobia Safe Mode available from day one. That last one's crucial for folks like my buddy who loves survival games but can't handle the eight-legged nightmares. Below is an official trailer for Grounded 2:
