When it comes to playing Grounded, players are going to want to learn as much as they can about the various mobs that are available for them to kill as many drop important resources and farming can feel like a drag if you don’t know where loot comes from.
While some mobs are much more important than other mobs, there are a good amount of mobs that players tend to avoid because they think the resources won’t come in handy in the long run. For me, one of these mobs was the Gnat.
The Gnat is one of the easiest mobs to kill and farm, though they can feel a bit elusive due to fact that they tend to conglomerate in a particular area of the world, while still randomly spawning elsewhere outside of this zone.
Gnats themselves are passive for the most part and tend to be found in swarms, though there are some odd times that a player will locate a Gnat flying on its own, leading them to suspect that others are nearby.
The following guide will take you through everything you need to know about Gnats including where they are located, the resources they drop, why I find them so useful and other tips and tricks.
Note: If you want to watch me play games like Grounded on Twitch head on over here! I’m always happy to answer your questions there as well!
WHERE ARE GNATS LOCATED
As mentioned, although Gnats can freely move around the Garden, they do tend to stick near Water as a Gnat would do in real life. Their prime locations are as follows:
The Central Grasslands
The Flooded Zone
The Oak Hill
Although players can find them in all these locations regularly, there is a Gnat swarm in the Flooded Zone, making it the most ideal location to farm them in.
As Gnats tend to stick to this area and don’t really stray far, I would strongly recommend that players do a scan for Gnat Fuzz to mark them all on the map so they don’t need to scour the world for them. Doing so will also help players understand their main location as the Flooded Zone is quite big and travelling there can yield no rewards if a player doesn’t know where they are looking.
Due to the small size of Gnats, I would strongly recommend that a player gets used to the noises they make as all Gnats make a loud buzzing noise when they are nearby. Players can also try to locate Gnats near sources of lights as they are attracted to these, making it most ideal to head to a wet area with garden lights.
HOW TO KILL A GNAT AND WHAT IS THEIR BEHAVIOUR
Gnats are extremely easy to kill, though they are very avoidant. They will move side to side, albeit relatively slowly and will never land on the ground. The only place a Gnat can land is on water, but even this feels rare and will lead players to try to understand their erratic flight pattern.
Gnats, much like Bees will try to pollenate flowers, having the chance for the player to earn some extra Pollen or Nectar, though this is more rare, it can save a player a good amount of time trying to farm these resources as they are harder to come by.
While Gnats don’t deal damage to a player, they are able to push a player small amounts. This can result in a player taking some fall damage, so please be careful not to be too high up or on thin surfaces if you are around Gnats.
Players can use these small love taps as a way to kill the Gnats in Melee range as otherwise I would strongly recommend that you always use a Bow or Crossbow to kill Gnats as they can be quite difficult to catch otherwise.
Gnats will tap a player a few times before losing interest, so make sure you are standing close to a Gnat and have a Weapon in hand to take these opportunities as fast as you can. A stronger Weapon is suggested for this as one strike will often not secure a fatality on a Gnat and if a Gnat is struck it will immediately try to flee.
WHAT LOOT DO GNATS DROP?
Gnats will drop the following resources:
1-3 Gnat Fuzz
1 Raw Gnat Meat
While at first these resources may not seem to have very much utility, the reality is that Gnat Meat is one of the best ways to make Jerky due to the high abundance of Gnats players can farm in one go and the fact that Gnat Meat isn’t useful for any other crafting ingredients.
I covered in a previous post how important having a resource like Jerky is, especially when going on long adventures, but the other reality is that a player will want to make sure that they are using their Jerky Rack as often as possible to stockpile food so they aren’t always trying to grab resources right before a long journey.
Admittedly, Gnat Fuzz is pretty useless and a player will often havve much more than they could ever do anything with. I do wish that players were able to substitute Mite Fuzz for Gnat Fuzz while making Arrows as we have a never ending supply of it that we only use for repairing Gas Masks.
The reality is that Gas Masks become fairly useless for players who get rid of the Haze, though as the Haze is currently an option for players to remove for now (due to the fact that it does ont impact the story) many players will still need to use one to farm up juicy materials in the Haze biome.
At the end of the day I will stand by the fact that Gnats are extremely useful for their Meat, which really should not be looked past.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GNAT AND AN INFECTED GNAT?
There are only a few differences between a Gnat and an infected Gnat, the first being their location. Infected Gnats are going to be found in the Haze Biome if players have not tampered with the Weed Killer, however, as soon as a player seals the Weed Killer they will appear in the Central Grasslands (near the Spade Gulch Field Station surrounded by Stinkbugs) and Flower Bed (just north of the Frankenline).
Infected Gnats will similarly tap on players similar to the normal variants, but instead of pushing a player back they will make the player drop whatever they are holding on the ground. Yes, this means it will unequip your Weapon.
While this isn’t the biggest problem it will prove to be very annoying, especially if you are currently fighting multiple mobs at the same time. If ever a player is near an Infected Gnat it is strongly recommended that the player kills the Infect Gnat first before they kill the other bugs.
Unfortunately, Infected Gnats won’t just stop at one tap, they will continue to tap the player until the player kills them or runs away… so kill them… honey… kill them!
Otherwise, players will receive similar loot from the Infected Gnats being:
1 Fungal Growth
1 Gnat Fuzz
1 Raw Gnat Meat
CONCLUSION
While admittedly I may have oversold the usefulness of a Gnat, especially due to one of it’s resources being completely useless for a player in the long run, I still think that they are one of the best sources for long term food.
Since Jerky doesn’t spoil and can stack quite a bit, I strongly recommend farming Gnats every few days to dry out for food. Gnats are one of the easiest mobs to kill, especially when using a Crow Crossbow and if players farm enough they will never have to think about food again.
But I’m curious, how much do you like Gnats? Do you also think that they are a good supply of food or do you think that I’ve lost my mind? Let me know in the comments below!
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