When it comes to playing any survival game it’s going to be extremely important to understand how to make yourself more powerful, whether it is with Armour and Weapons, Food and Potions or as is in Grounded, with a system for you to apply modifiers to provide you with base stats.
I do have to say Grounded is a pretty impressive game. While it provides players with multiple ways of powering themselves up, including equipable Mutations, the reality is that Milk Molars are the absolute best method.
Milk Molars are a finite resource hidden all over the Grounded world that allow players to permanently increase their base stats. Unfortunately there are not enough Milk Molars to provide players will all the upgrades available, so it is recommended that players think long and hard about the upgrades they purchase using Milk Molars.
The following guide will let you know about the various types of Milk Molars available to players, the upgrades players can purchase using the Milk Molars, tips on how to find Milk Molars and my general guide on how I typically use Milk Molars.
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!
WHAT ARE THE TWO TYPES OF MILK MOLARS & WHAT DO THEY DO?
The two types of Milk Molars in Grounded are Milk Molars and Mega Milk Molars.
Milk Molars are white teeth, while Mega Milk Molars are golden. While both types of Milk Molars will help provide a player with passive stats, regular Milk Molars provide players with individual stats that only affect themselves and Mega Milk Molars will affect the whole team.
WHAT HAPPENS WITH MY MILK MOLARS IF SOMEONE NEW JOINS MY SERVER?
It can be concerning to invite a friend to an already established server, but let me calm your nerves by letting you know that this isn’t a problem at all.
Any time a player joins a Grounded Server, they will retroactively obtain all the Milk Molars that were previously used on players on the server. Players use them to increase their stats (in regards to regular Milk Molars) and each player can choose where to allocate those stats where they want to best suit their playstyle.
In regards to Mega Milk Molars, a new member to the server will receive the buffs that were allocated by the original members of the server.
DO YOU GET MORE MILK MOLARS IF YOU HAVE MORE PLAYERS?
No, there are a set amount of Milk Molars at the beginning of the game and there are no factors that change this. It doesn’t matter what game mode you are playing or when your server was created.
The only time players will see more Milk Molars is when they are released in new patches and hopefully in the future there will be enough Milk Molars to complete all the upgrades. That being said, Milk Molars will also appear in the exact same location, meaning that players can look up a guide to quickly find them all if they so choose.
HOW DO YOU BREAK MILK MOLARS?
Players will often discover a Milk Molar by mistake before they are actually able to break it. Unfortunately, Milk Molars require a player to play Grounded for quite some time before they are actually able to farm them, due to the fact that players will need to have certain Tier 2 Weapons.
When Milk Molars are on the ground they will need an Insect Hammer, however, Milk Molars are shockingly found underwater as well though they are not in their “tooth casing.” For Milk Molars under water, players will often have to get through some Soggy Root which requires a Spider Fang Dagger or Bone Dagger to obtain.
The Insect Hammer requires the following ingredients:
4 Stinkbug Parts
4 Berry Leather
1 Boiling Gland
The Spider Fang Dagger requires the following ingredients:
1 Spider Fang
3 Silk Rope
4 Spider Venom
The Bone Dagger requires the following ingredients:
2 Sunken Bones
2 Silk Rope
2 Diving Bell Spider Chunks
Admittedly, these ingredients aren’t very rare, however, all the mobs necessary to obtain them tend to be a bit tricky for newer players to farm without good gear.
HOW TO TRADE IN MILK MOLARS
If players want to upgrade their characters with Milk Molars they will have to head to BURG.L in the Oak Lab. Upon speaking to him players will see an option that states “Pump me up with some Milk Molars” and here a menu will show up with the different options.
As mentioned, players will see all of the Milk Molars that have been collected on the server, whether or not they were online while the Milk Molars were located.
WHAT ARE THE UPGRADES I CAN GET WITH REGULAR MILK MOLARS?
As mentioned, Regular Milk Molars provide players with bonuses that only affect the player who uses the Milk Molar. This means that every player can customize themselves and can choose which upgrades best suit their needs as players will struggle with different aspects of the game.
Milk Molars will provide players with upgrades to their Stats for the most part, and they will also provide players the opportunity to apply more active Mutations at the same time.
The following are all of the upgrades available with regular Milk Molars:
MAXIMUM HEALTH
By far one of my favourite stats to obtain is Maximum Health. If you’ve ever watched me play a video game on Twitch, you know that I easily get distracted and tend to leave myself in precarious positions.
While not every player is going to need Maximum Health, for me it’s the most important upgrade to get other than the Max Active Mutations.
PHASE 1
Phase 1 will provide players with an additional 30 Health and will cost 1 Milk Molar.
PHASE 2
Phase 2 will provide players with an additional 50 Health and will cost 2 Milk Molars.
PHASE 3
Phase 3 will provide players with an additional 65 Health and will cost 3 Milk Molars.
PHASE 4
Phase 4 will provide players with an additional 75 Health and will cost 4 Milk Molars.
PHASE 5
Phase 5 will provide players with an additional 85 Health and will cost 5 Milk Molars.
MAXIMUM STAMINA
While to me Maximum Stamina isn’t the most important resource, due to the fact that I mostly play ranged, I will still commonly alternate between giving my character Health and Stamina.
Stamina is going to be very important for players who are using melee weapons as running out of Stamina midway through “tanking” or blocking can be detrimental for a player.
PHASE 1
Phase 1 will provide players with an additional 20 Stamina and will cost 1 Milk Molar.
PHASE 2
Phase 2 will provide players with an additional 35 Stamina and will cost 2 Milk Molars.
PHASE 3
Phase 3 will provide players with an additional 45 Stamina and will cost 3 Milk Molars.
PHASE 4
Phase 4 will provide players with an additional 50 Stamina and will cost 4 Milk Molars.
PHASE 5
Phase 5 will provide players with an additional 55 Stamina and will cost 5 Milk Molars.
REDUCED THIRST & HUNGER BURN RATE
With the newest release players see that Hunger and Thirst Drain are both in one, making this Milk Molar Upgrade a lot better. I still am not the biggest fan of this upgrade as I wasn’t before in previous updates, especially because Hunger and Thirst are so easily managed, but if players are struggling with either, go for it! Honestly, it’s important to get rid of mechanics you struggle with the most in Grounded so you can get to battling more efficiently and there’s nothing worse than dying in a world because you ran out of resources.
PHASE 1
Phase 1 will reduce a player’s Hunger/Thirst 20% slower and will cost 1 Milk Molar.
PHASE 2
Phase 2 will reduce a player’s Hunger/Thirst 30% slower and will cost 2 Milk Molars.
PHASE 3
Phase 3 will reduce a player’s Hunger/Thirst 40% slower and will cost 3 Milk Molars.
PHASE 4
Phase 4 will reduce a player’s Hunger/Thirst 45% slower and will cost 4 Milk Molars.
PHASE 5
Phase 5 will reduce a player’s Hunger/Thirst 50% slower and will cost 5 Milk Molars.
HEALING
With the latest release we saw Grounded add improved Healing to one of the Milk Molars upgrade. Honestly, this is a really good upgrade to get, especially if you aren’t the best at combat as it will increase the amount of Healing you provide yourself any time you use a Healing item. Admittedly, better players may not need to use this, but I surely do… especially because I pull stupid tricks all the time especially on stream.
PHASE 1
Phase 1 will cause healing items to heal for 115% and will cost 1 Milk Molar.
PHASE 2
Phase 2 will cause healing items to heal for 130% and will cost 2 Milk Molars.
PHASE 3
Phase 3 will cause healing items to heal for 145% and will cost 3 Milk Molars.
PHASE 4
Phase 4 will cause healing items to heal for 160% and will cost 4 Milk Molars.
PHASE 5
Phase 5 will cause healing items to heal for 175% and will cost 5 Milk Molars.
MAX ACTIVE MUTATIONS
While the other Mutations start at a cheap cost of 1 Milk Molar, the Maximum Active Mutations start off relatively expensive. While they have a higher up front cost, to me this is still the most important upgrade players can obtain since Mutations can make or break gameplay. This is especially due to the fact that many Mutations actually provide players with upgrades that cannot be obtained through other Milk Molar purchases.
By far though the best thing about Mutations is how customizable they are, so you can swap them in or out depending on what you’re doing. This helps you in every aspect of the game whether it’s improved combat ability or helping you grind out resources more efficiently. I strongly recommend getting these upgrades, but you could still delay them at least until you start obtaining multiple strong Mutations you want to have active simultaneously.
PHASE 1
Phase 1 will provide players with 1 extra Mutation Slot (meaning 3 Maximum Mutations) and will cost 3 Milk Molars.
PHASE 2
Phase 1 will provide players with 1 extra Mutation Slot (meaning 4 Maximum Mutations) and will cost 4 Milk Molars.
PHASE 3
Phase 1 will provide players with 1 extra Mutation Slot (meaning 5 Maximum Mutations) and will cost 5 Milk Molars.
WHAT ARE THE UPGRADES I CAN GET WITH MEGA MILK MOLARS?
As mentioned, Mega Milk Molar upgrades will provide everyone on the team with improvements. Shockingly, Mega Milk Molars directly affect player’s inventory.
Honestly, I find Mega Milk Molars to be the most interesting as admittedly stack sizes are pretty small to start off with in Grounded and this section will highly depend on what a player needs and what resources a player is stockpiling.
If possible, I would try to locate Mega Milk Molars first to help with your inventory management, though at the end of the day any Milk Molar is going to empower you.
MAXIMUM CONSUMABLE STACK SIZE
For me the consumables is one of the most important stack sizes to expand as it will ensure that players don’t have to run around with a full inventory at all times.
Consumables include resources like Foods, Smoothies and other forms of Healing items.
At the end of the day a player may not want to hoard Milk Molars as they can fix other issues with their inventory, but I would strongly recommend focusing on this one.
PHASE 1
Phase 1 will provide players with stack sizes of 10 for Consumables and will cost 1 Milk Molar.
PHASE 2
Phase 2 will provide players with stack sizes of 15 for Consumables and will cost 2 Milk Molars.
PHASE 3
Phase 3 will provide players with stack sizes of 20 for Consumables and will cost 3 Milk Molars.
PHASE 4
Phase 4 will provide players with stack sizes of 25 for Consumables and will cost 4 Milk Molars.
PHASE 5
Phase 5 will provide players with stack sizes of 30 for Consumables and will cost 5 Milk Molars.
MAXIMUM RESOURCE STACK SIZE
I’ll be honest, as much as Maximum Resources stack sizes are nice, especially for when you’re running about the world, it tends to be less of a focus for me as realistically players can build as many chests as they want to store all the resources.
Now, that being said, resources really mess up an inventory when players exploring, so if you’re struggling with this regularly, you may want this over consumables, but the choice is ultimately yours.
PHASE 1
Phase 1 will provide players with stack sizes of 15 for Resources and will cost 1 Milk Molar.
PHASE 2
Phase 2 will provide players with stack sizes of 20 for Resources and will cost 2 Milk Molars.
PHASE 3
Phase 3 will provide players with stack sizes of 25 for Resources and will cost 3 Milk Molars.
PHASE 4
Phase 4 will provide players with stack sizes of 30 for Resources and will cost 4 Milk Molars.
PHASE 5
Phase 5 will provide players with stack sizes of 35 for Resources and will cost 5 Milk Molars.
MAXIMUM ARROW STACK SIZE
At first I didn’t think that having a Maximum Arrow Stack Size increase was going to be important, but as the primary ranged player on our team… let me tell you… your inventory gets so cluttered with Arrows.
Quite frankly, I’m a bit sad that we didn’t start buying Max Arrow Stack Sizes earlier, and I would still strongly recommend having at least two stacks of Arrows at all times when travelling, as you can run out of Arrows quickly and may not always be able to pick them up.
If you play like we do where not every player on the server frequently uses a Bow, this may be a lower priority upgrade for you. If everyone loves using Bows then you might value this one higher.
PHASE 1
Phase 1 will let players carry stacks of 25 Arrows and will cost 1 Milk Molar.
PHASE 2
Phase 2 will let players carry stacks of 30 Arrows and will cost 2 Milk Molars.
PHASE 3
Phase 3 will let players carry stacks of 35 Arrows and will cost 3 Milk Molars.
PHASE 4
Phase 4 will let players carry stacks of 40 Arrows and will cost 4 Milk Molars.
PHASE 5
Phase 5 will let players carry stacks of 45 Arrows and will cost 5 Milk Molars.
HOW TO FIND MILK MOLARS EASILY
Truthfully, there isn’t a real way to make Milk Molar farming extremely easy, though players can purchase a SCA.B upgrade from BURG.L that will prompt players whenever there is a Milk Molar or Mega Milk Molar nearby.
In reality the best way to gather Milk Molars is to look up a map in order to quickly obtain them, but realistically I prefer to simply look around the world without using a guide.
When it comes to the location of Milk Molars, I have to say that you should always look in the corner of areas, checking each nook and Cranny of a landmark or a secret tunnels/underwater entrances.
CONCLUSION
Though Milk Molar usage is going to differ from player to player depending on what their needs are, there are some Milk Molar upgrades that are typically more important based on the ease it takes for players to redeem themselves in tougher situations. My personal preference would be that Active Mutations are the most valuable, followed by Health and Healing.
For Mega Milk Molars it also depends on what resources a player is hoarding the most of and how well a player can manage their inventory. Consumable stack size will let you go on longer excursions while staying healthy and fed, while Resource stack size will let you hoard more items in your base and carry a bigger haul back when you go gathering.
Though, I’m curious, what are your favourite Milk Molar upgrades? Do you select upgrades similar to me or do you have a different playstyle?
Let me know in the comments below!
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