Although it is tremendously overlooked by many players in Grounded, the game actually has a Pet system, albeit still very buggy.
As soon as I realized that there were Pet Houses in the game I got very excited as if you’ve spent any time with me on Twitch, you know that I’m a full-blown pet person.
Now I don’t think that Grounded’s pet system is the best, but it is something that I would still recommend exploring as there are some perks players can unlock that are not available in any other way.
Players will need 3 resources in order to begin their adventures with Pets, being the Grinder for Plant Slurry, Mushroom Slurry, and Spoiled Meat Slurry, as well as the Pet House.
The following guide will take you through everything you need to know when it comes to pets and the tips I would recommend that players follow if they are struggling to tame a pet.
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!
HOW TO UNLOCK THE PET HOUSE
Players will need to have unlocked the Grinder and Oven before they can attempt to unlock the Pet House as the unlock requires players to Analyze a Mushroom Brick.
Luckily for players, the Oven and Grinder unlock at the same time if players are able to purchase the BURG.L Chip. however, in many cases players will already have the Grinder long before the Oven as it can be unlocked in other means.
Players will need to put some sort of Mushroom into the Grinder to make Mushroom Slurry and then must use that Slurry to make a Mushroom Brick.
HOW TO BUILD A PET HOUSE
Pet Houses are fairly simply to make and players will need the following ingredients:
2 Weed Stem
1 Acorn Shell
4 Mushroom Bricks
2 Crow Feather Pieces
Players will need one Pet Houses per Pet, so if you want each type (Aphid, Gnat, and Weevil) you’ll need three Pet Houses to get the most out of the passive stat boosts.
Building one Pet House for each pet can feel quite costly (especially the Crow Feathers), but players will essentially only need to build these structures once as long as they are not destroyed.
HOW TO TAME A PET
When it comes to taming pets, this can get kind of tricky as the process in game isn’t the most straight forward.
Players will need to locate an Aphid, Gnat, or Weevil and will have to provide them with an appropriate Slurry.
Plant Slurry is works on Aphids and is obtained by Grinding Plant Fiber.
Mushroom Slurry works on Weevils and is obtained by Grinding Mushrooms, Mushroom Chunks, or Toadstool Chunks.
Spoiled Meat Slurry works for Gnats and is obtained by Grinding Spoiled Meat.
When you have found a critter that you want to tame, you’re going to have to slowly approach it in hopes of not scaring it off. Aphids tend to be worse than Weevils and Gnats.
Have at least 5 Plant Slurry, Mushroom Slurry or Spoiled Meat Slurry in your inventory and hold them in your HUD, dropping them on the floor when you are ready to attempt this. Make sure that you do not drop any of the Slurry directly on the Critter as this will scare them off.
Players will usually only need 3 of the respective Slurry to tame the critter, though sometimes the game gets buggy and the critter will not become tamed, so having a couple extra doesn’t hurt.
The Critter must successfully eat 3 of the Slurry before it is marked as a pet.
If successfully tamed there will be an indicator on that pet both hovering over the pet and also acting as a waypoint on the map.
At this point the Critter will also follow you anywhere you go, so please be careful as you do not want the pet to accidently die.
HOW TO USE THE PET HOUSE
Players will only want to interact with the Pet House after they have acquired a Pet.
If the pet is close enough to the Pet House players will be able to hit “deposit pet” which locks the pet onto the house, ensuring that the pet no longer follows you and instead simply wanders around the house.
I would strongly recommend placing the Pet House on organic terrain or a foundation that intersects with the floor as we got into situations where our pets spawned underneath our foundation daily, essentially making them useless.
The Pet House has a bit of functionality other than keeping your Pet stored nearby, these include the following:
The name of the Pet will be displayed (you can change this as often as you’d like)
Your Pet’s Stats will be displayed
Your Pet’s preferred food will be displayed
The bonus effect the Pet provides the player will be displayed
The personality of the pet will be displayed
The happiness of the pet will be displayed
The amount of time the pet has been tamed will be displayed
The amount of times a player has pet the Pet will be displayed
The gear players have placed on their Pet will be displayed
Players should note that they can always change what Pet is housed in the Pet House, so it isn’t really a worry if players have one less Pet House than the Pets they have as long as they are okay with at least one Pet following them around at all times.
WHAT GEAR CAN I GIVE MY PET?
Pets have a few options for Gear and are only provided with Armour and not Weapons.
The three pieces of Gear are Lil Goggles, Lil Red Helm, and Lil Black Helm all of which look like the human versions. The Lil Goggles and Lil Red Helm are unlocked by Analyzing a Mushroom Brick, which you’ll have already done to unlock the Pet House. The Lil Black Helm is unlocked by Analyzing a Black Ant Head.
It should be noted that all of the Gear provides happiness and doubles a pet’s health while also providing them with some defense when worn. These items can appear as crafting quests for BURG.L so you may be asked to craft more every so often.
The following are the crafting recipes for each:
LIL GOGGLES
3 Grub Hide
LIL RED HELM
1 Ant Head
3 Mite Fuzz
LIL BLACK HELM
1 Black Ant Head
3 Mite Fuzz.
WHAT BONUSES DO MY PETS GIVE IN GROUNDED?
The different types of pets will provide players with positive effects.
Having an Aphid Pet will decrease your stamina drain while sprinting as long as it is active. This effect is called Aphid Friend.
Having a Weevil Pet will decrease the rate that you get Thirsty as long as it is active. This effect is called Weevil Friend.
Having a Gnat Pet will increase the glide speed while using a Dandelion Tuft. This effect is called Gnat Friend.
CAN MY PETS CARRY ANYTHING ELSE?
Absolutely! The best thing about having a Pet is that it has it’s own form of inventory. Players can essentially use Pets to expand their Inventory, so the more Pets you got the better!
Always make sure that when you’re back in base that you clear your Pet’s inventory just in case, because there is the slight chance that your Pet will bug out, disappear or simply become untamed.
Still, very useful while travelling.
DO PET PERSONALITIES DO ANYTHING?
No, at the moment Pet Personalities do nothing for a player. Hopefully with a newer update this will be changed.
WILL OTHER BUGS ATTACK MY PET?
Absolutely, so please be careful. Unfortunately Bugs are actually 2x more likely to attack a Pet than it’s docile counterpart, though you can somewhat use this to farm the bugs in question.
If a pet dies players will receive a Pet Memorial along with any of the items that your Pet was carrying.
There are different Pet Memorials, one for each type of Creature, but you won’t be getting even one… right?
WHAT IS A PET’S HAPPINESS?
Happiness is one of the most important stats when it comes to a Pet as this is what determines whether or not a Pet will remain your Pet.
As soon as a pet becomes Unhappy it will begin wandering away and will take all of it’s inventory with it.
Honestly, this is where Pet Attire comes in handy. I may have lied a bit by saying that it does nothing earlier, however, it does make a Pet a bit happier and if a pet runs off it will continue to wear it’s attire, letting you know that you should retame that Aphid or Weevil, especially if it was holding resources.
Players can manage a Pet’s Happiness in the following ways:
Petting the Pet
Feeding the Pet its favourite food
Going on adventures with them
APHIDS WILL POOP FOR YOU!
Something that may be interesting and makes Aphids much more useful is the fact that your Aphid Pet will randomly provide you with Aphid Honeydew.
While players are going to want to have a good grasp on Foods and Meals, you can’t deny how much of a perk it is to receive some extra snacks along the way.
CONCLUSION
While at the end of the day Pets aren’t going to be the most useful thing to have, they do provide players with a good amount of perks that they can use to stack with other effects.
I personally would always recommend having one of each Pet due to their different utilities and simply because there’s always the chance of a Pet dying.
At the end of the day, I’m not going to deny the frustration of taming Pets… oh lord is it annoying to do, so I understand if a player has tried and has given up on taming a pet.
But I’m curious, how many of you have tried taming a pet and what did you think about it? Do you like having a Pet around or do you feel like they are useless? Let me know in the comments below!
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