The time has come for one of the most drastic updates in the new Grounded release… being able to upgrade your Armour!
While in previous updates of Grounded more skilled players didn’t really have a problem with their defences, I was not one of them. Being someone who only plays Grounded while streaming on Twitch, I get into way too many situations where I get distracted and allow myself to get eaten by a Wolf Spider or rolled over by a Rolypoly, so seeing this update made me so excited!
While the upgrades players can provide their Armour in Grounded aren’t game-breaking, requiring players to still develop their kiting skills, it is going to greatly improve survivability in the early and mid-game.
The coolest thing about the Armour upgrades is that players will now have a bit more customization with their Armour, allowing them to either raise their defences outright or raise their defences by a smaller, yet still substantial amount and gain some passive attributes in the meantime. Of course, all of these upgrades are completed by using the ever useful Smithing Station, which is where Tools and Weapons can also be upgraded.
Now, unlike Tools and Weapons, Armour actually takes other resources to upgrade, being extremely useful as some recipes are officially finite due to resources no longer respawning in their world. Though this is the case, similar to the upgrade materials required for Tools & Weapons (Whetstone), there are unlockable infinite recipes that players can acquire in order to update all of their Armour if wanted.
As is with all previous updates of Grounded, having a large assortment of Armour is a massive perk as each of the Armour Sets will have differing perks that cause different jobs to become much easier when wearing them. I strongly recommend not being lazy about Armour switches as they can be extremely useful for different tasks, even tasks you wouldn’t have thought of like carrying more resources or less thirst drain.
While in most cases players are going to want to choose a piece of Armour that actually provides them with more stats for protection or damage, the option to play around is going to be important especially in solo play as it will be tougher to get everything completed quickly and efficiently.
But, without dragging this on for too long, let’s talk about Plating, how to get it and what it does!
WHAT IS PLATING?
Contrary to all other Grounded updates in the past the addition of Plating has made it possible to upgrade all types of Armour to provide players with more protection and even some extra bonuses depending on what your Armour set is.
Much like your Tools and Weapons, players will have a finite recipe and an infinite recipe allowing them to actually upgrade all of their armour sets. While this grind is quite long winded, it is truly worth it, especially if players are playing Grounded by themselves.
Admittedly there’s going to be quite a bit of a choke on upgrading all of their Gear whether or not a player is playing solo, meaning that players are going to want to make sure that they choose their best piece of Armour to upgrade at first instead of upgraded all of their Armour as they get it.
In my opinion, it would be better to upgrade a Tier II or higher piece of Armour at first, until you unlock the infinite recipe.
It should be noted that all Plating is made in the Workbench no matter what tier it is.
HOW DO YOU MAKE AND USE BRITTLE PLATING?
Brittle Plating is the first tier of Plating that players will have access to and willallowplayers to upgrade their Armour from level 1 to level 5. While players will not be able to gain any special hidden skills from these upgrades, the upgrades are going to be extremely important for raising your defense and will ensure that your Armour doesn’t break as fast.
There are two different ways players can construct Brittle Plating.
Shockingly, players will be able to construct Brittle Plating using the finite resources from the beginning of the game, however I would strongly recommend avoiding this as chances are you are not going to be using these pieces of Armour very often beyond the early game.
Admittedly if you want to upgrade them when you get the infinite recipe, this will prove to be beneficial for you.
If players want to unlock the infinite recipe playerswill need to locate the recipe behind the Black Anthill Chip.
The two recipes players will use to make Brittle Plating include:
1 Brittle Marble Shard
1 Sap & 1 Grub Hide
HOW DO YOU MAKE AND USE STURDY PLATING?
Sturdy Plating is the first time we start seeing a split between the upgrade and is used for levels 6 and 7. Shockingly players will be using Brittle Plating for either the Sleek or Bulky upgrades, but making the choice will depend on whether or not you like the upgrades each provides.
Bulky Upgrades will allow players to have more durability and defense on whatever piece of Armour they are upgrading. Now, although Sleek upgrades don’t gain as much defense and durability, some of their passive effects are much better than these stat upgrades, especially if someone is playing as a support player or is trying to complete tasks other than fighting.
I will write a more in depth article about the various passives you can get from Armour shortly, but for now let’s just discuss the ways to make Sturdy Plating.
For the finite recipe for Sturdy Plating, players will be required to complete the Black Anthill to receive the Chip. This will unlock the Mighty Globs recipe which includes the finite recipe.
Admittedly, the infinite recipe for Sturdy Plating is tough to get fas it is a mid-to-late game location. Players will need to locate the recipe behind the Stump Chip.
As for the recipes that can be utilized to build Sturdy Plating players can use the following:
1 Sturdy Marble Shard
1 Sap and 1 Ladybug Part
HOW DO YOU MAKE AND USE SUPREME PLATING?
Supreme Plating is going to be the final upgrade players get for their Armour and will push them into the last two levels of Armour, being 8 and 9.
At this point players will have already gotten their passives for their Armour if they have gone Sleek, though the amount of defense and durability is really the biggest perk of these tiers.
Although not completely required, depending on the skill of the player, I strongly recommend that players at least use the finite recipe to upgrade their Gear.
Both of these recipes are going to be very mid-to-late game, closer to the late-game and given the new bosses that are available for players to fight, I personally needed them.
For the finite recipe, players will need to locate the Stump Chip and buy the recipe for Mighty Jewels as this is also part of the purchase.
In order to get the infinite recipe for the Supreme plating players will need to defeat the Director Schmector.
The two recipes for the Supreme Plating include:
1 Supreme Marble
1 Sap and 1 Ladybird Shell
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