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InGrounded 2, you don’t have to survive the park alone. Like the first game, you can team up with up to three other players and take on the bugs and beasties together, but what if you’re more of a lone wolf type? Entry buggies.
Buggies are rideable mounts, with the first you unlock in Grounded 2 being the Red Soldier Ant Buggy. Acquiring it is one of your first big challenges in the park, but unlocking an Antie of your own will definitely be worth your time.
Build The Hatchery
Once you have unlocked theSnackbar Ranger Outpost,found on the border of theEntrance and Snackbar Front areas, you’ll be tasked with incubating and taming your very own Red Soldier Ant buggy.
To build the Hatchery, you will need:
Fortunately, all of these can be found commonly throughout the park. Mites can be foundoutside the entrance to the Snackbar Ranger Park, while acorns dot the ridge between the Snackbar and the tree in the Entrance area.
Weed stems are potentially the trickiest thing to find, as it isn’t immediately clear how you get them.Hardy weedswill require a level two omnitool axe upgrade, butdandelionscan be cut down for weed stems too, giving you enough to build the Hatchery.
Hatching A Red Soldier Ant
Instead of taming a wild ant, you’ll need to acquire aRed Soldier Ant Eggand hatch a baby one instead. Unfortunately, these eggs are different to the more commonred ant eggsfound in anthills, so you’ll need to go to a specific location.
Finding A Red Soldier Ant Egg
Make your way over to theHatchery Anthill: South Entrance, found in the northeastern corner of the Entrance area. Before entering, make sure you’re stocked up witharmour, weapons, torches, and healing equipment, as you’ll likely be fighting a lot of ants as you head down.
The anthill itself is relatively straightforward – follow the path down, killing Red Soldier Ants an anO.R.C. Orb Weaver Spideras you go, until you come across anOminent lab containing an egg floating in a vat.
There are numerous side-labs on the way to this one, which have plenty of healing supplies and even beds to set your respawn location for if you die.
Proceed straight ahead through the lab, coming to a tunnel area where you’ll find a number ofRed Soldier Ant Eggson the ground. Be careful when picking them up, as doing so will make any red antsattack you on sight. You’ll also not be able to keep the red egg in your inventory –you must carry it in your hand, limiting which weapons you can use.
Once you have the egg, you have a choice. You can eitherturn aroundand go back the way you came, or carry on through this chamber. Regardless of which way you go, you’ll need to stop to fight ants along the way. Always take the paths latebend upwards, and eventually you’ll end up back at the surface.
If you didn’t go back the way you came, you’ll come out at the far-eastern side of the Snackbar Front region. This exit is further from where you likely built your hatchery, and is infested withmosquitoes.However, it is aquicker way out of the anthill.
Hatching The Egg
With your egg in hand, you’ll need a few moresaddle materialsto actually ride the ant when it has been hatched. For the Red Soldier Ant, these are:
Acorn Shells and Sprigs are easily found, but for Grub Shells you’ll need to have unlocked theOmnitool Shovel.Outside in the dirt, you’ll sometimes encounter aburrowing sound, and see small bits of soil being thrown off the ground.
Go up to these and use the omnitool to dig up whatever is underneath. You may be unlucky and dig alarva, so be prepared for a fight. Most of the time, though, you’ll find a harmlessgrub, which you may easily kill and harvest for its parts.
With the grub hides, sprigs, acorn shells, and that all-important Red Soldier Ant Egg, go to the Hatchery andhatch a Red Soldier Ant. The process takes 12 in-game hours, so either carry on with your survival duties, or simplygo to sleepto skip eight of them.
Hatching isn’t automatic. Once the timer is up, you’ll need tomanually hatch your new buggy.
Using The Red Soldier Ant Buggy
The Red Soldier Ant Buggy is a marked improvement over going it alonein almost every way.You’ll have:
While riding a Red Soldier Ant, you’ll be seen asfriendly to all red ants. This means you’re free to head back into their anthill and fully explore it without being attacked by the ants you just escaped from.
Ants can alsochop down certain barriersto open up new routes for exploration. These will be highlighted with anant iconwhen you approach.
The big weakness of the Red Soldier Ant Buggies is theiroffensive capabilities. Though you’re able to use both regular and charged attacks, and even parry, youcan’t use your regular weapons, You must rely solely on the attacks of your ant, preventing you from tailoring your type of damage for the enemy.
Fortunately, you can mitigate this byrecruiting a worker ant.They will follow you for as long as they are recruited, and willautomatically attack any hostile enemies. Their damage output isn’t particularly high, but it splits enemies’ attention and allows you to either run or get some extra damage in on the back of your ant.
Recovering Your Buggy
If your buggy takes too much damage, it will beknocked down. Thankfully, it is very easy to fix the situation, andyour buggy cannot permanently die.
Once you’ve cleared the area of enemies, simply approach your buggy andhold the interact buttonto revive it. If you can’t do this in time, it willbecome knocked outand will disappear. If you’re far away from your base, this could leave you with a very long trip home.
After the cooldown timer offour minutes, you can either respawn the buggy through the quick menu, or, if you’ve built one, by visiting yourAnt Nest. There are no other penalties for your buggy dying, and so, if you’re a particularly ruthless survive, you couldabandon your buggy to an enemywhile you run away for a clean escape.
