Grounded recently hit its full release, with developer Obsidian Entertainment seeing their dream of a video game version of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids coming to life. The game is a blend of survival, crafting, and exploration and challenges the player to overcome whatever the backyard throws at them.
It hovers in this weird place between an indie game and a triple-A release and seems to be a hit for Xbox Game Studios. Players looking to hop into Grounded will need all the help they can get as danger lurks around every corner. When one gets shrunk down, eating options become limited and strange, so it's important to know what food is worth the risk of eating, regardless of how disgusting it looks or sounds.
Updated January 28, 2023, by Jerrad Wyche: Grounded from Obsidian Entertainment finally saw its full release in 2022, but it's clear the developers aren't done providing players with new content and a better overall playing experience. In December of 2022, the game saw its first major update titled "Update 1.1" which was primarily focused on performance enhancements and quality of life additions and tweaks. It's clear that Obsidian Entertainment still has more planned for the game and players are eagerly awaiting what new challenges and adventures await them in the larger-than-life survival sandbox game.
13 Boatman Fin Soup
Sure, the act of swimming in Grounded isn't an activity every player is going to be drawn to, but those who are dying to explore in and around the backyard's intimidating Koi Pond might want to seek out a hearty helping of Boatman Fin Soup.
Once players find the Pond BURG.L Chip and hand it over to BURG.L they'll be able to purchase the recipe for this aquatic delicacy. At its base, it helps with player hunger, but the main benefit it provides is the improvement to swim speed. Not only will this make traversal in the pond much quicker, but it can also help the player get away from any surprising or unexpected threats lurking under the water's surface.
12 Grub Roast
The idea of eating a grub roast may not sound too nasty thanks in large part to an entire generation of kids watching a meerkat and warthog devouring them in the beloved Disney animated film The Lion King. Grub roast can either be acquired by cooking raw grub meat, or by killing grubs with a spicy weapon that cooks the meat as the insect is defeated.
When digested it isn't going to do anything crazy, but by replenishing the hunger meter and alleviating that part of survival by slowing down its depletion for some time, it can let the player focus on other tasks at hand instead of having to worry about finding food or eating in general.
11 Gnatchos
It's hard to find anyone that actively dislikes nachos. Sure it's true some people are lactose intolerant or have gluten allergies, but for those unaffected by either of those things, it's hard to turn down some nachos, though the inclusion of gnats in the recipe may make it an impossible sell. Gnatchos help with normal hunger issues in Grounded, as well as providing fall defense for players who tend to live a bit on the edge.
These serve as an easier-to-acquire but less effective version of the Mac N Bees meal players can cook up in Grounded. Once the Gnatchos are consumed, which are comprised of gnat jerky, acorn bits, and grub sludge, the buff to fall damage prevention will last for a total of 12 in-game minutes.
10 Spider Slider
Spider Slider is a name that manages to take an unappetizing word and one that's synonymous with delicious tiny burgers and morph it into a two-word horror story. Most people, it feels like, would rather drink their own urine than entertain the thought of eating a spider.
Well, for any brave adventurer with four spider chunks, five bits of nectar, and two whole berry chunks willing to taste test a Spider Slider, the positive effects are rather nice. Their hunger gets reduced, they regenerate health slowly, and most importantly their bravery is rewarded with a bonus chance to land critical hits on enemies.
9 Mac N Bees
One would think that access to bees and their honey would result in a sugary and sweet delightful dish, but it turns out Grounded had other ideas. By mixing bee fuzz, acorn bits, and some pollen players will produce a heaping bowl of Mac N Bees.
It's unclear where the macaroni part comes into play with the name, but regardless this easy-to-make dish is best for explorers who happen to be a bit on the clumsier side. It helps reduce fall damage, which can be a lifesaver for those attempting to scale a literal lifesaver candy or ride the tip of a fence line.
8 Omelant
What's nastier than eating a handful of ants? Well, it could possibly be eating ant eggs that happen to be the size of chicken eggs, due to current shrunken circumstances. An omelet is often a go-to breakfast for people, so one comprised of ant eggs called an Omelant might be the breakfast of choice in Grounded.
Its unique buff is that it bestows the thorns perk to the player, which returns damage to anything that inflicts damage upon the player. Ingredients needed to make an Omelant include one black ant egg, two shards of salt, and four pieces of algae.
7 Funguspacho
The texture of mushrooms is a non-starter for picky eaters, but when ladybugs are the size of cars, sometimes people adapt. Funguspacho is a cold soup crafted from four pieces of fungal growth, two giant mushroom chunks, and two toadstool chunks.
It chills the body and allows the player to conserve energy and in turn, they're buffed with increased attack stamina. Being able to dish out additional attacks on incoming threats can often mean the difference between victory and defeat. Eating a bowl of cold mushroom soup may not be the preferred meal of the day, but survival doesn't care about one's personal desires.
6 Tadpoloca Pudding
Regular tapioca pudding is a hard sell for those who don't love it, so a version of the dish with fishy pre-frogs is an even harder pitch. Tough times call for tough people, though, and in some ways eating tadpoles isn't much different than sushi to some extent. By mixing tadpole jerky, lilypad wax, and mint shards players can concoct Tadpoloca Pudding.
This meal is the swimmer's delight as it increases swim speed and the amount of breath the player has underwater before they need to come up for air. Like with most food dishes on this list, it also gives the player added hunger reduction and a noticeable but slow amount of health regeneration.
5 Termite Delight
No one would have ever expected the words termite and delight to appear next to each other, but it turns out it happens to be one of the better food items in Grounded. Termite Delight is made with four termite parts, two pieces of dust mite fuzz, and two globs of tough gunk.
This meal is a bit case-specific and players looking to harvest should prioritize making and consuming it. Its primary buffs are a speed increase to both rock and grass harvesting, but also give the benefit of hunger reduction and limited health regeneration.
4 Quesadillantlion
Despite how long and ridiculous its name is, the Quesadillantlion is worth the crafting investment it takes to make it come to fruition. The main ingredient is antlion parts, which the player will need three of. Mix in six salt shards and two shards of the spicy variety and players will get the chance to taste a quesadilla of the insect variety.
Sizzle protection may sound like a middling buff, but players also gain hunger reduction, health regeneration, and the thorns buff which can return damage taken to whatever inflicts it on the player. Anyone willing to willfully eat ants isn't the type of people one should mess with so that last buff makes perfect sense.
3 Black Ox Burger
A Black Ox Burger sounds like a gourmet item someone might have at a fancy restaurant, but in Grounded it's a hardy meal comprised of beetle parts. Playing Grounded, it becomes very clear that this situation has no room for picky eaters of any sort.
Players who manage to collect four black ox parts, two pieces of pupa leather, and five chunks of tough gunk can make this meaty meal. It offers four buffs in total, including total health increases, damage resistance, health regeneration, and hunger-reduction. Just close one's eyes and imagine it's the gourmet burger it sounds like and it will go down a lot easier.
2 Aphid Roast
Aphids are adorable little creatures in Grounded that more often than not come across in a puppy or kitten-like fashion thanks to the shrunken-down perspective of the world in relation to their skittish nature. During the opening hours of the game, players will need to first kill an aphid and then cook it on a spit-roast in order to obtain the cooked and roasted form of the meat, but in the later stages of the game, the use of a spicy weapon can cook the insect as it dies, making it a more quickly obtainable source of food.
It's versatile as well thanks to it being able to purely regenerate 40 health but can also alleviate and reduce player hunger. Typically, humans would need hundreds of these insects to satiate themselves at any meaningful metric, but in Grounded the player is shrunken down, so they're a lot more viable as an everyday source of food.
1 Miteloaf
The number one food item on this list will shock most readers as it isn't all that powerful. Miteloaf comes in at the top due to what it provides and how easy it is for the player to craft and consume it. Sure, plenty of the other food items on this list have tremendous benefits, but the general collection of people playing Grounded likely won't progress to a place where they can consistently craft them.
Using mite fuzz, mushrooms, and aphid jerky the player can create food that gifts attack stamina, hunger reduction, and health regeneration. Miteloaf might not be fancy, but it comes in clutch.
Grounded is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.