15 BEST Grounded Armor & Unlock Guide (2023)

Grounded features armor pieces and complete set pieces ranging from Tier-I to Tier-II and Tier-III. The higher the armor tier, the stronger or more valuable it is in the game. Sometimes you will also need to learn how to repair tools and structures to survive longer. That is why having the best base with floors and boundaries will ensure you’re away from hostile creatures.

Acorn Armor Set

If you are to make decent progress in the early game with a heavy armor set in Grounded, then getting the Acorn gear piece will be the way forward. This will, of course, consume your stamina at a faster pace than a medium, lightweight, or no armor at all, but the tradeoff is worth it.

Being a Tier-I set, you’ll become a tank for the basic ants, spiders, and other creatures, and it’d be significantly harder for them to kill you. Of course, this only comes into play if you wear the complete armor set that actually gives you Major Threat, Uncrackable, and Max Health bonus effects.

Uncrackable bonus basically increases your stun capability, so it’d be a challenge for creatures to really stun you in a couple of hits. The Max Health buff will give you a certain percentage of extra health as long as you keep the Acorn heavy-weight armor set equipped. The Major Threat is not really a perk or bonus per se, as it increases the chance of you being spotted by creatures.

All three additional perk advantages come at the cost of 25% more stamina consumption. Alternatively, you can equip certain mutations to cope with the extra stamina usage.

How To Unlock

Whatever the case, Acorn Armor set is by far the best early-game heavy-weight armor set in the game. Players can unlock it by first reaching Brainpower level 4 and Analyzing Acorn Shell to unlock the recipe. Once it’s done, you can collect the three set pieces we have shown in our image by gathering materials as entailed in the table.

Red Ant Armor Set

Building your base with proper floors, boundaries, and what should be the first thing players should do in Grounded. While most of the time goes into hauling large-sized items, having a complete Red Ant Armor set will not only provide you with extra damage protection but also gives you the ability to carry more objects.

Wearing the complete lightweight armor set will give you a 10% Damage reduction at the cost of 5% extra stamina consumption. The numbers are relatively low when you compare a light weigh armor with a heavy one.

Wearing complete Red Ant Armor set grants you three status effects or bonuses that you will really appreciate in the early game. You get Hauling Strength, Grass Harvest Speed, and HumAnt by wearing all three gear pieces in Grounded.

Hauling Strength significantly increases your capacity to carry Grass Planks and Weed Stems. The Grass Harvest is a minor upgrade as it increases your ability to chop down tall grass for farming plants and planks. Lastly, HumAnt set bonus effects to allow you to get ignored by all Red Ant creatures. You will no longer be hostile to them even if you walk beside them. However, if you attack one or steal something that belongs to Red Ants, they’d immediately turn hostile.

How To Unlock

Unlocking the Red Ant lightweight Armor set is pretty easy and early in Grounded. All you need to do is approach a red ant colony and start killing a couple of them. Collect the materials from them and Analyze them at your research station. This, of course, also requires you to be at Brainpower Level 2. Once you’ve done that, gather the required materials as listed in the table above and be ready to craft the gear pieces as shown in our image above.

Grub Armor Set

Grub mediumweight armor set is much better than the two we listed above as it neither consumes too much of your stamina nor does a tradeoff of your defense. It strikes the perfect balance between providing excellent resistance and offering faster stamina regeneration.

Wearing the complete Grub set gives you Max Stamina, Hyperstamina, and Optimized Offense bonuses. All three offer increased stamina capacity, regeneration, and reduced cost while attacking creatures. We think Grub medium armor set is the best if you wield heavy melee weapons, play recklessly, and still have left enough stamina to escape a tight spot.

How To Unlock

In order to get your hands on Grub armor set pieces, you will need to reach Brainpower Level 3 and kill a few Grubs to gather Grub Hide or Grub Sludge components. Once you get these, Analyze them and get the armor set crafting recipe. Then gather the items we listed in the image above and get yourself an excellent early-game medium armor gear in Grounded.

Koi Scale Armor Set

Koi Scale is a Tier-II light armor set in Grounded, and its hard exterior gives away that the gear piece is designed for blocking incoming creature attacks. Wearing the complete armor set will give you Perfect Block, Parry Stun, and Dazzling Riposte bonuses.

The Perfect Block perk basically heals your character each time you block an attack. Parry Stun perk is geared more towards stunning creatures when you execute a perfect block and the enemy attacks you back. The best part of the Koi Scale armor set is the Dazzling Riposte. It basically increases your attack power after doing a perfect block.

You can clearly see that this lightweight armor set in Grounded is geared more towards defending first and attacking after kinda playstyle. If you’re someone who loves to play Grounded like this, then you will surely be getting this gear piece first thing in the game.

How To Unlock

In order to unlock and craft the Koi Scale light armor set in Grounded, you will need to Analyze a Koi Fish Scale. Once you have done that, you will need to gather the required materials, as explained in the table above, to get the gear pieces you see in our image.

Moth Armor Set

This is a Tier-III light armor set in Grounded that heavily favors a ranged battle playstyle. Equipping the complete set gives you set bonuses that apply various status effects, such as bleed and poison on your targets. Even though stamina is a lesser concern in ranged combat, regardless of it, this armor set gives you back the stamina when your ranged attacks connect the creatures.

Equipping the complete set gives you Ranged Cut, Jumpstart, and Wild Run perk bonuses. The Ranged Cut piece effect gives your ranged weapons a chance to inflict the bleed status effect on your target. At the same time, the Jump Start sleek effect gives you back some portion of your stamina when you hit opponents with the ranged weapons. Wind Run, which is a set bonus, increases the overall motion or character’s movement when you keep hitting a creature using a ranged weapon.

How To Unlock

You can unlock the Moth armor set in Grounded by reaching Brainpower level 15 and Analyzing Moth Scale and Moth Fuzz parts. Once you do that, you will get the crafting recipe, and you can make the armor piece by collecting items listed in the table above.

Bee Armor Set

Even though Bee Armor set is a Tier-II light gear piece, but it is slightly better than Moth set we entailed above. The primary reason is the perks that you get from wearing the complete set, and the overall defense rating and resistance of Bee armor being relatively higher than Moth set pieces.

Also, you can unlock Bee armor pieces in Grounded during mid-game, whereas the moth set is near the end-game content only as it requires a higher Brainpower Level.

Wearing all 3 armor set pieces will give you Bow Stun, Slow Shot, and Pollen Shot bonuses. The Bow Stun favors the ranged playstyle as shooting enemies with ranged attacks will inflict stun at a faster rate. Slow Shot sleek effect of the armor set is geared toward crowd control, as attacking enemies will slow them down.

Lastly, the Pollen Shot acts similar to Slow Shot, but instead of attacks, a chance of gas cloud releasing is given to all ranged attacks. All enemies engulfed by the cloud of pollen cloud will get their movement slowed down significantly.

How To Unlock

If you want to blend with other creatures and look like a bee, then reaching Brainpower Level 7 is the first thing you should do. After that, you must kill Bees, lots of them. Once you’ve done that, you will need to Analyze Bee Fuzz to receive the crafting recipe. Next, collect the crafting materials we have entailed in the table to get all the bee gear pieces you see in the above image.

Black Ant Armor Set

The Black Ant gear is a Tier-II medium armor set that focuses more on the DPS aspect in addition to providing decent defense resistance. Equipping the complete set gives players three set bonuses; Crit After Block, Crit Hyperstamina, and Pinocushion.

The effect of the item known as Crit After Block makes it more likely that a critical hit will be scored after blocking. After landing a critical strike on a target, the user’s stamina will regenerate at a faster rate because of the elegant effect of this ability. The Pincushion set bonus has a chance to send some of the damage that was sustained back to the person or group who dealt it.

You should note that, unlike the Red Ant armor set, you don’t get ignored by the Black Ants if you wear the complete set. Instead, the Black Ants will continue to get hostile to you if you approach them.

How To Unlock

If you want to look like Black Ants and wear this full-gear piece, you will first need to reach Brainpower Level 9. After that, Analyze 3 unique Black Ant parts, and you will get the complete set crafting recipe.

Spider Armor Set

Spider Armor is a Tier-II medium armor gear piece that not only offers excellent damage reduction but gives you the perks that are oriented towards reckless or attacking play style. If you’re tired of playing the game safely, then this armor set is the right pick for you. Wearing the complete set will give you Hasty Regen, Poison Damage, and Hunter’s Prowess bonus perks/effects.

The quantity of stamina used during attacks is reduced because of Hasty Regen’s effect. On the other hand, having Hunter’s Prowess dramatically boosts the rate at which players’ stamina is regenerated.

Poison Damage is a passive ability that, when equipped, enhances the damage that players’ poison attacks do. In addition, it has a special distribution that enables players to wear other gear in place of the headpiece and still retain, up to some extent of, the sleek effect.

How To Unlock

Spider armor set is a fairly mid-game gear piece that you can have after unlocking the Brainpower Level 8. Once you’ve hit the level, just collect the required materials we have listed and then hunt some spiders. Bring the Spider Chunk part to your research station and Analyze the part to receive the set pieces.

Ladybug Armor Set

The Ladybug Armor set is a good piece of mid-game gear that can be obtained in Grounded. It is a Tier 2 suit of armor, and the components of the set are constructed from Ladybug parts, as the name of the kit indicates. When you have the whole set on, you will get perks called: Blocking Strength, Health Received, and Scarlet Embrace.

The Blocking Strength is a stat that players may train to raise their blocking threshold. The health boost that you get from using restorative goods like Fiber Bandages and Healbasa is increased by the Sleek effect called Health Received. When you successfully block an attack, you have a chance to temporarily regenerate some of your health thanks to the set bonus Scarlet Embrace.

We ranked Ladybug higher than most Tier-III sets in our list because this one not only offers excellent damage resistance, but its bonuses are very useful than most.

How To Unlock

In order to unlock the Ladybug heavy armor set in Grounded, you will need to kill a ladybug, which is actually available to kill from the early game, but she is a tough creature. Regardless of it, once you kill it, collect the Ladybug part and Analyze it at your research station, you will get the crafting recipe for the set pieces.

Widow Armor Set

The Widow Armor is a gear that may be constructed by using various components of a Black Widow. You get Poison Damage, Parry Poison, and Death’s Impetus bonuses if you equip the whole set. The stat bonuses of this armor set are to enhance the potency of the Poison effect.

The primary perk raises the base damage of the Poison effect when it is administered to targets, making it more effective overall. When a flawless block is performed, the Parry Poison effect of this item has a chance to inflict Poison on the target or targets. When you kill a monster with a ranged or melee weapon, you will get an additional boost called Death’s Impetus. This bonus will improve your movement speed.

How To Unlock

Unlocking the Widow Armor set requires you first to kill the Black Widow and collect Black Widow Fang and Super Spider Venom. Both of these parts can be acquired in a single creature kill. If you don’t get both in one shot, then you will need to kill another Black Widow.

After that, collect the crafting materials as listed in the table above and fancy yourself the Widow armor set in Grounded.

Assassin Armor Set

Crafted from several components of the Mantis Creature, the Assassin’s Armor is a piece of light armor that belongs to the Tier III category. Equipping the complete set will give you Cutman, Crit Stun, and Critical Chain bonuses.

The critical hit effect is the primary emphasis of all of the armor set bonuses, and it is responsible for the majority of the bleeding that occurs when you attack. The fact that it causes attackers to bleed after they take a critical blow is one of the reasons why this armor set is so powerful in the game.

Its set bonus, Critical Chain, continues this pattern by increasing the likelihood of scoring a critical hit with each successive strike after a critical hit has been scored. When you land a critical hit, the Crit Stun ability will stun the victim for an extended amount of time.

How To Unlock

In order to unlock this end-game armor set, you will need to defeat one of the end-game bosses, Mantis. You need to have some of the best weapons in the game and armor sets in order to kill this creature. Collect the Mantis Head and Mantis Chunk parts and Analyze them to receive the crafting blueprint. You can then make the complete Assassin armor set by accumulating the required materials we listed in the table above.

Fire Ant Armor Set

The Fire Ant Armor is a gear piece that has been constructed from various parts of fire ants. This Tier III medium armor set gives an advantage to acid status effect attacks when used against hostile enemies. When you equip all three pieces of equipment, you will get Corrosion, Acid damage, and Acidic splash set bonuses.

When a hit is scored, there is a possibility that the enemy’s defense will be reduced because of the Corrosion effect. This set’s bonus may be strengthened thanks to the Acid Damage ability, which makes acid strikes inflict more damage. Last but not least, the set bonus causes an additional splash of acid to be launched while striking enemies, which simply does more damage.

How To Unlock

Fire Ant armor is a mid to late-game gear piece in Grounded, and you can obtain its recipe by Analyzing Fire Ant parts acquired after you’ve killed a few of them. Once you get the crafting recipe, you will need to collect the required materials, as listed in the table above, to make the full set.

Antlion Armor Set

Antlion Armor is a suit of armor that can be created from various components of the Antlion Creature. This is by far the only set of armor in Grounded that provides protection against the Sizzle status effect at the greatest possible level. Equipping the complete sets gives you Sizzle Protection, Thirst Rate, and Quickdraw bonus effects.

The Sizzle Protection is a piece effect you get by wearing individual gear pieces. It offers the much-needed resistance to sizzle that you can’t tolerate in the BBQ Charcoal Spill. The second sleek effect, called Thirst Rate, also lowers your thirst and need to drink water again when you venture into the BBQ area in the later part of the game. The Quickdraw basically increases your ranged weapon, such as a crossbow or bow’s reload speed while you’re engaged in combat.

How To Unlock

You can unlock the crafting recipe of Antlion complete gear piece by reaching Brainpower Level 11 and then Analyzing Antlion part. Once you have successfully done the first step, just collect the materials we have listed in the table above and start crafting the Antlion armor set pieces.

Black Ox Armor Set

Black Ox armor set is a late-game gear piece in Grounded, and since it is a Tier-III set, it has some serious effects and bonuses. Equipping the complete Black Ox armor set gives you Overbearing, Quickcharge, and Stunning Charger bonuses.

Overbearing allows you to debuff enemy attacks as long as you continue dealing damage with charge attacks. The Quickcharge is pretty self-explanatory as it decreases the time you charge and unleash the attack on a creature.

How To Unlock

You can unlock this armor set by Analyzing Black Ox Horn and Black Ox Part. However, you will also need to have Brainpower Level 13 unlocked to further craft this gear piece with the right required materials.

Roly Poly Armor Set

There are not many armor sets in Grounded that allow you to really become a tanky character and be reckless while attacking enemies. Luckily the Roly Poly is a tier-III heavy end-game armor set that basically makes your character nearly impossible to kill.Wearing the full set gives you Block Stun, Blocking Strength, and Invincible Shielding bonuses.

The Block Stun basically increases the enemy’s stun bar as long as they continue to attack while you block all the incoming strikes. The sleek effect of Roly Poly Armor, Blocking Strength, gives you increased endurance to sustain more block damage before you’re stunned by a creature’s strikes. Lastly, as a tradeoff of not making this set overpowered in Grounded, the Invincible Shielding basically draws creatures’ attention towards you, and they attack you every now and then.

How To Unlock

The fastest or probably the only way to unlock the Roly Poly armor set in Grounded is to Analyze a Roly Poly shell. Once you do that, you will get the crafting recipe to make all three set pieces, as we have shown in the image above; of course, you will need to collect the materials as well that will be used in the process of crafting.

Summary

That wraps up our Grounded Best light, medium, and heavy Armor set guide. Have you tried all the gear pieces we have listed above? Which armor sets are in your top three list? Let us know more of your thoughts in the comment section below.

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