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Grounded – How to Upgrade Tools

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If you’ve gotten some time in with Grounded, you might be wondering how to upgrade your tools and start harvesting new materials. This guide will tell you the recipes and how to get what you need for your tier 2 and tier 3 tools. And if you need help with anything else Grounded-related, feel free to ask in the comments below.

How to Upgrade Your Tools in Grounded

While there’s no way to upgrade your tools, you can craft higher-tiered versions of them. Tier 2 and tier 3 tools will harvest new resources and get them quicker with fewer hits. However, you’ll need to fight more difficult enemies for their materials.

Some examples include Ladybugs, Bombardier Beetles, and Stinkbugs too. The same concept applies to getting better tiers of armor and weapons as well. Take a look below for each type of tool you’re trying to get.

How to Get Tier 2 Axe

Grounded Upgrade Tier 2 Axe

Insect Axe T2 – 1 Ladybug Head, 3 Bombardier Parts, 4 Silk Rope

The resources required for an Insect Axe as shown in the screenshot above are from a Ladybug, Bombardier Beetle, and Silk Rope. You can harvest Spider Silk from spider webs and then refine it into Silk Rope using a Spinning Wheel. This is the one material you can get without having to kill a spider.

How to Get Tier 2 Hammer

Grounded Upgrade Tier 2 Hammer

Insect Hammer T2 – 1 Ladybug Head, 3 Bombardier Parts, 4 Spider Silk

An Insect Hammer requires Stinkbug Parts from Stinkbugs as you would imagine. While the Bombardier Beetles will drop Boiling Glands. And last but not least, you can make one Berry Leather by combining three Berry Chunks. You can harvest Berry Chunks in the southeast corner of the map by chopping up berries with an axe.

If there aren’t any berries on the ground, you can shoot them out of the leaves above you using a bow. Also, you can throw pebbles at them instead, but it’s a little more difficult. The map below points to where you can find them if you’re not sure where they specifically are.

Grounded Berry Chunks

How to Get Tier 3 Hammer

Grounded Tier 3 Hammer

Mint Mallet T3 – 5 Mint Chunk, 9 Spider Silk, 8 Flower Petals

While there isn’t a tier 3 equivalent for the axe, there is a tier 3 hammer, the Mint Mallet. You can craft a Mint Mallet by using 5 Mint Chunks, 9 Spider Silk, and 8 Flower Petals. In order to get Mint Chunks, you’ll need to use the Insect Hammer on an Ice Caps Mint container.

I hope this guide on how to upgrade tools in Grounded helps you better understand it. If you still have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below and I’ll do my best to help. Otherwise, we also have another Grounded guide with commonly asked questions.


Grounded is available in Early Access/Xbox Game Preview as of July 28, on Xbox One and PC. It’s also on the Xbox Game Pass at the time of publishing this article for both Xbox One and PC. Eventually Grounded will be available on the Xbox Series X too.