If you want to take your basebuilding skills from good to great, you'll need the Level 2 insect axe in Grounded. Here's how to get it.

Grounded: How to Get the Level 2 Axe

If you want to take your basebuilding skills from good to great, you'll need the Level 2 insect axe in Grounded. Here's how to get it.

Mark Delaney

Published: Jul 30, 2020 01:36 am

This article is over 4 years old and may contain outdated information

Thie first thing you’ll make in Grounded is a pebble axe and for a good while, it will serve you well. But once it’s time to really plant your flag and build a base you can take shelter in, you’ll need the Level 2 axe, also known as the insect axe.

How to Get the Level 2 Insect Axe in Grounded

If you’re ready to graduate from the pebble axe, you’ll need a short list of hard to find items:

Head of a ladybug
Bombadier parts
Spider Silk

How to Get a Ladybug Head

Though they look cute, the ladybugs are one of the game’s toughest enemies, with a charging attack that can down you in two hits if you don’t block or evade. You can usually find them north of the central research station where you met the robot (the oak tree) if you did the game’s brief story content in Game Preview.

We recommend that you keep your distance by using the sprig bow and a whole bunch of arrows crafted ahead of the battle. You can also get in close with a spear if you block well. Remember that a perfectly timed block will stun enemies for a short window.

How to Get Bombadier Parts

Once you’ve defeated the ladybug (it took several tries, didn’t it? Us too.) your next step is to acquire Bombardier parts. Bombadiers are the long, greenish beetles that may have already killed you a few times, but sorry to say, you’ve got to take one of them on as well.

Again, a ranged battle is key here. Know that most insects can’t chase you up awkward terrain, like leaves hanging over their dwellings. So perch up on a log with your bow like Katniss Everdeen and take out a Bombardier. Once it’s dead, you’ll need three Bombardier parts from its little bug corpse.

How to Get Spider Silk

The last item you’ll need can be the easiest or the hardest. It depends on how you play it. You’ll need to acquire four units of spider silk from spider webs. Approaching any spider webs and slashing at them will dole out several units of silk, and you should get what you need on the first try.

Just be very mindful of your surroundings, as at any moment the spider who made the web may come to check if dinner has yet been served. Don’t be dinner.

Unlocking the Level 2 Insect Axe

Hopefully, you get out of there without another deathmatch on your hands. However you escape, head to a research station with your key items in tow. Using any research analyzer you find, scan the ladybug head. It will unlock the Level 2 insect axe for crafting, and now that you have the blueprint, you’ll already have the items you need to immediately build it.

For good measure, scan anything else you haven’t scanned yet to earn more raw science and unlock more blueprints.

What is the Insect Axe Used For?

Like the pebble axe, the insect axe can be used as a weapon, but it’s most valuable as a tool. With it, you can chop down weeds, which are a necessary ingredient in most of the foundational basebuilding elements, like doors and roofs.

If you don’t want to spend all your time living in an empty soda can, the Level 2 insect axe is the gatekeeper to a whole new world of living large even while you’re extremely small. So get it as soon as you’re able to and build the dream house you’ve always wanted… even if it’s made of grass.