Grounded 2's Into the Abyss Update Opens Up Underwater World

A Pond Turns Into Something Much Bigger

Skunk Pond was already on the map in Grounded 2’s Brookhollow Park. Now, thanks to the new Into the Abyss update, it turns out there was a whole lot more hiding underneath it.

Obsidian Entertainment dropped the update on August 11, and according to Xbox Wire, it is the largest content update Grounded 2 has received so far. The premise is simple but effective: what looks like an ordinary park pond opens into a sprawling underwater world once players take the plunge. Hidden discoveries, forgotten landmarks, new progression systems, and dangerous new creatures are all waiting beneath the surface.

Senior Communications Manager Shyla Schofield wrote the announcement for Xbox Wire, describing how the update expands the game both above and below the waterline. The tone is about as on-brand for Grounded as it gets: something familiar turns out to be enormous and full of things trying to ruin your day.

New Gear, New Rides, New Things to Fear

Venturing underwater requires preparation, and Into the Abyss delivers on that front. Players can equip new diving gear to survive the depths, and for the first time in Grounded 2, underwater base building is on the table. Building a shelter inside a drowned world is exactly the kind of absurd logistical challenge that has always made the Grounded formula compelling.

Obsidian also introduced the Toe Biter Buggy, described as amphibious, which suggests players will have a vehicle capable of moving between the surface world and the underwater zones. That kind of traversal flexibility could change how people approach Brookhollow Park’s geography in a real way.

New creatures round out the threat roster beneath Skunk Pond, though Obsidian has not yet listed them all by name in the announcement. If the original Grounded’s philosophy holds, expect things that are recognizable in concept and deeply unpleasant in practice.

PlayStation 5 Joins the Party

The Into the Abyss update comes alongside a platform expansion that broadens the game’s audience considerably. As reported by Xbox Wire, Grounded 2 is now launching on PlayStation 5, bringing the Early Access experience to a new community of players for the first time.

Obsidian noted that the Grounded series has surpassed 30 million players across its history. That number reflects the sustained popularity of the original game, which ran a lengthy Early Access period of its own before its 1.0 launch. The studio framed the PS5 arrival as an invitation to grow the community further during Grounded 2’s own development window.

For Xbox and PC players already deep into Brookhollow Park, the PS5 launch means a larger pool of potential co-op partners. Grounded’s survival loop has always worked well with friends, and cross-platform play possibilities could matter more now that the game spans additional hardware.

Early Access, but the Biggest Update Yet

It is worth pausing on what Into the Abyss represents in context. Grounded 2 is still in Early Access, meaning the finished product is still ahead. And yet Obsidian is already calling this the game’s largest content update. That says something about the pace of development the studio has committed to, and about how seriously they are treating the Early Access period as a genuine release cadence rather than a placeholder.

The original Grounded built enormous goodwill through consistent, substantial updates during its own Early Access run. Obsidian appears to be following that same approach with the sequel, giving players concrete reasons to return to the backyard rather than waiting on a 1.0 announcement.

Whether you are coming to Brookhollow Park fresh on PS5 or you have been there since the beginning, Skunk Pond now has a second floor.