As you progress further through Grounded, you’ll eventually start discarding the scraps you’ve been using and transitioning into tier 2 gear. Now that the game is practically never going to get any further major updates, let’s rank the current mid game weapon options in the game from the best to the worst!
Best Tier 2 Weapons Tier List
Before we begin, it should be noted that this will also include ammunition and various items that some would consider to be a tool rather than a weapon, though they are classified as such. These are basically the stuff that you will start upgrading into after the starter stuff, so let’s get to it!
S Tier
- Red Ant Club – This is one of the most powerful tier 2 weapons in the game as it can deal a ton of damage and is relatively easy to get and maintain. The only significant downside is that it is two-handed, so you can’t have an offhand equipped with it.
- Insect Axe – Just like the previous entry, this weapon is also easy to get and deals a respectable amount of damage. It is also one-handed, allowing you to use a shield with it, if you so desire.
- Salt Arrow – This is mainly here due to being the only way you can actually do Salty damage to the Assistant Manager boss early on. The only time this falls off is when you’re already in New Game Plus, as you will likely have other options by then.
A Tier
- Black Ant Sword – It is actually one of the more powerful one-handed weapons that you can use at this stage of the game. It only misses out on the top tier due to how you can’t immediately acquire it early on, unlike the Red Ant Club.
- Stinger Spear – This weapon is a decent choice for stabbing and has a very small critical hit chance bonus. It ranks this highly due to how you can throw it for a decent chunk of damage, and you can use it underwater as well.
- Crow Crossbow – Despite its slow reload times, the Crow Crossbow just does more outright damage than its bow counterparts. As long as you are fine with how slow its reloads are, this is just clearly the superior ranged option.
- Feather Arrow – These deal a lot of damage and can apply a bleed effect. Unfortunately, these can be quite expensive to craft, so you might want to have regular arrows with you as well and save these for high value targets.
- Mint & Spicy Arrows – These both fall under the same tier as they have their own niche uses. If you have enemies weak to either of these elements, they’re absolutely worth using with your ranged weapon.
B Tier
- Mosquito Needle – It is a one-handed weapon that has a life steal effect, allowing you to sustain yourself in the middle of a fight. The downside is that its damage is a bit lackluster, and you might just benefit more from having a better weapon that doesn’t have a healing effect.
- Bone Trident – The Bone Trident is essentially just an inferior version of the Stinger Spear, so it firmly belongs just a tier below it.
- Ant Queen Scepter – This is a weird one, as it is one of the weakest weapons in the game. However, it shines in a summoner build as it buffs your minions as you hit stuff with it. Because of this niche use, we’ll be placing it right in the middle.
C Tier
- Bone Dagger – Although it is significantly better than its tier 1 counterpart, it just isn’t an ideal weapon compared to most of the other alternatives that you can get at this point in the game.
- Spider Fang Dagger – This is placed here for the same reason as the Bone Dagger. The main difference between the two is that this weapon applies a poison effect on hit, which isn’t particularly great either.
- Insect Hammer – This is mainly used as a tool, but it has a very niche use due to it being a Busting type weapon. Not really recommended for typical melee combat though.
- Splatburst – This is mainly used for harvesting Tier 2 resources. Coupled with how expensive it can be to make, it isn’t recommended for use in combat.
D Tier
- Insect Bow – Since we have placed the Crow Crossbow higher due to its damage, naturally we’re putting the Insect Bow this low for the same reason. This is mainly down to personal preference though, so for some players, you can easily flip the rankings for these two ranged weapons.
- Black Ant Shovel – This is mainly a harvesting tool, and you really shouldn’t be using this as a weapon anyway. It is still technically classified as one, though, which is why we’re including it here.
And that concludes this tier list, which covers pretty much all of the mid game options that are available to every player. While you’re here, check out our Tier 2 armor tier list for Grounded as well to see what other gear pieces you can mix and match these weapons with.
