You’re standing in a backyard. It’s a mess. There are clovers the size of redwoods and ants that look like they could bench press a minivan. If you've just booted up Obsidian Entertainment’s survival hit, your first thought is probably some variation of "Wow, this is gorgeous," followed immediately by "Wait, how long is Grounded actually going to take me to finish?"
It’s a fair question.
The Backyard is deceptive. It looks small on a map, but once you’re the size of an ant, every square inch becomes a gauntlet of biological horror and crafting requirements. Honestly, the time you'll spend here varies wildly based on whether you're a "just the facts" story player or the kind of person who needs to build a multi-story castle out of mushroom bricks.
The Core Question: How Long Is Grounded for a Standard Run?
If you are strictly following the trail of BURG.L chips and trying to fix your height problem, you're looking at about 25 to 30 hours.
💡 You might also like: How to Play Voltorb Flip Like a Johto Pro
That’s the "average" pace. But what does average even mean in a game where a single Wolf Spider can derail your entire afternoon? If you're playing on Mild difficulty and you’ve got a solid grasp of combat, you might shave a few hours off that. On Whoa! mode? Double it. You’ll spend half your playtime just recovering your backpack from the bottom of a pond or a high branch.
The story itself is surprisingly dense. You aren’t just wandering; you’re uncovering the mystery of Dr. Wendell Tully and the Ominous labs scattered throughout the yard. Each lab—the Hedge, the Pond, the Haze, and the Black Anthill—serves as a massive "dungeon" with its own boss and mechanical requirements.
Why Completionists Should Clear Their Calendars
For the 100% seekers, Grounded is a beast.
We’re talking 80 to 120 hours. Minimum.
To get that elusive "S+ Report Card" at the end of the game, you can't just beat the final boss. You have to find every single Milk Molar. You have to collect every SCA.B flavor. You have to peep every creature and unlock every gold card. It’s a grind, but for a certain type of player, it’s a blissful one.
The complexity of the late-game areas—like the Upper Yard—drastically increases the time sink. The Upper Yard is basically a different game. The insects there, like the Roly Polys and the Black Ox Beetles, require high-tier gear that takes hours of farming to craft and upgrade. You aren't just "playing" the story at that point; you're surviving an ecosystem that wants you dead.
Breaking Down the Playstyles
Let's look at how people actually spend their time.
💡 You might also like: Finding Every Skyrim Stone of Barenziah: Why the No Stone Unturned Quest is Actually Worth It
If you're a "Beeline" player, you'll hit the credits in roughly 20 hours. You’ll skip the side quests, ignore the fancy base building, and probably struggle through the final defense mission because your gear is under-leveled. It's doable, but it’s stressful.
Then you have the "Social" players. If you're playing in 4-player co-op, things take longer. Paradoxically, even though you have more hands to help, you spend way more time messing around. Someone wants to tame a Weevil. Someone else spent three hours building a zipline tower to the birdbath. In co-op, expect the game to take 40 to 50 hours just for the main campaign.
The "Fully Yoked" Factor
Obsidian didn't just stop at 1.0. With the "Fully Yoked" 1.4 update, the game length effectively became infinite for some.
They added New Game Plus (NG+).
Once you finish the game, you can choose to enter a "remixed" version of the yard. The creatures are infused with Raw Science, they have new elemental abilities, and you can upgrade your weapons far beyond the original limits. This adds hundreds of hours of potential gameplay for those who want to see just how powerful a tiny teenager can become.
The Hidden Time Sinks Most People Forget
- The Travel Tax: There is no traditional fast travel for most of the game. You walk. Or you build ziplines. Building a global zipline network is a project that can take 10 hours on its own, but it saves you 20 hours in the long run.
- The Learning Curve: If you haven't played survival games, you'll spend hours just figuring out how to keep your water and food meters full.
- Boss Prep: You don’t just walk into the Broodmother’s den. You have to find the recipe for the Broodmother BLT, gather the rare ingredients, craft the bait, and then—finally—fight her.
Is It Worth the Time?
Honestly, yeah.
Unlike many open-world games that feel bloated with "map markers," everything in Grounded feels earned. When you finally reach the shed or the porch, it feels like an epic journey because of the scale. The progression is tightly tuned. You start out afraid of a Larva and end up hunting the most dangerous predators in the grass.
The game is available on Game Pass, so the barrier to entry is low. Just know that if you start on a Friday night, you might not see the sun (the real one) until Monday morning.
Steps to Manage Your Playtime Effectively
If you want to experience everything without losing your entire life to the Backyard, focus on these specific priorities:
- Prioritize the Smithing Station: Don't waste time raw-dogging fights with base-level tools. Upgrading your weapons to Level 5 as soon as possible cuts down combat time significantly.
- Unlock Ziplines Early: The "Zipline" quest in the Oak Lab is the single most important time-saver in the game. Get it. Use it.
- Use the Resource Surveyor: Once you unlock the labs, use the surveyors to find specific materials. Stop wandering aimlessly looking for Lint or Thistle Needles.
- Mutations Matter: Swap your mutations constantly. Use "Natural Explorer" while traveling to move faster, then swap to combat mutations before a fight.
Grounded isn't a game you rush. It’s a game you inhabit. Whether you spend 20 hours or 200, the Backyard remains one of the most meticulously crafted worlds in gaming history. Just watch out for the spiders. Seriously. Use the Arachnophobia mode if you have to; those things are terrifying.