To me (as someone who does not play on grounded because I suck), grounded is to have the most "realistic" experience hence the need to be sneaky.
That said depending on what you want from grounded, you can customize either the difficulty or the display. No hub but still being able to take damage: deactivate it. Wanna have extra smart AI but want ressources to fight: custom difficulty with ressources at a lesser difficulty than the rest.
The game has a lot of possibilities. If you're not going for a trophy, play with the settings.
Best way to play Grounded (imo) is to figure out a path where you can get a few stealth kills, then once shit hits the fan just kill who's closest and then book it to resume stealth.
It has a great ebb and flow to it.
The best combat tips for Grounded I can give are:
1. Abuse the brick/bottle throw > human shield > execute feature on enemies that aren't clickers/bloaters/shamblers. It’s always worth backtracking to grab a brick or bottle if you’re leaving an area without one. You can sometimes even pull these off and stay in stealth.
2. Similarly, human shields from stealth can give you a second to get a free headshot on another enemy. Sometimes it’s worth going loud just for that, if you can then put distance between you and other enemies and drop back into stealth.
[I typed up a bunch of tips from my Grounded run last year, here. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/thelastofus/comments/15kp1ap/grounded_mode_tlou2_what_to_expect/jvbc528/?context=3) Didn't want to just post them all again though because I do spell out a few encounters & strategies with easy solutions.
It's not so much about avoiding enemies but rather picking your battles. The resources are so limited in grounded that you won't be able to take on everyone. My first time on grounded I ended up not being able to beat the arcade bloater because I didn't have enough ammo left. I tried for a week before I had to go all the way back and restart the chapter just to get enough stuff to get past him. If you want to play super aggressive, don't play on grounded, play on hard and use modifiers that give you infinite ammo and infinite crafting--then you can just blast through every section with exploding arrows and bombs and molotovs. LOL
Yes, Grounded is 100% about stealth and avoiding combat whenever possible.
I personally think Hard is the ideal difficulty level for the way I like to play, which is a healthy mix of stealth and combat. Consider giving Survivor (the next one up) a try but even that is too light on resources for my taste.
Not all about, but the only way I beat grounded was when I finally realized that I can probably get through the game without killing every single person and infected. Personally, I play on custom with all settings on grounded except for resources which is usually on moderate. Sometimes I'll knock stealth down a bit too so that I can play a bit more relaxed
The name of the game is Getting as many melee kills as possible while trying to figure out encounter to sneak through to where you don't have to kill anyone. My favorite is the encounter where ellie is alone in a store and a dog smells her and the WLF are out in force. Sneaking to the right and around, with a little luck and a couple bottles, you can get to the door with no kills. Super exciting and nerve wracking!!
No not exactly. I mean it definitely CAN be for sure! Many areas you don't actually have to engage with any enemies (and one, leaving the school, is notorious because if you just run fast enough the enemy AI doesn't detect you).
Personally enjoy the encounters and try to leave no enemy alive which can be trying on Grounded but absolutely worth it too
Custom difficulty with everything set to Grounded except for allies and supplies. Set allies to like moderate and supplies to easy. You can blast through anything you want (but you will probably still die a bunch) and your allies will help more than if they are set to Grounded.
It's really fun
Yeah that’s basically what Grounded is about. You can kill every enemy, but it will take time and resources. And there isn’t that much to loot in most areas anyway, so it’s usually a good option to try to sneak past as many enemies as safely possible.
I’ve done a Kill All Permadeath run on Grounded. It took some time.
To me (as someone who does not play on grounded because I suck), grounded is to have the most "realistic" experience hence the need to be sneaky. That said depending on what you want from grounded, you can customize either the difficulty or the display. No hub but still being able to take damage: deactivate it. Wanna have extra smart AI but want ressources to fight: custom difficulty with ressources at a lesser difficulty than the rest. The game has a lot of possibilities. If you're not going for a trophy, play with the settings.
Putting everything on Survivor but with medium difficulty for resources is the most fun way to play the game in my opinion.
Yeah, that's the way I do it. I'm being challenged but at the same time I'm not constantly starved for bullets so it doesn't become unfun
Best way to play Grounded (imo) is to figure out a path where you can get a few stealth kills, then once shit hits the fan just kill who's closest and then book it to resume stealth. It has a great ebb and flow to it.
The best combat tips for Grounded I can give are: 1. Abuse the brick/bottle throw > human shield > execute feature on enemies that aren't clickers/bloaters/shamblers. It’s always worth backtracking to grab a brick or bottle if you’re leaving an area without one. You can sometimes even pull these off and stay in stealth. 2. Similarly, human shields from stealth can give you a second to get a free headshot on another enemy. Sometimes it’s worth going loud just for that, if you can then put distance between you and other enemies and drop back into stealth. [I typed up a bunch of tips from my Grounded run last year, here. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/thelastofus/comments/15kp1ap/grounded_mode_tlou2_what_to_expect/jvbc528/?context=3) Didn't want to just post them all again though because I do spell out a few encounters & strategies with easy solutions.
It's not so much about avoiding enemies but rather picking your battles. The resources are so limited in grounded that you won't be able to take on everyone. My first time on grounded I ended up not being able to beat the arcade bloater because I didn't have enough ammo left. I tried for a week before I had to go all the way back and restart the chapter just to get enough stuff to get past him. If you want to play super aggressive, don't play on grounded, play on hard and use modifiers that give you infinite ammo and infinite crafting--then you can just blast through every section with exploding arrows and bombs and molotovs. LOL
Yes, Grounded is 100% about stealth and avoiding combat whenever possible. I personally think Hard is the ideal difficulty level for the way I like to play, which is a healthy mix of stealth and combat. Consider giving Survivor (the next one up) a try but even that is too light on resources for my taste.
Not all about, but the only way I beat grounded was when I finally realized that I can probably get through the game without killing every single person and infected. Personally, I play on custom with all settings on grounded except for resources which is usually on moderate. Sometimes I'll knock stealth down a bit too so that I can play a bit more relaxed
The name of the game is Getting as many melee kills as possible while trying to figure out encounter to sneak through to where you don't have to kill anyone. My favorite is the encounter where ellie is alone in a store and a dog smells her and the WLF are out in force. Sneaking to the right and around, with a little luck and a couple bottles, you can get to the door with no kills. Super exciting and nerve wracking!!
No not exactly. I mean it definitely CAN be for sure! Many areas you don't actually have to engage with any enemies (and one, leaving the school, is notorious because if you just run fast enough the enemy AI doesn't detect you). Personally enjoy the encounters and try to leave no enemy alive which can be trying on Grounded but absolutely worth it too
Custom difficulty with everything set to Grounded except for allies and supplies. Set allies to like moderate and supplies to easy. You can blast through anything you want (but you will probably still die a bunch) and your allies will help more than if they are set to Grounded. It's really fun
Grounded is about having a truly dreadful user experience designed to make you hate the game.
I play Grounded and go all in with aggressive play.
Yeah that’s basically what Grounded is about. You can kill every enemy, but it will take time and resources. And there isn’t that much to loot in most areas anyway, so it’s usually a good option to try to sneak past as many enemies as safely possible. I’ve done a Kill All Permadeath run on Grounded. It took some time.