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How to get to the Upper Yard in Grounded

Reach brave new heights!

With the full release of Obsidian’s tiny survival game, Grounded, comes a huge new explorable area filled with treasure and danger: the upper yard.

Home to tons of powerful bugs with huge health bars, sizzling status effects and dusty ranged attacks, it’s a whole new challenge for your team of teens to face.

However, despite being covering a massive swathe of ground at the extreme north of the map, there’s a giant cliff face guarding access to the area that’s much too tall to climb by conventional means.

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Much like with the Hedge Lab near the start of your journey, you need to find the Upper Yard Ascent to begin your expedition to uncharted lands.

Before you set off, you will need an explosive to destroy a boulder that stands in your path. It’s also recommended that you have access to level 3 tools, since that’s what you will need to collect new materials.

By this point in Grounded it should be a simple enough adventure, but here’s where you need to look.

How to get into upper yard in Grounded

To get to the Upper Yard in Grounded, you need to find the Upper Yard Ascent, which is in the far west of the map, near Frankenline.

A map view of the Upper Yard Ascent in Grounded
You find the Upper Yard Ascent at the above location in Grounded

Approach the area and at the foot of the wall there’s a fallen tree branch on top of a big stone you can use to jump across to the lower part of the wall.

From there, climb upwards in the crack in the wall.

Here you find a boulder that can only be destroyed with an explosive. If you’ve forgotten, they’re made from two fungal growths from the Haze area, a red ant egg from the ant hill to the west of the Mysterious Machine, and four dry grass chunks.

A first-person view of the blocked path to the Upper Yard in Grounded
The Upper Yard Ascent is blocked by a boulder that can only be destroyed with explosives

With the boulder destroyed, you can then climb further through the crack, using the fallen leaf to reach the top of the wall.

Now you’re in the the Upper Yard, ready to take on new enemies, grab new loot and progress Grounded’s story.

You will need a level three buster to complete any of the story quests up here, so make that your first priority - otherwise, happy hunting!

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