In Grounded, there are many hidden areas to uncover to progress in the game, and the Black Ant Lab is one place that is well concealed but essential to visit to get one of BURG.L's missing Super Chips. Helping the robot BURG.L find the missing Chips throughout the backyard open-world setting is part of Grounded's main plot as the main characters try to uncover what happened to them and get home, but it's essential to players what order they find them.
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This guide describes where to find the Black Ant Hill Lab, how to navigate the ant tunnels to reach the Black Ant Lab Super Chip, and how to defeat the final Assistant Manager boss at the end of the lab.
Where Is The Black Ant Hill Lab?
The Black Ant Hill Lab is located in the top-middle of the trash pile in the southwest corner with 2 possible Black Anthill Descent entrances. Before setting off, it's best to bring a gas mask and at least 2 explosives, such as a Bratburst or Splatburst from red ant eggs, as these are needed to unlock key areas to progress. It's also worth bringing plenty of bandages or other healing items.
To find the Black Anthill Descent in the trash, follow the south side of the sandbox past 2 juice boxes until a Billy Hog cap is visible, where there is a small opening in the trash with a large rotten apple. Equip a gas mask, as rotten apples in the trash produce toxic fumes that diminish health. Fortunately, players can chop up any apples they find using the tier 2 Insect Axe to dissipate the pungent aromas. Follow the path left past more rotten apples to the AARTZ 3000 computer.
The Black Anthill Descent is located just in front of the nearby cooler box, and it's essentially a large hole in the ground. Players are best running past Black Soldier Ants and their buddies guarding the anthill entrance rather than fighting their way in, but are likely to encounter more ants inside the tunnels.
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There's also a sneaky tunnel in the sandbox that connects to part of the black anthill tunnels, and this is also a Black Anthill Descent on the map, although players taking this route best watch out for dangerous antlion bugs and the deadly Sizzle.
How To Find The Black Ant Super Chip
The BURGL chip in the Black Ant Lab is a Black AntSuper Chip variety, but to reach it, players must first navigate the tunnels and labs, plus overcome a reasonably challenging boss called the Assistant Manager. Players must find, access, and navigate Level A and B lab areas before reaching the Assistant Manager boss, where they can find the Super Chip once the boss is defeated.
How To Access Level A
Head into the tunnels and keep running forward, dropping down the ledge and turning right in the large slime mold stalk area until red wiring is visible on the ceiling at a fork in the road. Turn left and follow the path to find the Black Anthill Lab main entrance, with a locked Level B door at the bottom and a locked Level A door to the right. Destroy the rock above the Level B door using an explosive and press X on an Xbox controller to mash the keys on the terminal to the left once inside to unlock all Level A lab areas.
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Follow the lab round to the left, destroying any robots along the way. Head back to the main lab entrance area and inside the previously locked level A door. Once inside, descend the roots in the floor and through the open hatch to drop into a new lab area with a storage chest on the right to loot and shelves containing lots of supplies behind a set of Ominent beds, including mint, granola bars, cookie sandwich bits, and more. It's best to use the beds to set a respawn point before proceeding.
How To Access Level B
Once collected all supplies from the shelving, descend the slope to the left to find another console, which players can use to unlock all Level B areas. Continue forward and exit the lab area, following the red wiring on the ceiling round and back to the original main lab area to the unlocked Level B door, below the blasted rock area from earlier. Follow the path inside, and on the left, there's an optional blastable rock leading to a Mega Milk Molar and clay.
Continue to find a large open area with several Black Ant Soldiers next to a large glass wall and a button at the top by a small glass-encased room not currently accessible. Destroy any lingering ants, press the button, and use an explosive to enter the boss battle arena space. It's time to battle the Assistant Manager to reach the final lab area containing the Super Chip, and the battle begins when players press the terminal button inside that reads 'Intruder Alert.'
How To Defeat The Assistant Manager Boss
The Assistant Manager is a robotic boss that deals electricity damage, creates environmental hazards, and spawns TAYZ.T and ARC.R enemies. Although the battle is fairly challenging, adequate preparation and watching its attack patterns can help players win more easily. To prepare, choose relevant mutations and hot-equip healing items such as Sticky Slop or Omelant discovered in earlier chests.
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Quickly destroy the Assistant's minions and attack up close, watching out for the Assistant's electric bouncing ball attacks. The Assistant also turns on rotating orange lasers to jump over or crouch under, plus activates electric blue pillars in each corner that cause significant damage. It's best to stand in the center of either longest wall at this point and shoot the Assistant Manager with arrows until it's possible to get in close.
When defeated, players pick up the Assistant Manager's Keycard and discover the Shocking Dismissal Mutation, which gives players a chance of electricity damage from their weapon, similar to the discoverable Pinch Whacker. To access the BURG.L Super Chip, use the Keycard to open the locked battle arena door and head through the central door on the upper level. The Black Ant Super Chip is on a table in the room. In the adjoining room on the platform, players can also find a final locked door next to a whiteboard that hints this is only accessible once the MIX.R machines in the yard are activated.
To exit the lab, ascend several slopes around to the top leading from the room containing the Chip. By the exit, there's a final chest on the right containing various supplies and a button on the left to exit the lab, bringing players to the East side of the large hose next to the trash and an unlocked shortcutdoor to the lab if players ever return. The Black Anthill lab now appears as a map icon.
What Does The Black Ant Super Chip Unlock?
Once finished in the lab, return to BURG.L in the Great Oak Lab and speak to him to return the Super Chip. The Black Ant Super Chip unlocks the recipe to the Embiggening co*cktail, which is essential to the continuation of the main story as it helps power the Embiggening Cell next to the SPAC.R platform.
The Super Chip also enables players to buy new recipes from BURG.L's Science Shop using Raw Science, including the recipe to craft a Glue Masher for crafting Repair Glue and the Mighty Glob recipe for weapon upgrades using a Smithing Station.
Grounded is available to play on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S and is included in Xbox Game Pass.
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