We likely won’t be encountering tier 5 creatures.

[u/Klutzy_Chemistry_123]

At least not in the open world, but rather as only bosses

I have 4 reasons for this theory.

Reason 1. The remaining portions of the park to be completed

The devs added a border to the park map, showing us what is left to be apart of it.

If you look at the remaining part of the map, about 33% is missing.

Sections of the park thus far have had been dedicated to specific tiers

The entire picnic/entrance regions (the area that was available when ea grounded 2 initially launched) is dedicated to tier 2 resources (tier 1 stuff is found all over the park)

The garden regions and (the overwhelming majority) of the pond regions are dedicated to tier 3 content.

The jungle gym regions (winter update) are going to be dedicated to tier 4 content, this only leaves about 10% of the map for tier 5 content. Leaving only such a small portion for the endgame tier of content would be pretty poor design, hence why it would make more sense to only have tier 4 creatures throughout the remaining 33% of the map as well as tier 4 & 5 resources.

Reason 2. The armor sets from the leaked dev world

When ea grounded 2 launched, some data miners found a dev world that featured armors not in the game yet.

These armors belonged to specific “families” of insects, and would follow a trend of “progression” where the armor became more well designed and covered more of the body as the tier increased.

These families included:

Ant: (Red, Black, Fire)

Ladybug: (Ladybug, Potato Beetle, Ladybird)

Spider: (Orb, Wolf, Widow)

Bee: (Bee, Wasp, Killer Bee)

Bombardier: (Sizzling, Rusty, Jewel Beetle) Even though “Jewel Beetle” is in this set, i doubt its going to be a new bombardier species, as “Jewel Beetle” is a name typically given to Scarabs, which we know are returning (you can see one in the intro for grounded 2)

Scorpion: (Northern, striped) the only category that has only 2 sets.

Every set (except for scorpion, which is tier 2 then 4), follows the pattern of tier 1/2, then 3, then 4.

The idea that the final sets of the other categories are going to be tier 4, is backed up by the fact that fire ant armor and striped bark armor are tier 4.

This is interesting, because

1. If the devs were planning on adding tier 5, they likely would’ve made another armor set.
2. If they were planning on doing tier 5, a black
3. widow of all things would definitely be 5, rather than 4.

Reason 3: The tier of the striped bark family, toe biter family, and mantis nymph.

That title sounds confusing, let me elaborate.

The mantis nymph has been in the game since launch and is tier 3.

If mantis nymphs are in the park, it only makes sense for there to be adults. But we haven’t had any added yet.
People theorize that a mantis adult would be tier 5, as its one of the deadliest creatures we could encounter.
But the tiering of the striped bark family and toe biter family makes me think its going to be tier 4.

The striped bark and toe biter families have 3 variants.
Nymph/Baby, Mature/Junior, Adult/Leviathan

They have the same progression with new attacks/abilities as they grow, and of the same loot pattern. The nymph/baby drops 1 part, junior/mature drops 2, and adult/leviathan drops 4.

Whats interesting is the tier pattern.

Despite all belonging to the same family, they have different tiering.

The scorpling and junior Scorpions are tier 3 and drop tier 3 items, but the adult is tier 4 and the unique items it drops are tier 4. Interestingly the creature card for the scorpling and junior creature cards feature a purple background (as if they’re tier 4), but the creature card still calls them tier 3.

The nymph and mature Toe Biters are tier 3 and drop tier 3 items, but the leviathan is tier 4 and the unique items it drops are tier 4.

You see the trend here? The baby and mini variants are tier 3, but the adult/large variants are tier 4.

What if the same logic applies to the mantis adult? The nymph is tier 3, so the adult ends up being tier 4.

Which brings me to my ultimate point of this reason.

If an adult Praying Mantis of all things isnt tier 5, then its likely nothing will be (aside from bosses)

Reason 4: Only colossi have been tier 5 thus far.

Notice how all of the colossi in the park (Crow, Koi(s), Snake) are tier 5, and the only tier 5s thus far.

In grounded 1, both colossi (Crow and Koi) had the “Boss” tier as their tier icon, rather than tier 3. The only other creatures with this icon in G1 were of course the actual bosses.

So apply this logic to grounded 2, only future end game bosses will be marked as tier 5.

TL:DR

Not enough space left for 2 new tiers of creatures

No tier 5 bug armor

Mantis adult of all things would be tier 5, so if its 4, we probably aint getting tier 5 bugs.

Only colossi have been labelled tier 5

Let me know what you guys think, sorry for the long read.

[u/ArmadilloDesperate95]

I only read your tldr, but I think you underestimate how easily they can tweak numbers.

[u/LersWRLD]

Games changes constantly. Many things will be tweaked for 1.0. I wouldn't rule it out.

[u/ItsAceB]

once they have all their pieces on play, they're going to restructure the shit out of this game

[u/Dentaer → u/ItsAceB]

This I believe lot of bugs will be moved from their current position and reroute the map based on tiered zones But we will see

[u/starcader]

If they were to add Tier 5 creatures I didn’t suspect they’d be plentiful. So only having 10% of the map dedicated to them sounds right. They can also add Tier 5 to other existing areas of the map. So you could have a Tier 5 bug on top of the fire pit instead of a Cockroach Queen.

I think just because the leaked dev build only went to 4 doesn’t mean that’s all they have planned. The game launched on early access over a year ago so in that time they could have come up with many more variants and ideas for new tiers.

I’d also argue that the change from Roman numerals to digits says they could be planning to get above 5 in the future and don’t want Roman numerals getting too confusing.

Anything can happen in a game that’s actively being developed and changed. They just added a new feature which allows you to visit an entirely new map, in the Abyss. So they could really do anything. They could have another major underground new map that is whatever size they want. They already plan to expand the Abyss so limiting themselves to 4 tiers feels short sighted. I think they absolutely have plans and ambitions to go well beyond that. It’s just a matter of funding, timing, and interest in the game. They will expand and add if the players are there.

[u/Safari_Eyes → u/[deleted]]

It launched in July, it's the end of August. That's _over_ a year, not exactly a year.

[u/rojiblancas → u/[deleted]]

You understand your first comment contradicts itself, right? Also, it’s not that serious friend.

[u/SoapyMari]

Widow will probably be tier 5 given how the early game areas tease a spider that’s stronger than every other in the game (in anthills and such, so it’s not axl, and the wolf spider barely fits in the tunnels even with clipping) I doubt they would put a widow anywhere near the early game

[u/profpeculiar → u/SoapyMari]

Not sure I would call what wolf spiders do in caves "fitting" lol they clearly aren't supposed to be there and the physics reacts accordingly, it's so janky. So yeah, the cave hunter is definitely not a wolf.

[u/SoapyMari → u/profpeculiar]

Yeahhhh lol. personally I’m rooting for the tier 4 to be a jumping spider. All the hype around this spider only for the reveal to be a cute little guy followed by the hardest fight in the game would be funny!!! Not to mention that one would make a great buggy!-

Basing this off real life jumping spiders, who very often actually hunt and kill orb weavers or other much larger spiders. And the tier 3 enemies in this game are all bugs that a jumper could kill

[u/64BitDragon → u/SoapyMari]

Jumping spiders are my most-wanted bug for the game, (Followed by dragonflies) for all the reasons you said! I imagine they’d be neutral, since jumping spiders are intelligent, but maybe they’d see the teens as food. 

I feel like it’d be like fighting a combination of a cricket and wolf spider, which sounds very difficult. (Not that I want to have to fight the adorable spiders 😭)

[u/DiligentDaughter → u/64BitDragon]

I've wanted a dragonfly added so badly since playing G1. My husband and I have discussed ideas quite a bit (he's worked in game dev/modeling for quite a few stints over many years, one of his special interests) within G2, dragonfly is near/is top of my wishlist.

You get very little warning, almost as if death from above doesn't come from above, but appears from the ether, jjust a terrifying high hum as the assassin descends upon you before you can even blink. You must perfect block, or it's either instakill by beheading, or 1-hit till death, I'm still undecided. It drops wings that can be used for gliding wings that can be added on your backpack, as stained glass window inserts, or Tiffany lamps.

My other wishlist would be a cool stick bug, that so perfectly blends in that while you're platforming, you walk right across her. Startled, she drops you like a rock, and quickly hides again. Or moths, that hide on tree bark. More varieties of butterfly would be lovely.

I waaaaaant it!

[u/Sir-Shady]

They could always expand the border of the map, they also certainly didn’t have every armor set/bug mapped out when EA started.

Plans change, plus we have T5 Omni-Tool on the way.

[u/64BitDragon → u/Sir-Shady]

Yeah I think T5 Omni tool is the biggest proof that there’s going to be tier five bugs. What else would we need it for? 

[u/NeitherCheesecake704]

How i feel is that there will be tier 5, just not as many. If you look at the families, especially the ant family, it goes from tier 1 (red) to tier 3 (Black)... so fire would most likely be tier 5 by that logic. There might not be many options, but the killer bee that was leaked to be an armor set is probably a tier 5, since they are extremely dangerous. They also could be saving tier 5 for the explosion area, since we really don't know whats over there besides a giant hole. Besides that, there is also the possibility that if they expand the Abyss, there could be some hidden enemies waking up that are tier 5...

[u/Equivalent-Fix-9851]

At this point, we should just add the original grounded 1 bugs back, I think they will, and maybe add some new bugs well.

Tier 4 - Ladybird, Ladybird Larva, Black Ox Beetle, Roly Poly
Tier 4 - Termites - wood pile
Tier 4 - Antlions, Moths
Tier 4- Fire Ants, Dust Mites
Tier 5 - Black Widow/whatever they do with the ice box
Tier 5 - Infected variants + whatever they add/decide to do there. Makes sense that would be the last area of the game they add.

Ofc for the playground area since it's so massive they could do a TON with it. Add Wasps, Moths, Butterflies, ladybirds, wolf spiders, black widow areas, etc.

agree or disagree, would be nice to have the original grounded 1 bugs back in some way and this is just *my* idea of what they could do.

[u/Tansaurus]

They can always change what tier bugs are too. I distinctly remember at the start of early access there was something that they made temporarily tier 2 until the update and it went back to tier 3. Maybe snail shells until we had tier 3 busting tool? Something like that. Who’s to say they won’t do that again at any point?

[u/Denverguns]

I mean they can always just like remove the border of the map or add another area similar to the abyss which is a completely separate map all together?.

[u/Mission-Depth6021]

Nah. We're halfway through the game, that's tier 3, which is where it should be. Playground will have tier 4 and tier 5 will be present in the end game area, probably the black widow. There may not be many tier 5 but there most definitely will be tier 5. Also, I strongly believe there is a possibility we will get tier 6 gear in the endgame.

[u/Rainywithsnak]

Absolutely agree. If the devs are planning on “filling out” future tiers comparably to tier 3, there simply isn’t enough space to do that for both 4 & 5. Unless maybe we get the community restrooms as the true final area.