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Red Ant Queen in Grounded.
Screenshot by Pro Game Guides

All new Ant Queen choices in Grounded Fully Yoked 1.4 release

Will you bow to the Queen or poison her?

In the Fully Yoked 1.4 update to Grounded, the developers have added something called Ant Queens. These aren't bosses, but are instead a choice offered to players who have ventured deep into the ant hills around the map.

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How to interact with the Ant Queens in Grounded Full Yoked

There are now three Ant Queens, one in each of the colonies. You have a choice for each of the Queens: you can either befriend them or betray them. There is a secret third option as well, which is to infect them. The Red Ant Queen, the Fire Ant Queen, and the Black Ant Queen all have hidden, unique recipes for becoming infected. All three of the Ant Queens are available in the base game, so you don't need to start a New Game Plus to be able to interact with them. However, some of their options are not available until New Game Plus.

The Red Ant Queen choices in Grounded

Red Ant Queen map location in Grounded.
Screenshot by Pro Game Guides

This is the easiest of the Ant Queens to interact with. She is located deep within the Red Ant Hill, which is in the lower yard. She can be befriended, killed, or infected, and each choice has its own consequences.

Related: Grounded Cheats & Console Commands

Befriending the Red Ant Queen

The Red Ant Queen can be befriended by giving her a Juicy Mushroom Sandwich, which is unlocked with the Haze BURG.L Chip. If you feed her this delicious treat made from 2x Apple Bits, 5x Mushroom Chunk, and 2x Aphid Honeydew, she will give a selection of rewards in exchange. You'll get a Baby Red Ant pet and its card, and all the red ants on the map will become neutral to you.

Another plus is that you get the Ant Friend Offerings of Red Ant Queen Pheromones, and you get a level of Antbassador mutation. These can be researched to give you blueprints for the Ant Queen Scepter, the Red Ant Queen Chaise, and the Red Ant Queen Chandelier.

Killing the Red Ant Queen

Red Ant Queen in Grounded.
Screenshot by Pro Game Guides

You can also poison the Red Ant Queen with the Poison Mushroom Sandwich. It is made in the oven with 2x Apple Bits, 5x Mushroom Chunk, and 2x Spider Venom, and the recipe can be found in the Haze Lab. This will kill the Queen, allowing you to harvest her body for parts for the Red Ant Queen armor. This will also make all the red ants on the map extra aggressive to you.

Killing the Red Ant Queen gives you an additional reward; you will get access to the cave behind her body, which contains a boatload of Brittle Quartzite Shards; in New Game Plus, this will also be filled with treasure chests. You can also unlock the recipes for the Red Ant Queen Mount and Stuffed Red Ant Queen with her body.

Infecting the Red Ant Queen

Location of the recipe to Infect the Red Queen in Grounded.
Screenshot by Pro Game Guides

The third option is to infect the Red Ant Queen. To do this, you need to grab the Infected Mushroom Sandwich Recipe, found inside the Exposed Pipe that gets you to the Haze Lab. It is made in the oven with 2x Apple Bits, 5 Mushroom Chunks, and 20 Fungal Growths. This will immediately kill the Queen, giving you the same rewards as killing her with the Poison Mushroom Sandwich above.

This will make a "ripple in an alternate dimension" that will give you the Infected Ant Queen in your New Game Plus. This will also infect several of the red ants on the map in your New Game Plus, so you will have Infected Ants and Infected Soldier Ants. If you feed the Infected Red Queen Ant Moldy Hoagies, you will unlock recipes for the Sausager, Killbasa, and Glowbasa Link. You can also unlock better recipes for the Bratburst, Splatburst, and Healbasa. The Infected Red Ant Queen is the only Infected Queen that can be fed multiple times; the other Queens only give one recipe for the Moldy Hoagie.

The Black Ant Queen choices in Grounded

The second Ant Queen added to Grounded in the 1.4 update is the Black Ant Queen. You have the same choices for her, and you will get different rewards depending on which one of the three you choose.

Befriending the Black Ant Queen

Map to get the Yummy Gum Sandwich in Grounded.
Screenshot by Pro Game Guides

To befriend the Black Ant Queen, you will need to unlock the Black Ant Queen's favorite food: a Yummy Gum Sandwich; the recipe is located just inside the Sandbox Lab Outpost. It's made in an oven using 2x Cookie Sandwich Bits, 5x Gum Nugget, and 5x Aphid Honeydew. This is unlocked by picking up the Sandbox BURG.L Chip. Feeding this to her will make all the black ants neutral instead of enemies, and grant you access to the Ant Friend Offerings, just like with the Red Ant Queen. This will give you the phase of Antbassador, and you will get an Ant Pet.

Killing the Black Ant Queen

Stuffed Black Ant Queen and Black Ant Queen Plaque in Grounded.
Screenshot by Pro Game Guides

If you choose to poison the Black Ant Queen, you will have to deal with the increased aggro of black ants, but you'll get some sweet loot in exchange. You will need to feed her the Poisoned Gum Sandwich, made from 2x Cookie Sandwich Bits, 5x Gum Nugget, and 5x Broodmother Venom in the oven. If you kill her, you will get access to the cave behind her body which contains a bunch of Sturdy Quartzite Shards, and you will unlock the ability to make the Black Strategists Armor, Black Ant Queen Mount, and Stuffed Black Ant Queen. The recipe for the Poisoned sandwich is located in main room where you can unlock Sector A in the Black Ant Lab.

Related: Best Armor in Grounded – All Armor Sets, Ranked

Infecting the Black Ant Queen

A picture of all three queens in Grounded.
Image via Obsidian

The recipe for the Infected Gum Sandwich is located in the Black Ant Lab above the Assistant Manager Arena but only in New Game Plus. She will die immediately, and in your next New Game Plus, she will become infected. Giving the infected Black Ant Queen a Moldy Hoagie will grant you the Glowbasa Wristband recipe.

The Fire Ant Queen choices in Grounded

Last but not least, we have the Fire Ant Queen. She is pretty easy to find compared to the other two; if you enter the Fire Anthill near the Yogi Head, you just need to walk straight east inside the nest to find her. Just like the other Queens, you can feed her treats.

Befriending the Fire Ant Queen

Fire Ant Queen location in Grounded.
Screenshot by Pro Game Guides

To befriend this giant ant, you will need to unlock the Tasty Toejam Sandwich recipe, which is found on the Stump BURG.L Chip. It is made with 2x Donut Chunk, 2x Toenail, and 5x Aphid Honeydew in the oven. Just like the other Ant Queens, this one will give you an Ant Pet, level up your Antbassador mutation, make most of the black ants less aggressive, and will get you the Fire Ant Queen Pheromones to get the Ant Friend Offerings, the Fire Queen Scepter recipe, the Fire Ant Queen Chaise recipe, and the Fire Ant Queen Chandelier recipe.

Killing the Fire Ant Queen

The Fire Ant Queen in Grounded.
Screenshot by Pro Game Guides

To kill the Fire Ant Queen, you'll need to feed her the Poisoned Toejam Sandwich, made in the oven with 2 Donut Chunk, 2x Toenail Toenail, and 5x Super Spider Venom. This recipe is located inside the Fire Anthill near the Jungle Anthill/Yoked Girths entrance; enter then take a right at the crossroads. Across the Dead Roots, there is a recipe on the pillar. Feed this to the Queen, and you will get to loot her body, giving you access to her Stuffed version, her head's plaque, and the cave behind her filled with Supreme Quartzite Shards.

Infecting the Fire Ant Queen

The recipe location for the Infected Toejam Sandwich in Grounded.
Screenshot by Pro Game Guides

And last, but not least, you can infect the Fire Queen with an Infected Toejam Sandwich. This can only be found if you have created a New Game Plus, beaten that, and then started New Game Plus 2. It will be right inside the Fire Anthill entrance near the Lawnmower; just go in and head south until you are where the white star is in the screenshot above. This recipe is made from 2x Donut Chunks, 2x Toenails, and 50 Fungal Growth, and it is made in the oven. Feed it to the Ant Queen, and in your next New Game Plus, which will be New Game Plus 3, you can have an Infected Ant Queen. If you then give her the Moldy Hoagie you will get a special recipe: Glowbasa Necklace.

For more Grounded, check out how many Milk Molars are in Grounded? Answered on Pro Game Guides.


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Mina Smith
Mina Smith is freelance writer from Richmond, VA who specializes in video game articles, mostly how-to guides. She has been writing about video games full time since 2019, but started part-time in this career almost a decade. Her number one passion has been video games since the 1990s, and her favorites are FF1, Baten Kaitos, and Viewfinder. In the past five years, Mina has written more than 2,500 articles and has garnered about a quarter of a billion views from audiences all over the world.