Where to find brittle quartzite for brittle whetstone in Grounded 2

Finding Grounded 2‘s brittle quartzite is an essential part of progression after you’ve got your first optical disk all tucked away. You need the stone not just to craft a brittle whetstone for weapon upgrades, but to build the smithing station where you make those enhancements. Tracking it down is a rather more involved process than you’re likely used to at this point in your survival adventure, though, as the mineral only comes from a handful of very specific locations. Initially, we thought those locations were all underground, behind root systems, but it turns out that’s only partially true.

Below, we explain where to find brittle quartzite in Grounded 2 and how to get a brittle whetstone from it.

Where to find brittle quartzite in Grounded 2

Brittle quartzite locations are scattered around the map in a selection of random locations, some underground, some behind roots that your buggy needs to chew through, and others just tucked away off the beaten path. They’re unassuming lumps of reddish-brown stone differentiated from normal stone only by quartzite’s sharper lines and defined edges. The in-game resource finder doesn’t let you track mineral deposits, so you’ll have to rely on map markers or our maps below. We’ve added images of the in-game location after each map image to help you track those random ones down.

Here’s where we’ve found brittle quartzite so far:

• Next to the milk molar in the cave where you have to find an optical disk for story progress
• In the red ant hatchery anthill near the snackbar. Turn right in the first hall area where the lights are, and you’ll see roots blocking a blob of raw science. The brittle quartzite is behind it.
• On top of the snackbar platform, between the wooden planks and the wall of the snackbar
• Near the roots of the oak tree, north of the Shlapz Portable Music Player point of interest
• Under a book to the south and slightly east of the same music player
• Near a rock after you exit the hedge to the southwest of the snackbar
• Southeast of the picnic table and north of the pink bloom where the praying mantis nymph lives
• In a cave under the backpack where the Masked Stranger hides their spicy candies
• Throughout the western side of the War-Torn Anthill, which you can travel through to reach the Veggie Garden

For the anthill expedition, we recommend going in on your red ant soldier buggy and using “recruit” on the worker ants at least once. It seems to have a calming effect on the creatures inside and keeps them from attacking. If you spot something you think is brittle quartzite but aren’t certain, make sure to approach it on foot. The prompt to interact with it won’t show up if you’re on your buggy.

There are likely other locations, and we’ll update again once we find them. Meanwhile, brittle quartzite respawns the same as other resources in Grounded 2, after a couple of in-game days, so if you find a spot that’s easy to reach or on your usual path, you can just check back and harvest some as part of your normal routine.

How to get brittle whetstone in Grounded 2

Image: Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios via Polygon

Take your brittle quartzite to the nearest workbench, navigate to the resources tab, and you’ll find brittle whetstone. It takes one chunk of brittle quartzite to make a whetstone, so if you bust up both nodes we listed above, you’ll have enough to make six brittle whetstones.

If you’re just getting started in Grounded 2, head over to our essential beginner tips guide for some helpful ways to stay alive longer, and check out our guides for where to find acorn shells and acorn tops, where to find weed stems, how to get lingonberries, and how to get grass seeds for the Omni-Tool’s shovel. If you’re near the picnic table, climb up to the top and use the briefcase code for a surprise.