The Cockroach Queen in Grounded 2 is one of the earliest bosses that players can find. While the boss is neutral, you will need to prepare some tier 2 armor, ideally upgraded, alongside some tier 2 weapons, unlock some mutations, and bring some items with you for the best chance of success. Here’s a guide on defeating the Cockroach Queen and getting all the rewards.

Cockroach Queen Location¶

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You can find the Cockroach Queen inside the Toxic Anthill. The entrance is found where the black pool is on the border between Picnic and Snack Bar. Image via Gamer Guides / Obsidian.

This boss is a Tier 2 Boss, which resides inside the toxic anthill, located along the border of Snackbar and the Picnic regions. You can access the cave either underneath the picnic table or the ridge below the border on the Snackbar side. While the cave has decent rewards in of itself, you can find the Cockroach Queen at the back of the cave, which will become hostile if you get too close.

Before entering the final room, make sure you defeat the Cockroach Nymphs nearby, as they will aggro during the boss battle, which can become a major issue during the fight, for you and your Buggy.

Cockroach Queen Tactics:¶

For the most part, the Cockroach Boss doesn’t have anything particularly special. Her attack moves range from

• Stand up and slam the ground moves, which is very well telegraphed.
• There’s also the usual swipe attack
• She will also spray bubbles around the arena, which will cause Sizzle build up on your character.
  • If those moves go off, you will need to move to another area of the room while the move subsides to avoid raising your Sizzle status bar and burning to death.

You may consider using the Sizzle set to offset the resistances on the boss. Though it’s not entirely necessary. Any tier 2 set with enough Defense should be fine. In addition, a shield could be very good here for the parry bonus on blacking. Since the boss is easily telegraphed with the big attacks, you can easily parry the boss and stun it. The ladybug shield springs to mind as a solid option here.

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When the boss stands on its hind legs, it will then quickly slam down. Use this to easily parry. Image via Gamer Guides / Obsidian.

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The boss seems to get stuck at the cave entrance. Use this location to easily beat phase 2 with arrows. Image via Gamer Guides / Obsidian.

Also, the boss has a phase 2. When Phase 2 happens, her head will fall off. Most of her moves will become large Sizzle build moves. Feel free to harass with range, especially now the head is gone. Otherwise, weave in attacks and dodge out while you can to take down the low amount of health she resurrects back with.

Cockroach Queen Rewards¶

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You can get the Toxic Anthill Optical Disk inside the Cockroach Queen boss room. Image via Gamer Guides / Obsidian.

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The other reward is the Gloom Skewer hidden behind the mushroom that need cutting down. Image via Gamer Guides / Obsidian.

For defeating the boss, you’ll loot 7x Roach Chunks, and 1 Roach Head.

However, the main things you want are the Disks in the room and the secret weapon

Near one of the human corpses is the Toxic Anthill Optical Disk. Submitting that to the Research Station awards 1000 Raw Science and unlocks the following, each costing 1500 Raw Science at the research store:

• Acorn Stairs
• Ladder
• Teeny Terracotta - Clay items for decorating your base.

The other big reward is at the back of the boss room where the mushrooms are.

• Use your Tier 2 Omni-Axe to cut down the mushrooms.
• At the back of the cave wall you should see a purple looking spear hung up.
• Looting it will award you with the Gloom Skewer, a somewhat very high crit chance and good damage spear for the Tier 2 content phase.
  • You get two bars of damage, stun, 7 ½ bars of speed and 4 ½ bars of crit chance.

If you’re running the Javeliner and parrymaster build, then this weapon can be incredibly good for your build. With that said, this concludes everything you need to know about the Cockroach Queen in Grounded 2. Good luck with your farming, base building and new weapon to try out.