As an alternative way to overcome the weakness of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) in hostile situation, a gravity gradient referenced navigation (GGRN) has been developed. This paper analyzed the performance of GGRN with respect to the initial errors, DB resolution as well as update rates. On the basis of simulations, it was found that the performance of GGRN is getting worse when initial errors exist but the navigation results are rapidly converged. Also, GGRN generates better results when DB resolution is higher and update rates are shorter than 20 seconds. However, it is difficult to deduce the optimal parameters for the navigation because some trajectories show better performance in case low-resolution DB is applied or long update rate is supposed. Therefore, further analysis to derive specific update conditions to improve the performance has been performed. Those update conditions would not be generalized for all cases although maximum improvement rate is over 200% in certain case. In the future, some more developments and tests on the combination of various geophysical data and/or algorithms are necessary to construct more stable and reliable navigation system.