Introduction
Slime Rancher is one of those games that I don’t mind if my kids play. It’s Rated E for everyone by the ESRB, and it’s a totally adorable sandbox game!
Developed by Monomi Park out of San Mateo, CA, Slime Rancher released Jan 14, 2016 (Early Access). It’s currently available on Windows, macOS, Linux, XBox ONE, and PS4.
The ratings for this game are through the roof, and it’s easy to see why! But first, a little background information:
You play as the main character, Beatrix LeBeaux, “a plucky, young rancher who sets out for a life a thousand light years away from Earth on the ‘Far, Far Range'” (Monomi Park).
Gameplay
As a rancher who inherits an abandoned slime farm, players can explore different biomes, collect, raise, feed, and breed slimes. Plorts (slime poop) are sold at the Plort Market. The price of plorts will rise and fall due to the rarity and quantity of recent plort sales.
When you feed a slime, they produce slime plorts. Depending on the type of slimes you raise, hinges on the quantity of plorts they produce. Different slimes prefer various types of food, and some slimes and their preferred food sources may be rare or difficult to find. Feeding a slime its favorite food will give you extra plorts.
Ranchers carry a vacpack (vacuum backpack) to collect slimes and food sources such as hen-hens, roosteros, and various types of fruits and vegetables. The vacpack can also carry water to wash away the dreaded Tarrs.
Fruits and vegetables can be raised in garden beds, which replenish over time. Ranchers can raise hen-hens and roosteros from chickadoos in a chicken pen. Also, with adult hen-hens and roosteros in a pen together, chickadoos can spawn to grow into adults.
The adult version of these birds are a type of food for certain slimes, and there are variants of the birds such as Briar, Stoney, and Painted. Elderly hen-hens and roosteros cannot make more chickadoos and are only good as slime fodder.
Hybrid Slimes
You can create a hybrid slimes by feeding a plort from a different slime to the slime you’re wanting to change. For example, If you have a pink slime and you’re wanting your pink slime to also produce tabby plorts, then feed one tabby plort to your pink slime, and they will become a pink-tabby hybrid. Hybrid slimes will produce both types of plorts when they are fed.
Tarr Problems
A Tarr is made when a hybrid plort eats a plort not of its two genetic types. For example, if a pink-rock hybrid eats a tabby plort, it will become a tarr. Tarrs do not make plorts, but they do turn other slimes into more tarrs!
The only way to get rid of a tarr is to douse it with water from your vacpack. This is why it’s important for slime ranchers to keep their slimes in separate corrals and fed regularly so they stay content. An unhappy slime can break out of their corral to find something to eat.
Overview
The reason this game is a favorite for our family is because it’s a simple farming game, it’s peaceful, and ranchers can’t die. If they accidentally fall in the water or their health bar drops to zero, they simply wake up the next day in their bed.
If you become bored by your own to-do list, there are quests to complete from in-game characters. This game also has different biomes to explore, secrets to unlock, and expansions to buy to make the ranch bigger and farming easier.
Have you played Slime Rancher? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts about this game! Be sure to add a comment below to tell me about your experience!
