Slime Rancher… where do I even begin?

Well, at the beginning I guess.

Slime Rancher is a very chill exploration and life sim ranching game. We play as Beatrix LeBeau, a rancher who moves from Earth to The Far, Far Range to begin her life as a “slime rancher” (Hey, that’s the name of the game!)

First thing you see after the opening text of the game is the beautiful art style. This game is up there with my favourite game art styles, such as Team Fortress 2 and Hollow Knight. It is such a beautiful, cheery and bubbly style that strikes the perfect balance of not too bright and not too toned down. You feel a sense of comfort and safety here, even though the place is completely brand new.

We start out in our ranch, previously owned by Hobson Twilligers, in a pretty bad state, and learn how the basics of the game. How to use our Vacpack, feeding slimes and keeping them. Not too long after that, we venture out into the world, our first location. You’ll come back to your ranch eventually and it has 4 distinct locations to unlock. The Lab, which we’ll get to later, The Grotto and The Overgrowth, themed expansions for your ranch, and The Docks which is also another (although, smaller) expansion.

I’ll just be giving a general overview of locations because I don’t want to spoil them if you do play the game.

The Dry, Dry Reef. Not my personal favourite, but it holds a place in my heart. A mainly orange mountainous area full of nooks and crannies to explore and a great first area for newcomers to learn in. What once was a reef is now a land area where you’ll find many slimes and spend most of your time until you find your first Gordo and Slime Key.

With a Slime Key, you can open up two new areas: The Indigo Quarry, or my second personal favourite, The Moss Blanket.

The Indigo Quarry is, well, a quarry like area, with many little island-like areas to go between and explore, with beautiful hexagonal crystals around everywhere giving The Indigo Quarry the distinct look it has which you’ll find no where else, among many caves to explore. There is also a way to get to the Ash Isle in The Indigo Quarry, which is a very cool volcanic area.

The Moss Blanket is a jungle like area, and it is huge with it split into two distinct areas: The main land and the smaller island congregation. The area is vibrant and full of colour while not overdoing it, full of massive trees, flowers, vines, oversized logs and vines.

Both these areas have Slime Key doors which lead you to The Ancient Ruins Courtyard. A utterly HUGE door with slime statues all around where you must give the statue the corresponding plort to open the door, and then brings you to my personal favourite area in the game…

The Ancient Ruins. Everything about this area is just amazing, the funny doors, the funny echoes, the soundtrack, the visuals, the slimes, the fruits… It is all perfect. Makes an area that seems cliché and dingy feel very unique. This area houses the portal to the last area in the game too, which is:

The Glass Desert. One of the most unique areas in the game, and I will only say it houses the ending to the game.

You have the Range Exchange on your ranch, a way to trade with people across The Far, Far Range. Some of these people will give you opportunities to help them and work with them if you do enough of these.

Mochi Miles will ask you to help her with obtaining the elusive Quicksilver Slime plorts, which is a fun minigame where you shoot electric balls at them to get the plorts. Finish it, and you’ll get cool upgrades and you’ll be allowed to use the plots at Mochi’s Manor.

Ogden Ortiz will ask you to get his favourite plant, the Kookadoba, from a place called “The Wilds” full of thought to be extinct Saber Slimes, which of course are feral. Ogden will give you upgrades for your garden and allow you to use the plots at Ogden’s Retreat if you finish the amount he requests.

Viktor Humphries will ask you to help him to debug his “Slimeulation”. This is possibly one of the best help requests in the game, where you are asked to traverse an increasingly unstable Slimeulation in order to collect Glitch Slimes for bug reports. In exchange for finishing, he’ll give you cool new Slime Science gadgets and, of course, the plots in his lab.

Wait, Slime Science? Yep! This game has a pretty basic but fleshed out science system, and a fun one at that. Put drills, apiaries and pumps all around the world and depending where you put them, you’ll get different items. Varying levels of extractors, with the best being a 7Zee Rewards Club reward, which we’ll get to soon. You can craft all kinds of cool stuff at the previously aforementioned lab, whether it be stupid fashion pods and games, drones, more extractors, decorations, or useful items, there is a lot. Most of these blueprints are found through treasure pods around The Far, Far Range.

Through the upgrade station at your ranch (which allows you to buy a jetpack by the way, amazing!) Through the 7Zee Rewards Club, you can earn Treasure Cracker upgrades, which allow you to start opening treasure pods. Pretty neat, huh?

Alright, what the hell is the 7Zee Rewards Club? Pretty simple. A small thing where you pay a sum of money to get rewards, which stops at level 28. Not that exciting but it unlocks a cooler looking ranch.

To pair with the art, the soundtrack to this game is phenomenal. It can be chaotic, calming or spooky and still sound like Slime Rancher. Also, there’s a track for each location for day and night, and the night tracks are usually a lot more calm and chill, with the day tracks being upbeat and a bit rowdy. Also, the end credits song is very emotional. Very few games make me cry, but the end credits did it for me.

All this, and I forgot to talk about the slimes! Many different types, all with different diets (meat, fruit, veggie, water, ash) different little things they do, and different ways to keep them, but there’s one thing they all have in common: they’re all darn cute.

I’ve played this game since the early access, and this game holds a very special place in my heart. While it doesn’t get updates anymore, and probably won’t considering Slime Rancher 2 is being developed now, it got me through rough times and it has to be my favourite game of all time.

Also, the Tabby Slime is amazing, I mean, just look at that little boop it does!

If you read all of this, thank you, and if you buy the game, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

THIS IS THE EARLY ACCESS RELEASE??

TL;DR: Game is already really good with minimal bugs, great new world, exploration, and Slime Science system. But a couple of problems and currently feels more like a Slime Rancher 1.5 or Slime Rancher DLC. Moving more and more into a full, new game. Still highly recommended.

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Pronto!

Prontomart, let's go!

v0.5.0 is a pretty amazing update so far, with the main feature being Prontomart! Online shopping in Slime Rancher is real. There's two sections to Prontomart, Polestar Provisions which are blueprints to buy for gadgets, and also Coo-Coo Corner, which are new exclusive deals every day at 12:00! (in-game). Slime toys are also back, which is super cool! They look super good as well. Adds a couple new treasure pods, too!

Overall, a pretty good update that changes the game in a way that keeps the core gameplay the same. Can't wait for the next update!
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My experience with this game has been amazing. I played a lot of Slime Rancher 1 across multiple platforms, so I was thrilled for this release. The new areas are amazing, with brand new nooks and crannies to explore, with each area being distinct with its colourful and playful nature. The soundtrack is once again phenomenal, although deciding to be more chill than Slime Rancher 1. (The night tracks are still the best ones in the game, in every area.)

The new Slime Science system is AMAZING. Once you upgrade your vacpack with the extractor, YOU are the apiary. YOU are the drill. YOU are the pump. I think you get the point. You find resources around the island and can vac them up instead of placing drills down in each area and waiting for their cycle to finish. It's a very polished system for being one of the biggest new features and I cannot wait to see it get expanded on.

Slime Rancher 2 does a great job with exploration too. The map is already massive, and as stated previously, each area is distinct and recognisable. Slime Keys are a thing of the past, in favour of you bursting gordos to find twisty things to activate portals, or the gordo sitting directly on top of the portal, and I think they've done it wonderfully. I'm very excited for what Monomi Park has to offer with the areas they're planning to add.

Starmail has been replaced with a little wireless communication box in front of The Conservatory, pretty neat. Nothing has been heard from Casey so far though :(

No need for the section on v0.1.1 and v0.1.2, as everything since then (bug fixes and QoL improvements) has been improved on. I've ran into even less bugs in later updates, but some areas are definitely still too bright. Definitely going to try and keep this review updated with each update, though.

However, Tarrs are still a MASSIVE problem naturally, and I find the game more fun with them disabled at this point.

Old update, but welcome in v0.2.0, the Song of the Sabers update! With it comes a brand new island, Powderball Puffs, and many new items and a couple of slimes. They've also added 4 new treasure pods to Ember Valley and Starlight Strand.

In Powderball Puffs, you can find the returning star of the update; the Saber slime. In this winter wonderland you'll also find a Saber gordo and normal slimes such as Rock, Boom, etc. Powderball Puff's real party trick is at night, when its "Auroral Anomalies" show up, revealing secret pathways and other really cool things. There's also the new Thundercluck chicken, with a new secret slime, the Yolky Slime, which is an elusive and rare slime found around chicken nests. Another elusive and rare thing is Sun Sap.

With all the new content in the update, I'm very happy with it. It is starting to feel like how Slime Rancher 1 felt in early access. Everything in this update is great, my only gripe is how rare the Yolky Slime and Sun Sap is. This game is finally culminating into something new!

Small little update, v0.3.0, "Come Rain or Slime". Adds back old favourites, like the Dervish and Tangle Slimes, with Prickly Pears, and a whole new dynamic weather system. The update is alright, but 9 months for this seems a bit... underwhelming. Would love to see a bit more in future content updates.

Gadgets My Way, v0.4.0! What an update. Entirely revamped gadget system, allowing them to be placed nearly everywhere. Revamped fabricator UI and blueprints tab in the Slimepedia, allowing you to see the resources required for a decoration or gadget. There's also new areas to explore within each area, and with that comes new treasure pods with the new gadgets showcased in the trailer! They were relatively easy to find, but not placed out in the open, which is good. Apart from that, new resources (Storm Glass, Lightning Mote and Drift Crystal) for the new gadgets, and there's some QoL additions like the new comms notification when someone contacts you at the conservatory. Pretty great update!

For now, Slime Rancher 2 STILL feels more like a Slime Rancher 1.5, or Slime Rancher 1 DLC, but with more content updates it is finally feeling like something new, definitely getting there. I'm optimistic about the future of Slime Rancher 2 though, considering how far Slime Rancher 1 came within its time. But for now, be brave, be bold, and stay wiggly. Have fun on Rainbow Island!


P.S tabby slime, you are still my beloved