Slime Rancher, by Monomi Park, is one of Steam’s Early Access games. Players help Beatrix LeBeau, a rancher, collect and take care of slimes. It’s a potentially profitable endeavor, since plorts collected from said slimes can be sold for money. Which you’ll then probably reinvest into the ranch, so you can have better corrals, more options, better equipment, and so on.
When you’re first starting out in Slime Rancher, you’re going to encounter a few basic sorts of slimes. To help anyone who might have begun playing the game out, we’re going to go over recommended care for Pink, Phosphor, Rock, and Tabby slimes.
First, you’ll ideally want a corral for each kind of slime. At least, you will at the very start. Slimes will transform when they eat other slimes’ plorts. So if a Tabby slime eats a Pink slime plort, it’ll turn into a Pink Tabby largo. But, if it eats a third sort of plort, say from a Rock slime, you’re going to get a Tarr. Tarrs will ruin your equipment and attack you and other slimes. You need to shoot them with water or suck them up and shoot them far, far away. At the very beginning of the game, don’t worry about making largos yet. Focus on one or two of the most common species.
Like the Pink slime, as an example. Pink slimes are the most common sort in Slime Rancher, and you’re going to find them in the northern regions, at the Dry Reef and Moss Blanket. Their plorts aren’t worth very many Newbucks, but they’re easy to collect and care for. They aren’t dangerous, they’ll eat anything, and they aren’t going to go bounding out of their pens. Carrots and pogofruits grow in both habitats, and they like each, so sucking up some of those when you’re collecting slimes is a good idea.
Rock slimes are also plentiful and easy to raise. While Rock slimes can hurt Beatrix, due to their rocks, they’re easy to catch and often found in the Dry Reef area adjacent to the ranch. That’s also where Heart Beets, their favorite food grow. However, you’ll probably need to visit the Dry Reef at night to find them. They only can be found during the day if you have the $250 Vacpack upgrade, or sometimes under bridges. While they are a little dangerous, their plorts are usually worth twice as much as Pink slime plorts, so its worth it.
Both of these kinds of slimes are fine in the standard, $250 corrals. You don’t need to worry about any special health requirements or corral modifications to keep them in. They’ll be content to bounce around, as-is. If you get more than 10 Rock slimes, though, a $350 plort collector upgrade might be a wise investment for the Rock slime corral. When they’re clustered together, they can be unintentionally dangerous.
I’d recommend relying on and raising these two types until you have about $550 to $800 saved. Why? Because if you’re going to start collecting Phosphor or Tabby slimes, you’re going to want a proper corral to handle them. These slimes can fly and hop out of normal corrals, so you’ll want one with an air net across the top. That will keep them inside. Tabby slimes are the least expensive of the two, since you’ll only need a corral and air net. Phosphor slimes are more sensitive and need darkness, so you need to spend $250 on a corral, $250 on a solar shield, and $300 on an air net.
While Phosphors may be more delicate, it can be a little more difficult to keep the Tabbies’ favorite food on hand. They eat meat, specifically Stony Hens from the Dry Reef and Moss Blanket. You can pay $250 to have a chicken coop on your ranch, but you can also just let stray Stony Hens you’ve collected wander freely around your ranch until it’s feeding time.
Speaking of difficult, you might occasionally have trouble finding standard Tabby slimes. They like to take other plorts, which means you can see some largo variations in the wild. That also means you have to 100% keep these guys separate in a corral, should you want standard Tabbies. Check around during the day, though, and you should be fine.
Finally, let’s talk about the Phosphors. They and their plorts can only be collected at night. They disappear in the day, which is why they need a more expensive corral or the expensive Grotto ranch expansion. Phosphor slimes are easy to find and see, due to them glowing like fireflies. You’ll see them all around the Dry Reef and Moss Blanket. They’re also easy to feed, since they like all fruit. Cuberries, which grow in the two aforementioned habitats, are their favorites, though.
If you kick off your game of Slime Rancher by taking care of these four basic sorts of slimes, you’ll find yourself off to a good start. Slime Rancher is currently in Early Access on Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs.
