A Guide to Slime Rancher 2: Getting Started

Slime Rancher 2 is the sequel to Slime Rancher, following Beatrix LeBeau as she sets out across the Slime Sea to explore Rainbow Island.

If you’ve played the first Slime Rancher, much of the gameplay will feel familiar. There are a few small changes, but the core experience remains the same.

And if you’re new to Slime Rancher, don’t worry! This guide covers all the basics and includes a simple step-by-step guide to help you get started, just like my previous Slime Rancher guide.

Overview

In Slime Rancher 2, you take on the role of Beatrix LeBeau, a rancher who leaves the Far, Far Range behind to explore Rainbow Island.

It has the same gameplay loop. You collect and sell plorts from slimes to expand your ranch, upgrade your Vacpack, and build new gadgets in the lab.

As you explore, you’ll unlock new areas and find new slimes that give you even more valuable plorts.

Plorts

Slimes make plorts every time they eat. If you give them their favorite food, they’ll give you twice as many plorts. You can find each slime’s favorite food in the slimepedia.

You can sell plorts at the plort market to make money, or add them to the refinery to craft gadgets. The refinery is located down the stairs to the left of the plort market.

You can also use plorts to make largos. When you feed a slime a plort from a different slime type, it turns into a hybrid called a largo.

The Plort Market

In simple terms, the plort market is still loosely based on supply and demand, but there’s also random factors at play. If you want to read more about saturation and how the plort market works in Slime Rancher 2, you can check the wiki here.

I wouldn’t stress about plort prices, especially when you’re just starting out. Just sell your plorts as your collect them.

Tarr Slimes

If a largo eats a plort from a different type of slime, it turns into a tarr slime.

Tarr slimes are aggressive and will eat the slimes on your ranch, causing them to multiply and potentially lead to outbreaks.

This is why it’s important to plan and manage your ranch effectively, as it prevents stray plorts from being eaten and protects your slimes.

If this is something you’d rather not worry about, you can turn tarr slimes off in the settings.

Gordo Slimes

Gordo slimes are large, stationary slimes that you need to feed to unlock. To make a Gordo slime burst, feed it up to 50 pieces of food.

If you use its favourite food, each one counts as two. You can get various rewards and this is how you open up new areas.

Largo Slimes

Largos form when two different slimes combine. This happens when a slime eats a plort from a different kind of slime.

For example, if a tabby slime eats a cotton plort, it becomes a cotton tabby largo. The same thing happens if a cotton slime eats a tabby plort, you still get a cotton tabby largo.

Keeping largos on your ranch is helpful because they give you twice as many plorts for the same amount of food. Feeding your slimes is also much easier this way, and you’ll need fewer plots to grow their food.

Largos always make two types of plorts, one from each slime they come from. So, each corral gives you two kinds of plorts instead of just one.

However, there are more plots on your ranch in Slime Rancher 2, so you are able to keep almost every “pure” slime if you wish.

Non-Largo Slimes

There are three slimes that cannot become largos: puddle slimes, which you keep in ponds, fire slimes, which live in incinerators and eat ash and yolky slimes that live in chicken coops.

The rare yolky slime can appear around chicken nests. They have no diet or favourite food. If you keep them in a coop, there’s a chance a chicken might lay a giant egg.

If you break this egg while it is still fresh, it contains yolky plorts and some chickadoos. If your egg is no longer fresh, you can still break it, but it will contain no plorts.

Weather

Slime Rancher 2 features a variety of weather types, each bringing its own unique effects. Lightning strikes can damage your health, while strong winds can send items blowing across Rainbow Island.

Some slimes are also weather-dependent. Dervish slimes show up during cyclones, and you’ll only find tangle slimes when level three pollen is in the air. Look out for vines!

What Largos to Create

In the first Slime Rancher, making largos depended a lot on their diet, since meat was tricky to farm. In Slime Rancher 2, though, this isn’t really an issue anymore.

Instead, take a look at this chart to see all the different largos and choose your favourite.

Diet only really matters when you start using drones. If you only want to set up one drone for feeding, all the slimes in an area need to eat the same type of food, whether that’s meat, veggies, or fruit.

I also recommend not combining pink, ringtail, flutter, or crystal slimes with each other. Instead, pair them with other types of slimes to make feeding easier.

This is because pink and ringtail slimes don’t have a favourite food, so it’s best to combine them with a slime that does. This way, you’ll get the most plorts possible.

Flutter slimes eat nectar, which you can’t grow on your ranch, so they’re much harder to feed. Combine them with a slime that has a favourite food you can easily grow.

A crystal slimes favourite food is odd onions, which are tough to grow since you mostly get carrots instead. It helps to pair them with a slime whose favourite food is easy to farm.

Below is a list of favourite slime foods that might help.

Fruit	Veggies
Batty Slime (Pomegranate) Honey Slime (Mint Mango) Phosphor Slime (Cuberry) Twin Slime (Polaricherry) Dervish Slime (Prickle Pear)	Cotton Slime (Water Lettuce) Rock Slime (Heart Beet) Hyper Slime (Turbo Tater) Crystal Slime (Odd Onion)
Meat	Other
Angler Slime (Sea Hen) Boom Slime (Briar Hen) Hunter Slime (Roostro) Tabby Slime (Stony Hen) Saber Slime (Thundercluck Hen) Sloomber Slime (Candied Hen) Tangle Slime (Painted Hen)	Pink slime (None) Flutter Slime (Nectar) Ringtail Slime (None)

Saber slimes have a loud roar that causes fear in other slimes, and can cause them to escape their corral. They roar more when agitated, but they only roar while they’re on the ground. This means combining them with a flying slime, like a batty, flutter, or phosphor slime, can really help.

Another way to keep saber slimes from being agitated is to keep fewer of them together. This is especially useful when combined with a batty slime.

When kept in the dark, batty slimes eat and produce plorts twice as fast, so you’ll get the same number of plorts with half as many largos. Just remember, they’ll go through food quickly, so make sure they always have plenty to eat.

Personally, I wouldn’t worry too much about this, especially if tarr is turned off. It’s easy to overthink it! You can always experiment and see what works for you and what largos you like best. If you have trouble keeping the largos contained, you can always switch things up.

Corrals

I always upgrade my corrals completely. This helps keep the slimes contained and makes collecting plorts quicker and easier.

Phosphor slimes and ringtail slimes will also need a solar shield, unless you keep them in the Den, which is already dark.

You might also want to set up a garden plot or a coop with food before you add your slimes. I would also recommend upgrading these as soon as you can too.

Some slimes don’t live in corrals. Puddle slimes stay in ponds, fire slimes need an ash tray in your incinerator, and yolky slimes live with chickens in coops.

Some ranchers skip corrals entirely. Instead, they set up free-range areas and use strategically placed decorations to keep their slimes contained!

The ProntoMart

The ProntoMart consists of three shops where you can buy gadgets, decorations, and slime toys.

Coo-Coo Corner sells six random items each day, and there is always a Slime Toy available to purchase. The shop’s selection refreshes daily at 12:00.

Polestar Provisions has a range of blueprints for decorations and gadgets, including some upgrades for your Vacpack.

The Night Market is only available after talking to Gigi at the Prisma Plort exchange station in Prismacore once you have unlocked The Grey Labyrinth. It sells unique decorations, upgrade parts, gadgets and prismatic colours to customise items. The Night Market is only open from 20:00 to 4:00 and uses a unique currency called Rainbow Coins, which you can only get from Gigi.

Plots and Ranch Layout

When you’re just starting out, don’t stress about your layout. You always end up rearranging things as your ranch grows anyway. Just make sure each corral has a garden plot or coop nearby to supply its favourite food. If you want to store plorts, consider building a silo too.

There are 22 different types of slimes, and 19 of them can be turned into largos. Puddle, fire, and yolky slimes can’t be made into largos. Puddle slimes need a pond, fire slimes live in an incinerator with an ash trough, and yolky slimes stay in coops.

In terms of layout, when you start automating, it helps to keep all largos in one area eating the same type of food, like all fruit-eating slimes together. This is because each drone can only deliver one food type, but you can use more than one drone for feeding in an area if you prefer.

Slime Rancher 2’s improved mechanics also make it easier to set up free-range areas without corrals, if you want to give it a go!

How Slime Behaviours Can Change Your Ranch Layout

Some slimes come with unique behaviours that can change how you organise your ranch, especially if you’re dealing with tarr.

If this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. You can turn tarr off in the settings so stray plorts aren’t a problem. It can always be turned on again when you’re feeling more confident! Autofeeders and plort collectors also make it much easier to manage your slimes.

Honey Slimes:  Slimes are attracted to honey plorts from further away than normal Plorts.

Angler Slime: Can sometimes let out a bright flash that stuns nearby slimes and even chickens.

Saber Slime: Has a powerful roar that can agitate other slimes around them.

Hunter Slime: Can detect food from farther away than other slimes. If a Hunter Largo gets too agitated, it can also turn feral.

Dervish Slimes: When agitated, they can create cyclones that can sweep up food, slimes, and plorts, potentially leading to tarr outbreaks.

Tangle Slimes: They use their vines to grab food and plorts from a distance, even reaching outside their corrals. This can be an issue if they are collecting food and plorts from other corrals, and can lead to tarr. Aim for a corral that is furthest away from others.

Twin Slimes: They can create two portals to bring food and plorts straight to them, much like how Tangle Slimes use their vines. Therefore you might want to keep them away from other corrals.

Sloomber Slimes: Sometimes let out little clouds that make nearby slimes fall asleep. If they get agitated, they do this much more often.

Boom slimes: Can explode and shoot plorts and even each other from the corral.

Automating Your Ranch

Quantum Drones will help you automate your ranch.

You can get quantum drone stations by finding ghostly drones on your ranch and throughout Rainbow Island. A couple are also available to purchase at the ProntoMart.

Once you have collected a drone station, you’ll need to craft each drone before you can use it. Drones can only be crafted once you have their station.

Drones automate feeding your slimes and collecting plorts, but you have to keep them charged with plorts so they keep working.

You can also use drones to gather resources outside of the conservatory. This is especially useful for finding strange diamonds, which you’ll need to craft even more drones.

A Step By Step Guide to Getting Started

If you’re unsure how to start and want some clear goals, here’s a simple guide to help you begin!

Of course, you don’t have to start the game this way, but if you’re looking for a little guidance or want to get a feel for how things work, this is a place to start!

Between these steps, keep collecting plorts and resources to earn money and upgrade your vacpack.

1. Earn some Newbucks

Start by earning money for your first corral. Go outside your ranch, collect as many plorts as you can, and bring them back to sell at the plort market. Make a few trips and just collect those newbucks.

2. Create some pink cotton largos

Once you have enough newbucks, start by building your first corral and upgrading it so your slimes don’t escape. In this corral, put five or six pink cotton largos. To make a largo, feed a pink slime a cotton plort or give a cotton slime a pink plort. Cotton slimes are the ones that look like rabbits!

These largos eat anything, so gather any food and feed it to them. Then, collect their plorts and sell them at the plort market.

3. Get a garden

Keep gathering plorts and earning newbucks to set up a garden on a plot next to your corral.

Pink cotton largo’s favourite food is water lettuce, so you’ll need to pick some up.

Once you have a water lettuce, plant it in your garden plot by shooting it into the machine. Before long, you’ll have a steady supply of food for your slimes!

4. Get some phospher tabby largos

Next, build a corral and fill it with phosphor tabby largos. Phosphor slimes appear only at night and need the solar shield upgrade.

Their favourite food is cuberries or stony hens, so set up a garden or coop nearby. If you’re short on money, keep collecting plorts and selling them at the plort market.

5. Upgrade your vacpack

Now that you have four types of plorts, you can start upgrading your vacpack in the lab.

Get the resource harvester, which lets you gather materials, and the tank booster, which increases how much you can carry at once.

Now while you’re out exploring, you can start gathering materials!

6. Upgrade your corrals and food plots

After you feed your slimes and collect their plorts, go out and gather more plorts to sell at the plort market. Keep doing this until you’ve earned enough Newbucks to upgrade your corrals with the auto-feeder and plort collector.

Upgrade your coops and gardens as well, so they can make enough food to keep your slimes happy.

With these upgrades, you can explore farther while your slimes stay well fed and their plorts are collected.

7. Unlock Ember Valley

To unlock Ember Valley, feed the large pink gordo slime. This gordo will eat any food as it doesn’t have a favourite. You can find it here:

Once it bursts, use the water jet to reach the new pathway, where you can activate the teleporter to Ember Valley.

In this area, you can find new slimes to add to your ranch and begin collecting their plorts. You can also gather lava dust here, which is needed for making drones.

Once you have unlocked Ember Valley, you can start collecting radiant ore so you can purchase the jetpack upgrade for your vacpack.

8. Unlock Starlight Strand

You’ll find the Gordo Cotton Slime in the southern part of the Rainbow Fields. Keep an eye out for a small incline that leads to a tucked-away spot. This Gordo will eat any veggies, but water lettuce is its favourite.

Once you feed the Gordo enough to burst, you’ll unlock a cave where you can activate a teleporter, which opens up the path to the Starlight Strand.

Starlight Strand is home to new slimes you can bring back to your ranch. You’ll also find three important resources here for crafting drones: flutter plorts, wild honey, and strange diamonds.

Strange diamonds are most often found inside caves. There’s usually one that appears near the angler Gordo, so keep checking this area.

9. Build your first drone

Start by getting a quantum drone station. You can buy one at ProntoMart, or you can catch a ghostly drone.

There are several ghostly drones in your conservatory extensions. For a full list of locations, check here. Keep in mind that drones move around, so they might not always be in the exact same spot.

After you have the station, the next step is to craft the drone.

Rather than using this drone to automate your ranch, I suggest using it to gather resources. This way, you can collect what you need to build more drones faster.

It’s especially useful for collecting strange diamonds. I found that placing drones at these two spots in Starlight Strand was a good way to get strange diamonds.

Drones must be charged using plorts or they will not gather resources.

10. Automate your ranch

After you gather all the resources, you can build more drones to automate your ranch and collect resources.

Tip: Place your drones central to the area so they have less distance to travel.

This lets you keep exploring, unlock new areas, collect more slimes, and upgrade your vacpack while the drones handle your ranch.

Slime Rancher 2 Guide

I hope this Slime Rancher 2 guide was helpful for you!

If you have any tips to share, please leave them in the comments below.