May 8, 2025
By Lucy Cardona
Editor
Cute and cuddly creatures meet the slimes and their expansive world in Slime Rancher 2. The game was released on June 11, 2024 in early access by Monomi Park and encapsulates all the best parts of a cozy farm life simulation. With adorable designs and slimy island secrets, the game brings a fun and relaxing experience to anyone who plays. This single-player game is playable on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X.
Slime Rancher 2 is a continuation of the game with the same name, Slime Rancher, and begins with the main player character, Beatrix LeBeau, embarking on a trip to Rainbow Island, a land inhabited by small, lovable creatures called slimes.
There are many different species of slimes. The first ones the player meets are usually cotton or pink slimes. These slimes are not dangerous and can be sucked into the player’s vac-pac to store or shoot them in any direction. The vac-pac inventory can store anything the player collects, but has a limited amount of space.
Especially because the main subjects are usually round slimes, the game has vibrant colors that breathe joy into the environment.
There are also dangerous slimes that can harm players. Although this game is intended to be relaxing, it also carries a sense of danger. The two most dangerous slimes are boom slimes and crystal slimes. Boom slimes explode every few seconds and take time to recharge their explosion. These explosions deal damage but leave the slime vulnerable. Crystal slimes leave crystal shards on the ground around them, and when the player walks into them, they are hurt. If they get hurt too often and the health bar depletes, they return to the home base without any of their inventory.
The home base, located in the Conservatory, is where the main events of the farm life aspect of the game take place. Here, plots of land can be purchased for 250 coins and converted into farming areas. There are corrals, which are designed to hold slimes and can be upgraded to include automatic feeders, higher walls, and additional features. There are also coops to keep Henhens and Roostros for feeding slimes and gardens that can be used to grow fruits or veggies.
There are also largo slimes that can be made by feeding a slime a different slime’s plort, which they produce after being fed. Largos are the main way slimes are kept because it is more efficient to farm two slimes at once instead of keeping two slimes in different enclosures. They are also easier to keep because players can feed the slimes different foods if they have different diets. For example, combining a phosphor slime with a diet of fruit and a tabby slime with a diet of meat creates a largo with a diet of fruit and meat.
The Conservatory also features a telephone for communicating with non-playable characters. There is a communication device that allows Beatrix to communicate with others on her travels. These characters breathe life into the world by enriching the plot and allowing players to piece together the various elements of the game, thereby understanding how the world works.
The game’s art style is among my favorite aspects. It is soft and round, which makes it pleasing to the eye. Especially because the main subjects are usually round slimes, the game has vibrant colors that breathe joy into the environment.
Slime Rancher 2 is perfect to play after a long day. There are even settings to make the game less stressful by making the slimes permanently satiated so they don’t try to escape, or dangerous Tar slimes that attack the player and any surrounding slimes to clone themselves are never a problem, so slimes can all share the same enclosure without worry.
I give this game a 9/10. It loses a point for being unfinished. In the next iteration, I’d like to see a harder game mode and new areas, but it is still excellent for its genre and style.
Slime Rancher 2 is ideal for players who want a fairly mindless game that allows them to farm and care for cute, colorful slimes. The game is still in early access and costs $30, but if you enjoy cozy, relaxing games, this one is for you.
