Slime Rancher Walkthrough Part 2 - Exploring & Slime Science
Our first task is going to be acquisition of Hunter Plorts in the northern portion of the Moss Blanket. There are two spots you can find Hunter Plorts, the northern red circle is the best spot assuming that you bring your own food (meat/fruit) to feed the Hunter/Honey Largos. Up north you will only ever find Hunter Largos of some kind - regular Hunter Slimes will not spawn here.
The southern location has regular Hunter Slimes and many different types of Largos. You should expect many Tarr Slimes in this area, especially at night. There aren't as many Hunter Slimes that spawn here but this is the best location to find them outside of Largo form.
Tip: Feed the Gordo slimes at least one food and it will mark them on your map so you remember where they are.
After you've collected enough Hunter Plorts/Hunter Slimes you can return to the Ranch via the teleporter in the eastern portion of the Moss Blanket. You can see where it is on the map, it's the little icon with the large green arrow pointing up. This is a one way trip back to your home.
Below I have included the layout I am using for my Ranch from the first guide. If you'd like to copy my exact layout then you can use the picture below; don't worry if you have your own Ranch already planned out and you don't want to copy mine as we'll be revamping much of our Ranch as time goes on.
Next thing we're going to do is unlock the Indigo Quarry. You should have 2 Slime Keys left - if you've been following my guide. If you 'accidentally' used them on other Slime Doors then you'll need to burst either the Honey Gordo and Hunter Gordo before proceeding.
The door we want to open that leads to the Indigo Quarry is found in Dry Reef, we've ran by it probably more than a dozen times now. When you exit your farm and travel north - there will be a cave entrance on the right hand side with unique crystals and a Hobson note not far inside. A picture of this cave is shown in the screenshot below. This is the entrance we want to use to the Indigo Quarry.
Cave to Indigo Quarry.
Once you're inside Indigo Quarry do some exploring. Rad Slimes can be found in many places and Crystal Slimes are only found in two. It's up to you how much you'd like to do your first time here - learning the zone is the most important thing.... So to that end I honestly do recommend you run around aimlessly and just explore.
I prefer to write my guides in such a way that you spend as little time reading them and as much time enjoying the game. To that end, here's a checklist of things you need to do in the Indigo Quarry before we get to the next part of the guide.
Indigo Quarry Checklist
- Find the map node (next to the Rock Gordo)
- Collect Rad Slimes for your Ranch
- Find the exit portal back to your Ranch and memorize its location
- Collect Crystal Slimes for your Ranch (found in Crystal Volcano or Ash Isle)
We're basically going into Indigo Quarry, grabbing the slimes we need for our Ranch then leaving. If you're having trouble finding the Crystal Slimes check my map below, I've marked the exact location where the Crystal Volcano can be found.
Crystal Slimes Map Location.
At this point in the game you're going to want to get your Ranch stabilized again and also expand it a bit. Once you farm Plorts for awhile you'll be able to buy The Lab and unlock more plots of land as well as Slime Science. Focus on all of this for right now and when you get the itch to go exploring - burst the Gordos that we've left alive.
Sooner or later you're going to unlock the Treasure Pod unlocking perk as well. You've no doubt seen the Treasure Pods around the landscape, they come in multiple colors and are sometimes in out of the way locations. We'll talk more about these in a little bit, for right now I will link you to my Treasure Pod Guide if you would like to learn more. Most of their rewards are vanity items like Slime Science Decorations and the other 'good' rewards you get are Slime Science upgrades which we can't use just yet.
For right now, I will break down what you should be doing in a checklist to make it easier. You need to burst some Gordos and do a lot of farming for New Bucks before we do anything else with the game.
Days 10 - 30 Checklist
- Burst Hunter Gordo and Honey Gordo in the Moss Blanket
- Burst Rock Gordo #1, Rock Gordo #2, Rad Gordo and Crystal Gordo in the Indigo Quarry
- Unlock The Lab Ranch Expansion and learn about Slime Science
- Unlock The Docks Ranch Expansion
- Purchase every Vacpack Upgrade as it becomes available
As far as the plots at The Lab and The Docks go - do whatever you want with The Lab for right now but save The Docks for Quantum Slimes later. We will spend time optimizing our Ranch later, for right now just focus on learning and expanding your Ranch.
While you spend time growing your Ranch and exploring you'll want to start messing with Slime Science and the Range Exchange. Slime Science is by far the more important of the two since it will allow us to make Teleporters which we can place anywhere in the world for instant travel to and from our Ranch.
Slime Science also allows us to create Drones which can be used to completely automate all of our Ranch tasks. You can have 2 Drones per area and set them up to harvest the Plorts from your Corrals and deposit them into the Market/Refinery along with feeding your slimes.
Below is what my farm looks like as I move into The Ancient Ruins map. For the map below I am using the Slime Rancher Ranch Planner resource, it's an amazing resource that helps you think out your entire setup before you start building.
You may notice in the screenshot above Ogden's Retreat, Mochi's Manor and Viktor's Workshop are all listed. If you participate in the Range Exchange you can unlock these areas too - I will cover that in more detail a little bit later in the guide. For now, let me explain some of the logic behind my choices.
(Main Ranch Area) Everything is self explanatory except the Silo. I like to store extra food here as well as a variety of chickens for future Gordos
(Overgrowth) Heart Beets feed the Rock/Hunter Largos as well as the Crystal/Booms; if I need more food I just grab stuff in the area and throw it into the Crystal/Boom Corral
(Overgrowth) Chicken Coop is for me to breed chickens to stick into my Silo
(The Grotto) Mint Mangos feed the Honey/Hunters; Oca Oca feed the Rad/Pink slimes. Phosphors are fed via the Cuberry tree in the main ranch section
(The Lab) 100+ Pink Slimes in the main Corral for Slime Science Plorts. I feed them all left over food on the range. Odd Onions are placed in the Silo and the Carrots are fed to the Pink Slimes. Oca Oca are fed to the Rad/Tabby Largos in the back. The Pond is here for me to collect their Plorts for the Refinery
(The Docks) Once we start with The Ancient Ruins we'll be placing our future Quantum Slimes here. Quantum Slimes are very hard to always keep in their cage so I like to give them an entire area just for themselves. Since they always escape it's also important not to mix them with any unfriendly slimes that can hurt you... Which is why I almost always choose Honey/Quantum
In addition to Slime Science and the Range Exchange there is one more noteable resource dump that you need to start participating in - the 7Zee Rewards Club. You may have seen this already and/or read about it in the Slimepedia and assumed it was all vanity rewards (I did too originally because of how the Slimepedia describes it).
Most of what you get out of the 7Zee Rewards Club is vanity rewards... however you also get some must have upgrades from it too. Rank 11 grants you the Market Link gadget which allows you (and your Drones) to deposit Plorts into the Market from anywhere. Rank 20 gets you the Tank Booster Ultra upgrade which allows you to carry 100 of an item - it's the largest backpack upgrade in the entire game. If you'd like to see a full list of all the rewards check out the Slime Rancher wiki.
To participate in the 7Zee Rewards Club all you need to do is interact with your Ranch door then click on the button that says 7Zee Rewards Club. Each rank you buy will go up in price by a little bit until you start getting into the final ranks. For the final ranks it starts increasing by larger margins with each purchase.
It'll only cost 34,000 New Bucks in total to reach Rank 11 which is the most important one for us to get right now because it gives us the Market Link which we need for our Drones. At this point in time you probably have 2 ranks of the Treasure Cracker perk as well, if you don't check the Vacpack upgrade station on your Ranch and buy what you can.
You can find one Treasure Pod on your Ranch in The Lab right next to the Refinery that will give you almost all of the materials you need for our first Teleporter. If you'd like, hit up the Moss Blanket and Indigo Quarry for their Treasure Pods that have items in them too. Open enough Treasure Pods and you'll have a lot of the items we need to make some good inventions.
The Slime Rancher wiki doesn't have info for the Dry Reef so you're stuck with the maps and my info on my Treasure Pods Guide for that zone. As far as farming the resources yourself I have made a little quick list below as well as provided you with some screenshots of where I recommend you put things for the time being.
Drills: Indigo Quarry near the teleporter to your Ranch
Pumps: In the Dry Reef out front of your Ranch
Apiaries: Around your Moss Blanket teleporter // Around the teleporter back to your Ranch
Map Location for Indigo Quarry Drills.
The Moss Blanket Apiary Map Locations.
Tip: Slime Science resources stay on the ground for many in-game days. If you see your gadgets 'dancing' but you have a full inventory -- hit them anyway to restart their timers and collect all of the items on your next rotation.
The location I chose for the Apiaries in Moss Blanket is the very large open area in the southern portion of the zone. I placed a portal on the ground that takes me back to my Lab so I can easily return to deposit items into the Refinery without a long run. That covers every item we need to make a Drone except one - Quantum Plorts.
Quantum Plorts can be acquired from Quantum Slimes which are only found in the Ancient Ruins - the next zone. To reach the Ancient Ruins you will want to enter the Moss Blanket and travel directly east until you hit the Slime Key door. You can enter this zone from Indigo Quarry too, it'll require a Slime Key if you come from that direction as well.
When you first enter the Ancient Ruins you'll come across a giant door with different colored gems circling it. A picture of this door is found below - so you know what I am talking about.
In order to open the door that leads into the Ancient Ruins you'll need to collect 6 different plorts and shoot them into the various plort statues throughout the courtyard. To see the location of every statue throughout the courtyard check out my How to Open The Ancient Ruins Door Video. Each statue location is shown in that video and it's way easier than explaining each with text.
Below are all 6 of the required plorts you'll need to open this door.
Plorts Required:
Rock Plort
Tabby Plort
Phosphor Plort
Rad Plort
Honey Plort
Boom Plort
Out of all 6 the hardest statue to find is typically the Tabby one. To locate this statue you'll want to go up to the ledge so you are standing right in front of the large door and looking directly at it. Turn to your left and there will be a raised platform you can Jetpack to - the Tabby statue is in this area.
As far as the Ancient Ruins go we have 4 primary goals we want to accomplish our first time here. We need a Phase Lemon, lots of Quantum Slimes and to learn the locations of the Boom Gordo and Quantum Gordo. I've created a quick-list below which goes over these tasks again in a different format.
The Ancient Ruins Check List:
1. Vac up Quantum Slimes (25 - 50)
2. Acquire a Phase Lemon (Shoot a fruit into a Phase Lemon Tree)
3. Mark the Boom Gordo on your map
4. Mark the Quantum Gordo on your map
To navigate the Ancient Ruins you will need to hit switches throughout the area which will open some doors and close other doors. Navigation in this zone is a bit tedious but the Jetpack will help out a bunch - so make sure it's fully upgraded. I recommend you spend a half hour to an hour running around and learning the entire zone, in Slime Rancher learning the zones and memorizing them is very important.
Out of all 4 tasks mentioned above the most difficult is usually getting a Phase Lemon so that we can grow more on our Ranch. In order to pick up a Phase Lemon you first need to shoot some fruit at a fully ripe Phase Lemon; this will cause the Phase Lemon to 'phase into existence' after which you can suck it up with your Vacpack.
After you've done our initial recognisance mission through the Ancient Ruins you'll want to return to your Ranch and start growing some Phase Lemons as well as offload your Quantum Slimes. I strongly recommend you house your Quantum Slimes at The Docks, as shown for my Ranch above. Quantum Slimes very easily escape from their cages because they have a chance of teleporting to the phase images that they create of themselves. For this reason you want to make sure you don't put them in any location where they can eat another slime's plorts.
Since Quantum Slimes frequently escape from their cages it's also important you do not combine them with any slime that becomes hostile when agitated or any slime that does something annoying/that hurts you. Once you've found a good habitat for your Quantum Slimes start collecting their plorts and depositing them into the Refinery so we can start making drones.
Drones can be setup to do pretty much any task on your Ranch that you can do. The two most common tasks I assign to my drones is making them gather plorts from Plort Collectors and depositing them into either the Refinery or the Market and picking up food from the Gardens and putting it into Auto-Feeders.
On the sections of your Ranch that aren't connected to the Refinery or the Market (Overgrowth, Grotto, Docks) you'll need to create a Refinery Link or Market Link via Slime Science and place them on the ground in this area. Drones will only operate within the confines of the section you place them. IE, if you place a drone around The Lab - it will not go into The Grotto to do any work.
You can set up 2 drones per area only - however once you help out Viktor at his workshop (unlocked via the Range Exchange tasks) you'll be able to get drones that perform 2 tasks each instead of just 1. After you've set up a drone splash it with water to activate it and then let it do its thing. You'll need to splash it with water to activate it again every time it finishes a task.
After you've got some drones setup it's time to return to the Ancient Ruins and burst the Boom Gordo and Quantum Gordo for their Slime Keys. You'll also want to activate the Glass Desert Teleporter at the northern most portion of the Ancient Ruins by shooting Quantum Plorts into the slime statues. To reach the teleporter you'll need to unlock a door with a Slime Key.
Glass Desert Teleporter with 2 status active.
Before continuing to the Glass Desert I strongly recommend you finish up all you need to in every previous zone and make sure you have a stable farm with many tasks automated. You should also have a teleporter you can place there so we only have to do the run there a single time. When you're ready to continue head on over to the next part of my walkthrough.
Continue to Part 3 - Endgame Content