Slime Rancher 2: Complete Ranching Guide

Everything you need to run a profitable Conservatory on Rainbow Island: the core loop, which slimes to ranch first, diets and favorite foods, Largos and the Tarr, science resources, region order, and the newer Radiant Slime/Sanctuary content through Patch 1.3.

Researched September 2026 — current as of Patch 1.3 (22 September 2026). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Version history: Slime Rancher 2 entered Early Access on 22 September 2022 and hit 1.0 on 23 September 2025. Patch 1.2 (16 April 2026) added Radiant Slimes, the Caretaker and The Sanctuary. Patch 1.3 (22 September 2026) added the Hideaway expansion, custom vac styles, a portable fabricator gadget, a music player and post-credits comm calls.

Quick Start

The loop: vac up slimes, feed them, collect their plorts, and sell plorts at the Plort Market for newbucks. Spend newbucks on Conservatory expansions, corrals, gardens and vacpack upgrades.
Start with Pink and Cotton slimes. Pinks eat anything and never cause trouble. Cotton plorts sell better, and Cottons only need veggies.
Feeding a slime its favorite food doubles its plort output. Grow favorite foods in gardens next to their corral.
Never let plorts sit in a corral with another slime type. A slime that eats another type's plort becomes a Largo. A Largo that eats a third type's plort turns into the Tarr, which eats other slimes.
Cotton slimes jump high. Put a high wall upgrade on their corral or they'll escape.
Collect science resources everywhere. The Resource Harvester upgrade and refinery unlock crafting of gadgets and upgrades.
Pop Gordo slimes. Feed a giant Gordo enough of its diet and it bursts, dropping rewards and often opening new paths.
Night and weather change spawns. Phosphor slimes glow at night. Weather events (rain, wind, thunderstorms, lightning, pollen, cyclones and slimefall) bring special resources and slimes.
Save space for coops. Meat-eating slimes (Tabby, Angler, Boom) need hens, so a chicken coop is as important as a garden.

Regions of Rainbow Island

Region	Notes
The Conservatory	Your glass-walled ranch; expand plots and areas here
Rainbow Fields	Starter zone: Pink, Cotton, Tabby, Phosphor
Ember Valley	Volcanic zone, opened by bursting the nearby Pink Gordo. Adds Rock, Boom, Batty, Ringtail, Crystal and Fire slimes (plus Tabby, Angler and others)
Starlight Strand	Coastal zone and home of the nectar eaters: Flutter and Honey slimes, plus Angler, Ringtail, Hunter and Rock
Powderfall Bluffs	Snowy zone: Saber, Hunter, Rock, Boom, Crystal, Puddle, plus Pink, Cotton and Phosphor. The regular weather cycle doesn't run here
The Grey Labyrinth	Late-game ancient-tech maze, including the Waterworks section; many late resources
The Slime Sea	Surrounds the island; don't fall in, but it's a handy place to dump Tarr
The Sanctuary	Added in 1.2; the Caretaker's area for Radiant Slimes, expanded with the Hideaway in 1.3

A typical route: Rainbow Fields → Ember Valley and Starlight Strand → Powderfall Bluffs → The Grey Labyrinth. Region access opens up through gates, teleport lines and upgrades as you go.

Slimes: Diets and Favorites

These are confirmed from the Slime Rancher wiki's SR2 pages.

Slime	Diet	Favorite food	Rancher risk
Pink	Everything	None	None; lowest plort value
Cotton	Veggie	Water Lettuce	Jumps very high; needs tall walls
Tabby	Meat	Stony Hen	Steals non-food items and drops them elsewhere, which can cause accidental Largos
Phosphor	Fruit	Cuberry	Glows; lives in darker/night conditions
Rock	Veggie	Heart Beet	Spiky crown hurts you; rolls around
Angler	Meat	Sea Hen	Stuns nearby slimes and hens with a lure flash
Flutter	Nectar only	Moondew Nectar	Flies; hard to ranch without making Largos
Boom	Meat	Briar Hen	Explodes periodically, launching nearby slimes

Mid-game slimes with special needs

Slime	Diet / favorite	What catches players out
Batty	Fruit / Pomegranite	Agitated in sunlight, hungrier in darkness. Found in Ember Valley and the Grey Labyrinth
Crystal	Veggie / Odd Onion	Found in Ember Valley and Powderfall Bluffs
Hunter	Meat / Roostro	Senses prey from far away. A new Hunter Largo is always feral, so keep hens around to calm them
Ringtail	Everything / none	Turns to stone in sunlight without a solar shield, and will keep eating past hunger. Stop feeding when it looks mischievous
Puddle	Water only	Needs a pond, evaporates on other surfaces, and stops making plorts when crowded by more than three other slimes (a Rubber Ducky raises the limit)
Fire	Ash only	Must live in an ash trough under an incinerator. Food has to be burned into ash first, and water puts them out

Other ranchable slimes listed on the wiki: Batty, Crystal, Dervish, Fire, Honey, Hunter, Puddle, Ringtail, Saber, Sloomber, Tangle, Twin and Yolky. Special slimes: Gold Slime and Lucky Slime (catch them for bonuses), Shadow Slime, Feral slimes, Radiant variants and the Tarr.

Corrals, Gardens and Coops

Corral upgrades: higher walls (for jumpers like Cotton), an auto-feeder, a plort collector and more. Do walls and the plort collector first.
Gardens: plant one food and it grows on its own. Put each slime's favorite next to its corral. Patch 1.2's Growth Amplifier upgrade adds extra growing space.
Coops: hens breed more hens. Keep a coop of the right hen type (Stony, Sea or Briar) for each meat-eater.
Silos: bulk storage. Patch 1.2 raised the Improved Storage Capacity upgrade to 200 items per slot.
Ponds: water-based slimes need water access. Check the Slimepedia entry before you build.

The Largo and Tarr rules

Largo: a slime that eats a plort of a different type grows into a Largo. Largos make both plort types and are worth it in controlled setups (a Pink Largo is an easy start).
Tarr: a Largo that eats a third type of plort becomes a Tarr. Tarr eat slimes and spread fast. Shoot them with water or push them into the Slime Sea.
Keep corrals separate: one type (or one planned Largo) per corral, with a plort collector so plorts don't pile up.

Science and Gadgets

Slime Science turns gathered resources into gadgets, decorations and upgrades. Raw materials come from resource nodes (mineral nodes, spouts, hives, bubble spouts), which you harvest with the Resource Harvester vacpack upgrade and send to the refinery.

Resource	Where (per wiki)
Jellystone, Deep Brine	Rainbow Fields and the Conservatory
Radiant Ore, Silky Sand, Buzz Wax, Wild Honey	Ember Valley and Starlight Strand
Lava Dust, Primordy Oil	Ember Valley
Slime Fossil, Perfect Snowflake	Powderfall Bluffs
Sun Sap	Powderfall Bluffs and The Grey Labyrinth
Magma Comb, Tin Petal, Black Indigonium, Aqua Glass, Dream Bubble, Royal Jelly	The Grey Labyrinth
Strange Diamond	Caves across the island
Storm Glass, Lightning Mote	Lightning strikes during storms
Drift Crystal	Cyclones (which also bring Dervish Slimes)

Weather types (per the wiki): Rain, Snow, Thunderstorm, Lightning Strike, Wind, Cyclone, Pollen, Vine Tangle (brings Tangle Slimes) and Slimefall (drops Pink Slimes). Some have up to three intensity levels, and weather only starts in a zone after you've explored it and two in-game days have passed.

Tip: when a thunderstorm or cyclone rolls in, go outside and collect. Weather-only resources are often the bottleneck for late upgrades.

Patch 1.2 added the Resource Detector toy, which tells you when a crafting resource is nearby. Use it when you're hunting rare nodes. Patch 1.3 added a portable fabricator gadget, so you can craft away from home.

Vacpack Upgrades

Upgrade priority for most players:

Tank capacity (more slimes and plorts per trip)
Health and energy (survive longer and sprint/jetpack more)
Jetpack (reach higher ledges and many hidden areas)
Resource Harvester (opens science)
Water tank (fights Tarr and waters some slimes)

Radiant Slimes and The Sanctuary (1.2 / 1.3)

Radiant Slimes are rare color variants altered by the Prisma Core. They can appear anywhere their normal version spawns.
The Caretaker runs The Sanctuary, where Radiant Slimes shed extra Prisma energy while keeping their colors.
Sanctuary rooms and themed alcoves generate Sprinkles, a currency for Sanctuary expansions, themes, gadgets and decorations.
Patch 1.2.2 fix: incinerators no longer permanently destroy radiant slimes, and picking up Linked or Stunt Cannons no longer strips radiance.
Patch 1.3 (Hideaway): adds rooms and themes (Bouncy Room, Arcade Alcove, Cave Alcove, Farm Alcove, Waves Alcove), finer gadget-overlap placement, lots of decorations, and custom vac styles bought as you progress (for example Magma, Prismatic and Gold).

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mixing slimes carelessly. One stray plort in the wrong corral can make an unplanned Largo, and eventually a Tarr.
Skipping corral walls for Cottons. They'll bounce out and wander off.
Letting Tabbies roam free. They carry food and plorts around your ranch.
Keeping Boom slimes near fragile setups. Their blasts launch nearby slimes out of corrals.
Selling all plorts at once. Plort Market prices react to what you sell. Spread your sales across plort types.
Only exploring by day. Night and storms have exclusive spawns and resources.

Advanced Tips

Favorite food doubles output. One garden of each favorite feeding an auto-feeder corral is the most efficient newbuck engine.
Drones and automation: once you have them, automate harvesting gardens and moving plorts to storage so your ranch runs while you explore.
Radiant hunting: Radiant Slimes can appear anywhere their base version spawns, so revisit high-density spawn areas instead of camping one spot.
Post-game: after the credits, Patch 1.3 adds comm station calls from your friends that wrap up Bea's story. Unlocked tracks play in the new Slimepedia music player.
Gordo checks: every Gordo you pop usually unlocks something (a teleporter, area or treasure). Look for them whenever you enter a new region.

FAQ

Is Slime Rancher 2 out of Early Access? Yes. Version 1.0 released on 23 September 2025.

What's the best early money slime? Cotton and Phosphor. Both are easy to feed with garden crops (Water Lettuce and Cuberry) and sell for more than Pinks.

How do I get rid of a Tarr? Spray it with water or knock it into the Slime Sea. Then find the corral that made it and fix it.

Where do I find Radiant Slimes? Anywhere their normal slime spawns. They're very rare, and The Sanctuary is where you care for them.

What's new in Patch 1.3? The Hideaway expansion, new Sanctuary themes, a portable fabricator, custom vac styles, post-credits comm calls and a Slimepedia music player.

Is there multiplayer? There's no official co-op. It's a single-player game.