Slime Rancher Available for Free at The Epic Game Store

Slime Rancher, the premier slime ranching simulation from Monomi Park, will be available for free at the Epic Games store for the next two weeks. You don’t even need to download it – simply claim the game, and you’ll get to keep it for good. You should download it, though, as it’s mighty good fun. Pardnr.

If you haven’t heard of the game, here’s the official blurb: you play as Beatrix LeBeau, a young woman who decides to travel to the Far, Far Ranges and try her hand at slime wrangling. You’ve inherited a ranch from a famous rancher, so you have no choice but to ranch. I’ve taken the game for a spin, and it’s basically Stardew Valley but with slime poop instead of produce.

You use your multi-purpose vacuum machine to scoop up different kinds of slimes and transport them to the enclosures at your farmstead. You feed them their favorite food, collect their droppings and exchange them for money. You then use that money to buy more farm equipment, vacuum upgrades, shinier boots and stuff. The other ranchers of the Far, Far Ranges come to you for help with their problems from time to time, and you can either solve or ignore them.

That’s pretty much all I’ve managed to figure out from my short time with the game. There’s a sizeable map to explore, a whole bunch of slime types with different behaviours to tame, and even secret treasures in hard to reach places. It’s a pretty adorable game, if you’re into adorable games, and it seems like a really powerful timesink. God knows there’s already enough of those in my life, but still, I’d say I’m hooked. And you could be, too, for the low low price of absolutely nothing at all.