Like a Tabby slime squelching into your chicken coop, Slime Rancher 2 has been steadily working its way through its early access period since it launched in September 2022. This February, developer Monomi Park added 36 new gadgets into its squidgy farming sim, including a constructible Slime pinball machine. Now, its v.0.5.0 update adds yet more gizmos to the game, alongside a whole new way to purchase them: the ProntoMart.
As explained via Steam, the ProntoMart "introduces a brand new shop system to spend all your hard-earned Newbucks". The ProntoMart kiosk, designed in Slime Rancher's delightful kawaii style, lets players access two new storefronts. Polestar Provisions sells blueprints needed to craft gadgets, while Coo-Coo corner is a "daily deals" shop that sells gadgets both decorative and functional.
The ProntoMart update also adds multiple new gadgets to buy, including Slime see-saws and a "slimeball" goal, bringing the total of available gadgets to 51. Accompanying these are 31 "gadget variants", cosmetic alternatives that allow the game's tools and toys to come in different colours, shapes and so forth. On top of all this, the update sees the return of Slime toys, which Monomi Park says includes "some old favourites" as well as entirely new toys to keep your slimes entertained.
Finally, the update adds a new area to the player's conservatory homebase—the Digsite. This provides additional plots where you can corral your slimes and build other functional structures. But it's also a "site of archeological curiosity" and includes hidden caches of useful resources.
The aim of this update, Monomi Park explains, is to let players "really make the ranching experience their own". It's a sensible direction for the sequel, given the original had a relatively strict progression path that didn't allow much creative expression beyond where you put your slimes, and which ones you tried to, for lack of a better word, crossbreed. In its additional of functional gadgets, Slime Rancher 2 is clearly aiming to make your ranch a more dynamic playspace, where your slimes can do more than just eat and produce valuable 'plorts' for you to sell.
Monomi Park has been steadily updating Slime Rancher 2 for nearly two years, and seems in no hurry to finish it. That said, it was an excellent game even in its prototypical form. "I can already feel my impending weekend being sucked into Slime Rancher 2 the same way I'm sucking slimes up into my vacuum," Chris wrote in his Slime Rancher 2 early access impressions.
The sequel also massively surpassed the developer's sales expectations when it hit early access, so this has presumably given Monomi Park plenty of space to build the game exactly how they like. There are plans for a third update later this year, though there are no details available about what it might include at this time.
