Slime Rancher's free update adds a digital world and virtual slimes

Slime Rancher, Monomi Park's cheery FPS, will now let you do important work for science in a new update. Viktor's Experimental Update will send you into a simulated world to hunt down virtual, glitchy slimes. And if doing it in the name of science isn't enough, there are also some new gadgets that will be doled out as rewards.

The titular scientist has created a simulated version of Slime Rancher's world, but it's full of bugs and glitchy slimes, and conveniently catching these slimes is a lot like catching slimes in the real world, which you do for a living. What are the chances? Collecting them generates bug reports, which will net you flashy hi-tech gadgets, like a chicken cloner and drones that help you do your chores.

Once you've unlocked the Ruins area and completed a few tasks, Viktor will invite you to his workshop and let you hop into the 'slimeulation'. Using Viktor's debug spray, you'll be able to reveal the slimes hiding in the simulation, suck them up and turn them into bug reports. You'll have limited time, though, as the simulation will start to become corrupted, forcing you to flee through an exit portal.

Here are the rewards you can get for capturing glitchy slimes.

Advanced Drones - These new drones can help around the ranch and handle two tasks at once.
Portable Water Tap - Water taps are a small, placeable water source that can be used to refill your tank if there aren’t ponds nearby.
Chicken Cloner - An experimental chicken cloner that works some of the time.
Slime Bait - Attract slimes with food that they like.
Portable Scareslime - Place this on your ranch to keep slimes away from things they shouldn’t be around.
Dash Pad - Instantly refill your energy level.
The Decorizer - This new storage device allows you to store, clean up, and manage decorative ranch items.

Alongside the free update, there's also some DLC. The Secret Style Pack adds 20 new slime styles, but first you've got find them scattered around the world.

Viktor's Experimental Update and the DLC are both available now.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.

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