Slime Rancher 2: Release date, trailers, gameplay, and more

By Sam Hill August 18, 2022

The ranching adventures of Beatrix LeBeau will continue in Slime Rancher 2, a sequel to the award-winning, smash-hit open-world spacey ranching simulator original. Announced as somewhat of a surprise sequel at E3 2021, there are still very few details about what the sequel will look like. We know we’ll be exploring an island, capturing and raising cute little slimes of all varieties, selling their plots, and just having a grand time. But how will this sequel expand on the original? Are we going to see new slimes? New tech? More lore?

Contents

Release date
Platforms
Trailer
Gameplay
Multiplayer
DLC
Pre-order

Here’s everything we know about Slime Rancher 2 so far!

Further reading

Release date

Slime Rancher 2 promotional art. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Slime Rancher 2 will be available in early access on September 22, 2022. There’s no word yet on an official, full release date.

Fans expected to get an official release date at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022. Slime Rancher 2 was listed on a deck as a 2022 title, but we didn’t get anything more specific.

Platforms

Like its predecessor, Slime Rancher 2 will be released on Xbox Series X and Windows PC. And great news for console players — the game will be available on Xbox Game Pass on release day!

No other platform releases have been announced. The original game was also available on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

Trailer

The announcement trailer released in 2021 gave us a quick glimpse of Slime Rancher 2, but no real details.

Slime Rancher 2 Announcement Trailer

The first gameplay trailer was released in 2022 and gave viewers a look at the conservatory where most of the day-to-day ranching chores will take place, along with a bit of exploration, some hidden areas, and, of course, plenty of wild slime collecting.

Slime Rancher 2 Gameplay | Xbox Games Showcase Extended 2022

Gameplay

Slime Rancher 2 returns to the Far, Far Range and finds Beatrix LeBeau on unfamiliar shores across the Slime Sea on the mysterious Rainbow Island. We’re getting a brand new island to explore that Monomi Park describes as being “painted in a prismatic array of ever-shifting colors, and its great expanses will put [Beatrix’s] adventurous spirit to the test.” We cannot wait!

Beatrix will establish a new ranch on Rainbow Island, exploring the map, collecting slimes, and bringing them home to raise. We’re expecting the gameplay to look pretty similar to the original title, but the game itself should have a brand new feel. Nick Popovich, Slime Rancher game director and CEO of developer Monomi Park, recently told K2C Digital that the sequel will be much larger thanks to the development team essentially building it from scratch.

“One of the reasons we had to move on from the first game is that we were literally, and I mean literally, reaching the bounds of the world,” Popovich says. “Everything in the original Slime Rancher is basically happening in the same scene to have that seamless movement between zones, and we were coming up to the physical limits of this virtual space.”

“With a sequel, everyone gets to interpret this new art that we’ve made all at once, the conversation happens all at once. There isn’t this distance between veteran players and new players,” he added.

In an early 2022 interview with GamesRadar+, Monomi Park founder and Slime Rancher 2 game director Nick Popovich described the dequel as feeling just like the original, only “smoother, more expansive, more rich in details, and with a lot of tweaks and quality of life changes.”

“What’s most exciting is that the whole thing is a refreshing change from our original world,” he told GamesRadar+. “We very much leaned into the cowboy vibe in the first game with dusty valleys, an old mining operation, and a desert. Rainbow Island is far more green, with carpets of lush grass all over it, lots of trees, flowers, and water visible almost all the time. It just feels good to be in this world.”

Here’s a list of returning and brand new slimes and food items that eager gamers have either seen in trailers — or their plorts have been seen listed in screenshots including a Plort Market:

New slimes

Cotton Slime
Flutter Slime
Angler Slime
Batty Slime
Tanuki Slime

Returning slimes

Pink Slime
Rock Slime
Tabby Slime
Phosphor Slime
Boom Slime
Rad Slime
Crystal Slime
Hunter Slime
Honey Slime
Puddle Slime
Quantum Slime
Saber Slime
Fire Slime
Tangle Slime
Dervish Slime
Mosaic Slime
Lucky Slime
Gold Slime
Tarr

New food

Dodo Hen
Water Lettuce

Returning food

Pogofruit
Cuberry
Mint Mango
Hen Hen
Roostro
Carrot
Heart Beet

Multiplayer

The original Slime Rancher didn’t have any multiplayer options, and we don’t expect to see any pop up in Slime Rancher 2. In the past, the development team has been pretty adamant about Slime Rancher being a strictly unique solo experience. That being said, we’d love to see an option to send friends mail or visit other ranches as spectators. We can hope!

DLC

The first Slime Rancher game has a series of DLC packs that mostly consisted of added cosmetics for your slimes and gear. There were also several free updates for the games that added plenty of game-changing features, including drones that can be programmed to help with various tasks around the ranch, pool party fashion, and huge storage upgrades. We expect Slime Rancher 2 will get the same treatment, consistently improving through updates during its lifecycle.

When the early access release date was announced, developer Monomi Park had this to say about future updates: “Updates for Slime Rancher 2 will broadly cover three areas to varying degrees: adding more of what you already love about Slime Rancher (new areas to explore, slimes to wrangle, resources to collect, and gadgets to build), completing the story of Slime Rancher 2 and learning more about the secrets of Rainbow Island, and finally, expanding the potential of Slime Rancher’s established gameplay by adding new features not yet seen in Slime Rancher.”

Pre-order

Bunny slimes in the wild in Slime Rancher 2. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Slime Rancher 2 will not be available for pre-order because of the early access period.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Tech News

Gaming Guides Editor

Sam Hill is a journalist and the gaming guides editor at Digital Trends. He's also written tech guides for Input and has…

Gaming

Dragon Age: The Veilguard: release date speculation, trailers, gameplay, and more

A dragon in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

BioWare has had a rough few years. Following the critical and commercial success of Dragon Age: Inquisition, the studio moved on to Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem, two games that abandoned the tenets of previous BioWare titles under mounting publisher pressure.

It's been over six years since Inquisition, and although we know Dragon Age: The Veilguard (formerly Dreadwolf) is in development, it'll be a while before we see it. From the release date to the teaser trailer to any news and rumors we could find, here's everything we know about Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Release date

Gaming

Project 007: release date speculation, trailer, and more

For gamers of a certain age, Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64 was a landmark moment in gaming. This spy-themed shooter was the culprit behind countless sleepless nights and arguments over screen-peeking with friends. Since then, James Bond games never really hit those same highs and even disappeared for over a decade. Now, a new developer has taken up the iconic franchise to make a new 007 game, and the pairing seems almost too good to be true. IO Interactive, fresh off the stellar Hitman trilogy, revealed that it is creating a new James Bond game currently referred to by the code name of Project 007. Details are so scarce that even Bond himself would have a hard time uncovering them, but we've compiled all the intel so far on this new title.
Release date speculation
The only thing we know about Project 007 is that it is currently in development, but not even a window was given for when it might be finished. Given the extended length of development games have now, we would predict a release of around 2026 or 2027, but we'd love to be proven wrong and have it end up coming sooner.
Platforms
No platforms are announced, and unless the game takes even longer than we predict, it is safe to guess that it will at least come to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC like previous IO games. It is an independent studio, so there should be no exclusivity with this title.
Trailers
Project 007 - Teaser Trailer

The only trailer we have is the incredibly brief teaser from 2020. It simply shows a bullet being loaded into a gun's chamber as the iconic theme begins and we see the classic shot of looking down the barrel of a gun at the logo.

Gaming

Nintendo Switch 2: release date rumors, features we want, and more

Prime Day Nintendo Switch Deals

Rumors of a Nintendo Switch 2 (or Switch Pro) have been circulating for years. Whispers of the next-gen Nintendo console first started when The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was initially teased in 2019, gained steam when the Switch OLED launched in 2021, and are increasing now that the standard Switch has been out for six years.

There's no doubt that the Nintendo Switch is a fantastic console -- it has a unique and impressive game library (with more upcoming games slated for this year), the number of features included with Nintendo Switch Online is constantly improving, and it's still our favorite portable console -- but it isn't without its flaws. There's enough room for improvement to warrant an entirely new console in the near future. Nintendo recently announced that we wouldn't see a Switch upgrade in the next fiscal year, meaning the absolute earliest we get a look at a new Nintendo console would be in late 2024.