It's Slimin' Time: Slime Rancher 2 debuts in September 2022

Since the original Slime Rancher dropped six years ago, it has become a cozy-game classic. With resource management, exploration, and farming elements all tied up in a casual sci-fi environment, it's a title that offers relaxed gameplay in a cute package. What's not to love?

Fans have eagerly awaited a sequel for the past few years with relative quiet from Monomi Park, the developer/publisher. While they dropped a preview trailer back in June with Viktor Humphries (a Slime Rancher NPC) and had teased a Fall 2022 release, they only just confirmed a September date for their sequel to launch.

It's good to note that they are launching Early Access, and their team has reiterated that because they are a no-crunch studio, they don't have specific dates for certain update rollouts, etc. Monomi Park took a similar approach to the first Slime Rancher release and provided free updates+content to Early Access users until their game was fully released, which took about a year and a half. The Monomi Park team has stated that they estimate Slime Rancher 2 will be in Early Access for "at least 18 months". 

When asked about Slime Rancher 2's initial playability, their team stated: "We have taken great care to ensure that Slime Rancher 2 will always feel relatively whole and worth playing at any point in its development... We have no intention of delivering updates in a knowingly unstable state or treating our players as QA testers instead of customers." The game will launch without some of the previous game's features like farm drones, but their team has promised that those will be part of future updates, including new unseen things from the first game.

So, here's the real question: What's new in Slime Rancher 2? Here's some of what we know so far based on official comments and footage:

• Their team has done a lot of work polishing the graphics, but they've also done more to work on the "density" of their world, slime physics, etc. Even the quick preview we got showed some adjustments to the UI that look promising.
• There will be more ways to get resources from your environment, like smashing rocks.
• Players are entering a new place called Rainbow Island, a land across the Slime Sea from the Far Far Range. Your new home, The Conservatory, will serve as your homebase in this mysterious land. There will be new environments to explore and new slimes (and plorts!) to find.
•  From the looks of it, they'll up the sci-fi factor a bit more and introduce some "ancient mysteries." We got a hint of those mysteries in The Glass Desert in the first Slime Rancher, so I hope this is a continuation of that narrative thread.
• Their team has hinted at adding new features not yet seen in Slime Rancher, but they haven't provided any context for what those may be. I'd anticipate we get some new gadgets that aid in further exploration, but I hope we get some features that help amplify the subtle narrative undercurrent in Slime Rancher's world.

The first Slime Rancher was fully released back in 2017. Slime Rancher 2 releases on Sept 22 (in early access) and will be available on Steam, EGS, and first-day on Xbox/PC Game Pass as a Game Preview. Those who want a better idea of the roadmap/development of the game, or want to know how the game will feel in Early Access, should check out this Early Access/Game Preview Reddit FAQ from last month.

Tell me below: will you pick up Slime Rancher 2 in a month? Have you played the first one? Are you excited to get Slimin'? :)