Slime Rancher 2 is the coziest apocalypse I have ever moved into. Rainbow Island, out in the Far, Far Range, used to belong to a civilization that is very clearly gone. Their ruins are still standing, and little bug-shaped bots scattered around the island hold recordings from the explorer who came before you, piecing together what that explorer learned about the place. Something happened to the people who lived here. Now the world is beautiful and peaceful and populated almost entirely by slimes, and you are the one ranching them.
I love it. I love the mystery and the life-after-people feeling of it, and I love that the end of the world, in this one case, turned out pretty. It can have all of my time. It can have all of my money (Newbucks count). The only problem is the chickens.
There are so many chickens
So many fucking chickens. Every area of my ranch is filled with chickens. Chickens of every kind: Hen Hens, Roostros, Stony Hens, Sea Hens. I could cull half of them tomorrow and still be overrun by the weekend. I cannot harvest a single garden patch without accidentally vacuuming up a few chickens along with the carrots, and then I have to decide whether to put them back or just keep them, and I always keep them, which is how this started.
I am complaining. I want that to be clear. I am also not going to do anything about it.
My chicken management system
There is no system. The chickens roam. I do not waste a ranch plot penning them, because a free-range chicken population is an infinite food source, and wherever I am on my ranch I can grab a hundred chickens and fill up a feeder in about a minute.
The real system is the slimes. Instead of controlling the chickens, I made sure the chickens have somewhere to go: most of my largos (slimes merged from two different slime types, which eat what both of their halves eat) have a meat-eating side. Everyone on my ranch eats chicken except for about two pens of largos that are vegetarian on both sides. Those two take more work, because they have favorite foods and I have to go out and find the right ones, but it is not hard.
Nothing goes to waste, either. The Elder Hens and Elder Roostros go into the Incinerator, and the ash feeds my fire slimes. RIP.
If you think about it from a survival standpoint (and this is In Case of Survival, so I do), it is a pretty good setup. A food supply that replaces itself faster than you can use it, spread out everywhere, with no fences to maintain. The only downside is that it is everywhere.
If you are the kind of person who wants to control your chickens
I respect that, and I am not that person, but here is what you need. Chickens out in the open get eaten by wild slimes, so a Coop (250 Newbucks on an empty plot) keeps them safe. Hens only lay when a Roostro is nearby, so every coop needs at least one. Keep it to about a dozen grown chickens per coop, because crowded chickens get anxious and stop laying. And plan on some of them turning into Elder Hens, which do not lay at all.
The coop upgrades help with all of that:
- High Walls (200 Newbucks): an extra layer of wall so the chickens stop escaping.
- Spring Grass (425 Newbucks): scuttle bugs roam the coop, and Chickadoos grow up twice as fast.
- Vitamizer (500 Newbucks): hens lay eggs twice as fast.
- Elder Collector (1,300 Newbucks): chickens that turn into elders get moved into a collector for you to pick up later, which frees up space for the ones still laying.
Where my Newbucks actually go
Not on decorations. I have never spent a Newbuck on an aesthetic piece, and I am not about to start. My money goes, in order, to my equipment, to slime containment, to keeping my slimes happy (if a specific slime wants a specific toy, it gets that toy) and then to opening up new areas. I upgrade every piece of equipment I can, and the only reason it is not all fully upgraded is that I still have not found all the parts I need.
Why it gets all of my time
Because it is peaceful, and because it is fun just to move through. Exploring and traversing Rainbow Island feels good, and the island is full of secrets. My favorite moment in the whole game keeps happening over and over: finding something I did not realize I had missed, then working out how to get back to it, which takes a while, because I have no sense of direction and I get lost a lot.
My one real gripe is that it is hard to know what to do without a guide. I love that the game does not put you on rails, but some of the mystery areas are so hard to figure out that it seems like you are not supposed to be able to unlock them yet, or the solution is so unexpected that I never would have gotten there on my own. If you are stuck, it is not just you.
I also loved the first game, back when the Far, Far Range was my happy place. It still is.
The trivial details (or, what this teaches you about real chickens)
If the end of the world does come and you decide chickens are part of your plan, do not take the free-range approach from me. Real chickens do not get eaten by slimes, but foxes, raccoons and hawks will happily fill in, which is why real coops exist. Real hens also lay eggs without a rooster; you only need one if you want those eggs to hatch into more chickens, which, after what happened on my ranch, you may want to think hard about. And backyard keepers usually plan on around four square feet of coop space per bird, because cramped chickens get stressed and stop laying, just like the game says.
Slime Rancher 2 left early access with its 1.0 release on September 23, 2025, and it is on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Find out more on the official Slime Rancher site.
So, tell me: how many chickens are on your ranch right now? Do you have a system, or are you also just living in the feathers?