At its core, Slime Rancher 2 is a cute, colourful, relaxing game, and its stunning visuals and soft soundtrack are what make it all the more immersive when you’re sucking up long-eared Cotton slimes or jet-pack jumping across biomes. It’s only natural, then, that a new Slime Rancher 2 content update – and new area – should feature the same awe-inspiring visuals you’re used to, and Powderfall Bluffs does just that, giving you the perfect pastel escape at the end of a long day.
In the Slime Rancher 2 Song of the Sabers update, you need to find your way to this frosty new Winter Wonderland. Here, stunning secrets await that any fan of the cute and colourful world of Slime Rancher will be in awe of, and it’s safe to say it left me literally speechless. While I can’t yet tell you how to find this new area, I can tell you a bit more about what awaits you under its melting snowdome.
First off, the biome itself. Powderfall Bluffs is some of what you’d expect from the name – but it’s also so much more. A frosty new enclave in the otherwise bright and sunny Rainbow Island, Beatrix discovers Powderfall Bluffs hidden beneath an icy dome. Now melting away, this frosty time-capsule has revealed ancient secrets within, perhaps frozen in time until now. The icecaps left behind make up part of what is maybe the most beautiful Slime Rancher area to date, comprising both snow-capped expanses, a fiery amber forest, and mysterious caves filled with fossils. Where you find Powderfall Bluffs, though, remains a secret even to us, and you’ll need to explore every inch of Ember Valley and Starlight Strand to uncover this icy ancient land.
One of my favourite parts of Powderfall Bluffs is the dynamic snow which covers the ground. Unlike anything I’ve seen in previous Slime Rancher biomes, you can almost feel the soft, crunchy snow as slimes leave dents and trails as they bounce or pass through. Keep your wits about you as you explore this snowy landscape though, as this soft snow brings about an adorably new feature in… snowball fights. Yep, you read that right. You and the Slime Rancher 2 slimes that inhabit this land can playfully chuck balls of snow at each other. Find piles of snowballs lying around or collect them from new Snowball gadgets around Powderfall Bluffs and start a friendly fight. You can even craft a Snowball gadget to have back at your base and play with all of your slimes back at the farm.
You should also keep your eyes peeled for other new resources in Powderfall Bluffs, including Perfect Snowflakes, Sunsap, and Slime Fossils, as these can be used to craft new gadgets. We’ll leave some new things for you to discover for yourself, but the image at the bottom of the page should give you a hint about just one of the cool new decorations you can build.
That’s a general idea of just how beautiful Powderfall Bluffs is, but we’ve not even scratched the surface. As the sun starts to set on the snowy land, you might see signs of the Aurora Borealis phenomena gracing the sky. Until now, once you’ve herded enough Phosphor slimes in Slime Rancher 2 – glowing slimes that only appear at night – there was no real difference in gameplay between night and day, and you might find yourself never sleeping with no real idea of how many days have passed. In contrast, the Song of the Sabers update night and day cycle is like, well, night and day, and there’s a whole new world to explore once the sun sets.
During the day, watch out for a faint rainbow glint, as these will transform under the Northern Lights into bridges and ramps that can’t be accessed in daylight. These are Auroral Anomalies, and you’ll also see new plants and trees appear in the same way, completely transforming the Powderfall Bluffs landscape into a glittering masterpiece. Since these paths are inaccessible during the day, adventuring under the night’s sky is the only time you can explore some of these areas. Once you reach the highest heights, we highly recommend finding a secluded spot and taking a few moments to just look around and take in the atmosphere, not neglecting the glistening stars above your head.
The view is one thing, but what about new slimes? Well, the name of the update kind of gives this one away, but of course the fan-favourite Saber slime is back. A few slimes from the first game still haven’t appeared in Rainbow Island, and they may not, but the Saber slime is not only one of the more popular critters from the prequel, it also comes to Slime Rancher 2 with new mechanics.
These toothy beasts were found exclusively in largo form in Slime Rancher, and therefore didn’t have a small, base slime. Presumably this is because the Saber slime is prehistoric, and lived on in only those that gobbled up the few remaining Saber Plorts. Well, it seems Beatrix may have finally discovered the ancient land Sabers call home, as base Saber slimes are finally here. Make sure you have an appropriately-equipped corral at the ready if you take back to the Conservatory though, because these guys have some serious bounce.
I hear you: “So what do they eat?” Bouncing around as much as they do, they must have a pretty healthy appetite. In their largo form in the first game, you could feed Sabers the favourite food of their counterpart as they didn’t have a favourite food of their own. In Slime Rancher 2, however, meet the brilliantly named and awesome-looking Thundercluck chicken. Found only in the Powderfall Bluffs biome, these dino-chickens clearly found some way to evade extinction, even while being devoured by Sabers.
Now, I’ve been told that there’s another new slime joining the fan-favourite Saber in this new realm, but this new addition remains a secret. During my preview of the update, I wasn’t allowed to see the new slime, nor was I told much about it.
We do know a little about this new creature, though, including that it’s incredibly rare, making it all the more precious when you do find it in Powderfall Bluffs. More interestingly, perhaps, is that Monomi Park has told me this new slime has a unique new functionality. I have to be honest, I have zero clue what this might be, but, again, doesn’t that make it all the more exciting to go on the hunt?
Before we head off to wrangle some more prehistoric Saber slimes and hunt for those surprise new friends awaiting us in Powderfall Bluffs, let’s talk about music. I mentioned above that the delicate soundtrack of Slime Rancher – until terrifying Tarr Slimes appear – is just as important as the visuals in providing the calming experience that Slime Rancher offers. Powderfall Bluffs comes with a brand new soundtrack for the area, so make sure you have your sound turned up as you go off on your next adventure.
For existing fans of the farming game, there’s no denying that this simply gorgeous new biome will bring back the same feels from the first time you sailed into Rainbow Island. If you’ve never ventured further than, or even into, the Far, Far, Range, then there’s no better time to start. Monomi Park has confirmed more “awesome things” to come, with at least one more update in the pipeline before Slime Rancher 2’s full release, and a mysterious story to unfold.