Stardew Valley Player Gets A Little More Than They Bargained For With Free-Range Slimes

A Stardew Valleyplayer recently realized that farming Slimes isn't for the faint of heart. In Stardew, players can keep a number of different animals on their farms once they've built the proper infrastructure: cows, chickens, goats, sheep, and even dinosaurs. But with the right kind of building - specifically, a Slime Hutch - they can even raise their very own monsters. Once they hatch and mature, Slimes in a sufficiently full Hutch will produce Slime Balls; they can also be slaughtered to obtain materials ranging from wood to Iridium Ore.

But, as one player learned the hard way, raising Slimes isn't always easy. Reddit user GoldenHelikaon recently shared an in-game screenshot of their Slimes wandering far and wide throughout the map, with most of them gathering in the river. Of course, this makes it a lot harder to harvest anything from them. Plus, they could pose a great danger from the water, striking from somewhere the player can't go, then rushing back into the river for total immunity. Although the original poster swears they put down a fence to prevent the Slimes from escaping, there's one major problem with that strategy.

Stardew Valley Slimes Cannot Be Contained By A Simple Fence

There's Only One Way To Keep Slimes In Place

In the second screenshot they posted, GoldenHelikaon explains that they put a fence around their Slime Incubator to keep their Slimes in a small, contained pen. However, as many other players pointed out in the comments, fences don't actually stop Slimes in Stardew Valley. Whether they squeeze themselves through or simply jump over them is up for interpretation, but one way or another, they find a way around.

If you place a Slime Incubator literally anywhere outside, the Slimes that hatch from it will wander literally everywhere on the same screen. If you put one on your farm, you'll find them wandering through your fields; if you put one in town, they'll hop through the streets. You may even catch them wishing you a good morning, or getting upset when you search through a trash can, like any other Stardew Valley villager. It just so happened that GoldenHelikaon's Incubators were close to the river, so all their escaped Slimes decided to go for a swim.

In fact, there's only one way to keep all your Slimes in one place, and that's to put them inside. Whether it's in a Slime Hutch or in your farm house (which would certainly be a choice), Slimes can't open doors, so the only way you can prevent them from escaping is to ensure they stay indoors. Don't worry, they prefer the dark anyway.

Our Take: Slime Farms Can Be Extremely Lucrative

But You Have To Learn To Run Them Right

Farming Slimes can be a lot of trouble in Stardew Valley, but they can also be quite profitable. There are effectively two ways to profit from a Slime farm, and the first is to raise as many Purple Slimes as possible. These are the only Slimes that drop Iridium Ore, one of the rarest and most valuable upgrade materials in Stardew Valley. The best way to do so is to game the odds, combining the right types of Slimes to breed purple ones.

Otherwise (and this is a much more reliable method), you can sell some of your Slime Eggs for a pretty tidy profit. Even the least expensive color of Slime Egg, green, sells for 1,000g - the most expensive, the Tiger Slime Egg, is worth 8,000g. You can harvest slime organically, and put it into a Slime Egg-Press whenever you hit 100 for an easy bit of passive income. Just make sure you don't let your Slimes roam free in Stardew Valley.