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The Slimepedia is incomplete at the best of times. A truly thorough understanding of a creature simply cannot be obtained in the mere fifty years that the Far Far Range has been occupied by humanity, much less so with the lack of proper scientific studies. Most information in the Slimepedia, while not inaccurate, is hardly the most rigorously tested information out there.

This is not the case for the Pink Slime entry. In fact, it is far, far more accurate than most ranchers know. The claim that they will eat “anything you put in front of them” is not as much an exaggeration as it seems and extends far beyond mere fruit, veggies, and meat, though those are indeed their normal diet.

Pink Slimes are not dangerous. Among known slime types they are solidly near the bottom of the list, only above Water Slimes. This is in reference to their temperment, however. If one were to rank a slime’s ability to cause harm regardless of their actual likelihood to do so, Pink Slimes would be close to the top of the list, outclassing slimes normally considered ‘dangerous’ like Saber Slimes and Feral Slimes. While they cannot deal as much damage at once as a Dervish or Boom Slime, their ability to eat ‘anything’ is very literal and gives them deceptive destructive potential.

Pink Slimes can eat anything. Put a diamond in front of one and give it proper incentive and a Pink Slime is fully capable of dissolving it in an hour or so. Certain high-strength modern industrial acids are derived from Pink Slimes. Their plorts do not have this potent acidic quality- at best they can be induced to have the potency of a mild cleaner- and so harvesting this acid requires the cooperation of Pink Slimes via having them spit it out or accept having portions of their body carved off while in an acidic state. This is actually quite simple to do; some food and an explanation are usually enough to get a Pink Slime to cooperate. They do not feel pain when having parts of their body carved off, and so long as they are given enough food to replenish their body mass afterwards they will happily repeat the process.

Why Pink Slimes do not use their acidic potential naturally is unknown. The fact that they have potent acid at all was discovered entirely by accident when a rancher dropped a ruby into a corral and the resident Pink Slimes mistook it for a fruit and ate it. They do not use it when agitated, angry, or under lethal threat. 

Ranchers can consider themselves very lucky that Pink Slimes are so friendly, because they would be horrifically dangerous if they weren’t.

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Slime psychology is poorly understood at the best of times.

Their basic behaviors are not complicated. Their first desire is to eat and with few exceptions this supersedes all other behaviors. This is why ferals can be pacified by food rather than them fixating on the rancher. How they distinguish food is not exactly clear as meat-eating slimes will consume Hen Hens without hesitation, refrain from eating Chickadoos without prompting, and not think to consume something like a dog or even other birds like a normal chicken without prompting.

Their second desire is comfort. This is not a difficult desire to fulfill as ‘comfort’ for a creature with a very limited sensation of external touch makes for quite a broad range of acceptable conditions. Certain slimes are more sensitive than others with Phosphor Slimes being the most obvious example. 

Their third desire is socialization. Despite beliefs to the contrary, slimes do indeed get attached to conspecifics and caretakers and may grow distressed at their absence. Particularly strong attachments can even take priority over their desire to eat or for a comfortable environment if made to choose between them. That said, strong attachments are very rare as few slimes have reason to feel more strongly about one individual than another.

Bonding with slimes is not at all necessary for ranching; they can keep each other company just fine. Bonding with a slime is often more for a rancher’s benefit than the slime’s. If for some reason a slime needs to be kept away from other slimes some form of socialization will be necessary. Other entertainment such as toys can help lessen this need, but slimes are fundamentally social creatures. They are equally capable of fulfilling their social needs with a human or other animal like a cat as they are with other slimes.

While those three desires are their foremost motivations, slimes do have some other desires that crop up in specific circumstances. Their survival desire is the one ranchers are most likely to see beyond the main three, though even this is more complicated than it seems.

Slimes do not usually display much of a survival instinct. They are nearly indestructible when it comes to normal environmental hazards, with only lava able to injure them in any serious way, and as such have very little reason for caution. If a rancher were to attack a slime they would likely find it would display only minor annoyance even if they are in the process of being fully torn apart which would ‘kill’ the slime. They do not seem to fear their own destruction in any way, as many ranchers who have jettisoned unwanted slimes into the slime sea can attest.

This makes a normal slime’s reaction to Tarr Slimes all the more baffling. Tarr Slimes do indeed attack other slimes, but this is not fatal. It merely results in the creation of another Tarr Slime using the mass of the attacked slime as a base, and those Tarr Slimes can be returned to normal slime mass in the slime sea just like any other slime. There are some theories that becoming a Tarr Slime is unpleasant somehow for slimes, but their lack of reaction to other similar processes like melting, freezing, or dissolving makes the basis for this uncertain.

Related to their survival instinct is a rare drive slimes can display known as the individuality drive. This drive is sometimes mistaken for a traditional survival instinct but that would be a misinterpretation; this drive is not for their own sake.

It is commonly assumed that the slime sea somehow destabilizes a slime’s form and causes it to dissolve. This is not true. Analysis of the slime sea reveals it has a mild depressant in it that relaxes a slime and therefore causes them to release their hold on their form, causing them to break apart. The sea itself does not dissolve them.

This is related to the individuality drive as the foremost example of the individuality drive is a slime refusing to release its form when it finds itself in the sea. This is seen almost exclusively to slimes that have bonded with another individual, particularly if that individual is not also a slime. The current theory is that the slime will display behaviors similar to a survival instinct including resisting the relaxation of the slime sea and avoiding danger it would normally not care about for the sake of their bonded individual.

The individuality drive is also thought to be responsible for the noticeable increase in intelligence of bonded slimes, as that intelligence is necessary for recognizing the additional dangers that a normal slime would not care about.

The last and strangest part of slime psychology discussed here is the gordo drive. Above all others, this is the least understood part of slime psychology. The instinct for slimes of the same subspecies to merge together into a Gordo around an object of interest has no clear reason for it, nor is there a consensus on why certain objects are of interest to slimes in the first place. It is unknown if the gordo is a hivemind of all constituent slimes or has its own consciousness.

Most gordos seem to split back into their constituent slimes on their own, though that time period is suspected to be anywhere from a few days to a few centuries. The active formation of a gordo has never been witnessed, merely the assumed gathering stage and the gordo itself after the merge.

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Contrary to popular belief, Tabby Slimes do not have tails.

This could reasonably be seen as semantics, but the fact remains true. Not only is their ‘tail’ not actually a distinct body part from the rest of their form, but it is not used for balance and does not even have to be located on their rear. This pseudopod- as the correct term would be- is more akin to an arm than a tail in function.

The pseudopod of a Tabby Slime is a multi-purpose growth which finds its primary use in hunting. Their pseudopod is most frequently used as a jump-assist, acting as a spring and/or rudder in the air to help tabby slimes more accurately control their jumps. Their pseudopods are also sometimes used as a snare via lashing out to grab prey or acting as bait if the rest of their body is otherwise hidden. Their pseudopods can be made very sticky at a thought which allows them to glue onto prey and keep the Tabby in range to absorb the thrashing meal (usually a Hen-Hen) afterwards.

Tabby Slimes do have additional uses for their pseudopods. They are often used for communication and play, being used to help express emotions or in ‘tail wrestling’ contests with other Tabby Slimes or to throw or knock back their playmates. More rarely their pseudopods can be used to grab fruit from high places for other slimes, though Tabbies are not naturally inclined to do this as they do not eat fruit themselves.

While most Tabby Slimes will only use one pseudopod they are capable, with practice, of producing more than one of them at a time. This rarely occurs unless a rancher specifically trains a Tabby to do so. Tabby Slimes, just like most slimes, are terrible at multitasking however and will not be able to use each pseudopod independently; at best they can learn to coordinate them on the same task.

A Tabby Slime’s pseudopods are capable of being retracted fully into their body if desired, though they will rarely do so unless prompted. A pseudopod is capable of using up to half the Tabby’s mass before the Tabby will struggle to grow it any more. If the Tabby has more than one, they still cannot use more than half their mass on pseudopods without difficulty.

Unlike their ‘tail’, a Tabby Slime’s ‘ears’ are not pseudopods and are permanent fixtures on their body. They do indeed function similar to actual ears in that they help to funnel vibrations from the air into their body to allow them to determine the direction of sounds. 

It should be noted that all slimes have at least rudimentary tremorsense and no proper sense of hearing and Tabbies are no exception. The reason slimes react to voices is due to the vibrations, not the specific sounds. That said, they can still come to understand certain vibration patterns as words with unique meaning provided a rancher does not vary their intonation too much.

Failing that, bonded slimes are deceptively good at lip-reading as a side-effect of being skilled at understanding body language. Ranchers are better off using single words or a string of important nouns and verbs than the complexities of normal speech if they insist on efficiently communicating with slimes via talking.

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Phosphor slimes provide an example of several adaptations slimes species are capable of undergoing. Some of these are understood better than others.

Their simplest and most straight-forward adaptation is flight. Slimes are naturally light to begin with and so the achievement of flight is not particularly difficult or energy-intensive for them. Despite this, Phosphor Slimes rarely use their wings for flights longer than a few seconds, though they are indeed capable of prolonged flight if they so wish.

A Phosphor Slime’s wings are more dense than the rest of their body, giving them the strength to push air and facilitate their flight. Nearly a quarter of their mass is located in their wings. Their wings, however, are poorly shaped and so make their flying rather clumsy at best. Phosphor Slimes rely on swinging their main body to help direct their flight path rather than angling their wings.

Their antennae of a Phosphor Slime are much simpler than they appear. Their only purpose is to help the slime determine the direction of wind by being slightly more sensitive than the rest of their body. Otherwise, the antennae serve to help the slime emote. The antennae are not prehensile and have a very limited range of motion.

Bioluminescence is perhaps the most baffling evolution of Phosphor Slimes. Slimes can see perfectly well in the dark and have tremorsense to supplement it. There are some theories that their bioluminescence is used for communication, but there is more evidence to suggest the glow exists purely to help Phosphor Slimes locate conspecifics and has no other purpose.

The last adaptation of note for Phosphor Slimes is their reaction to sunlight. It is a common misconception that Phosphor Slimes die upon being exposed to sunlight. This is not true, and in this case truth is far stranger than fiction. Phosphor Slimes are not killed by sunlight, they are expanded. 

The UV rays of the sun trigger a strange reaction in Phosphor Slimes that cause their bodies to shed massive amounts of mass and balloon in size. This is why Phosphor Slimes seem to ‘pop’ when exposed to sunlight. The truth is that their mass becomes so spread out as to mix with the air itself, effectively becoming part of the many rogue slime particles making up the atmosphere of the Far Far Range. These particles are completely harmless and break down into small amounts of simple gasses like hydrogen if ingested.

The particles of a Phosphor Slime, however, will always move in relation to one another, showing that the slime is still nominally intact in some way. An absence of UV rays and proximity to extra unused mass (usually via the slime sea) is enough to reconstitute the same slime (rather than a ‘newborn’ slime like the sea usually produces). This reconstitution seems to be partially under the slime’s control, as bonded Phosphor Slimes that are accidentally exposed to sunlight have been known to reconstitute themselves without the presence of extra mass, albeit in a greatly diminished state (sometimes as small as a marble), as they trust their bonded individual to feed them and make up the missing mass.

There is some evidence to suggest that 85% of all slime particles in the atmosphere of the Far Far Range are actually deconstituted Phosphor Slimes or variants thereof. Further research is still ongoing to verify this.

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Puddle Slimes are, by nearly all metrics, the most simple species of slime. This is due in large part to their filter-feeding, sedentary lifestyle. This also makes them a very good example of the enhancements a slime can undergo with a rancher’s care, as they are otherwise the least intelligent, social, and active type of slime with the massive benefits of being by far the most easy to care for and least dangerous.

Puddle Slimes are filter-feeders. They live on the surface of any sort of water- with the notable exception of the slime sea thanks to its relaxation effect- and consume a variety of bacteria, waterbugs, and plant particles for sustenance. Most of the time they do not actively find their food, instead sitting in the middle of a current so food is pushed into them. Puddle Slimes will, however, move around if the body of water they’re in lacks a current or if their position is delivering them insufficient food.

Rather infamously, Puddle Slimes are oddly anti-social for a slime which can make them unprofitable to care for as you cannot keep many in the same place. This is actually an evolutionary adaptation designed to facilitate more efficient filter feeding and can be worked around by an inventive rancher. So long as they are receiving sufficient food they will not display their anti-social tendencies and continue to produce plots just like any other slime would. Careful management of water streams and seeding additional plants and bugs in a separate tank that feeds into the Puddle Slime pond is usually sufficient for a relatively self-sustaining system to keep a dozen puddle slimes.

Most Puddle Slimes are not familiar with the idea of play like normal slimes are. Their enrichment usually comes in the form of mild social interaction with the few conspecifics they would normally have around them. The few Puddle Slimes that do play mostly do so with other slimes that are not other Puddle Slimes, often by launching fruit and vegetables out of the water for those slimes to catch. This is to a rancher’s benefit if they wish to bond with a Puddle Slime, as they are already predisposed to interact more intensely with creatures outside of their pond than within.

Bonded Puddle Slimes tend to be far more energetic than non-bonded Puddle Slimes. They will actively seek engagement and play from creatures outside their waters rather than waiting for prompting and may even splash water to get attention. Bonded Puddle Slimes also tend to be far less nervous about their food than non-bonded Puddle Slimes and will tolerate temporary deficits of food for maintenance or relocation without a fuss. They may also consent to, or even encourage, being carried around in a bucket or a water backpack to see new things.

Bonded Puddle Slimes may also attempt to ingest foreign plorts to turn into a largo after seeing other slimes do so. This remains ineffective and not something ranchers need to worry about. Foreign plorts actually make for good toys for a bonded Puddle Slime. They will happily play catch with their bonded individual using these plorts as well, making it a good way to keep the slime happy.

Swimming with Puddle Slimes is not dangerous. Most Puddle Slimes, bonded or not, will gravitate towards any creature in the water due to the abundance of oils and particles of plant matter or dirt on them. They are very thorough in their feeding which can leave their guests quite clean if a rancher is inclined to let them. For humans, they tend to gravitate towards hair the most, which may leave some slimy residue that can be removed by simply dunking one's head in water as the residue is lighter than water and will float off.

As a last note: all Puddle Slimes, bonded or not, appreciate having new objects to touch as being water-locked severely limits their ability to explore in most environments.

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Rock Slimes are evidence of a very curious adaptation in slime physiology. They have developed durable, inflexible physical protrusions shaped into spikes. This is primarily for defense but also has other uses.

On the subject of defense, however, there is a common misconception that Rock Slimes developed their spikes in response to frequent Tarr Slime outbreaks to provide some measure of deterrence. This is false, as due to being a slime a Tarr is not particularly affected by spikes in the same way a flesh and blood creature would be.

No, the main theory among academics, backed by some burgeoning fossil research on the Far Far Range’s, is that the spikes evolved in response to a now-extinct predator. What sort of predator would have incentive to hunt slimes is unclear, but based on the usual habitat of Rock Slimes it seems to have been some sort of mountain and/or cave-dwelling creature.

To be clear, there is no fossil evidence for slimes. Slimes do not leave fossils.

Aside from defense, a Rock Slime’s spikes have the secondary purpose of helping them and other slimes get food. This is now the primary use for their rolling behavior whereas before it was likely an extension of defensive behavior.

Rock Slimes obtain food for themselves and other slimes through the very simple method of hitting food sources with their spikes as they are rolling. The spikes will dig into the ground and tear up dirt or outright spear vegetables, graze low-hanging branches or hit trees to knock loose fruit, and injure or stun wildlife for the benefit of meat-eating slimes.

For this reason many other types of slimes congregate around Rock Slime groups (with the notable exception of other primary vegetable-eaters who compete directly with Rock Slimes for food) and sometimes intentionally instigate their defensive rolling maneuver in the hopes of receiving food from them.

Bonded Rock Slimes are highly variable in their tendency to use their rolling behavior. This depends almost entirely on what species of creature they are bonded to. A Rock Slime bonded to another slime will make liberal use of their rolling move for play and to help their bonded individual obtain food. A Rock Slime bonded with a human, however, will almost never roll without being explicitly instructed to or their bonded individual is well outside their path. A bonded Rock Slime is more than smart enough to understand how easy it is to injure humans and will make every effort to avoid doing so unless in defense of either their own life or their bonded individual.

Unlike nearly all other slime types, Rock Slimes have difficulty squeezing into small spaces due to the inflexibility of their spikes. This will not stop them from trying. Ranchers should take care to discourage this behavior in bonded Rock Slimes to stop them from potentially damaging furniture or causing themselves distress at their inability to do something very standard for a slime.

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The trigger for a Boom Slime’s explosion is poorly understood at best. Factors that can increase the chance of an explosion are well-cataloged, but what actually initiates an explosion is not. Most ranchers seem to assume the exact timing is either intentional on the slime’s part or else random. This is only half true; a Boom Slime can indeed explode on command, but their other explosions are not random whatsoever.

Factors that increase the number of explosions are simple: stress, hunger, and being cramped are the most well-known causes. The least known cause is dirtiness. It used to be thought that any heightened emotion can increase the number of explosions, but this is not true. A happy or excited Boom Slime may explode intentionally, but not reflexively like in these other cases.

To be clear: as stated earlier, Boom Slimes do not explode randomly. They either explode intentionally or reflexively, not dissimilar to a human cough. A Boom Slime kept in good conditions with no desire to explode will not do so, and bonded Boom Slimes have a well-known tendency to fight off their reflexive explosions or else flee to a location where their bonded individual will not be harmed before doing so.

The reasons for a reflexive explosion are many, as the explosion itself serves many evolutionary purposes. The self-defense applications are obvious, but explosions also serve to help dig dens, dislodge food for other slimes, and create rock dust which is vital to further explosions (both in fueling and causing).

Despite being registered as obligate carnivores, Boom Slimes actually have a secondary nutritional need in the form of mineral dust. This is what they convert into explosive liquid inside their bodies alongside biological material gained from meat. This is not something a rancher usually needs to concern themselves with as dirt dust works fairly well- if a bit inefficiently- to keep a Boom Slime fed.

Rock dust does not just fuel explosions though, it also causes them, albeit for entirely different reasons. The yellow ‘cracks’ on a Boom Slime’s body are actually vents for funneling their explosive material through. When dust gets into these cracks it stimulates a Boom Slime into exploding to clear them, often creating more rock dust which restarts the cycle.

For these reasons, if a rancher wishes to minimize explosions they are advised to keep Boom Slimes in a clean, thoroughly air-filtered enclosure with plenty of space for them to roam and to provide mineral supplements for the Boom Slimes to consume (or else just feed them to the Hen Hens before in turn feeding the Hen Hens to the Boom Slimes). They should also be let outside once a day to explode manually if they feel the need for it and keep the room well-stocked with toys and engagement items to prevent stress explosions. 

As a final note: bonded Boom Slimes will occasionally demonstrate a behavior ranchers have dubbed “Popping”. This is a controlled expulsion of air through their vents in an attempt to clear them without outright exploding, not dissimilar to a human pushing air through their nose to clear it without actually sneezing. This air expulsion can still be rather forceful and tends to still eject small amounts of explosive material, though rarely enough to cause any sort of harm, and may result in the Boom Slime seeming to ‘jump’ from the force alongside a crackling noise from the small amount of explosive material detonating, hence the term “Popping”. 

Some bonded Boom Slimes have even demonstrated a level of fine control to their popping, and use it to intentionally launch themselves in jumps that are far higher and longer than what most normal slimes can accomplish. Many ranchers have seen success in setting up Boom Slime ‘golf’ courses to entertain them, wherein Boom Slimes must transfer themselves from a starting position towards their goal, using nothing more than popping for movement.