User blog:PopsicleNinja/A Guide To Locating Your Slimes

There are some things that need to be considered when you are adding new slimes to your ranch. Granted, I don't expect you to have "The Plan" all at once, or have a plan at all, because most players are spontaneous and make it up as they go. So instead, this guide is about common good and bad locations to put slimes.

Phosphor Slime, Grotto
The Grotto is worth it's investment. It will provide more use than a single corral ever could, and provides you with the ability to free-range phosphor slimes.

Rock Slime, Main Ranch
Rock/Tabbies were the first slimes that ever took permanent residency in my ranch, back in old save games where there was room for me to free-range all of the slime species (except pink). And this was an easy location to keep them in, because rock slimes actually need a lot of space due to their rolling, and the other areas are surprisingly small.

Hunter Slime, Overgrowth
I often go out exploring for multiple days at a time. When I come home, I encounter all of my slimes starving due to a glitch with being on the ranch, as they had so much food before the trip that there was no way they ate it all. For hunter slimes, this is an even bigger problem, because they go feral after being hungry for too long. If they are in the Overgrowth, there is free food that you can use to quickly calm down a feral if it causes trouble.

Phosphor Slime, Outside of Grotto
Escape of a corral will endanger the slime's life if it happens during the day. Besides, it really is wasteful to put solar shield on corrals when the Grotto does the exact same thing and is a much better investment!

Phosphor/Quantum Largo, Outside of Grotto
While it already is a bad idea to keep phosphor slimes outside of the Grotto, it is an even worse idea with slimes that can phase through walls, as there is no way to truly prevent them from escaping, and thus, the death risk is much greater.

Tangle Largo, Quantum Largo, Near Honey Largo
Placing any kind of slime near a honey slime is generally asking for trouble, as they may try to escape, and more rarely, cause Tarr. However, slimes that can defy the barriers of corral walls are the biggest danger, as they are almost certain to cause Tarr due to their OP abilities: Quantum slimes can and will ignore corral walls and escape, and tangle slimes can grab not only chickens, but also plorts, from a distance using their vines.

How To Relocate Largos
It is fairly easy to relocate slimes if they are small, just vac them up! The same cannot be said, however, of largos, and relocating is often a tedious task. Here is how to do it without creating Tarr:

New Corral
It is easy to relocate corralled slimes:
 * 1) When you are moving slimes, pay attention to where you are going, so that you don't run into plorts or produce plorts that could lead to Tarr.
 * 2) When you are done relocating, remove all of the plorts from the old corral so that you can safely use it again.

Switching Corrals
It is a little harder to actually switch two largo types between corrals:
 * 1) Remove all food and plorts from both corrals.
 * 2) To make it go faster, when you pick up a slime from one corral, don't go back without picking one from the other and transferring.
 * 3) Once again, be careful to where you are going.

New Free-Range Area
This is where it is slightly harder.
 * 1) Relocate the slimes.
 * 2) Remove all the plorts from the previous location. Depending on the location, this can range from easy to indredibly tedious (good luck with the Overgrowth).

Swapping Free-Range Areas
This is the hardest feat of all, and it is recommended that you think it through before you do it, because this can be an easy way to produce Tarr:
 * 1) Create a "holding corral" in one of the areas. For purposes of the tutorial, I'll call this Area A.
 * 2) Relocate the slimes from the other area, I'll call it Area B, to the holding corral. Please be careful when transferring slimes, as if there is so much as a single plort left in the other area, there can and will be Tarr.
 * 3) Remove the plorts from Area B. Double-check, please!
 * 4) Move the slimes from Area A to Area B.
 * 5) Remove the plorts from Area A.
 * 6) Release the slimes from the holding corral. You are now finished the long and tedious process.

About The Great Corralling Debate
There is almost certainly a differing opinion on how to raise slimes. Some people believe that corralling is OK, others believe it's not. While I will not state my opinion for purposes of neutrality, I will say that there are certain slimes who are better suited for corralling than others, and some are not appropriate for corralling at all when they are largos. In addition, there is a certain amount of slimes you can comfortably hold in each corral, which varies from slime to slime.