Beatrix LeBeau has a lot to do. With all of Rainbow Island to explore and countless slimes to meet, capture, and raise, Slime Rancher 2 makes it easy to stay busy. Whether the player wants to see every hidden area of the island, raise a horde of Ringtale Slimes, or just take things easy and farm a little, there's no shortage of things to keep the player engaged.
Actually doing everything is easier said than done, however. The game's vibe is a relaxing one, but a few upgrades make keeping up with one's chores a lot easier. Moving faster, carrying more, and being healthier are just a few possibilities. In time the player will pick up everything, but there are some upgrades that are worth grabbing before everything else.
7 Heart Module
Slime Rancher 2 is a cozy relaxploration game, not a desperate fight to the death. That said, getting hurt is still possible if the player gets too careless around some of the game's grumpier slimes. The Heart Module is a simple safety measure, increasing the player's starting Health by 50%. For some players, this won't be crucial, but for others will provide a comfy safety net that makes exploring Rainbow Island that much less worrisome.
Were combat more frequent, the Heart Module would rank higher in importance, but since the player can avoid most danger simply by staying inside at night, some other upgrades are more important for the early game. That said, the Heart Module is still a must-grab upgrade for anyone who wants to play with Tarr and Feral Slimes but still wants to be safe.
6 Tank Booster
The player has two default upgrade options when it comes to increasing their precious inventory space: the Tank Booster and the Extra Tank. The Tank Booster increases the storage capacity of each vac tank from 20 units to 30, letting the player cart around more slimes, Plorts, fruit, or whatever else might catch their attention.
The more inventory space the player has, the more efficiently they can work, cutting down on the grind and letting the player focus on what's fun. While having bigger stacks of items isn't quite as good as being able to carry more types of items, the Tank Booster is still a solid upgrade for the early game and will remain useful throughout Slime Rancher 2.
5 Dash Boots
Rainbow Island is a surprisingly large location, with multiple biomes that the player must thoroughly explore if they want to collect all the slimes, find valuable resources, and learn all the game's fun secrets. Because of this, the player is going to do a lot of running around, especially in the early game when they have no other options for traversal.
The Dash Boots make this process more bearable by reducing the energy consumption of sprinting. Whereas sprinting in some games barely makes a difference to the player's overall speed, sprinting in Slime Rancher 2 is fast and feels great, so naturally, the player will want to do it as much as possible. The Dash Boots make this possible, which is the only selling point they need.
4 Water Tank
The Water Tank sounds like it would be used for watering crops, but what it's actually for is blasting unruly slimes in the face with water. While that may seem mean, the alternative is getting slapped around by a Tarr or other aggressive breed of slime, potentially getting knocked out, losing resources, and waking up to an Observatory full of hungry and grouchy slimes.
Slime Rancher 2 isn't about combat, though it does include it in a simple form. It's possible to play for long stretches without ever needing this upgrade, which somewhat diminishes its importance when compared with other potential upgrades. When cornered in a field at night by a horde of hungry slimes, however, the player will be glad they brought the Water Tank along.
3 Extra Tank
Storage capacity is a common concern in many farming sims. With only so many spots with which to carry fruits, vegetables, and other important resources, the player will often find themselves with more goodies than they can hold in the early game. It's frustrating to make multiple trips to bring everything back to the Observatory, so anything that solves this problem is great.
The Extra Tank is the best upgrade in this department. Though the Tank Booster increases the carrying capacity of the player's existing vac tanks, the Extra Tank upgrade adds space to carry an additional type of item rather than just larger stacks of the same items. This extra space gives the player more flexibility when foraging, cuts down on backtracking to the ranch, and is just a solid QoL upgrade all around. After playing with the Tank Booster, the player will never want to go back to the days of limited storage.
2 Jetpack
Exploration is a huge part of Slime Rancher 2. The Observatory may be the player's safe and comfortable refuge away from Tarr Slimes and other dangers, but they'll never find all the slimes or resources they need by staying home all day. Eventually, they'll need to venture out and explore Rainbow Island, and considering how beautiful the game is, most players will want to start exploring right away.
Traversing the island can be tricky, however, depending upon one's path. Some ledges are just out of reach, some gaps are a bit too wide, and some predatory slimes can only be safely escaped if the player gets to a high place they can't reach. This is where the Jetpack comes in. This self-explanatory upgrade allows the player to take to the skies, and the mobility that it provides makes life easier in countless ways. Every player should have their eyes on getting the Jetpack as soon as possible.
1 Resource Harvester
The Resource Harvester is arguably the most important early-game upgrade in Slime Rancher 2. It allows the vac to shake science resources from nodes that the player will find scattered around the map. These nodes are the only way to get valuable resources, such as Deep Brine and Jellystone.
Since these resources are essential for unlocking other important upgrades, the Resource Harvester should be the player's top priority. Having it doesn't mean the player has to devote themselves to a life of ultra-efficiency, pushing fun out of their minds in pursuit of maximizing profit, although that's an option too. Having this upgrade just means that if the player stumbles upon a resource node while exploring, they can now grab its valuable contents instead of walking away empty-handed.
Slime Rancher 2 is available now for PC and Xbox Series X/S.