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Slime Rancher is not just a farming game. It's also a game about exploration, with the player accessing more and more of Slime Rancher's maps with new upgrades.
While Slime Rancher's Far Far Range is picturesque, players are searching for more than good landscape shots. Slime Rancher hides unique slimes and resources in its many hidden crevices. One of the more exciting discoveries are treasure pods.
These colorful orbs live up to their name: at worst the player will get a decoration or slime science resources, and at best, they'll get a unique lab blueprint or three golden plorts, one of Slime Rancher's most valuable slimes. But the player can't open them immediately. They need to learn how to unlock them.
Slime Rancher's Treasure Pods and Treasure Crackers
Thankfully, unlocking treasure orbs is simple. All the player needs to do is find the key. In this case, the key isn't a literal object they find lying around, but a lab upgrade called the treasure cracker. Once they have it, players can just walk over to a treasure pod and open it.
Players won't be able to unlock them all at once, however. Like most of Slime Rancher's gadgets, the treasure cracker can be upgraded, and each upgrade corresponds to a different color of treasure orb.
The Treasure Cracker's Upgrades
The Treasure Cracker MKI is the base treasure cracker, and can unlock green treasure orbs. Players will get this pretty early on. It becomes available after the player first gets to the lab and crafts a single gadget. It costs 4500 newbucks.
Every upgrade after this is barred behind the number of gadgets the player has crafted. Unlocking them is simply a matter of time. The Treasure Cracker MKII is unlocked after crafting 20 gadgets, and costs 9000 newbucks to build. It unlocks blue treasure pods.
At the very end of the upgrade tree is the Treasure Cracker MKIII, which is unlocked after crafting 50 gadgets and costs a whopping 25000 newbucks to build. It unlocks purple treasure pods.
A Note on The Secret Style Treasure Pods
Slime Rancher's secret style DLC adds 20 new golden treasure pods to the game. They don't contain any of Slime Rancher's critical resources, just optional cosmetic skins for the player's slimes.
Since they don't affect the player's progression, Monomi Park decided that these treasure pods don't require a treasure cracker to open them. They're unlocked from the start.
Slime Rancher is available now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.