Slime Rancher free on the Epic Games Store right now

Gather, breed, and tend to a brood of mischievous, turd-gobbling cuties in Slime Rancher, the latest game to be given away free on the Epic Games Store. Released in 2017 after a stretch in early access, Monomi Park's Slime Rancher is a... metroidvania farming game? Gather different species of slimes from around the world, build and upgrade pens for them, feed their poo (plorts) to other species to cross-breed them and create new nightmares, gain access to new areas to get stranger slimes, and so on. It's colourful, it's friendly, that thing lurking in the bottom-right corner of your screen is a vacuum to suck up slimes rather than a gun, and oh god those slimes are SUCH adorable nuisances.

If you're interested, grab it now from the Epic Games Store. Slime Rancher's giveaway lasts until March 21st. After that, Slime Rancher will go back to £15 and the delightful Oxenfree will become free for a fortnight. Hey, Epic are paying.

You may well be interested, given that Slime Rancher is pretty deece. Dear Pip wrote our Slime Rancher review.

"I had thirty wonderful hours collecting/harassing/cleaning up after slimes," she said. "The world itself drip-fed me secrets at a really pleasing rate for my pottering playstyle and I got so many thrills of real delight as I made my way through the alien world. A particular relationship which plays out in the form of letters delivered to Beatrix’s house gradually wormed its way into my heart and, the way I read it and Beatrix left me feeling really warm and happy as the credit sequence played out."

Pip consulted a great sage too.

"I think Alice summed up the spirit of the Slimes when she said 'It is one of the few games to capture that feeling of being SO CROSS with a creature you can't be angry at because it’s so cute, like cats knocking things over or puppies being foolish.'"

Sounds like a great thing, an 'Alice'. Where can we get more of them?

Our Alec will tell you Slime Rancher is one of the best non-violent games too.