Normally when you want to run into Slimes in Stardew Valley you need to enter the Mines, the Skull Cavern, or the Secret Forest. In other words, you wouldn’t expect to see the little bundles of non-joy on your own farm. You can easily change that, though, by purchasing a Slime Hutch.
Slime Hutches, like other buildings, are constructed at the Carpenter’s Shop. Unlike most of the buildings, though, Slime Hutches consist of some relatively advanced, difficult-to-find materials, including the following:
- 10,000 gold - easy enough
- 500 Stone - also easy
- 10 Refined Quartz - you’ll find Quartz throughout the Mines and the Skull Cavern; tossing a hunk into a Furnace and you’ll get some Refined Quartz
- One Iridium Bar - These are made from five Iridiums Ores, which you can get out of Magma / Omni Geodes, meteorites, and some enemies; you may also get a whole Iridium Bar drop from the purple Slimes in the Skull Cavern
Put Robin on the job once you have all of the pieces and she’ll have your Slime Hutch built a few days later. Note that Slime Hutches are enormous, and you’ll want to completely clear about half a screen’s worth of tiles to make sure you can fit your new Hutch onto your property.
Breeding Slimes
Having a Hutch is only half the battle. Now you need to get yourself some Slimes. Once your Slime Hutch is built Marlon will stop by and leave you a Green Slime Egg. You can drop this into an Incubator in the top-left corner of the Hutch to generate a Slime after a few days. You can Craft more Incubators with two Iridium Bars and one hundred Slimes.
One Slime is not enough, though. You’ll want lots of Slimes, and you can have as many as twenty in a single Hutch. There are two ways to do this:
- Enter the Mines or the Skull Cavern and kill Slimes. There’s a small chance one of them will drop a Slime Egg. You can take this back to the Slime Hutch and Incubate it into another Slime.
- By the same token, you can use the Slimes you collect from dead Slimes (confused yet?) in a Slime Egg-Press to create more Eggs. One hundred Slimes will create an Egg, and you’ll need 25 Coal, one Fire Quartz, and one Battery Back to make a Slime Egg-Press.
Once you have two Slimes of different genders - those with bobbles over their heads and those without - they will begin to breed on their own, whether you want them to or not.
Payoff
The primary draw of Slimes are the big, goopy balls of slime that they’ll occasionally leave behind. Water the four troughs on the right side of the Hutch and the Slimes will drink it up, generating these heaps of goo. Interact with a heap and it will explode into a shower of Slime. Good way to collect the stuff, either to sell or to create more Slimes. Your call.
The Dangers
The Slimes in your Slime Hutch are no different from the Slimes in dungeons, and they’ll attack you as soon as you come in range. This makes Slime Hutches extremely dangerous when they’re populated by large numbers of Slimes. There are a few ways to mitigate these dangers:
- Kill Slimes. Don’t let the population get too big. A few sword whacks from the door will kill at least a few. If you accidentally kill them all you’ll have to go looking for another Slime Egg.
- Get the Slime Charmer Ring. You’ll receive this handy item by killing one thousand Slimes. Check in at the Adventurer’s Guild, outside the Mines, and Gil will fork it over. The Ring completely negates any damage inflicted by Slimes, allowing you to move through your Slime Hutch without harm. You will, however, still be slowed by their attacks, which gets really annoying.
- As pictured above, set up a gated fence inside your Slime Hutch. This will allow you to move from the water troughs to the door without being constantly harassed. You’ll have a hell of a time getting the Slimes into the fenced area, and you’ll still have to wander inside to pop the slime balls, but this will make daily re-watering much easier.
The Witch
Ever received Void Chickens from the witch that occasionally soars over your farm? She can visit your Slime Hutch, as well. If she meanders over your farm overnight you may find that your Slimes have turned into black Slimes. They're especially powerful little creeps, and can be rather painful if you don't have that Slime Charmer Ring.