From Nothing to Something

After having accomplished the tasks that I had originally set out to I felt that old familiar feeling of "what do I play now?"  Luckily for me that feeling was short lived and a couple of new opportunities fell squarely into my lap.  Oddly enough these two choices couldn't be any less like each other.

Back on the ol' slime ranch.
I didn't think I'd be playing the very enjoyable Slime Rancher anytime soon.  I had captured every possible type of slime, unlocked many (but not all!) of the hidden treasure pods, unlocked all the 7Zee fan club items, decorated my ranch into a stylish retreat, aaaand discovered all three of the hidden treasure vaults.  Fortunately a new update arrived this week and I now have a reason to be vacc-ing up plorts.

This week Ogden's Wild update introduced new content into the world of Slime Rancher.  So, what exactly is included in this update?

A feral tabby saber slime in the Wilds.

1.) A new zone--"The Wilds" which has a very ancient ruins/pre-historic slimes type of vibe.  The Wilds are populated by ferociously feral "saber slimes" who are on the prowl for the flesh of young slime ranchers.  All these nasty feral slimes are largos so there is no chance to capture the default saber slime and add it to your menagerie o' slimes.  You can collect saber plorts and sell them at the plort market.

Ogden's ranch exchange.  I'm working toward a ranch upgrade.

2.) New tasks.  Along with the new zone is a new ranch-like area that was owned by Ogden Ortiz.  Ogden tasks you with gathering a new type of fruit, the Kookadoba, which can only be found in The Wilds.  At Ogdens retreat there is a new ranch exchange board where you can deposit the kookadoba fruits that you gather.  For every three fruits Ogden will reward you with a spicy tofu, a type of slime food that you can feed to any slimes.  Spicy tofu will leave those slimes still hungry even after eating.  Extra plorts!

A new ranch area!  It's going to require a mountain of kookadobas to unlock.

Beside just getting some spicy tofu you can opt to grind out many kookadoba fruits for larger rewards.  After gathering 75 kookadobas you unlock an upgrade--the "miracle soil" upgrade allows you to add a special compound to your garden plots that keeps your fruits/veggies from rotting.  This is perfect for ranchers who want to spend some time away from the ranch exploring.  The rewards for gathering kookadoba don't end there though!  You can continue to gather the fruits and unlock a ranch upgrade (not really sure what exactly this is), and eventually you can unlock Ogden's retreat as a nice addition to your own ranch.  It's a little grindy, but hey, it's something to achieve.

3.) New treasure pods with brand new The Wilds themed decorative items.  I'm not really sure how many of these there are.  I think I've found four so far.

4.) New and improved interfaces for the plort market and the ranch exchange missions.  They both look much nicer and exchange missions now have a 24 hour timer on them rather than simply expiring at midnight each night.

Mysteriously enough....there are several blank spaces on the plort market interface.  Maybe this means some additional slimes in the future! 

5.) Bug fixes and minor gameplay changes.  Now your chickens don't get stuck under the stairs in the Overgrowth section of your ranch.  Depositing plorts into the hopper or the market makes a slightly different noise.  Vacs seem to suck things up faster...but that could just be my imagination.

Although Slime Rancher seems a little childish, it's actually a fun and cute little game.  If it has been awhile since you've played this update this might make it worth your time to re-enter the world of bouncing, happy slimes.

Totally worth getting carpal tunnel.
My Steam library is chocked full of gaming goodness and I have a tendency to miss major news about many of those games.  Apparently I missed some big news about Grim Dawn, a Diablo-esque ARPG. getting a brand, spankin' new expansion.  The Ashes of Malmouth expansion came out earlier this week and I've found myself back in the button mashing, carpal tunnel inducing world of Cairn.

The expansion features two brand new classes, the necromancer (deja vu, no?) and the inquisitor, an increase in the level cap to 100, new factions, new items, and two new zones to explore.  All of this for just $17.99!  I didn't balk and added this new content to my library almost immediately.

My mismatched demolitionist.

So I've rolled a brand new character, a demolitionist, and am happily gunning down the undead.  I am liking the demolitionist more than my previous melee shaman.  The ability to attack from afar has been considerably easier than getting stomped into the ground by crowds of bad critters.

I'm looking forward to continuing my loot soaked march across the baddie infested world of Cairn.