This is a vital statistic of slimes, alongside thirst and happiness. It is important as it directly influences happiness as well as your slime's health and ability to produce plorts, and bad things will happen if your slimes aren't fed. Certain events can make starvation a bigger threat, but if you prepare for disaster and take care of your slimes, then they will remain healthy.
AI Mechanics[]
Slimes now have new AI! This makes them better at finding food, and able to feed other slimes to help them out!
Seeking Food[]
When a slime has 75% hunger, it will start seeking food. It hangs around known food sources like nests or carrot patches, or it systematically roams the area until it finds food. A slime will not stay up past its bedtime, however, to find food, unless it's sick. If a slime sees several food items at once, it will always prioritize any favorite food items. Thanks to slime hole mechanics, slimes are able to venture into certain areas from the home area (if they aren't between areas).
Feeding Other Slimes[]
If a healthy slime sees a slime that is starving, they will notice and give the slime food if there is any nearby, this can save a slime's life if they have gone comatose from starvation. Pregnant slimes late-stage are similar to gordos in that they cannot move and are hungry, the slime's partner will periodically feed them. Baby slimes (when very young) are also incapable of finding food on their own, the parents must feed them.
Variations In Hunger[]
Largo Slimes, while taking twice as long to starve, still need to eat the same as normal slimes. Baby slimes need to eat twice as much as normal slimes, and pregnant slimes also need to eat twice as much.
Starvation[]
This section is about what happens if you don't feed a slime.
| Time Spent Hungry | Behaviour and Effects |
|---|---|
| 1 Day |
|
| 3 Days |
|
| 5 Days |
|
| 6 Days |
|
Mass Starvation and Causes[]
Mass starvation is when an entire area, biome, or even most of the game world is facing hunger. Some locations are more prone to this than others. There are certain factors that can make an area prone to starvation. There are also certain events that can spell trouble.
Local Area Threats[]
Overpopulation[]
In some areas, there are lots of slimes but not enough food sources to reliably feed them. On your own ranch, taking bad care of your slimes can also result in this. This is often resolved naturally when somebody eats a plort out of starvation and a tarr outbreak kills some of the slimes. This is often why there are feral canyons in otherwise improbable places.
Tarr Outbreaks[]
While a tarr outbreak every once in a while is good because it helps solve overpopulation, if it happens too frequently, then it causes the hunger that it usually prevents. This is because tarr eats chickens and rotten crops. Luckily, this is easy to fix. If a starvation-prone area gets too many Tarr outbreaks, then you can assist the health of the ecosystem by adding a single water turret.
Local Drought[]
There are places where drought is the main cause of hunger. These places are usually feral canyons because there is usually little fresh water and dry soil that can't hold the water, so these areas rely on mist to water the soil -in these places, drought is a matter of how humid it is. During drought, half of all chicks survive to adulthood, and crops grow slowly. This is a non-issue in the Moss Blanket.
Widespread Threat[]
Severe Drought[]
While drought is usually restricted to the local area, sometimes there are heat waves that result in a lack of rain for long enough that conditions become just like a drought-prone area -whether there is drought depends on humidity! This can severely impact your ranch, so always be prepared. Sprinklers will not work, and water pools will be smaller.
Monsoon[]
Unfortunately, while it usually only rains in the jungle, sometimes it affects the entire known world as well. While the jungle can handle this frequent rain, other crops have a chance to become mouldy a lot faster. This makes it hard for crop-eating slimes to survive. It does not impact carnivores or omnivores, but still has a serious impact on the world.
How To Manage Hunger[]
General[]
- Only keep as many slimes as you can care for, and care for them in a way that you can handle, whether that's corraling or free-ranging. If you find that you are neglecting your slimes, then release them and try again with fewer slimes and possibly a different style.
- If you are planning on travelling for long periods of time, then make sure the slimes have access to food while you're away -free rangers should not have this problem, but if you don't do that, then leave food in the corral.
- If you free-range, periodically check your coops and crops to see if they need to be renewed.
- ALWAYS check on your slimes if you get knocked out. A lot can happen in 12 hours!
Emergency[]
- Keeping a silo can be a lifesaver.
- Don't worry about releasing slimes for the good of the ranch, your remaining slimes might reproduce and offset the cost.
- A taming bell is not very useful, given that slimes that are feral from hunger will become feral after one in-game hour again. However, it can give you enough time to interact with them or pass through a feral area without being hurt.
- Be sure that you have precautions against tarr set in place, even when it's not an emergency. Tarr is at high risk because they might come from the wild or from your own slimes if they eat a plort.
Trivia[]
- In case you didn't know, the Monsoon cause of starvation is based of the Irish Potato Famine of 1845. The potato crops failed because of potato blight fungus, which was caused by excess rain.