Slime Rancher is making the leap to phones. Playdigious, the studio that brought Dead Cells, Northgard, and Spiritfarer to touchscreens, has partnered with Monomi Park to launch the original Slime Rancher on iOS and Android on May 26. This isn't a stripped-down companion app or a free-to-play spinoff — it's the full game, all three modes, every slime, rebuilt from the interface up for touch controls.
The pricing tells you everything about the approach. Slime Rancher will cost $8.99 on phones, or $7.99 if you pre-register now through the App Store or Google Play. There are no microtransactions, no energy timers, no gacha mechanics. Monomi Park's original vision — a cheerful first-person ranching sim set a thousand light years from Earth — arrives intact and uncompromised.
For the uninitiated, Slime Rancher puts you in the boots of Beatrix LeBeau, a rancher who moves to an alien planet called the Far, Far Range to wrangle adorable, gelatinous creatures called slimes. You vacuum up slimes with your trusty vacpack, feed them, breed hybrid varieties, sell their plorts for profit, and gradually expand your ranch into a sprawling operation. It's one of those games that sounds simple until you look up and six hours have vanished.
Playdigious Rebuilt the Interface From Scratch
The biggest challenge with any PC-to-phone port is controls, and Playdigious has a track record of getting this right. The announcement trailer shows a completely redesigned touch interface — virtual joystick for movement, streamlined menus, and context-sensitive buttons that keep the screen uncluttered during exploration. The vacpack controls, which are essentially a first-person weapon in how they work, have been remapped for tap-and-drag aiming that looks surprisingly natural in the early footage.
All three original game modes are included: Adventure (the full campaign), Casual (same content with no tarr threats), and Rush (a timed score-attack variant). That's the complete Slime Rancher experience, not a cut-down lite version.
Why This Port Matters
Slime Rancher sold over 10 million copies across PC and consoles, earned a sequel, and built one of the most dedicated communities in indie gaming. Bringing it to phones at a premium price with zero monetization strings is exactly the kind of port that proves there's a huge audience willing to pay upfront for quality experiences on touchscreens.
Playdigious has earned serious credibility in this space. Their Dead Cells port is widely considered the gold standard for action games on phones, and Spiritfarer's touch adaptation proved they could handle more thoughtful, slower-paced games too. Slime Rancher fits squarely in their wheelhouse — a beloved indie with strong visual identity and gameplay that translates naturally to shorter sessions.
Pre-Registration Is Live Now
Pre-registration is open on both the App Store and Google Play. Signing up locks in the $7.99 launch discount — a dollar off the standard $8.99 price. The game launches on May 26, 2026, giving you just under three weeks to clear your phone storage and prepare your ranch.
If you missed Slime Rancher the first time around, or you've been waiting for a version you can play on the bus, May 26 is your day. Grab the vacpack. The slimes aren't going to wrangle themselves.
