Matter Way (a new Slime Rancher area)

[prmommy]

Posting this for my 9yo son, who loves to think up new areas and slimes!

Matter Way

Once there was a great scientist experimenting in the Indigo Quarry, but his experiment went wrong and created the Matter Way.

Slimes

There is one new slime: Atom Slimes.

The Atom Slimes are cousin to the Quantum Slimes. If you suck up an Atom Slime, he will split into two, then right next to you will be a new Atom Slime. If you bring an Atom Slime into a rancher corral and you have a plort collector and a food dispenser, there’s a 25% chance of the Atom Slime splitting into two.

The following slimes can spawn in Matter Way: Atom slimes (you can find them everywhere around Matter Way), Quantum, Boom and Pink also spawn here. Tarrs also spawn if a Largo eats the wrong plort or if it’s night time.

The Atom slimes’ favorite food is Matter Melon.


Logistics

By the broken bridge in the Indigo Quarry, there is a door. Once you unlock it, you won’t need any plorts for another door or teleporter.


Gordos

There are two Gordo locations: The Atom Gordo can be found close to the entrance to Matter Way. The Boom Gordo can be found on top of a crumbling hill.

The Atom Gordo gives you Atom Slimes, 2 crates, and one key. The first crate has a new resource called the anti-matter. The second crate has in it one strange diamond.

The Boom Gordo: when you explode the Boom Gordo, you get two crates, another key, and Boom slimes. The first crate has one Quantum Slime and Matter Melons. The second crate has another anti-matter.


H Messages

There are two messages from H.

Message 1: close to the entrance of Matter Way

“This place was created by a scientist. Fascinating. I wonder how these Atom Slimes got here? Were they created too? I have so many questions about this place.”

Message 2: By the Boom Gordo, next to the crumbling hill

“Be careful, Beatrix. This hill is falling apart. You could get hurt. I suggest you have a jet pack before you try to scale your way up this thing.”

[NetcodeNightmare]

My thoughts:
1. How did the scientist "Create" Matter Way? What if he didn't make it? What if he simply... opened a doorway to it? What if matter way was some sort of backwards version of the Indigo Quarry? This would make more sense than smashing a new location into the side of the quarry, and it would thematically fit the splitting of the Atom Slime (as if the Quarry were split into two, a regular version and a bizarre, flipped, color-swapped version).

2. What is the purpose of the Atom Slime splitting? I don't expect a 9 year old to know, but splitting an atom causes a VERY large explosion that, well, kills people. It's a fundamental process of an atom bomb. If the Atom Slime just splits when you capture it, can't you get infinite slimes? Or can any slime only split once? I think the Atom Slime should be smaller than the average slime (since real atoms are very small) and have electrons orbiting it (real atoms are incredibly tiny and have particles called electrons that 'orbit' the center of the atom like planets but with more directions to go to!). The process of an Atom Slime splitting should cause a large explosion like a boom slime that damages the Rancher, but does create a second Slime. The splitting shouldn't happen when the Rancher feeds it or when it's Vac'd up, but rather at random in the wild. This prevents trying to farm the slimes to get a whole lot from one encounter.

[prmommy]

Interesting comments about Matter Way.

About #1, my son says he envisioned it as a kind of purple desert that morphs sometimes.

About #2, this is just a video game, so no, we didn't go down the rabbit hole of atom's splitting causing nuclear devastation. I think that the idea of an atom "splitting" gave him that notion of a slime that splits in two creating a "copy." So, far less technical of an interpretation.

[Randomtangle]

Oh, like a quantum? Also, tell your 9 year old that imagination is like a muscle, The more you use it, the stronger it gets.