The most powerful slimes in games, from Minecraft to Legend of Zelda

You might hear the slime’s bouncy spring or drip from a distant enemy. Known by many names — like Chuchu Jelly in Zelda or Flan in Final Fantasy — slimes have long served as the loyal punching bags of video game heroes everywhere. Whether it’s in the caves of Stardew ValleyOn the expansive plains of Dragon Quest 11Gelatinous grunts are a common feature in videogame environments.

There are many types of slimes: jelly, goo and gel. What makes a slime strong? What if we was to put all of these goopy piles into a collosseum and let them battle it out, who would win? It is well-known that slimes can be chumps and warriors such as Link. Dragon Quest’s Hero, but what if they were to fight against one another?

Ask Dr. Marc Hilmyer (McKnight Presidential-endowed Chair in Chemistry at University of Minnesota) about the best slime to win in battle. Since it’s common for games to have different variations of slime, like electric slime or fire slime, we generally took the standard slimes from each game — except when scientific interest merited further discussion. Below is the winner.

Dragon Quest 11- Echoes of an Elusive Age

Image: Square Enix/Omega Force/Koei Tecmo

Although the Dragon Quest slimes may look silly, Hilmyer believes we need to take them seriously. The Dragon Quest Slimes are the best slimes. Hilmyer said that they looked like they could be what he called “double network hydrogels.” He observed Hero jump-slashing the Slime and said “A lot of hydrogels are easy to tear apart, but these folks are pretty tough.”

Dragon Quest Slimes can bounce back from many sword slashes. But the real selling point for the Dragon Quest Slimes chemist was their ability to fuse together into a larger King Slime. “In our world, you would call that a self healing material. Yeah, it would be pretty powerful.”

Rated slime strength S+

Slime Rancher

Monomi Park

We don’t really fight the slimes in Slime RancherWe vacuum them up. “I’d watch out for these because they seem like they can change direction quickly,” Hilmyer said. All kinds of slime exist Slime RancherMany slimes have small appendages like wings, which allow them to fly and react to their environment. “In the polymer world, you might call these kinds of slimes ‘stimulus responsive’ or ‘active materials.’” What’s more, these slime eat food, which likely points to a more complex chemical process. He said, “They may have some kind of chemical reaction that allows them to have this mobility, but then they need to be refueled.” All in all, they make for a sophisticated and tough slime.

Rated slime strength S+

The Legend of Zelda – The Wind Waker

Image: Nintendo

Chuchu Jelly Wind WakerThey have full body where they kind of wobble on their half-shaped legs. “It has some good adhesive qualities there. The other ones are popping around and not very sticky,” Hilmyer said. “These seem quite different. “ He described these as looking “pretty strong,” but also wasn’t sure if the Chuchu jellies in Wind Waker This is what we call slime. To him it seemed a little too intricate: a pure slime wouldn’t look like that. Although they were tough looking, it might not qualify as slime.

Rated slime strength S

Stardew Valley

Photo by ConcernedApe

Exploiting caves in Stardew ValleyYou will come in contact with aggressive and powerful slimes. These slimes are more dangerous than usual. They can also cause you to lose your mind, which causes them to slow down. Hilmyer said that when polymers are made, they’re made with molecules of plastic, but you assemble them in water with another reagent. “Maybe there’s some other reagent in here, like a boron-containing reagent that gives you a little bit of a problem if you get hit by one of these.” Overall, it’s poisonous slime with a strong attack mode.

Rated slime strength

Terraria

Image: Re-Logic

TerrariaThe general slime is quite mindless. Slimes are able to just bounce about during the day. Some slimes can even shoot you. This phenomena stumped Hilmyer, “I don’t know about that slime. That slime has special abilities.” Dr. Hilmyer asked if the slime being able to shoot made it stronger. “I don’t know. That’s the hardest question I’ve been asked as a polymer scientist. I’m not entirely sure.” In respect to the scientific process, and a lack of conclusive evidence, I just put this slime solidly in the middle.

Rated slime strengthB

Minecraft

Microsoft Image

It MinecraftSlime is a strange case. The slime, like everything else in the blocky world it lives in, takes on a cube shape that makes it unique. Is it making it more powerful? Hilmyer is convinced that it doesn’t. “These don’t seem that vicious to me. First of all, they’re not that believable. And second, they seem to be easily losing bits of themselves.” This puts MinecraftThe monster rank has slime at its lower end.

Rated slime strengthD

MapleStory

Nexon image

The popular MMORPG is a hit with fans MapleStoryThis entry might disappoint some. The slime is just a regular droplet that wanders aimlessly. There are many of them. “They look a little dry. They kind of look like little droplets.” Hilmyer said, “One of the things about slimes that gives them integrity, is how much water versus how much polymer is inside there. Some slimes that appeared stronger have higher levels of polymer. To me, these seem weak. I don’t like these.” They’re weak, and would likely be slaughtered in the coliseum of slime.

Rated slime strengthD

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Image: Nintendo

Link, it turns out has it easier. According to Hilmyer, there’s a clear loser among the bunch — it’s the Chuchus from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. He was impressed by Link’s fight against a blue Chuchu. “That felt to me like a very low polymer content, very high water content. They’re not going to be that tough.” To him, the general composition puts those slimes solidly at the bottom of this list.

Rated slime strengthF