Mob Menagerie: Slime

Slimes have been bouncing around the Overworld since July 2010, when they became the fifth mob to be added to the game (can you name the first four?). They’re not the most challenging hostile mob you’ll fight in the game, but they can be a little annoying if not dealt with promptly.

Normally, slimes spawn in three different sizes – small, medium and large. They hop around aimlessly until they spot a player or iron golem, at which point they hop towards it to try to envelop it within their body – their preferred hunting method. 

When killed, large slimes will split into multiple medium slimes, and medium slimes will split into multiple small slimes. Small slimes that are killed will drop slimeballs that can be used to make slime blocks, leads, magma cream, and sticky pistons. A single large slime will yield about nine slimeballs –  but that’s just an average, so don’t come crying to me if you get fewer.

You might be surprised to learn that slimes are a thing in the real world too. Okay, they’re not as big as the ones in Minecraft and they don’t hop at you. But there’s a whole bunch of organisms known to biologists as “slime molds”, and they’re super interesting.

These creatures generally live on dead vegetation – often in damp, shady places like rotting trees. They’re very common in rainforests. Most are microscopic in size, but a few are easily visible to the naked eye.

Slime molds don’t have brains, but they share a bunch of behaviours with creatures that do. Studies have found that they have the ability to learn, to hunt for food, and to efficiently solve mazes. They’ve even been used to simulate transport networks, and to search for dark matter.

So next time you’re wandering through the woods and you happen across a rotting log, take a look and see whether you can spot a slime mold. You might be surprised at what you find...