Slimes are green, gelatinous blocks that come in 3 sizes, large, medium and tiny. Unlike most hostile mobs, slimes can spawn in any light level.
When killed, tiny slimes drop 0-2 slime balls. Slime balls are used to create sticky pistons and magma cream. Large slimes drop 4 xp, medium slimes drop 2 xp and tiny slimes drop 1 xp point.
When large and medium slimes are killed, they’ll split up into 2-4 smaller versions. So 1 large slime could turn into 4 medium slimes, which could turn into 16 tiny slimes. This means 1 large slime will drop between 0 to 32 slime balls and 12 to 28 xp points.
Occurence and Behavior
Slimes can only be found in 10% of the chunks and only in the lowest 40 levels of the map. This makes them one of the hardest mobs to find and farm.
Slimes move by hopping, which is either always in the same direction they were going, or towards a player. A clicking sound can be heard when they hop, which makes it quite easy to detect them from a distance, even through walls. Unlike most mobs, the line of sight of slimes isn’t obstructed by blocks, which means they can see through walls. If a player is anywhere within 16 blocks of a slime, the slime will move towards the player.
Unlike zombies and skeletons, slimes have a rather dumb AI. They will jump off of cliffs, into lava and water and they cannot overcome bigger blockades. They can climb ladders, but will only do so if the ladder is directly between the player and the slime. Slimes will drown in water and can be killed with fire. They also take fall damage, unlike magma cubes.
Killing and Surviving Slimes
Slimes aren’t too difficult to defeat. They attack by hopping, which makes their attacks quite slow. They also don’t deal a lot of damage. Tiny slimes don’t deal damage at all, they’ll simply push the player.
The attack of slimes can be blocked by hitting them when they jump, though large slimes are hard to miss anyway. Medium sized slimes could pose somewhat of a threat in larger numbers, though walking backwards while killing them with a single swing of your sword should keep you safe.
If you really want to be safe, use a bow. The arrows will knock the large slime back and will kill the medium and tiny slimes with just 1 fully drawn shot.
Try to kill the tiny slimes last, they cannot do any damage. Though they can push you around, which could be dangerous near deep falls and lava pools, so be aware of your surroundings.
