Guide to Chemistry

This guide will primarily be useful for the Medical Officer, Den Doctor and Camp Follower but may come in handy to any player and especially Scribes.

Machinery
You have all sorts of chems here, and can make many things. You can make medicines, smoke, foam, flash powder, poisons, space lube, acid and much more. The limit on combinations is a limit that exists only in your creativity (and the game engine). Be sure to be careful though, as mixing the wrong chemicals can be bad for your health, and please make sure you know what a chemical does before you use it. Experiment at your own risk.

Dispenser.png Chemistry Dispensers
Chem dispensers can be upgraded to unlock more chemicals, allow for more precise macro usage, increased power recharge rate and higher power capacity. If you run out of power, you can disassemble the dispenser with screwdriver+crowbar and rebuild it by first putting the circuit board back, and then all other things but use a full power cell instead of the old one. Then screwdriver to finish. Or you can charge the machine with an inducer.

Available chemicals: Click expand to see what chemicals are available: Normal:
 * Hydrogen
 * Oxygen
 * Silicon
 * Phosphorus
 * Sulfur
 * Carbon
 * Nitrogen
 * Water
 * Lithium
 * Sugar
 * Sulphuric acid
 * Copper
 * Mercury
 * Sodium
 * Iodine
 * Bromine
 * Ethanol
 * Chlorine
 * Potassium
 * Aluminium
 * Radium
 * Fluorine
 * Iron
 * Welding fuel
 * Silver
 * Stable_plasma

Upgraded (tier 4 matter manipulator):
 * Acetone
 * Ammonia
 * Ash
 * Diethylamine
 * Oil
 * Saltpetre

Emagged:
 * Space Drugs
 * Morphine
 * Toxin
 * Carpotoxin
 * Miner's Salve

Upgradeable parts: Click expand to see upgrades:
 * Better matter bins: greater power efficiency per unit dispensed.
 * Better capacitor: faster recharging speed.
 * Better power cell: larger maximum power capacity.
 * Better manipulator: unlocks more chemicals at tier 4. Longer and more complex chemistry macros can be performed. At tier 1 manips, macros round to the nearest 5u, then 3u at tier 2, 2u at tier 3 and 1u at tier 4.

Chemical_Heater.png Chemical Heater
Some chemical reactions will require you to heat the reagents in a Chemical Heater. Unless the recipes says otherwise, these reactions need you to heat the reagents above the required temperature. This machine will heat/cool a beaker to the desired temperature, slowing down the heating/cooling speed as it approaches the target temperature. If you don't risk making the chemical explode by overheating it (like with meth) you can just set it to a very high temperature to avoid this. Due to a rounding bug you sometimes need to heat chems 1 degree higher than the recipe says. Upgrading the laser will increase the heating/cooling speed.

Chemmaster.gif ChemMaster 3000
Separates, bottles, and makes pills/patches out of chemicals loaded inside. You can load pretty much any container - beakers, spray bottles, water bottles and so on. Maximum size for dispensed bottles is 30u, patches 40u and pills 50u. Use a chemistry bag to quickly move large quantities of bottles, patches or pills. Can be upgraded with bigger beakers to allow a bigger buffer. By default it contains two ordinary 50u beakers for a total buffer volume of 100u.

Blender.png All-In-One Grinder
Grinds, crushes, liquefies and extracts reagents from materials placed into it. If there is a significant reagent associated with the item, the Reagent grinder will distill a pure sample inside the collection beaker. For example: Plasma/gold/uranium/metal sheets, donk pockets, fruits, dead mice.

Smoke_machine.png Smoke Machine
Dispenses any chemical inside as a smoke cloud. Needs to be secured by wrenching first. A great alternative to smoke grenades, but easily incites lynch mobs. Can only be obtained through the circuit board being printed, and the required parts being assembled first.

Upgradeable parts: Click expand to see upgrades:
 * Manipulator: Unlocks the higher range settings.
 * Matter bin: Increases maximum capacity.
 * Capacitor: Increases efficiency.

Metabolism
When a reagent enters a body, it will then "tick" or "cycle" about every 2 seconds (not to be confused with server ticks/tickrate). When this happens the body is purged of an amount of every reagent depending on their metabolism rates. This is the rate at which the chemical disappears from your body. It doesn't matter how many chems you have in your body, as they are all metabolized separately. If you are hungry (sluggish), this will happen 20% slower, which makes chemicals have a bigger total effect since they last longer without being weaker per tick.

Active Pure Chemicals
A.K.A. what happens when you eat or splash these. Their metabolism rate is 0.4u per cycle unless said otherwise. Chemicals unmentioned don't have any effect.
 * Chlorine: Causes 1 brute damage per tick to a random body part.
 * Copper: Can be splashed on metal sheets to create bronze sheets.
 * Ethanol: A decent alcoholic "beverage", with a booze power of 65. Increases success rate of surgery and flammability when applied externally. Metabolism rate 0.2.
 * Fluorine: Causes 1 toxin damage per tick.
 * Lithium: Causes twitching, drooling, moaning and not being able to walk straight.
 * Mercury: Causes 1 brain damage per tick, twitching, drooling, moaning and not being able to walk straight.
 * Plasma: Causes 3 toxin damage per tick. Creates gas form plasma when spilled. Not to be confused with Stable Plasma, which does nothing.
 * Radium: Slowly causes irradiation. Creates glowing green goo on floor if more than 3u is spilled.
 * Sugar: Gives nutrition. Causes hyperglycemic shock if overdosed (200u). Metabolism rate 0.8.
 * Sulphuric Acid: Causes 1 toxin damage and some instant brute damage to one body part when ingested, and slightly more brute damage when injected. Destroys head-wear and causes burn damage when sprayed or splashed on someone. Counts as a toxin.
 * Uranium: Causes slight irradiation. Creates glowing green goo on floor if more than 3u is spilled.
 * Welding Fuel: Causes 1 toxin damage per tick. Makes people flammable if splashed on.

Components
These are very basic chemicals that you'll use in a lot of other more complicated chems. They can still be toxic, though.

Hover a chemical component to see tooltips. On Firefox-based browsers the tooltips might block clickable links. There is no solution available, but ask in the discord wiki-general for a temporary workaround. Also do drop a comment there if you find an incorrect recipe.

Medicines
"And that's why Kebab lynched me!" Don't be this guy. Make these. Lots of these.(Especially Synthflesh for defibing corpses over ~150 damage)

See Guide to Medicine for more information on what to use when.

Core Healing Medicines
These healing drugs form the "core" drugs used to heal the most common forms of damage. All other medical drugs outside of this section are either harder to make upgrades, or highly specific forms of healing for rarer situations.

Many reagents can be overdosed and/or cause addiction, leading to a negative outcome. Be sure to monitor how many units someone is injected with. If an overdose occurs, the negative effects will keep being applied every tick until that chemical is completely out of the system. If an addiction occurs, the negative effects will only start occuring some time after the chemical is out of the system, and can be negated by keeping taking it. You can usually only remove an addiction by waiting it out (or by dying and getting cloned).

Superior Healing Medicines
These healing drugs are harder to make than the core healing medicines, however they often heal faster.

Unique Healing Medicines
These healing drugs perform niche functions that help against less common ailments.

Non-craftable Medicines
These healing drugs are used in some situations, but are otherwise uncraftable.

Narcotics
Narcotics are highly addictive drugs that can aggressively, or passively, provide a benefit. Be wary as its very easy to become addicted, or overdose, on a narcotic.

As a general rule of thumb, the more of a positive effect (or any effect) a narcotic can provide, the easier it is to get addicted or overdose on it.

People who overdose or get addicted to Narcotics tend to usually end up dying to the negative effects or requiring immedient medical attention. Take in moderation.

Pyrotechnics
The manipulation of fire and matter.

Other Reagents
These are other chemicals that usually have non-medicinal uses. Many of these are useful in the manufacturing of grenades, but some can be quite dangerous.

Virology Recipes
These chemicals are used to mutate viruses, and have few uses beyond that.

There are also chemicals that do nothing, which can be found in Strange seeds. Example: Plastic Polymers.

Mutation Toxins
Obtainable through xenobiology, these chemicals transform humanoids into other races. It only takes 1u to start the transformation.

Toxins
The deadliest of deadly chemicals. You can get a bunch of these through the traitor uplink, but if you don't wanna waste telecrystals you can mix it. The human liver will quickly purge toxins under 3u from its system.

Reagent Delivery
There are different ways you can apply chemicals to a person or the environment.

Under the hood
First of all, there are actually 5 different ways of delivery, called ingest, inject, vapor, touch and patch. If you are not interested in the details, you can skip to Smoke vs Foam vs others.


 * Ingest and inject both almost always do the exact same thing. The reagent simply enters the target's bloodstream. Used by pills, syringes, cigarettes, e-cigarettes, inhaling smoke and drinking the reagent directly.
 * Vapor is used by (ranged) spray bottles and foam. A portion of the reagents will enter the bloodstream of the target, but clothes will protect from some/most/all of it depending on clothing. Any hardsuit typically makes the target completely immune to getting it into their bloodstream, if the helmet is closed. But if the reagent has a "vapor" based component, that component will still affect the target, like Fluorosulfuric Acid. See more about foam below, with examples.
 * Touch is used by smoke and splashing. If the reagent has a "touch" based component, that component will affect the target (such as the instant heal part of Styptic Powder), without being blocked by clothing. Nothing at all will enter the target's bloodstream, with the exception of smoke if the target has no internals on. Currently all "touch" components are also "patch" components. See more on smoke below, with examples.
 * Patch is used by patches and medical sprays. The reagent enters the target's bloodstream entirely AND if the reagent has a "patch" based component, that component will affect the target. Currently all "patch" components are also "touch" components.

When a reagent enters a bloodstream, it will then "tick" about every 2 seconds, depending on server lag. Each tick or "cycle" will cause the chemical to apply its effects, while removing the amount described under the metabolism-columns on this guide.

Smoke vs foam vs others
These are the major practical differences between pills, syringes, patches, cigarettes, smoke, foam, splash and spray.
 * Pills: Can be instantly ingested if used on yourself. It doesn't work if mouth is covered. Plasmamen will have trouble taking these. Holds up to 50u.


 * Syringes: Can be injected into people with their mouths covered, either by hand or with a syringe gun. It doesn't work on players wearing hardsuits, or on people with pierce-immune skin (like Golems or Plasmamen), unless you use a piercing syringe or manage to aim for an exposed part of their body. Holds between 10-60u, depending on syringe. Common syringes hold 15u.


 * Patches: Will apply all reagents into a person's bloodstream through any clothing, including hardsuits. Also apply touch/patch based effects. Example: A patch of 20u Styptic Powder will instantly heal 20 brute (touch component), and also enter the target's bloodstream for a long heal over time. Usable by plasmamen. Can hold up to 40u.


 * Cigarettes: Can be dipped in reagents to be filled. If smoking/vaping, you will slowly ingest whatever reagents the cigarette/cigar/e-cig contains. Though, if the reagents are too diluted, they may not build up in your bloodstream fast enough to have any effect at all. E-cigarettes can be trimmed with a screwdriver and multitool to also create smoke.

Smoke example 1: Smoke containing 20u Styptic Powder. Everyone caught in the cloud, including people wearing hardsuits, will slowly heal 20 brute (and scream in pain), if they stay in the smoke for its full duration (otherwise they will heal partially). Those who are not wearing internals will also ingest 20u of the medicine, making it enter their bloodstream and start healing them over time. But since this particular medicine will deal toxin damage if not applied via touch/patch, those who inhale it will also start taking toxin damage.
 * Smoke: When a smoke reaction occurs, the smoke will consume any other reagent in its original containers, and spread that reagent to flooring and people/mobs who enter its area of effect. People who enter the smoke will be touched by the reagents. If they do not have internals on, they will also ingest the reagents. The amount of smoke does not dilute the reagents. The reagents will be copied to every individual or tile (not walls, windows or doors) over the cloud's duration. Reagents that are special coded to affect floor/environment (such as blood, acid or Space Cleaner) will do so. Smoke will usually block sight.

Smoke example 2: Smoke containing 20u Chlorine Trifluoride(CLF3). CLF3 has a touch(and vapor) component, so everyone caught in the cloud, including people wearing hardsuits and internals, will catch on fire. It will also deal burn damage to the environment, since CLF3 is coded to do so. Those who are not wearing internals will also ingest 20u of the CLF3 and thus, start heating up from the inside, effectively burning from both in and out at the same time.


 * Foam: When a foam reaction occurs, the foam will consume any other reagent in its original containers, and spread that reagent to flooring and people/mobs who enter its area of effect. The foam will spread slower than smoke and is usually slippery. Reagents will be copied through the vapor type delivery to those affected over the duration of the foam, BUT the reagents will be heavily diluted depending on the amount of foaming reagent used. Any clothing will reduce how much of the reagents will enter a person's bloodstream. Furthermore, foam reagent bloodstream insertion is divided into several 'ticks'. A minimum amount of reagent is required per tick for it to enter a bloodstream. So if too little reagents are contained in the reaction, or too much foam is used, the foam will do nothing. These ticks are counted after dilution and protection from clothing. On the other hand, if you use very small amounts of foam, the reagents may instead multiply in the bloodstream to more than the original amount. Hardsuits with helmets on will make people immune to getting reagents into their bloodstream through foam. Despite dilution, the foam will still copy remaining chems such as acid, CLF3, or Space Cleaner to any tile it touches (but not walls, windows or doors). Foam will not block sight.

Foam example 1: 250u foam containing 10u Cyanide will spread a blue foam that does nothing to those it touches. The poison is too diluted to work at all.

Foam example 2: 20u foam containing 250u Fluorosulfuric Acid. A small area and everyone touched by the foam will have large amounts of acid slowly melting their clothing and the affected floor and items. Those who did not wear a hardsuit with helmet on will also have a large amount of acid in their bloodstreams, depending on what they were wearing and how long they were in the foam. If they had internals on or not doesn't matter.


 * Splashing: Throwing a beaker, or using a beaker on anything with harm intent, will splash its contents. The longer throw distance, the more the splash will spread out. A grenade will splash its content unless it also contains smoke or foam. Splashing only does touch delivery. This means most chemicals will do absolutely nothing when splashed. Reagents that have special properties to affect environment, such as Water, will do so where splashed (creates slippery tile). Reagents that have a touch component will apply that component only. Example: If you throw a beaker of 80u Synthflesh at someone, you will instantly heal them for 100 brute and burn, since Synthflesh is touch/patch based. It doesn't matter if the target uses hardsuit or internals in this case. Another example: If you throw a beaker of 100u Silver Sulfadiazine at someone, you will instantly heal them 100 burn. But none of the medicine will enter the bloodstream, so there won't be a heal over time. This means throwing a beaker of poison at someone will do nothing at all. Splashing can apply chemicals such as Thermite to walls.


 * Spraying: Spraying reagents will apply them to environments (if they have any such effect), and will enter hit people's bloodstreams through the vapor delivery. This means clothing will protect from some/most/all of the reagents, depending on what they are wearing. Using a hardsuit with helmet on makes them immune to getting the reagent into their bloodstream. Reagents such as acid, CLF3, or Space Cleaner will still cause their special effects when sprayed on people/environments, but will not enter the bloodstream if the target is wearing too heavy clothing.

A final note: Many mobs are "simplemobs" which means they don't have a bloodstream and can thus not be poisoned/sedated. Monkeys and most playable humanoids are the exceptions to this.

Beyond the Dispenser
Just because it isn't found in the dispenser or the guide above doesn't mean you can't use it! Holy water, slime cores and plenty of other things can provide limitless fun for an enterprising and curious chemist.