Guide to Ghetto Chemistry

Starting out

So, you are an average Greytide and you want to be a Walter White. How do you do it?

Knowledge

• You need a decent understanding of chemistry: You are going to be cooking without the luxury of a chem dispenser after all, so you will need many additional steps for your workarounds.
• Without a method of analysing / separating chemicals you will even need to mix blindly, so you better know the reactions by heart if you don't want to end up with unhealthy impurities in your product.
• Make a plan of what to get and where to get it. Don't be afraid to make a small shopping-list.
• Think of excuses valid reasons and explanations ahead of time. The Detective will try to do his best to prevent you from learning more about chemistry, so be sure to not get locked up due to some unfortunate missunderstanding.

Tools of the trade

	Equipment	Rating	Description	Where to get
	Containers	Mandatory	A few containers for mixing your substances like beakers, soda cans, bottles, etc	Glasses and bowls from bar / kitchen, cans from vending-machines. Large 100u beakers can be bought in the station-store and make mixing a lot easier. You could also grow your own wood in the garden and make some buckets.
	Grinding-equipment	Mandatory	Needed to extract your chemicals from all kind of things. You can either go the long route and craft a mortar and pestle, which can only grind one item at a time though. Or you go for it and steal an all in one grinder.	The Bartender, the Cook, the Botanist and the Chemist have an all in one grinder, but will probably notice eventually. Remember that they can be bolted down, so you better bring a wrench.
	Heating-equipment	Semi-Mandatory	You can use lighters and matches to heat containers for certain recipes, and use them to burn certain things to make ingredients, like burning paper for ash.	Smoking-vending-machines, sometimes there are lighters in arrivals, the dorms or the bar.
	Measuring-equipment	Optional	Being able to measure small quantities opposed to 5u-sips will save you from handling a lot of beakers. Use a dropper or repurpose any emptied condiment bottle. A salt-shaker is fine, too.	Ask the chef to grind and bottle some food or grab a saltshaker from the bar.
	Extraction-equipment	Optional	Some chemicals can only be extracted with the use of a syringe or a dropper.	Ask around for both, or repurpose one of the Perfluorodecalin-syringes found in the antisuffocation-emergency-kits of those O2-lockers.
	Tables	Optional	You are going to be handling quite a few containers, so having a table is nice, so you don't spill your shit on the floor. Just make sure to remember which container is which when you put them all on the table	Craft them or move and reassemble them, using the tools found in the tool-storage
	Separation-equipment	Optional	A ChemMaster 3000 / Condiment Dispenser so you don't have to mix blindly anymore. This is going to make ghetto-chemistry so much easier since you can use it to determine, separate and bottle chemicals.	The Cook, the Botanist and the Chemist have one. Bring a wrench to move it and try to be stealthy - you are going to serve some time in the brig if you get caught.
	Friends	Optional	A couple friends (that is, if you have any). Do not underestimate the time needed to get all the necessary equipment and ingredients without raising suspicion.	Talk to anyone lurking around toolstorage or the bar without having the Bartender or any other bystanders call security on you. If you are really desperate and feel a bit lucky, you can always ask the Clown for help.

TL;DR: Go to the holodeck and boot up the medical program!

Getting chemicals

Liquid extraction

Use a container like a glass and fill it with the liquid you need. Simple as that. Some liquids require a dropper / syringe to extract however.

Liquid-Source	Extraction	Notes
Tanks	Container	Can be found in the toolstorage and all around maintenance. Useful for getting welding fuel or water.
Sinks	Container	Check the bathrooms for unlimited water.
Animals/Humans	Syringe	Draw blood with a syringe, though not everyone will be pleased if you fail to ask for consent.
Fryer	Syringe	You can remove the cooking oil from the fryer in the kitchen. The cook might CQC-kick you in the throat if he catches you meddling with his precious oil-reserves.
Cleaning back pack/Spraybottles	Dropper	With a dropper you can extract liquids like space-cleaner from any container, that would otherwise not be extractable, provided you manage to get your hands on one.
Spills	Container	Using any container you can scoop up liquid gibs (5u), Motor Oil (30u) and Ash (30u). Nobody will bother you doing your part in cleaning up the station, right?

Grinding

Not only can you steal things, you can shove them into a grinder / mortar and pestle to retrieve chemicals from them! If you're stealing from Botany, check out the Guide to hydroponics. Don't forget, that some foods contain chemicals as well, most notably warm donk-pockets containing Omnizine.

Item	Reagents	Notes
Crushed Can	10u Aluminium	Drink a soda and crush (harm intent) it on your head first
Cigarettes	15u Nicotine	Buy Space Cigarettes / DromedaryCo Cigarettes from vending machine
Robust Gold Cigarette	15u Nicotine, 3u Gold	Buy from vending machine, expensive though
Premium Cigar	25 Nicotine	Buy from vending machine, not cost-efficient though
Pen	2u Iron, 1u Iodine	Color does not matter
Cigarette Butt	2u Carbon	Smoke a cigarette and put it out
Lighter	1u Iron, 5u Welding Fuel, 5u Oil	There is no difference between cheap lighters and zippos reagent-wise
Powercells	15u Lithium, 5u Iron, 5u Silicon	Powercell-type does not matter
Metal Sheet	20u Iron	Easiest to aquire by disassembling a table
Safety Flare	15u Sulfur	Found in your shift-starter-box, often found as litter on the floor
Analyzer	5u Mercury, 5u Iron, 5u Silicon	Grab one from the toolstorage
Wood	20 Carbon	Grow some towercap in the garden
Glass Sheet/Glassshard	20u Silicon, 10u Iron	Just wait for someone to inevitably break some windows in the tool storage
Plasteel Sheet	20u Iron, 20u Plasma	Good luck breaking into the EVA storage
Cable Coil	2u Copper per piece (1 full coil = 60u Copper)	Check the tool storage
Glowstick	15u Phenol, 10u Hydrogen, 5u Oxygen	Found in maintenance
Burnt Firebrand	2u Carbon	Craft a firebrand from wood
Light Tube	25u Silicon, 10u Nitrogen	Ask the janitor for a spare box or steal some while wearing gloves.
Light Bulb	5u Silicon, 10u Nitrogen	Ask the janitor for a spare box or steal some while wearing gloves.
Electronics	10u Iron, 10u Silicon	Good luck getting your hands on Power Control Modules / Airlock Electronics
Crayon	15u Colored Crayon Powder, 15u Nutriment	Boxes of Crayons can be found in the dorms.
Meat(Sheep)	3u Nutriment, 2u Cooking Oil	Well, ask the cook to butcher a sheep.
Dead Mouse	3u Nutriment, 2u Vitamin, 20u Blood, 5u Liquid gibs	You monster
Matches	2u Phosphorus	Smoking-supplies from vending machine
Silver Coin	4u Silver	Check the dorms and try to get lucky
Photo Picture	4u Iodine	Grabe a camera from the artist supply and make some hardcore landscape photography.
Soap	10u Plasma, 10u Lye	Break into the brig and steal their soap. What could possibly go wrong?

Sources listed by Chemical

Overview of sources ordered by chemicals, default extraction-method is grinding.

Chemical	Sources	Notes
Aluminum	Soda cans (crush on your head first), tin cans, deconstruct smart metal foam grenades
Blood	Dead mouse (rude!), or use a syringe to extract from a monkey or human
Carbon	Cigarette butts, coal, wood
Copper	Cable coils
Cryoxadone	Steal one of the spare cryoxadone beakers from medical
Ethanol	Spraycans
Fluorine	A very small amount in water bottles
Fluorosulfuric acid	Deconstruct smart metal foam grenades
Fluorosurfacant	Deconstruct cleaner grenades
Gibs	Dead mouse
Hydrogen	Glowsticks
Iodine	Toner cartridge, photographs, pens	Toner cartridges can be found in airlock painters.
Iron	Electronics, lighters, tin cans, toner cartridge, pens, plasteel, power cells, reinforced glass
Lithium	Power cells, potato batteries
Lye	Soap
Mercury	Analyzer
Nicotine	Cigarettes, cigars
Nitrogen	Lightbulbs
Nutriment	Food
Oil	Lighters, using a beaker on oil spills
Omnizine	Heated donk pockets
Oxygen	Glowsticks and canned air
Phenol	Glowstick
Phosphorus	Matches, deconstruct a teargas grenade
Plasma	Plasteel, Solid plasma, Plasma glass, Soap
Potassium	Deconstruct a tear gas grenade
Silicon	Analyzer, circuit board, electronics, glass, light bulbs, power cells, reinforced glass
Sodium Chloride	Salt shakers	A reagent analyzer says a salt shaker contains table salt, but this functions the same as sodium chloride.
Silver sulfadiazine	Ointment
Smart foaming agent	Deconstruct a smart metal foam grenade
Space cleaner	Deconstruct cleaner grenades
Styptic powder	Bruise packs
Sugar	Donuts, everything except ramen from Getmore Chocolate Corp vending machines, Dutch hot coco, deconstruct a tear gas grenade
Sulfur	Flare
Sulphuric Acid	Circuit board (tiny amounts)
Water	Sinks, or Water tanks
Welding Fuel	Lighters, or Welding fuel tanks