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
excusesvalid 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 plants. 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 |
| 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 |