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, matches and even welding tools 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!

It's getting hot in here

Since we don't have a machine to heat our chemicals, we have to do it by hand. To avoid meth explosions we should know how it works:

  • Heating is independet of the chemical and its quantity (1u carbon heats up as fast as 100u water)
  • Beware, that chemicals within the ChemMaster will act like any container and keep/exchange their temperature.
  • Temperature-capacity is independent of the chemical and distributed evenly by mass:
    • 1u Aluminium (300K) + 1u Aluminium (1500K) = 2u Aluminium (900K)
    • 2u Aluminium (900K) + 1u Aluminium (300K) = 3u Aluminium (700K)
    • 6u Aluminium(500K) + 3u Carbon (300K) = 6u Aluminium(433K) + 3u Carbon (433K)
  • Chemicals don't adjust their temperature (aka 'cool') over time.
  • Products of chemical reactions (including the bartender's drinks) keep their reagents temperature. Except the reaction is endothermic / exothermic

You can heat chemicals beyond 1000K by manually heating them with lighters / zippos / welding tools, though the heating process is not linear (each use adds 1K at least).

Uses   Lighters / Zippos   Welding Tools
0 300 K 300 K
1 324 K 370 K
2 347 K 438 K
3 370 K 505 K
4 392 K 570 K
5 414 K 634 K
10 516 K 936 K
20 691 K 1454 K
30 834 K 1879 K
40 952 K 2226 K
50 1047 K 2509 K

Getting chemicals

Short Summary

  • Liquids can be extracted with containers / droppers / syringes
  • (Most) Grenades can be disassembled with a screwdriver and wrench
  • Plants can be grinded
  • Medical patches can be grinded
  • Medical pills can be grinded or dissolved in a non-empty container (Yes, you can dissolve a 10u-charcoal-pill in a beaker with 0.1u charcoal because of science)
  • Contents of droppers / bottles can be transferred
  • Syringes can be injected

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), glowing goo(Radium, 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. Good luck with getting even close to Xenobiology to ask them for something.

Item Category Reagents Notes
Crushed Can 10u Aluminium Drink a soda and crush (click yourself with combat mode on) it on your head first
Cigarettes Smoking 15u Nicotine Buy Space Cigarettes / DromedaryCo Cigarettes from vending machine
Robust Gold Cigarette Smoking 15u Nicotine, 3u Gold Buy from vending machine, expensive though
Premium Cigar Smoking 25 Nicotine Buy from vending machine, not cost-efficient though
Pen 2u Iron, 1u Iodine Color does not matter
Cigarette Butt Smoking 2u Carbon Smoke a cigarette and put it out
Lighter Smoking 1u Iron, 5u Welding Fuel, 5u Oil There is no difference between cheap lighters and zippos reagent-wise
Powercells Technology 15u Lithium, 5u Iron, 5u Silicon Powercell-type does not matter
Metal Sheet Material 20u Iron Easiest to aquire by disassembling a table
Safety Flare Lighting 15u Sulfur Found in your shift-starter-box, often found as litter on the floor
Analyzer Technology 5u Mercury, 5u Iron, 5u Silicon Grab one from the toolstorage
Wood Material 20 Carbon Grow some towercap in the garden. Heat up the ground results (Cellulose) from wood planks to 512K.
Glass Sheet/Glassshard Material/Trash 20u Silicon, 10u Sodium Just wait for someone to inevitably break some windows in the tool storage
Plasteel Sheet Material 20u Iron, 20u Plasma Good luck breaking into the EVA storage
Cable Coil Material 2u Copper per piece (1 full coil = 60u Copper) Check the tool storage
Glowstick Lighting 15u Phenol, 10u Hydrogen, 5u Oxygen Found in maintenance, also known as 'Meth-in-a-stick'
Firebrand Lighting 2u Carbon Craft a firebrand from wood
Light Tube Lighting 25u Silicon, 10u Nitrogen Ask the janitor for a spare box or steal some while wearing gloves.
Light Bulb Lighting 5u Silicon, 10u Nitrogen Ask the janitor for a spare box or steal some while wearing gloves.
Electronics Technology 10u Iron, 10u Silicon Quite a waste of ressources to be honest
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 Trash 3u Nutriment, 2u Vitamin, 20u Blood, 5u Liquid gibs You monster
Matches Smoking 2u Phosphorus Smoking-supplies from vending machine
Silver Coin Coins 4u Silver Check the dorms and try to get lucky
Gold Coin Coins 4u Gold
Diamond Coin Coins 4u Carbon
Iron Coin Coins 4u Iron
Plasma Coin Coins 4u Plasma
Uranium Coin Coins 4u Uranium
Bananium Coin Coins 4u Bananium
Photo Picture 4u Iodine Grabe a camera from the artist supply and make some hardcore landscape photography.
Soap(Nanotransen) 10u Plasma, 10u Lye Break into the brig and steal their soap. What could possibly go wrong?
Soap(Non-Nanotransen) 10u Lye
Bluespace Crystal Technology 20u Bluespace
Bluespace Crystal (Artificial) Technology 10u Bluespace, 20u Silicon
Bluespace Polycrystal Technology 20u Bluespace
Lump of Coal 20 Carbon
Diamond Material 30u Carbon Good luck with your cargo-heist
Uranium Sheet Material 20u Uranium Good luck with your cargo-heist
Plasma Sheet Material 20u Plasma Good luck with your cargo-heist
Gold Bar Material 20u Gold Good luck with your cargo-heist
Silver Bar Material 20u Silver Good luck with your cargo-heist
Bananium Sheet Material 20u Bananium Good luck with your cargo-heist
Snow Block 20u Ice
Plasma Glass Sheet Material 20 Silicon, 10 Plasma
Reinforced Plasma Glass Sheet Material 20 Silicon, 10 Plasma, 10 Iron
Dilithium Crystal Technology 20u Dilithium
Wired Glass Floor Tile Material 20u Silicon, 5u Copper
Bamboo Cuttings Material 5u Carbon
Runed Metal Material 5u Iron, 15u Blood If you have cultists to steal from, you might have other more serious problems
Brass Sheet Material 5u Iron, 15u Teslium
Bronze Sheet Material 5u Iron, 3u Copper
Bone 10u Carbon
Suture Medicine 2u Spaceacillin Check the medbay
Mesh Medicine 2u Spaceacillin Check the medbay
Slime Zippo Smoking? 1u Iron, 5u Weldingfuel, 5u Pyroxadone
Circuit Board Technology 20 Silicon, 10 Gold
Toner Cartridge 40u Iodine, 10u Iron Toner cartridges can be found in airlock painters.
Brute Patch Medicine 20u Styptic Powder Check the medbay
Burn Patch Medicine 20u Silver Sulfadiazine Check the medbay
Synthflesh Patch Medicine 20u Synthflesh Check the medbay
Urinal Cake 3u Chlorine, 1u Ammonia = 1 Extract from urinals (screwdriver to remove the drain, empty hand to take the cake)
Lip Stick 5u Phenol
Hair Dye Spray 10 Phenol, 5u Quantum Hair Dye
Geiger Counter Technology 5u Radium

Ready to go

Some reagents are hidden in plain sight and just need to be used without further grinding. There is often treasure to be found in the chemistry-fridges, too.

Item Reagents Notes
Salt Shaker 20u Sodium Chloride Check the bar or ask the chef to get one from his vending machine. Pretty unsuspicious. A reagent analyzer says a salt shaker contains table salt, but this functions the same as sodium chloride.
Hot Sauce 10u Capsaicin Ask the chef to get one from his vending machine. There is nothing wrong with you wanting to spice up your food.
Sugar 30u Sugar Ask the chef, whether he wants to be your sugar-daddy (The bottle is in one of his fridges)
Ethanol 30u Ethanol Pay the bartender to buy some from his vending machine. You don't really have a legitimate reason, but he should not care how you prefer to get drunk.
Canned Air 24u Nitrogen, 6u Oxygen Premium item found in Robust Softdrinks vending machines
Water bottles 49.5u Water, 0.5u Fluorine Found in Robust Softdrinks vending machines

Deconstructing Chemical Grenades

You can extract contents from grenades by deconstructing them, if you manage to get your hands on one in the first place. Reagents and quantities depend on what people put inside the grenade of course. There are some other types of grenades which can't be used though, most notably the flash- and the smoke-grenade.

Type Reagents
Acid grenade 570u Fluorosulfuric Acid, 10u Potassium, 10u Phosphorus, 10u Sugar
Bio terror foam grenade 75u Cryptobiolin, 50u Water, 50u Mute Toxin, 75u Spores, 50u Itching Powder, 150u Fluorosurfactant, 150u Unstable Mutagen
Cleaner grenade (version 1) 40u Fluorosurfactant, 40u Water, 10u Space Cleaner
Cleaner grenade (version 2) 40u Fluorosurfactant, 40u Water, 60u EZ-Clean
CLF3 grenade 250u Fluorosurfactant, 100u Chlorine Trifluoride, 250u water
Colorful grenade 25u Colorful Reagent, 25u Potassium, 25u Phosphorus, 25u Sugar
Fungal tuberculosis grenade 50u Potassium, 50u Phosphorus, 200u Fungal Spores, 250u Blood, 50u Sugar
Generic glitter grenade 25u Glitter, 25u Potassium, 25u Phosphorus, 25u Sugar
Holy hand grenade 100u Potassium, 100u Holy Water
Incendiary grenade 25u Phosphorus, 25u Stable Plasma, 25u Sulfuric Acid
Metal Foam Grenade 30u Aluminium, 10u Foaming Agent, 10u Fluorosulfuric Acid
Rad Bomb 70u Unstable Mutagen, 10u Sugar, 10u Potassium, 10u Phosphorus
Smart Metal Foam Grenade 75u Aluminium, 25u Smart Foaming Agent, 25u Fluorosulfuric Acid
Teargas grenade 60u Condensed Capsaicin, 40u Potassium, 40u Phosphorus, 40u Sugar
Weedkiller grenade 25u Plant-B-Gone, 25u Potassium, 25u Phosphorus, 25u Sugar

Sources listed by Chemical

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

Chemical Sources
Aluminum Soda cans (crush on your head first), tin cans, deconstruct smart metal foam grenades
Ammonia Urinal Cake
Ash Scoop up from floor(burn paper)
Bananium Bananium Coin, Bananium Sheet
Blood Dead mouse (rude!), use a syringe to extract from a monkey or human, Runed Metal
Bluespace Bluespace Crystal, Bluespace Crystal(Artificial), Bluespace Polycrystal
Carbon Cigarette butts, coal, wood, Bones, Lump of Coal, Diamond Coin, Diamond, Firebrand, Bamboo Cuttings
Chlorine Urinal Cake
Copper Cable coils, Bronze Sheet, Wired Glass Floor Tile
Cryoxadone Steal one of the spare cryoxadone beakers from medical
Dilithium Dilithium Crystal
Ethanol Spraycans
Fluorine A very small amount in water bottles
Fluorosulfuric acid Deconstruct smart metal foam grenades
Fluorosurfacant Deconstruct cleaner grenades
Gibs Dead mouse, scoop up from the floor
Gold Gold Coin, Gold Bar, Robust Gold Cigarette
Hydrogen Glowsticks
Iodine Toner cartridge, photographs, pens
Iron Electronics, lighters, tin cans, toner cartridge, pens, plasteel, power cells, reinforced glass, Iron Coin, Brass Sheet, Bronze Sheet, Reinforced Plasma Glass Sheet, Runed Metal, Slime Zippo, Analyzer
Lithium Power cells, potato batteries
Lye Soap
Mercury Analyzer
Nicotine Cigarettes, cigars
Nitrogen Lightbulbs/Lighttubes
Nutriment Food, Dead mouse
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, Nanotransen-Soap, Plasma Coin, Reinforced Plasma Glass Sheet
Potassium Deconstruct a tear gas grenade
Pyroxadone Slime Zippo
Radium Glowing goo spills
Silicon Analyzer, circuit board, electronics, glass, Lightbulbs/Lighttubes, power cells, reinforced glass, Reinforced Plasma Glass Sheet, Wired Glass Floor Tile, Bluespace Crystal(Artificial)
Sodium Chloride Salt shakers
Silver Silver Coin, Silver Bar
Silver sulfadiazine Burn Patch
Smart foaming agent Deconstruct a smart metal foam grenade
Space cleaner Deconstruct cleaner grenades, Backpack cleaner tank, Spraybottles
Styptic powder Brute Patch
Sugar Donuts, everything except ramen from Getmore Chocolate Corp vending machines, Dutch hot coco, deconstruct a tear gas grenade
Sulfur Flare
Sulfuric Acid Deconstruct a incendiary grenade
Synthflesh Synthflesh Patch
Teslium Brass Sheet
Uranium Uranium Coin, Uranium Sheet
Water Sinks, Water tanks
Welding Fuel Lighters, Welding fuel tanks, Slime Zippo