Guide to Chemical Research

This page needs to be reviewed/updated:
REASON: Rewrote this in a way that doesn't encourage people to be shitters/rule breakers. Needs more examples added about how to be helpful to the station outside of pyrotechnics.

Part of research and development involves experimenting with chemicals. Equipped with chemical dispensors and the means to construct grenades, science should attempt to experiment with beneficial and sometimes destructive grenades. They can produce more cleaning grenades or healing grenades for medical. This guide serves as a helpful tool for learning how to accomplish this.

Your Lab

The chemical research lab consists of two chem dispensers, two chem masters, and two chemical heaters. This is where you will mix, create, and analyze different chemicals and compounds. The lab is also equipped with a blast test chamber in order to test your grenades. It's very important you know exactly what you're mixing before you mix it because you only get one research lab. Grenade testing happens in the blast chamber, or even the toxins test area (for really big bombs). The lab is equipped with a disposals chute to feed live grenades(or subjects) into the chamber safely. Additionally, there are blast doors you can enable and a monitor that allows you to peer inside without the threat of dying.

The Job of Science Chemistry

Your job is to experiment with grenades and to make helpful grenades for other departments. Technically it's not just making grenades, you are to research chemicals to assist other departments. Take that how you want. Some good grenades include: fire fighting grenades, healing grenades, and incapacitating grenades for security. Get creative, come up with something that you can give to a department to help them with their job somehow.

Getting Started

Get a screwdriver, a stack of cables, and a stack of metal. It's generally a good idea to pre-fabricate lots of grenade casings for later use. This can be accomplished by clicking on the metal in your hand, selecting grenade casing multiple times, then alt-clicking the tile they fell on to add the wire to each one in succession (this only for the most basic, easy to test grenade). After that, grab a gas mask, and depending on if your new to grenade making grab a bomb suit for your own safety and set your Suit sensors to max for when you inevitably blow yourself up.

How to Make a Grenade

All grenades have four components: the type of grenade casing, the trigger, beaker 1, and beaker 2. All grenades take at least one grenade case, trigger, and beaker. The limit of chemicals you can mix is 600, since you can mix two bluespace beakers (300u each). Any beaker can be used for grenades, except for buckets. When a grenade mixes the two beakers, it adds heat. A basic grenade adds 10K, a large adds 25K, and a pyro adds 500K. This barely matters since you can pre heat chemicals to one kelvin under the required amount to allow any type of casing to ignite any chemicals. If you have conflicting temperatures, simply rearrange the chems to allow for superheating of one beaker that, once mixed, will sufficiently heat the other to cause the reactions. All heating is monstrously easier with a cheap lighter/zippo (can spawn with one or get one from a vending machine). Each click of a cheap lighter heats it by 15K.

Triggers

All of these can be printed via Autolathe. To create any grenade assembly (besides wires), screwdriver both the trigger and an igniter so they both say "can be attached." Then, combine the two, screwdriver the new assembly, and combine it with an empty grenade case. At that point you can add your beakers/bottles etc. and screwdriver to the finished assembly to lock it. When I say "use the assembly," that means either clicking on it in your hands or pressing Y. All assemblies can be deconstructed (even while detonated) via wire cutters + wrench. For all other assemblies besides wires, screwdriver the trigger assembly and use it to detach the trigger and igniter.

For more information on triggers and assemblies see Assemblies.

Pyrotechnics

see Guide to Chemistry

Name	Explanation
Azide	Cheap and dirty grenade making; azide maximizes beaker space and damage. It will blow a one tile hole on a regular floor tile, and cause a good amount of damage to anything near it. Handy chem to stack on damage to any grenade. Unit Cap: 1u
Black Powder	This is one of the two the only grenadeable chemicals in the game that can create a bomb cap explosion. It blows after a randomzided amount of time (2-5 seconds roughly), creating sparks then igniting. With the damage stacking as the volume of black powder gets higher, its a great filler for empty beaker space. A 200u black powder grenade will gib anybody holding it (excellant for mouse trap grenades). Unit Cap: ∞
Chlorine Trifluoride	When placed in a grenade and activated it will create a 7x7 fireball. This lights some objects and all mobs on fire. If mixed with water, as the very strange property of sucking all the air out of the room... Unit Cap: 1u
Cryostylane	Nothing to do with grenade making (besides I guess a cold bomb to freeze those who inhale it?).
Explosion	The second most powerful grenadeable chemical reaction in the game. When maxed out (two bluespace beakers), this explosion is only 1 under the bomb cap. It stuns after 20u, and does no damage 2u or under. This cannot be combined with any fire grenades since adding water to any grenade will instantly put out any mob that catches fire. Unit Cap: ∞
Firefighting Foam	One of the only non-traitor grenades, 1u is all you need. By default, as all grenades eject contact chems in a 7x7 square, the foam will only affect that area. However, you can go plenty farther with the use of Fluorosurfactant. Unit Cap: 1u
Flash Powder	Literally just a flash grenade (5 tile radius for the flash). If anybody is within 3 tiles or less they get stunned for 10 seconds (ish). Unit Cap: 1u
Fluorosurfactant	Spreads contact chemicals and slips fools if they walk on it. Unit Cap: 35u
Liquid Dark Matter	The holy grail of grenades, liquid dark matter will suck in any movable unobstructed object and or mob a number of tiles equivalent to number of units detonated. There are endless uses for this, the overarching affect being it brings all people within ten tiles to the apex of the explosion, maximizing all effects. Also makes smoke useless beyond 1u. Unit Cap: 10u
Napalm	Effectively stabilized phlogiston, and can only light mobs on fire. Unit Cap: 1u
Nitroglycerin	Exact same explosion as potassium + water but 5x stronger.
Phlogiston	Creates a 7x7 "igniting square" when pure and detonated in a grenade. Creates a 3x3 fireball when mixed in a beaker or in a grenade. This 3x3 form can light objects, while the 7x7 stabilized version can only light mobs. Unit Cap: 1u
Pyrosium	Only useful when ingesting; if the mob contains oxygen and pyrosium in their bloodstream they will heat up rapidly at first, then slowly heat up caping at around 310 degrees farnheit. This causes around 3 burn damage every cycle (2 seconds) after the mob gets to 250 degrees, or about 17 seconds after ingesting pyrosium (after 15 seconds they'll have 10 burn damage, then it goes up by 3's after that). Useful for toxic smoke grenades, but not for igniting chemicals. You need 2.5u of oxygen for every 1u of pyrosium. Unit Cap: ∞
Sonic Powder	Comes in handy since it also stuns (for around 4.5 seconds) within 5 tiles. Unit Cap: 1u
Smoke	Quite useful for toxin bombs. The reagents in the gas can only be applied to a mob the moment it's detonated; walking into the gas will not transmit chemicals. The range of the smoke has nothing to do with its animation. A volume less than 5 trasnmits within 1 tile, 5-10 until transmits 2 tiles, 10-15 -> 3 tiles, and 15+ is 4 tiles. Also spread touch based chemicals. Unit Cap: 15u
Sorium	Exact same thing as dark matter but in reverse. Unit Cap: 10u
Stabilizing Agent	Makes grenade making much easier, since instead of having dozens of chemicals jumbled up you can simply have the resultant chem stabilized and pre-heated. Unit Cap: 1u
Teslium	Excellent source for stunning in combination with uranium in a grenade. Also good in a smoke grenade. The unit cap for the uranium explosion is 4u (20u of teslium and 20u of uranium), and it stuns within volume*2 tiles. Unit Cap: ∞