Station Engineer
Station Engineer
Superiors: Chief Engineer
Difficulty: Easy
Guides: Guide to Engineering, Guide to Construction, Guide to Advanced Construction, Hacking, Station Goals, Supermatter Engine, Tesla Engine, Singularity Engine, Solars
Access: Engineering, Tech Storage, EVA, External airlocks, Maintenance
Duties: Start the singularity, wire the solars, repair station hull and wiring damage, reset rogue AI's, repair equipment, etc. Basically, do everything that has anything to do with repairs.
Departmental Head
Chief Engineer
As a Station Engineer (Also known as Maintenance Technician, Engine Technician or Electrician), you are the crew member that, when called, fixes a broken light bulb, repairs a door, or, rarely, helps break into a Rogue AI's core. You watch over the engine, and most of all, make sure that every single electrical object on this station works. Your radio key is 'e'.
Equipment
You start in Engineering with a Hard Hat, a T-Ray Scanner, a Engineering Headset, an Engineering Jumpsuit, Tool Belt and an Engineering PDA.
Items that are recommended for Station Engineers include utility belts, insulated gloves, multitools, a welding helmet, optical meson scanners (or Engineering Scanners), and cable wires, as well as the hazard vest.
Utility belts allow for the storage of tools and other such items in your belt slot, freeing your hands up. The multitool is a nifty piece of kit, used in the hacking of doors for checking the amount of power flowing through wires, and not for any kind of illegal activity what-so-ever. The welding mask is vital to protect your eyes while welding and provides the secondary benefit of protecting from flashes. The optical meson scanner enables you to see station structure and lighting through obstructions so that you always know where you're going and what's damaged without having to expose yourself to a possibly vacuum-exposed room to do it. Engineering Scanners are the upgraded version of Mesons, combining Meson vision, a T-ray scanner, and a radiation scanner into one convenient package. Cable coils are used while laying new power lines and completing a few constructions; while not always needed, it is best to carry some with you. Hazard vests are bright orange and it enables an engineer to wear an emergency oxygen tank in the suit storage slot, freeing the belt slot for the utility belt.
It is also recommended that you carry a stack of metal and glass with you in your backpack at all times. This will allow you to respond quickly to any station damage that may occur. All this gear can be obtained in the Engineering locker room, in the top right corner of the Engine Room. If all the metal and glass is gone more can be obtained from the Quartermaster in the Cargo Bay.
Doing your duty
You have a few things you should do, if you don't want to be robusted, before doing what you want to do. Repairing things is what engineers do, and so is providing the station with power. Without any engineers doing a little work, the station will crumble. Use Maintenance for some helpful info on cable/pipe/disposal placement.
Starting the engine
This is an extremely important task. You must set up the Supermatter Engine, or Solars. Once one of them is online, you can then also set up a Singularity Engine or Tesla Engine as well if you need extra power. Follow the directions of the Chief Engineer, and ask them for help if you need it.
Working the Solars
Read the guide, make sure you have wire, internals and a space suit. Best of luck.
Fixing the Station
If there is a breach, broken door, or some other problem you can fix, you should go ahead and do so. (It is your job, after all) See Guide to Construction for more details.
Power Management
Remember that you can use your ID on the Power Monitoring Computer to remotely control APCs. In the event that your power sources run dry, it may be worth turning off a few unneeded APCs.
Useful Tips
- If you do not know how to do something, feel free to ask your coworkers!
- If you are not familiar with engineering keep Guide to Engineering, Guide to Construction and Guide to Hacking opened at all times. These three guides are extremely usefull for the player.
- If you feel up to the task, you could teach an interested crewmember the engineering ways. At the engineering desk, you can print a 30-minute pass from the Guest Pass Terminal and grant your companion the necessary access for your journeys.
- Equip yourself. You should always have some materials with you. You may replace redundant items from the box you spawn with electronics or wires.
- Autolathe is your best friend. Once the power is secured you should construct it ASAP. Remember to hack it afterwards! It is recommended to get autolathe parts from science's R&D.
- Hacked autolathe can produce RCD (Rapid Construction Device). This is your best friend! It can quickly construct and deconstruct floor, walls, airlocks and windows. Make sure you have one with you all the time and that it's filled with matter bins! The RCD is optimal tool to fix breaches.
- Usually fixing atmospherics pipes is Atmospheric Technician's job, but if you feel like fixing that too, make sure to get your hands on RPD (Rapid Pipe Dispenser) that you can create in hacked autolathe. This costs a lot of metal, so make sure you have enough!
- When encountering holes in the station, fixing the breaches is your first priority! If the breach is too big, make walls/airlocks that block the breach from the station! This makes sure the station doesn't loose too much pressure.
- If you ran out of materials, you can find glass and metal in EVA. Generally you should not take resources from this storage unless there are no other materials left or if it's emergency. The better option is to take metal and glass from Ore Redemption Machine from north of the Cargo Lobby (machine right to the airlock between lobby and Mail Room).
- Engineering can be quite calm and lazy job that requires you to fix one thing every hour, or it can be extremely requiring job in which you have to fix half of the station in 10 minutes. Always be ready for breaches and sabotges!
- Having problems supplying the station with power? Contact Xenobiology! Xenobiologists can produce charged slime cores, which are batteries that self-charge rapidly. Replace an APC's power cell with a core for infinite power!
Spanner in the works 
Being a traitor engineer can be both the easiest and hardest task on the station. On the one hand, you can go almost everywhere on the station and have easy access to the tools to get rid of any pesky doors (or walls) in your way. Also, many crew members don't bat an eyelid when they see an engineer wearing a jetpack, or standing in a hole in the wall. If any crewmen get curious, they can usually be deflected by saying you are doing engineering work ("I need this to repair hull damage, Captain!")
On the other hand, Engineers lack weapons. Powergloves, however, are the hidden weapon few ever search for, which can give the upper hand in a fight. Secondly, engineers loitering near their target may quickly arouse suspicion, especially if you are far, far away from a maintenance tunnel.
And finally, if you truly hate the station, it is within your grasp to release the singularity, delaminate the Supermatter (don't do either of those without asking the admins first!), and generally sabotage the power supply of the station.