Chemistry

Skyraptor features a mix of traditional modern TGStation CobbyChem recipes & reagents with a homebrew reimagining of TrekChem medicines inspired by those seen on-screen in Star Trek - purity is still a concern, and most medicine still comes with downsides that limit extended use, but if you've heard mednobabble on-screen you can probably use its lessons to save someone in a crisis.

Handling reactions

TL;DR: Chemical reactions happen when you mix reagents together and occur over time, consuming component reagents and outputting the result, while also modifying the pH and Temperature of the reagents over the course of the reaction. Different chemical reactions require different temperature & PH ranges to output at high purity - stray too far out of range and the reaction can grow impure, causing worsened quality in the resultant effects, causing different reagents to emerge, or even failing catastrophically - so keep an eye on that PH meter!

Temperature

All reactions that are non-instant have a reaction rate tied to the temperature of the container they're in. By and large, you can heat the beaker to speed up the process - though not always. Reactions are rated as either Exothermic - producing heat and warming the container - or Endothermic - consuming heat and cooling the container. Bear in mind that as reaction rates increase, so too does the rate of temperature change - beware of runaway exothermic reactions! Certain chemicals have over/underheat conditions - such as the ever-infamous Meth Explosion. Don't be the one to blow up your pharmacy - keep an eye on that temperature gauge and be ready to ditch the mix before it goes up in flames to save your life, limb & pride!

Potential of Hydrogen (pH)

Every chemical has an innate pH, visible in the tooltip. Low pH is considered Acidic, high pH is considered Basic/Alkaline. The pH of the beaker is the sum of the pHes in the mix. The pH of a beaker during a reaction determines how pure a product is. As a reaction progresses, it's likely the pH will begin to drift, and must be compensated for either with buffer reagents or acidic/alkaline compounds to buffer it out - if it exits the ideal range, impurities begin to develop in the resultant chemicals. Highly impure compounds can affect your reaction quality - make sure to clean out any low-purity reagents before mixing, lest the purity of the whole beaker be dragged down as a result!

Purity

Purity of a reagent is determined by how pure your reactants were, and how optimal the pH was during the reaction. Mild impurities typically reduce the effectiveness of the reagent, significant impurities can cause a reagent to swap to its inverted state - essentially a hidden recipe, as impure reagents have their own purity criteria - and catastrophic impurities can cause conversion into failed-reaction reagents or even cause the whole beaker to go insolvent & gas the room with failed chems.

Optional catalysts

For some reactions, an optional catalyst can be added to modify the reaction of a whole group slightly. At present the only optional catalyst is Palladium synthate catalyst, which speeds up the rate of all medicine reactions.

Competitive reactions

These reactions are ones that compete with each other (aka equilibrium reactions) and will go back and forth depending on the conditions of the beaker. At present the only competing reaction is Tempomyocin and Purity tester reagent, but more will be put in soon.

General tips

• Make sure your pH is correct before heating up the reaction, If it's not reacting, this is usually the problem, after the reaction has started however, it will keep going past the limits, producing 0% purity product.
• Keeping your reaction in the heater to cool it can be a way to deal with exothermic reactions.
• You can adjust the pH of a reaction easily by using a dropper with buffer. Using a dropper on a heater will adjust the pH of the beaker within.
• Take a note of how your pH changes across the reaction and adjust beforehand accordingly, or have some buffer handy to inject into the reaction in the middle of it.
• You can abort reactions by crashing the temperature and hoping it's not exothermic enough to overcome that anyways. Alternatively, you could throw the beaker in a panic.
• Upgrading the heater and the dispenser will improve their ability to detect pH.
• For some reactions, it can be useful to keep reagents away from each other until both of them have optimal conditions.
• Temperature of buffers will change the temperature of whatever you're adding it to! Make sure to not pour hot buffer into a temperature sensitive reaction!

Tools and Machinery

The aspiring chemist has quite the wealth of tools at their disposal - make sure you take the time to learn about them before you dive in!

Reagent Containers & Applicators

At the backbone of every chemlab is the reagent containers that let you hold, mix & apply chems.

• Beakers are readily-accessible, store a high quantity of reagents, and have optional caps (accessible with Alt-RMB) that prevent spills. You can drink them or feed someone else a sip (5u) on a small delay.
  • Bottles store 50u and aren't terribly robust, but you get a handful of filled bottles roundstart with helpful meds, and chemlabs can produce more.
  • Tubes store 30u and aren't terribly robust, but are produced by ChemMasters if you need temporary storage for special bits and bobs.
  • Regular beakers store 60u and aren't terribly robust, but are available from Medlathes, Scilathes, and even Autolathes roundstart. Plentiful but you can do better.
  • Large beakers store 120u and aren't terribly robust, but are available from Medlathes, Scilathes, and even Autolathes roundstart. You can get by with these.
  • XL beakers store 180u and aren't terribly robust, but are available from Medlathes once Biotech is researched & if plastic is available. This'll get the job done for most use-cases.
  • Metamaterial beakers store 240u and are robust against caustic chems, available from Medlathes once Advanced Biotech is researched & with a significant mix of reagents. Short of bluespace, this is the best.
  • Bluespace beakers store 300u and are robust against caustic chems, available from Medlathes once Bluespace Technology is researched & with a significant resource cost. They're bigger on the inside, so by GOD keep the lid on.
  • Stasis beakers store 180u and are robust against caustic chems, available from Medlathes with specialised research & a fairly significant resource cost. These stop reactions from happening inside them - extract contents with caution!
• Syringes are readily-accessible, store a low quantity of reagents, and inject them directly into the target with either a small delay, or instant if shot with a syringe gun. Armor-piercing requires special syringes.
  • Basic syringes store 15u, aren't terribly robust, but are available from Medlathes and Autolathes roundstart. You rarely need to upgrade from these.
  • Piercing syringes only store 10u, pierce armor, and are available from Medlathes once Biotech is researched. Use this on unruly, armored patients.
  • Bluespace syringes store 30u, aren't terribly robust, and are available from Medlathes once Bluespace Technology is researched & with a fairly significant resource cost. Why do you need to inject someone with 30u at once?
• Hyposprays are somewhat limited-access, store reagents in hotswappable hypovials, and can be used to inject or spray reagents on the target with a small delay, or instant if EMAGed. Armor piercing available only when emagged or CMO-grade.
  • Basic hyposprays can only take small hypovials (50u) and have a slow inject/spray time, but they're a significant upgrade on syringes for healing people in the field.
  • Deluxe hyposprays are made with an upgrade kit, and can now take large hypovials (100u) - albiet still with a slow inject/spray time. Give these to your paramedics.
  • The CMO's hypospray can take both types of vials from the get-go and features an armor-piercing tip & improved internals, allowing it to perform much faster applications. Give it to your favorite chemist or hoard it to be a silver-ID paramedic.
  • Hypokits are pocket-sized items that can mount Hyposprays on the bottom (RMB/Alt-RMB) and store hypovials inside.
  • Deluxe hypokits are the normal-sized upgraded to a regular hypokit - belt-mountable on any medical belt, with three times the internal capacity. You can carry an entire medbay's worth of medicine in this sucker.
• Medgels are somewhat limited-access, store a medium quantity of reagents, and can be used to apply touch/spray reagents on the target with a small delay. Armor negates.
• Patches can be manufactured by the ChemMaster, store a low quantity of reagents, and can be used to apply touch reagents on the target with a small delay. Ignores armor.
• Pills can be manufactured by the ChemMaster, store a medium quantity of reagents, and can be used to instantly ingest reagents if used on yourself, or with a small delay used on another. Armor/mask negates.

Chemistry Dispensers

Chem Dispensers are your main source of reagents, utilizing micro-scale replicators to create a number of pure chemicals for you to work with. They can be upgraded to unlock more chemicals, allow for more precise macro usage, increased power recharge rate and holding a higher power capacity. They have a limited internal charge & can take a long time to drain from the local APC - if you run out of power, you can disassemble the dispenser with a screwdriver & crowbar and rebuild it by first putting the circuit board back, swapping the drained internal cells for full ones before reassembling. They can also be easily recharged with Inducers.

Available chemicals:

Click expand to see what chemicals are available:

Normal:

• Hydrogen
• Oxygen
• Silicon
• Phosphorus
• Sulfur
• Carbon
• Nitrogen
• Water
• Lithium
• Sugar
• Sulphuric acid
• Copper
• Mercury
• Sodium
• Iodine
• Bromine
• Ethanol
• Chlorine
• Potassium
• Aluminium
• Radium
• Fluorine
• Iron
• Welding fuel
• Stable plasma

Upgraded (tier 4 matter manipulator):

• Acetone
• Ammonia
• Ash
• Diethylamine
• Oil
• Saltpetre

Emagged:

• Space Drugs
• Morphine
• Toxin
• Carpotoxin
• Miner's Salve

Upgradeable parts:

Click expand to see upgrades:

• Better matter bins: greater power efficiency per unit dispensed.
• Better capacitor: faster recharging speed.
• Better power cell: larger maximum power capacity.
• Better manipulator: unlocks more chemicals.

Reaction Chamber

The reaction chamber provides all the tools needed to help you control your reactions. You can set your target temperature, dispense buffers and watch your reactions in real time. An unupgraded reaction chamber will let you know when a reaction is overheated by highlighting it in red. More buffer can be added to the chamber by putting in a beaker into the heater and pressing the draw all button next to the buffer volume display.

Some chemical reactions will require you to heat the reagents in a Reaction Chamber. Unless the recipes says otherwise, these reactions need you to heat the reagents above the required temperature in order to start the reaction. Most reactions can stop if they drop below their required temperature. Don't forget you can use droppers directly on reaction chambers to add/draw to/from as well!

This machine will also heat/cool a beaker to the desired temperature, slowing down the heating/cooling speed as it approaches the target temperature. If you don't risk making the chemical explode by overheating it (like with meth) you can just set it to a very high temperature to avoid this.

Due to rounding errors you sometimes need to heat chems 1 degree higher than the recipe says.

Upgrading the laser will increase the heating/cooling speed as well as the capabilities of the machine. An upgraded reaction chamber gives you more tools and information about the reactions held within it.

• At level 2 the pH meter will flash if any of the reactions are outside of the pH optimal
• At level 3 the reaction chamber will be able to follow your reaction progress in real time
• At level 4 the reaction chamber will be able to determine the reaction quality in real time, displaying the effects of purity, pH and other factors along a dial. The dial will flash if the reaction is below the minimum purity for the reaction.

ChemMaster 3000

Separates and mixes chems from any container you like, as well as being able to manufacture small tubes, pills, patches, and hypovials of chems at your leisure. Use a chemistry bag File:Chemlab ChemBag.png to quickly move large quantities of manufactured goods. Upgrades can improve its manufacture speed and internal capacity - if it never raises above the baseline 120u, pry it open and shove bigger beakers in yourself before you lay siege to R&D!

High-performance liquid chromatography machine (HPLC)

Can detect impurity levels of reagents added to it, making it one of the best ways to detect the purity of a reagent. The HPLC can also purify a reagent up to its standard purity (usually 75%). This takes time and consumes some of the volume of the reagent. Inverted reagents cannot be purified, though any reagent that is passed through the system will still cost time - don't purify what you don't need to!

To use the HPLC, left clicking will interact with the input beaker - so left clicking with a beaker will add it, alt click with a beaker in it will remove it. Right clicking with a beaker will add a beaker to the output slot, and alt right clicking will remove it. The machine needs both an input and output to purify - though can still analyse with just a single input. The icon also indicates at what state it is at - a bar chart on the screen shows that it's analysing an input beaker, a sine wave shows that it's currently purifying and a blank screen indicates that its input beaker is either empty or removed.

All-In-One Grinder

Grinds, crushes, liquefies and extracts reagents from materials placed into it. You can grind almost anything - sheets of raw materials to get their reagent forms, pills and patches to reclaim their contents, even foodstuffs! For most Chemistry uses you'll want to use the Grind function, but certain items have alternate outputs when Juiced - experiment and find out!

Smoke Machine

Dispenses any chemical inside as a smoke cloud. Needs to be secured by wrenching first. An effective alternative to chemical grenades, but liable to get you robusted by half the station if it even mildly inconveniences them - hotbox with caution!

Upgradeable parts:

Click expand to see upgrades:

• Manipulator: Unlocks the higher range settings.
• Matter bin: Increases maximum capacity.
• Capacitor: Increases efficiency.

pH paper

pH paper can tell you the rough pH by putting it into the beaker. The colour of the strip will indicate what the pH is.

Buffer reagents

Buffers are reagents that alter the pH of a mixture towards acidity (0) or alkalinity (14). These liquids dissipate into the mixture, unless stabilizing agent is added.

Chemical analyzer

A handy meter that can tell you all about the reagents found in a beaker, as well as being the other main way to test reagent purity - and detect inverted reagents. Needs to be unlocked through Research first, and it eats up some inventory room - but it's worth it, especially if you're working on a chemlab.

Plumbing

Most of the time, Chemists have access to a large empty area with plumbing tools. The available chemicals those can synthesize should be the same as with an unupgraded chem dispenser, but the workflow is more like a production line chem factory instead of instant dispensing - machines are connected by pipe and transfer reagents instantaneously between them without mixing until they arrive in the target machine. Most machines will draw all reagents they can from the pipenet - use a Reaction Chamber to avoid this and filter in only the reagents you want!

Metabolism

When a reagent enters a bloodstream it will start to "tick" about every 2 seconds. These are called "life ticks", and are not to be confused with server ticks/tickrate. When this happens the bloodstream is purged of an amount of every reagent usually equal to their listed metabolism rates. This is the rate at which the chemical disappears from your body. It doesn't matter how many chems you have in your body, as they are all metabolised separately. Most mobs in the game don't have bloodstreams & as such can't be impacted by chems, though monkeys and all playable humanoids are exceptions to this.

Active Pure Chemicals

A.K.A. what happens when you eat or splash these. Their metabolism rate is 0.4u per tick/cycle unless said otherwise. Unmentioned dispensable chemicals don't have any effects. Phoron and uranium require you to grind mineral sheets to acquire.

• Chlorine: Causes 1 brute damage per tick to a random body part.
• Copper: Can be splashed on metal sheets to create bronze sheets.
• Ethanol: A decent alcoholic "beverage", with a boozepower of 65. Increases the speed of Surgery procedures and flammability when applied externally. Metabolism rate 0.2.
• Fluorine: Causes 1 toxin damage per tick.
• Iron: Slowly restores blood volume.
• Lithium: Causes twitching, drooling, moaning and not being able to walk straight.
• Mercury: Causes 1 brain damage per tick, twitching, drooling, moaning and not being able to walk straight.
• Phoron: Causes 3 toxin damage per tick. Creates gas form Phoron when spilled or heated to 323.15K (50 °C). Not to be confused with Stable Plasma, which does nothing.
• Radium: Slowly causes irradiation (2 per tick). Creates glowing green goo on floor if more than 3u is spilled.
• Sugar: Gives nutrition. Causes hyperglycemic shock if overdosed (200u). Metabolism rate 0.8.
• Sulphuric Acid: Causes 1 toxin damage and some instant brute damage to one body part when ingested, and slightly more brute damage when injected. Destroys head-wear and causes burn damage when sprayed or splashed on someone. Counts as a toxin.
• Uranium: Causes slight (1 per tick) irradiation. Creates glowing green goo on floor if more than 3u is spilled.
• Water: Slightly generates blood volume. Additionally, freezes into ice below 274K.
• Welding Fuel: Causes 1 toxin damage per tick. Makes people flammable if splashed on.

Catalysts

When a reagent in a recipe is marked "(catalyst)" it means it will not be consumed in the reaction. Some Catalysts are optional and are highlighted as such. These optional catalysts affect the ongoing reaction in certain ways.

Components

These are very basic chemicals that you'll use in a lot of other more complicated chems. They can still be toxic, though. Hover a chemical component to see tooltips. On Firefox-based browsers the tooltips might block clickable links. If you find an incorrect recipe, bug a wikitainer about it!

Name	Formula	Reaction conditions	Description
Oil Impurity: Chemical Isomers Failed: Viscous sludge <15% pH: 4 ▮	1 part Welding Fuel 1 part Carbon 1 part Hydrogen	Min react temp: 100K Overheat temp: 900K Optimal pH range: 5 to 9 Min purity: 0.3 Mildly exothermic Reduces pH	Can be heated into Ash. Highly flammable and one of the most ubiquitous ingredients. Cyborgs bleed this.
Ash Impurity: Chemical Isomers Failed: Viscous sludge <15% pH: 6.5▮	1 part Oil 1 part Welding Fuel 1 part Carbon 1 part Hydrogen Temperature 480K	Min react temp: 480K Overheat temp: 900K Optimal pH range: 5 to 9 Min purity: 0.3 Mildly exothermic Reduces pH	Ingredient in a few recipes. Can also be acquired by lighting a piece of paper on fire and scooping up the resulting ashes with a beaker. Yields 30u per paper.
Ammonia Impurity: Chemical Isomers Failed: Viscous sludge <15% pH: 11.6 ▮	3 parts Hydrogen 1 part Nitrogen	Min react temp: 100K Overheat temp: 900K Optimal pH range: 1 to 12 Min purity: 0.3 Mildly exothermic Reduces pH	An effective fertilizer, and ingredient in many recipes. May or may not be part of certain species' blood. (Results in 3 units instead of 4)
Phenol Impurity: Chemical Isomers Failed: Viscous sludge <15% pH: 5.5 ▮	1 part Oil 1 part Welding Fuel 1 part Carbon 1 part Hydrogen 1 part Chlorine 1 part Water	Min react temp: 100K Overheat temp: 900K Optimal pH range: 5 to 9 Min purity: 0.3 Mildly exothermic Reduces pH	Ingredient in many recipes.
Sodium Chloride Impurity: Nutriment Failed: Viscous sludge <15% pH: 7 ▮	1 part Chlorine 1 part Sodium	Min react temp: 100K Overheat temp: 900K Optimal pH range: 5 to 9 Min purity: 0.3 Mildly exothermic Reduces pH	Commonly known as table salt, Sodium Chloride is usually used to season food and harass the supernatural.
Diethylamine Impurity: Chemical Isomers Failed: Viscous sludge <15% pH: 12 ▮	1 part Ammonia 3 parts Hydrogen 1 part Nitrogen 1 part Ethanol	Min react temp: 100K Overheat temp: 900K Optimal pH range: 5 to 9 Min purity: 0.3 Mildly exothermic Reduces pH	A very potent fertilizer, and ingredient in many recipes.
Unstable Mutagen Impurity: Chemical Isomers Inverse: Toxic monomers <25% Failed: Viscous sludge <70% pH: 2.3 ▮	1 part Chlorine 1 part Phosphorus 1 part Radium	Min react temp: 100K Overheat temp: 900K Optimal pH range: 3 to 9 Min purity: 0.3 Moderately exothermic Increases pH	Causes mutations when injected into/consumed by living people or plants. Used in a handful of recipes, as well as Virology - but most usefully, it turns into blood if mixed with blood, due to Blood Duplication 1 part Unstable Mutagen 1 part Chlorine 1 part Phosphorus 1 part Radium 1 part Blood .

Virology Recipes

These chemicals are used to mutate viruses, and have few uses beyond that.

Name	Formula	Description
Virus Rations▮	1 part Virus Food 5 parts Water 5 parts Milk 1 part Synaptizine Template:RecursiveChem/Synaptizine	Depleted virus food. Used to get a virus symptom of level 1. (Results in 1 unit instead of 2)
Virus Food▮	5 parts Water 5 parts Milk	Allows viruses and bacteria to quickly grow. Used to get a virus symptom of level 1 or 2. Most Virology labs have a dispenser with this on a wall in the lab. (Results in 15 units instead of 10)
Mutagenic Agar▮	1 part Unstable Mutagen 1 part Chlorine 1 part Phosphorus 1 part Radium 1 part Virus Food 5 parts Water 5 parts Milk	Used to get a virus symptom of level 3. (Results in 1 unit instead of 2)
Sucrose Agar▮	1 part Mutagenic Agar 1 part Unstable Mutagen 1 part Chlorine 1 part Phosphorus 1 part Radium 1 part Virus Food 5 parts Water 5 parts Milk 1 part Sugar or Saline-Glucose Solution Template:RecursiveChem/Saline-Glucose Solution	Used to get a virus symptom of level 4.
Weakened Virus Plasma▮	1 part Virus Plasma 1 part Virus Food 5 parts Water 5 parts Milk 1 part Plasma 1 part Synaptizine Template:RecursiveChem/Synaptizine	Weakened variety of virus plasma. Used to get a virus symptom of level 5.
Virus Plasma▮	1 part Virus Food 5 parts Water 5 parts Milk 1 part Plasma	Used to get a virus symptom of level 6. Use caution and cool the beaker before making this, otherwise the plasma goes insolvent and precipitates out. (Results in 1 unit instead of 2)
Decaying Uranium Gel▮	1 part Virus Food 5 parts Water 5 parts Milk 1 part Uranium	Powerful viral mutagen. Used to get a virus symptom of level 6 or 7. (Results in 1 unit instead of 2)
Unstable Uranium Gel▮	1 part Virus Plasma 1 part Virus Food 5 parts Water 5 parts Milk 1 part Plasma 5 parts Uranium	Powerful viral mutagen. Used to get a virus symptom of level 7. (Results in 1 unit instead of 6)
Stable Uranium Gel▮	1 part Virus Plasma 1 part Virus Food 5 parts Water 5 parts Milk 1 part Plasma 5 parts Uranium	Powerful viral mutagen. Used to get a virus symptom of level 8. (Results in 1 unit instead of 21)
Blood Duplication▮	1 part Unstable Mutagen 1 part Chlorine 1 part Phosphorus 1 part Radium 1 part Blood	Not exactly a recipe or an usual reaction, more of an useful byproduct of virology recipes. When any chemical that mutates viruses is combined with any blood, it increases the amount of blood without the need for it to be removed from someone. With plumbing, this is most useful when used with Unstable Mutagen, as it's easy to produce and allows you to infinitely create blood for use in chemfactories.

Product Recipes

These are combinations of chems that produce items you can actually use - high-grade medical items and even resources.

Name	Formula	Reaction conditions	Description
Plastic Sheets	5 parts Oil 1 part Welding Fuel 1 part Carbon 1 part Hydrogen 3 parts Ash 1 part Oil 1 part Welding Fuel 1 part Carbon 1 part Hydrogen Temperature 480K 2 parts Sulphuric Acid Temperature 374K	N/A	Creates Plastic sheets at a rate of 10u per Plastic sheet. Can be used in hand to craft plastic bottles and other novelties, as well as being a core resource for medical & science Lathe recipes.	N/A