Hello there engineer! Are you having a good shift? No? Then that means some asshole has fucked up the station, huh? Well fear not! In this guide, you'll learn how to make station repairs efficiently and as quickly as possible to prevent the entire station screaming at the AI to call the shuttle when a window breaks!
Station repairs come in a variety of levels, from minor to major. But luckily for you, you start with everything you need to keep air in and space out. For all of these levels, you'll need some things, including:
All fitted out? Good. Now it's time to get to work on whatever those fucking assholes broke!
Need to know how to build something? Check out these guides:
Guide to Advanced Construction
The first guide is mainly what you'll be using, the second guide is how to make advanced machines, like cryo pods or science machines.
Before you do ANYTHING, it's important to know where the damage is, and how severe it is. Usually, the AI will announce what went boom, but if you don't have an AI, there's a console that will list off all power, air, and fire alarms, located in the engineering lobby.
Let's say for example that a dumb scientist thought it would be cool to carry around his new bomb, showing it off to everyone. Then he somehow sat on the remote signaler and you have a crater in the hallway. Or a traitor snagged some bombs and decided to blow up half the station. We'll discuss how to quickly repair a small, medium, and large explosion, then move on to special cases.
You arrive at the hallway (or what's left of it) where the the bomb blew up…
It was a weak bomb. That's good for you! The first thing you should do is check for any breaches, with windows being a priority. Use a silicate sprayer to fix damaged windows, and add new ones as needed. Next, you should check for any cut wires or broken pipes, use your T-ray scanner for this. If multiple pipes broke, you can activate your materials scanners to know where to put them, and continue to do the same with wires. After you have breaches, pipes, and wires fixed, then you can move onto minor repairs, such as replacing floor tiles or fixing newscaster or vending machines or replacing lights.
Easy, right? Well you got lucky here, most scientists won't make weak bombs like this.
The bomb was pretty strong, you can see space through the hole in the floor. The power grid and distribution loop will also probably be damaged. First priority is sealing off the damaged area from other crew members, so they don't get sucked into the room and cause more depressurization, use your engineering tape to seal the doors, and inform the crew that you're working in the area. Now, the first thing you want to do is fix all the holes leading to space, if this is a medium sized bomb, there should be a decent number of them, those should be your first priority. Next, you'll need to seal the breaches, you should start off with fixing the walls that were damaged, and then building windows. To save time, if you need to fix a set of 4 windows and a grille, you can place the grille down, and only add the window facing space, that way, you don't have to waste time on making it look normal. When you finally get all the breaches sealed, it's time to get working on the power grid and distribution loop. It's recommended prioritizing pipes over wires first, because the APCs should have some power stored up. Also, you may want to add more vents when repairing the distribution line, to help fill the room faster, layered pipes will help you here. You should also consider radioing your pals and ask them to increase the distro loop pressure. Note that doing this while the room still has breaches will only cause you to leak air, and get yelled at by the CE. When the room is full of air, you can take down the engineering tape and work on wires and minor repairs, as well as add any windows you still need to add. Note that departments may be damaged, or even have their machines destroyed, so call up the grease monkey and tell them to get off their lazy ass. By this point, you should be almost done. Give the area a once over and check for any other damage, and call it a day.
Congrats, if you can do this, you've proven yourself to be a good engineer! But this is no means the hardest repairs you will make…
Cuban Pete sends his regards. This whole area is devastated, and fucked up beyond all repair, and it's your job to UN-fuck it. So let's get down to it. The area you're in will be unrecognizable, and most likely the heads of staff will call the shuttle. In a meantime, you should focus on making an area that people can walk through. If the heads are going to call it, then there's no point of you fixing a massive room, you priority here is survivability, always keep that in mind. The CE, atmos techs, fellow engineers, and even cyborgs and even autistic crabs should all be assisting you with this, but if they're not, then yell at them, or if it's code red, tell the command staff to tell the ERT to bring engineering gear. Taking a look at the area as a whole, you should be thinking about how you can repair it so someone can walk from point A to point B. The best way to do this is to make a new hallway in the wreckage, so crew can walk to escape without being sucked into space. The CE has a inflatable barrier dispenser, so consider asking him to make some barriers. You can also get a metal foam grenade from a hacked engi-vendor, which will cause a medium sized area to fill with metal foam, and you'll have one less area to worry about, there's also an emergency shield generator in engineering storage that will fill some breached floors, if you're near engineering at the time of the explosion, you may want to consider bring one. It should be obvious, but the whole power grid and distro line will be messed up. If you're making an area for people to walk from point A to B, you may want to consider making a branch off of the line, for the hallway only, you can also bring an air pump from atmos into the area, or even a basic air canister will do the job. (after you've rebuilt the floors and sealed it, of course) When you've finished making a temporary area for people to walk, and the heads of staff go WE BUILD mode, then you can begin on the whole area. Here's a basic checklist for large explosion repairs:
Once you've completed this checklist, you can safely remove the temporary hallway (if any) and move onto minor repairs, inform the crew that the area is safe again, and pack up your things.
Outstanding work! You've successfully fixed a catastrophic explosion, and gone down as hero of the station, and will be praised by the crew! (for about 5 minutes, then they won't give two shits about you again) But you've gone above and beyond the average engineer, so good work!
Plasma floods are surprisingly common on the station, and it's part of your job to fix it. The mistake most people make is to instantly think that siphon = plasma gone, this is not the case. Siphoning will slowly drain pressure first, THEN gas, which makes it a terrible way to remove harmful gasses, the proper way to remove harmful gasses from the air is to SCRUB them. The station is already outfitted with numerous scrubbers in the pipeline, and they'll do their job automatically, unless they were sabotaged.
Reminder that only Atmospheric Technicians and the Chief Engineer have plasma resistant suits, if you go into a plasma flood with a regular engineering suit, you WILL need to clean it using your suit storage unit. Let's have an example, suppose someone is running around with a plasma canister and accidentally opens it, the hallway will be flooded. People in that hallway will attempt to leave the area, which spreads plasma around even more. To fix this, simply let the scrubbers do their work, or bring over a portable one and switch it on. Easy, right?
NOTE: You will need to wrench back down portable scrubbers to empty their tanks, a connector to the waste loop should be outside engineering.
Now let's say that Urist McGreytide thought it would be a funny idea to light a match in that plasma flood, now you've got a fire and high pressure and temperature, this may sound like an intimidating fix, but it's fairly straightforward. First, start putting out the fire, Don't use the regular red fire extinguishers, instead, use the Yellow Foam Fire Extinguishers that can be found in Atmospheric Technician's lockers. This extinguisher can put out the fire better, as well as lower the temperature, two birds with one stone! Once the fire is out, you need to focus on the plasma remaining in the air (if there's any left) and the temperature. Use the previous example to fix the plasma issue, and use your foam extinguisher to cool the area. You can also use air conditioning units located around the station, but the foam extinguisher is better, to heat a room, use a space heater.
Finally, let's say that your engineer buddies are fixing a breach, but there's still a severe lack of air. Repair the vents and distro pipes and air will slowly begin to refill the room. If you want to speed up the process, you can add an air pump to the room, or even open one of the white air canisters from atmos in the room.
The most important part of atmos issues is to save all the air you can, which means a broken door or firelock will slowly leak more and more into space. To stop this, you can use a inflatable wall, which when activated in your hand will create a wall that will stop air from leaking out of the area you're in. Alternately, you can use doors to make entrances to areas that need to be repaired by engineering, so that no one accidentally floods the bar with flaming hot plasma and gets lynched from beyond the grave.
To deflate an inflatable door or wall, right click it. Special Cases Now that you're a pro at fixing explosions and the air, you're ready to take on whatever accidents may happen. But there are a few other things you should be prepared for.
Meteors Event Meteor.gif
(Note, NOT the gamemode) When the station is going to be hit by meteors, you'll hear an announcement from command. Meteors come in different sizes, from tiny to large, and during the time when meteors strike, you should NOT be out in space, or you may get hit by a meteor. When the all clear is sent out, you can get to work. Depending on the meteor, you may need to fix a few things, or rebuild an entire department. Note that meteors only hit the station from outside, which means you don't need to worry about pipes and the power grid as much. Depending on where the meteors strike (north, west, south, east) you may need to fix different areas. areas that are more into space, (for example, virology, the firing range, escape, and perma brig) may be more damaged than others. Maintenance will also potentially be depressurized, so be ready for some dumbfuck to open all the doors, and potentially depressurize more hallways. But, the explosion should be medium, at worst, you shouldn't have any issues.
Meteors Gamemode Meteor.gif
The station is going to be hit by a MAJOR meteor storm, and it's too massive for you to make proper repairs. Keep areas where the crew are living in safe, and good luck. You'll need it. A whole page on the mode is located here.
Blob BlobD.png
During a blob attack, your main goal for repairs is to fix the area that security clears out. The blob will spread rapidly, and your emitters will work greatly against it, if you get too close to it, your welding tool will do considerable damage. Security should be doing the major fighting, but emitters are a always welcome. Set them up and repair any breaches that cause the hallways to depressurize.
Defending Escape Sometimes, you can't keep up with the destruction, and the shuttle will be called. Depending on what happened, you may want to bring extra supplies to Escape, to be ready for whatever happens. Things like:
A super capacity powercell for the APC, or a PACMAN generator. (don't forget the plasma) An airpump. Metal. Metal foam grenades. Inflatable barriers. Will all help keep escape safe. (Note, while using the PACMAN, make sure the scrubber pipes are working. The generator makes power but puts out a tiny amount of plasma. This amount is harmless, and picked up by the scrubbers before it has a chance to harm the crew, but if the pipes are out, then you may have a small plasma flood on your hands worst case scenario.)
Loose Singularity Singulo 1.gif
The classic “CALL IT!” situation. Depending on where the singularity goes, you may need to do nothing, or completely repair escape. Follow the tips for defending escape, but always be aware of where the singularity goes off to. If science is actually being semi competent, they may make a Bag of Holding, or highly explosive bombs, which when throw in the singularity, has a chance to make it return to level one or even remove it. If the singularity is nowhere near escape, then don't even risk it, but if the singularity is going to escape, and you're feeling ballsy, grab a jetpack from EVA and try to stop lord singuloth, you absolute madman.
REMEMBER, BAGS OF HOLDING ARE NOT YOUR ONLY OPTIONS, YOU CAN GRAB A FUCKING BOMB AND TELL LORD SINGULOTH TO FUCK OFF.
Rod Rods.png
;WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!
Sometimes, an immovable rod will come flying into the station, and it will penetrate everything in it's path, so stay away from it. Because of this, the station will have multiple atmos breaches in different departments. The rod only takes out one tile at a time, so the damage shouldn't be massive, unless it hits fuel tanks or other explosives. Focus on repairing the departments who have walls leading to space first, as those will be the ones who lose air fastest.
Shard Explosion/Delamination Supermatter shard.png
When a supermatter shard explodes, there are two things that will happen. One isn't much of a big deal, and another is a big deal. First you'll hear a massive explosion, probably from engineering, and then you'll see an EMP take over the station. The EMP isn't going to be much of an issue, all APCs will be slightly damaged, but only by 20% of their maximum charging capacity, but that isn't a major issue. The main issue you'll have is the explosion in engineering. Luckily for you, the SME is usually placed far away from other vital station stuff, like atmos and the SMES units. But the FIRST thing you should ALWAYS do first is check on the singularity engine, if there is one. If the wiring to the emitter has been messed up by the explosion, that's your first priority. The second thing you should do is grab a station bound radio, and inform the crew that the singularity is now safe, and the EMP should wear off soon. Comms will also be out, so if you can, you may want to restart it. Most people panic when a shard explodes, but the only real damage is in engineering. If that can be fixed, then the station should be safe. Considering you were using the SME as an engine, your SMES units should be maxed, so you'll have time to get a new engine up and running. Fire alarms may randomly activate due to the EMP, but a simple press of the “reset lockdown” button will fix them. Considering it's only one shard, the explosion should be medium, or medium-large, so it's nothing you can't handle. I mean, who would be dumb enough to add multiple shards?
When a supermatter crystal delaminates, on the other hand? God help you.
Tips Use reinforced glass on vending machines that have been damaged to repair them. Welding a glass shard will turn it back into a glass sheet. Welding two metal rods will turn it back into a metal sheet. Welding 4 floortiles will turn it back into a metal sheet. Always try to salvage supplies from the damaged area, so you can save YOUR supplies for when it's needed. A simple broken window may need nothing but a welder, screwdriver, and crowbar. When working with other engineers, make sure to divide the area up so that more ground (or space) is covered. Right clicking a fire lock will tell you the atmospheric status of all the sides around it. Remember, the heads of staff will want to call it if you keep quiet, so when you're making repairs, keep them, and the whole crew, updated with how far along your repairs are going. Your CE has 500 credits in the engineering account, and gets more everytime payroll comes in. If you're working on a large area and need supplies, ask him to get some more.