Tech Research

While many objects can be fabricated cheaply by major factories in Earth orbit, a bit of deconstructive analysis can help you recreate these technological marvels with local resources, cutting costs and saving the bottom line. Sufficiently advanced sciences can even unlock the potential for new and exciting developments that might just be the saviour of your station… or its downfall.

Many blueprints are unlocked already at the start. However, without sufficient tech to build them efficiently, costs of materials increase by x2 for one TL lower, x10 for two, and an additional x10 for each additional level. Being TL above needed reduces costs by 10% per level. So an object that requires Materials 5 and Engineering 5 would cost 100x as much at Materials 3, Engineering 3; 4x as much at Materials 4, Engineering 4; 9x as much at Materials 3, Engineering 6; 81% as much at Materials 6, Engineering 6; and so on.

Tech levels range from zero to 10.

Items that are not in the blueprints files can't be constructed at all until properly analyzed first, although some items can be 'inferred' by proper tech research and become available as blueprints once tech is sufficiently advanced.

Most items have varying degrees of efficiency when first produced; analyzing items that fail due to poor quality will improve this efficiency, if TL is sufficient to make it at normal cost in the first place.

To improve the TL of your station, scientists experiment on individual objects found around the station by putting them in the Deconstructive Analyzer, which reverse-engineers and disintegrates the object. The Server Computer will allow you to then use the the technology from deconstructed objects to build more advanced and efficient versions of the original object, and even new tools such as laser cannons! Essentially this means that scientists don't really have to know the complex concepts that make up their machinery, as long as they have materials available for analysis to help them build better things. Isn't life grand?

So you've decided that the thought of shoving everything in the lab into a machine that annihilates them for research sounds like fun? Great! There are several tools of the trade to make your pursuit of Science easier:

Device Analyzer: This device allows you to analyze an item and attempts to create blueprints from it. This is often necessary to manufacture items you don't currently have blueprints for. Due to copyright concerns, stations are not typically equipped with blueprints for items under copyright, but efficiency demands that station engineers work around this hurdle with on-site analysis.

Reverse-Engineering Fabricator: This attempts to create a large object from blueprints. Note that without sufficient technical expertise, the designs may be shoddy, and may require far more resources than are strictly necessary in order to correct internal mistakes. Fabricated objects are issued in deployable box-frames that can be moved to the intended destination easily and then locked into place at the proper site with the assistance of a welding tool. Note that some items are incredibly difficult to move once deployed, so choose your setup site wisely!

Deconstructive Analyzer: This advanced device not only analyzes an item to make blueprints (when relevant), but also improves your manufacturing systems' capabilities by performing nanomolecular analysis of the item in question. When activated, a Deconstructive Analyzer console will inform you of what can be gained through analysis, and you can choose to analyze the item (destroying it for tech advancement and/or blueprints) or eject the item (in case security starts wondering where their laser guns got to.) As a rule, deconstructing an item increases technology by one level if you currently have a lower tech level than the item, as well as blueprints for making the item if relevant.

Don't be afraid to experiment! Some technology is so basic that the analyzer won't bother with them, but items such as bruise packs, flashbangs, and even some of the items in your lab can prove useful.

Every type of technology has levels that grade the general efficiency and knowledge of that technology.

Development of new and improved materials.

This is an important category that is used by almost everything. While you can deconstruct raw materials from mining, this is generally somewhat wasteful. Fortunately, analyzing large and intricate machinery often builds research in Materials without any significant work.

Important category. Used very commonly. Can be upgraded to level 8, but you will probably stop at level 6. Mech syringe guns can be made at robotics, and they get you to level 4, decon the Intellicard for Materials 5 and you unlock Pico Manipulators and Super Matter Bins. If you have Engineering and Power Manipulation up at 6 each by use of an exosuit fabricator board and SMES board you'll be able to decon Pico Manipulators and Super Matter Bins in an upgraded scanner. That results in materials 6 without needing mining and saves mineral resources. To get materials 7 you can get the OneHuman board from AI upload and hit Mats 7 without ever needing mining at all. NEVER EVER decon mining minerals unless you need to desperately otherwise it's a waste of minerals.

Development of new and improved engineering techniques.

Not used commonly, but but important. Can be upgraded to 6. All items are unlocked at 4, some rarely used boards require 5, higher engineering research results in deconstructive scanner being able to research items at 77-100% probability without a phasic scanning module and ultra-high-powered-micro-laser.

Analyzer is commonly used to get to level 2. For level 3 use a welding gas mask as it's 2k metal cheaper than a mining drill. Once you upgrade your machines with newer parts decon an exosuit-fabricator board for engineering 4 which unlocks SMES boards with the right amount of Power Manipulation research. This in turns allows you to decon 3 of the SMES boards for power manipulation 6 and engineering 6.

Research into the mysterious substance colloqually known as plasma.

Not very useful. Can be upgraded to 4, but it's pointless. Level 3 is needed for a plasma cutter. Freezer/Heater, PACMAN and chem dispenser boards also require level 3. Essentially, there are only two ways to get it to 3: Use two plasma or use a flamethrower, then plasma.

The various technologies behind the storage and generation of electricity.

Needed for power cells, capacitors and some lasers. Goes up to 7, but you'll be fine with 5, as no new items are unlocked beyond. Capacitor then high-capacity battery get you to 3. Mining drill upgrades to 4. SMES boards can get you to 5 and 6.

Research into the sub-reality known as “blue-space”.

It's quite isolated, but unlocks bluespace beakers at 2 and bags of holding at 4. Chemists would want those beakers, and everyone wants a bag.

It can theoretically be upgraded to 11, but you won't need more than 5 ever (barring you wanting to break down mech teleport modules to make… more mech teleport modules). If you don't plan to build teleportation hub boards, you only need 4. Tracking beakon is cheap and gets tech to 2.

Research into the deeper mysteries of life and organic substances.

Overall, not very useful, though level 3 unlocks boards for medical equipment. Level 3 also unlocks floral somatoray, which is very useful for botanists. It can be upgraded to 8 if you somehow get a lot of alien brains. Mech syringe guns can get you to level 5, and that's the most you'll ever need.

The development of offensive and defensive systems.

As the name suggests, unlocks various weapons, as well as security hud at level 2 and large grenade cases at level 3. You also need level 2 for gygax and durand construction.

This category is tricky to research. Toolbox in the R&D room is a common choice for level 2. Death nettle can push you to 4 if you get it from botanist. If you have spare sulphuric acid for boards, Gygax and Durand boards provide up to level 5 with sufficient data research and minor combat research.

Research into the electromagnetic spectrum. No clue how they actually work, though.

Used in micro-lasers, scanning modules and various items. Useful up to 5. Analyzer gets you to 2. Mech syringe guns get you to 5.

The development of new computer and artificial intelligence and data storage systems. Used for all but one circut boards. Intelicard requires 4, some items require 2. Requirements for boards go up to 4, except Messaging Monitor Console board that requires 5. Mech syringe gun gets you to 4. If you want to go further, make a circut board or use intelicard.

The study of technologies that violate Nanotrassen regulations.

Level 2 is needed for T.Y.R.A.N.T. AI module, level 3 for mech clusterbangs, large energy crossbows (depending on your codebase), and borg illegal module unlocks.

There are many items that can be researched, they are mostly traitor items. If you have somehow got your hands on a traitor item, destroying it for useless research is probably not the best idea. You can retrieve a suspicious looking toolbox from Derelict. T.Y.R.A.N.T. AI modules can be dismantled for further illegal tech research, though this requires diamonds.

So you've decided it's high time you started printing out some of the interesting items you've unlocked through technical prowess or scanned through device analysis of some type. Great! You won't be able to build efficiently at first (pesky copyright infringement policies not letting you copy research from home office), but you will get increasingly efficient at producing local goods as technology improves. Note that items, especially high-tech items, may malfunction every now and then, but putting a malfunctioning device back in the Destructive Analyzer will allow you to determine what went wrong and correct it, making a more efficient (and functional) device.

Your research will unlock items for all manufacturing systems that are synchronized with the research and blueprints servers, so don't be afraid to keep everyone up to date!

One of the things you can develop through research is advanced components, which you can use to replace the existing subcomponents of a machine with more efficient and useful ones. The process is simple:

• Screwdriver on the machine
• Crowbar on the machine
• Take the board and re-insert it into machine
• Insert parts you want to use
• Screwdriver

Note that some materials stored by the machine may be lost once you do this (in particular, when upgrading manufactory equipment). However, if you can develop a Rapid Parts Exchanger device, you can upgrade machinery without having to dismantle it and waste its contents (and without taking it offline, which may be relevant if it is doing Very Important Things that interrupting would cause problems.)

• Load advanced components into the Rapid Parts Exchanger by clicking on them with it.
• Use the RPE on the machine to see what parts are present
• Screwdriver on the machine
• Use the RPE on the machine
• Screwdriver the machine closed
• (Optional) Empty out the RPE by clicking on it.

The Protolathe uses metals, glass, and other mineable or manufactable materials in order to produce complex objects such as machine parts, mining equipment, power cells, and more. Weaponry can also be produced by a protolathe, but will automatically be made within a special lockbox until an ID with armory access is used to open it. (This adds to material cost.)

The Circuit Imprinter requires acid, glass and occasionally gold or diamond. With gold, you can make Law modules, or AI circuits types. Machine circuits such as mech suits and power generators can also be built.

Turning raw ores or metal bars into weird, fancy alloys is possible with the help of an arc smelter. The public one (and the main subject of this guide) is located between the engine cold loop room and the cargo bay airlock. The mining department has access to two arc smelters: one near the mineral magnet and another smelting room is tucked away in the derelict mining outpost.

This giant contraption is where dreams are made. Simply insert a material into the smelter by clicking it with the desired material in your hand, then click the smelter with an empty hand to refine that material into an alloy bar, then click it again to retrieve the bar. Up to two materials can be loaded to make a combination alloy that combines the functionality of both materials (i.e. combining a metal and a crystal will have it be recognized as both metal and crystal).

Note that every use of the smelter causes slag to build up inside of it which, if not removed, will decrease the quality of each successive alloy and cause smoke to billow out of the smelter until it's fixed. Remove slag by clicking the smelter with the slag shovel. Most compatible materials are listed here, though you can also use obscure things like the removed slag, gold or even human flesh with a willing donor. Experiment!

This is where you insert your alloy bars to make stuff. Most schematics require either metal alloys, fabrics, rubber, leather or crystals. A single bar can be made to fill all needs, with sufficient smelting.

The Fabrication Unit has a bunch of neat blueprints in them:

Most departments have their own fabricators for other job-specific stuff. Go check out what your department has access to, you might find something you like! You can also add a blueprint to a fabricator to permanently unlock a new item, but you have to find one first.

The computer to the smelter's left, a creative tool for the chemists. Pour a chemical into it and you can then treat the alloy in that chemical, applying its effects (and in the case of certain chems, stat alterations) to the final product; the more you use, the greater the effect, and rarer chemicals tend to have more interesting effects. You'll have to test with lots of chemicals to see what does what!

Accepts fibrilith, cotton and other fabrics. You can also recycle regular jumpsuits and shoes.

The hand-held devices on the table next to the general manufacturer can scan and tell you all sorts of info about a material such as its resistance to damage, its value, if it has any unique quirks, etc. You can use it on most materials as well as most things made with the smelter, loom, fabricators and workbenches.

The material analyzer spits out a lot of information about a material when it's scanned.

These are found all over the station, really. As you'd expect from the name they're supposed to be used for producing general objects, but in Ore Processing it's more for material storage so people don't dump a huge mess of materials all over the room. Comes with a couple bars worth of mauxite, pharosium and molitz to get you started.

Procuring the right materials can be a bit luck-based. Sometimes the Quartermaster will get special materials from trades, and the Merchants that come by shuttle can also have some goods. In most rounds however you'll be relying on the Miners, whom you should yell at regularly to bring materials to the smelter since they're literally just down the hall from Ore Processing.

As for what materials you actually want, it really depends on what you're making and why. Here are some baselines:

Floors, walls, grilles and the like? Make metal sheets out of something with a high resistance to explosions. These can't (normally) be destroyed with melee or bullets, so explosives are the only thing you need to worry about.

Heavy Armor? You will want to mash together as many high protective stats as you can. A properly-smelted Heavy Armor is hands-down the most defensively robust piece of wearable gear in the game, and you can't skimp on defense if someone is on a homicidal rampage, whether the rampager is you or someone else.

Pod Armor and windows? Stack on protection from explosions and bullets. Protection from melee damage is nigh-pointless for Pods since most of the harmful stuff they deal with is ranged or shouldn't reach them to begin with; just beware of AP rounds. As for the windows, it's not hard for people to find a Screwdriver and Crowbar to displace them with, so firefights and explosions should be your priority. Note that you can produce reinforced alloy glass with regular metal rods. You don't need to go out of your way for exotic metal rods if you don't want to (though it does help).

Gloves and Jumpsuits? These will always need at least one piece of fibrilith/fabric (they're counted as the same thing) per construct, so bother Hydroponics/the Head of Personnel/the Miners for some. Human flesh is an acceptable substitute if someone suicided into the smelter.

Atmos Tanks? Go for resistance to whacking, exploding and heat: whacking makes it not break from holding too much gas, exploding makes it not be damaged by other exploding canisters, and heat keeps it stable when another canister starts releasing flaming gas. These are all common dangers in the Toxins mixing lab.

Slag shovel? Well… let's be honest, the only reasons you'll be making this are if 1) someone steals the original shovel (rare, but it happens), or 2) as a melee weapon. If it's the latter, grab something with a shit-ton of Hardness and go to town.

Selling stuff? Your only focus should be on Value.

All of this is, of course, subject to change depending on your objective and motives. You'll have to discover suitable materials for yourself, but after that it's all up to your imagination.

Indeed, no crafting system is without a few advanced tricks. Here are some things to know:

When you combine two materials, their stats average out. Let's say one material had a Hardness of 3 and another had 7; if you mixed them, the combined alloy would have a Hardness of 5.

Merged materials will take on a mix-and-match name of whatever you put in, starting with the name of the first material and ending with the second. Additives will have their full name prefixed before the alloy name.

If you're clever with the material order, you can cram all sorts of things into an alloy and then revert it to a base name. Make a jumpsuit out of starstone but prefix it with slag, no one can tell the difference without the Material analyzer! A very devious yet underused trick.

Once a material is smelted into an alloy bar, that bar will keep the material's typing and quirks forever regardless of how many reforges it goes through. You could fuse whatever you want into a telecrystal and it would always have its spastic warping properties, you could pump a hundred ultra-dense uqill into fibrilith and it would still be considered a fabric, etc. This does not work with additives however, so make sure to apply the additive last!

Need one alloy for its typing/effect but desire another alloy's stats? Grab as much of the desired alloy as you can find and gradually pump it into the base alloy. The increasing stat average will push the numbers of the final product up to where you want them to be.

This doesn't work as well if you're doing this wanting the stats of more than one alloy, but some increases are still better than nothing!

Note that constantly sullying the mixture like this will decrease Value, but if you're not selling it then you don't have to worry about that.

On the flip-side of things, if you're fighting against someone rocking some ridiculously sturdy armor, knowing what alloy gives what stats can provide a hint of what method of attack to use; just examine him and look at the alloy name of his armor. For example, uqill has top-notch Toughness, but absolutely no Compressive or Shear strength on its own, so a gun or bomb will drop him as easily as anyone else. This is providing of course that he hasn't done the renaming trick as stated above. Be wary!

So you're a traitor? I'm sure you've already seen the boons of durable armor, so I have just one word for you: erebite. Erebite ore tends to make a powerful explosion from so much as being looked at wrong: the slightest impact, be it from smacking, throwing, heating, electrifying or explosion knockback has a chance to make it go off, and the chance increases as its durability decreases. This extends to anything you make out of it or mix with it, so smelting a single erebite bar into a stack of metal gives you ten easy pipe bombs (possibly more if you make the stack into floor tiles!). Pod Armors made of erebite are especially devastating, essentially being a 2×2 bomb with an engine strapped to it that will tear a huge chunk out of the station. Better still is mixing erebite into gloves for EXPLOSIVE PUNCHES; if you can use it in conjunction with a Heavy Armor that has high explosive protection, the explosions will barely hurt you while your target is totally floored.

…There's just one catch though: erebite can sometimes explode from being put in the smelter to begin with. That's how volatile this shit is. Make something that resist explosions before handling erebite, or your traitor round could end prematurely. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Or, perhaps explosions too crude for you and you want to get scientific with your traitoring. Making a Heavy Armor and Gloves with chemicals that react with each other and then punching yourself will trigger the reaction, which can be pretty devastating if it's something explosive. Even the humble floor tiles become a terror; they replace the floor as well as the hull with the alloy, which can make for fun times if you fill a hallway with them and infuse them with ice or space lube to cause everyone to slip and bang their head, or just make them out of telecrystal for a chance to warp people to a random spot with every step, making the hallway of choice nearly impossible to navigate. The fun never ends!

OR, maybe you're looking at this section because your assassination target has armored up and is proving to be a huge pain in the ass to take down. Worry not! As a traitor, you have access to Armor-Piercing (AP) rounds for your guns, which fly right past the Bullet Protection stat and do full damage. Then when he's shouting at you wondering why the fuck he's in crit already, you can taunt him about the value of AP rounds, finish him off and steal his armor for yourself!