Exia's Chemistry Tips and Tricks

[Exia]

Before we get into this, I would like to say that this is not the be all end all chemistry guide. Different people will have different styles of doing things, some better than the way I personally do things. I made this mainly to update on SomeoneOutTher3's How to be a Good Chemist guide that was made last year. Unlike that guide, this will be purely focused on, in my opinion, the bare essentials of what chemistry should aim to provide in order to keep medical functioning, along with several other handy tips for aspiring chemists who may have trouble starting out in the role. Credit to Ezuo for teaching me an immense amount about Chemistry over the past few weeks.

Note: Before you mention that chemical medications are better than traditional bandages and surgery, note that chemicals are not able to fix broken bones. Another thing is that chemicals such as bicardine and peridaxon that speed up cell regeneration are bad long term, and carry negative side-effects according to the lore. If traditional treatment is available, use that instead of sticking needles.

Cleaning up mistakes

 

Whoops! Wrong button

Should you accidentally click on a wrong chemical, you can always put it back in the dispenser. Firstly, place the beaker into the Chemmaster 3000 and make a pill/bottle of the chemical you added incorrectly. ( I use pills because they dissolve neatly without any bottles to throw into disposals. Minimal wastage yo) Next use the screwdriver provided in the chemistry lab on the dispenser. A list of installed reagent cartridges will then pop up. Choose the appropriate cartridge and eject it from the dispenser. From there, it's pretty easy. Click on the cartridge while it is in your active hand to pop the lid, and click it with the pill in hand to dissolve it within. Click on the chemical dispenser with the cartridge in hand to put it back in.

Note that if you have accidentally caused a reaction, it is too late to retrace your steps. Either dump it or pill/bottle it up kiddo.

Phoron warning

It may happen. Working with a bottle of phoron, you may end up misclicking and spilling it all over the floor or light tube. Something you should know as a chemist ICly is that liquid phoron is highly volatile and will turn into its gaseous state almost immediately after spilling. Did someone say phoron leak? Yup. The first thing you should do is to not panic. Accidents happen. Your first move must be to remove whatever eyewear you have on you and put on those purple science goggles if you are not already wearing a pair, and put on your emergency internals. The goggles prevent phoron from irritating your eyes and causing damage, while the internals prevent phoron poisoning. Yell for an engineer to come rescue you as soon as you have both of these up and wait. In the meantime, administer imidazoline and dylovene to cure whatever phoron poisoning and eye damage you have.

Once you get out, some clothing may have biohazard symbols over them. This indicates that they are contaminated, and will continue to cause some toxin damage while you are wearing them. The only way I know of to remove this status is to wash them in a washing machine.

 

My Practices

This section will be solely for what I do. It is not perfect, but it should be enough to set people on the right path.

 

My Fridge

This is what I aim for every time I finish my routine. It personally takes me 40~ minutes to complete, depending on any tasks I need to do in between mixes. Having an order to things helps both you and the doctors looking through your fridge to find something. As the fridge cannot be re-organised, it is important to have a sequence to what is going into the fridge.

 

Bicardine bottle x4

KeloDerm bottle x4

Tricordrazine bottle x4

Dexalin+ bottle x5

Hyronalin bottle x2

Alkysine bottle x2

Imidazoline bottle x2

Peridaxon bottle x4

Tramadol bottle x4

Oxycodone bottle x2

Spaceacillin bottle x2

Clonexadone bottle x1 (Emptied into cryogenics after mixing)

Ryetalyn (1 units) pill bottle x1

Iron(10 units) pill bottle x1

Iron(20 units) pill bottle x1

Carbon(10 units) pill bottle x1

Synaptizine(1 units) pill bottle x1 [ kept in dangerous materials storage]

Paracetamol (10 units) pill bottle

Ethylredoxrazine (10 units) pill bottle x1

All pill bottles are completely filled at 16 pills a bottle.

 

This is generally enough to get through a shift with, of course, that varies from situation to situation. For specifics on what each medication does, the wiki is a very good place to look.

My Mixes

These are mixtures of chemicals that have minor enhancements when compared to their individual components. These benefits are usually efficiency, less wastage or convenience. All of them are intended to be bottled, though they can be adjusted to work in pill form.

KeloDerm: 30u kelotane, 30u dermaline

This mix is meant to balance the efficiency of dermaline with the speed of having two chemicals work on a patient at the same time. As both chemicals metabolize in the patient together, 18 burn damage is healed for every 'unit' of keloderm metabolized. If fifteen units of keloderm was compared to fifteen units of dermaline, dermaline would heal more over time, but keloderm would always heal faster than dermaline. [Taught to me by Ezuo]

Dexalin+: 12u Dexalin Plus, 48u Water

Yes, It is diluted dexalin plus. The reason it is diluted with water is because a single unit of dexalin plus will heal 300 units of suffocation damage instantly after administering. Therefore, it does not have to be pure to be used effectively. Furthermore, diluting the dexalin plus will turn one 60 unit bottle of pure dexalin plus into five bottles, greatly reducing your workload, and without sacrificing effectiveness. This ratio of dexalin plus: water can be messed around with AS LONG AS the total amount of dexalin plus in the bottle is equal than or higher than 12. [Taught to me by Ezuo]

Stabilizer: 20u Inaprovaline, 20u Tricordrazine, 20u Bicardine

The reason I do not expect to make this is because it is mostly for EMT use. This mix is meant to almost replace inaprovaline on the EMT belt, giving them the ability to stabilize and heal a patient at the same time. It is still a work in progress as I try to find a way to squeeze in some dexalin plus.

I'm sure bigger chem nerds than me can figure out what to do fairly easily though. [Thought of by SebKillerDK]

Edit: At current, I've decided that this isn't quite worth it for a number of scenarios. I'll experiment a bit to see what works better, but straight inaprovaline never goes wrong.

Arithra-Bicard: 40u Arithrazine, 20u Bicardine

Okay, this one is pretty straightforward. Putting bicardine into arithrazine to negate the trauma damage. A reminder that arithrazine is also an anti-toxin and this will rapidly heal toxin damage, along with some brute damage if the patient has any.

This does not work due to arithrazine having an extremely low metabolisation rate. Therefore you cannot mix them together without the effects of Arithrazine being too little to matter, or having the bicardine wear off before the arithrazine finishes metabolising.

Clonefix: 12u ryetalyn, 48u alkysine

This is just an all-in-one post cloning formula. Injecting ten units of this mix would cure the brain damage from cloning and cure the patient of all post cloning genetic disorders.

 

Dangerous Materials

This is a list of things that should be in the 'Dangerous Materials Storage' fridge if they are made. The reason for these varies from being a combat stimulant to requiring supervision when administering.

 

Chloral Hydrate: An extremely powerful sedative. Making this 'Just in case' for no other reason may lead to powergaming accusations and a talking to from the admins.

Hyperzine: A combat stimulant.

Mindbreaker Toxin: LSD basically. An illegal substance that is punishable by brig time. It is perfectly fine to make this unless you're using it as a narcotic/distributing it. Having this out in the main fridge can constitute as distributing it if someone with access to the fridge takes it.

Paroxtine: Causes hallucinations, potentially causing brief psychotic breakdowns. Supervision is required when administering.

Space Drugs: This has zero medicinal value, and the wiki will tell you as such.

Synaptizine: A long lasting combat stimulant. Though it has its uses outside of combat, such as administering it to patients with hallucinations, its mildly toxic properties and long metabolization rate are cause for concern outside of drastic situations.

Oxycodone: On the wiki, it states that it is a highly addictive painkiller. However, surgeons may request this for surgery as "Anesthesia doesn't work on the patient if his lungs are ruptured." As ruptured lungs only allow anesthesia to work fifty percent of the time, this is a fair request. Administer it yourself if you deem it necessary. Such as if the roboticist needs a local anesthetic and there's no surgeon to watch over the process. Note that this, in particular, can be left out in the main fridge if you believe the other medical staff to be aware not to use it outside of patients suffering extreme, and I mean extreme, pain.

 

 

Things you should NEVER make outside of antaggery and drastic situations include all poisons and harmful grenades, unless asked to by security. Though you are a chemist, in this context you generally a pharmaceutical chemist first. Try not to make weaponized grenades and mixtures if you can help it, that's usually more of a research thing.

FAQ

This section is for questions I anticipate getting at some point. Do feel free to correct any of my misconceptions.

 

Why don't you make tricordrazine outside of Stabilizer? Is it bad?

It is unless the patient has every single damage type. And even then, it is not nearly as effective as 5 units of dylovene, bicardine, keloderm and dexalin+. However, the main reason why I don't think I need to make it is the same reason I don't make inaprovaline or dylovene: The medical doctors are able to make this by themselves with little effort. They can make a beaker for their own use using the dylovene and inaprovaline abundant in the medical vendors. This is why for me, making it is redundant.

Edit: Though I still believe in everything I said in this statement, Tricordrazine is now a part of what I make on your average round. This is mainly there just in case anyone in the medbay desperately needs it for one reason or another.

Why is everything in a bottle instead of being in a pill? Isn't a pill easier to administer?

It would definitely be easier to administer large quantities of medicine through pills. However, having it in bottles allows the doctor to control how many units are administered at all times. This allows for medicine to be kept longer, only using what is needed instead of a full 30 units every single time someone is injured for example. It also helps medical personnel avoid overdose while keeping as much medication as possible in the patient's bloodstream. The last benefit this gives is that it allows for the medicine to be administered even in space suits, as pills cannot be eaten with a airtight helmet in the way.

So what about iron?

Iron's different as it can only function as a supplement to regenerate blood if it is ingested in pill form.

How do you use autoinjectors?

Ah, the age old problem. All autoinjectors are pre-loaded with inaprovaline. To remove this and add your own mixture in, draw the inaprovaline out by using a syringe and then use a syringe to inject your mixture into the autoinjector. Autoinjectors can hold only five units. Keep in mind that you cannot re-use used up autoinjectors.

How do chemicals work when injected into the body?

Believe it or not, they work exactly as they would if you were to put them in a beaker. Therefore, stabilizing a patient with inaprovaline and then jabbing them with dylovene immediately after for a spider bite is not as effective as the result of the two being in the bloodstream would form tricordrazine.

 

In closing, I would like to say that practice makes perfect for being a chemist. Keep the Guide to Chemistry on the wiki available to you at all times while mixing to use as a reference. Once you have your basics down, experiment. Create your own healing mixes (Or poisons if you're doing antag things). If you're unsure about anything while experimenting, pull out a calculator and head to the wiki, or maybe leave a comment here about your problem and a fellow chemistry nerd will be glad to help (Or not, whichever the case might be ). Thanks for reading, and I hope this helps you.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Guest

[Wiebman]

Nice guide. (:

[ngdaniel96]

distribute hyperzine to sec officers as combat stimpacks, problem solved!

[DatBerry]

instead of internals, a gas mask would last you forever without the need of an internals tank, provided phoron isn't 30% of the air.

[Fire and Glory]

I would argue that Oxycodone and Arithrizine are not things you should be particularly coy about making.

Granted Arithrizine is not particularly needed, but it's not actually dangerous either, the brute damage it causes is scattered in the limbs and tends to reach 1-2 brute in any one limb at most. So really it'd be up to your discretion without any need for a CMO to weigh in.

As for Oxycodone, lung punctures are one of (or were one of) the most common workplace accident injuries. If it needs surgery and it doesn't have any broken bones, it's probably a puncture. Anesthesia literally works only half the time on someone with such an injury, so sedatives and/or painkillers are needed, personally if I could I would go with Oxycodone+Sopoforic when doing the surgery since sopoforic takes so long to work. Chloral Hydrate on its own'd work fine but that's something you do need to be careful with.

I have a sneaking suspicion that it's typically better to give Oxycodone to someone with bones twisted in all the wrong ways and ribs spiking into his organs instead of Tramadol as well.

Ultimately it's up to the doctor administering the medicine to be responsible for any powergaming or malpractice since most chems have a varying range of legitimate uses.

[Exia]

@DatBerry: Yeah, but that kinda depends on what the chemist has on them. 95% of the time they won't have a gas mask on hand buuuuut it does work a lot better if you do have one

@Fire and Glory: Yeah, I was pretty much just referencing the wiki on those two meds. The trauma from arithrazine does give it an "Emergancy Med" tag. A mixture of maybe 40u arithrazine, 20u bicardine would be enough to counteract the trauma damage. Though, even in cases when the supermatter blew, I never really needed anything more than hyronalin. That being said, the 2:1 arithrazine-bicardine mix does sound a little more fun to do. MIght do that instead of hyronalin, depending on situation.

I guess what I meant when I put oxycodone on the restricted list was mainly to say not to just hand it out to every Tom, Dick and Harry with a headache. It can basically function as a local anesthetic and so just because it's the most powerful on the list, doesn't mean it's the best and only one you should be using. I'll change up the list, put those two on a warning list instead of a restricted list

[ForgottenTraveller]

Really good guide. But my 2 cents are. With diluted Dexalin plus. Inaprovaline instead of water is my go too. If they are in crit oxyloss, it will reset the oxy, and fight the drop too. Also sometimes you just want pure stuff, never hurts to have a little in reserve even if it isn't in the fridge. Oxycodone is very helpful in surgery if you need to get into them quick, or can't take gas like vacura. While they are awake, it can be good especially for critical internal bleeds. IV at 0.03u/s hook em up wash hands and have at it. But outside of extreme trauma and surgery it shouldn't really need to be used.

Also thank you for your effort in the bottle v pill debate. Generals in liquid specialties in pills 5ever

Also also. Sometimes players can get stuck in perma stuns, which even admin abuse can struggle with. Synaptizine works well on that. An mixing it 1 unit to 20 Dylovene fights the toxic effects for the length of the dose. Though it is a bit wasteful on the Dylo

Yet another also. Borgs struggle with pill bottles. So it can sometimes be worth having some single pills of the iron in the fridge for their use, or another doctor just needing one, and not taking the bottle with them and leaving it somewhere randomly or keeping it in their pack. Then going SSD when you really need one to work with the IV.

[Exia]

[mention]ForgottenTraveller[/mention] I did use inaprovaline instead of water once upon a time, though it reduces effectiveness if, say, they were dying due to a spider bite. The inaprovaline reacts with the dylovene to make tricord which isn't fabulous. However, it does work better for certain scenarios, so if you would like to keep a batch of that in the fridge, it's not a horrible idea.

[ForgottenTraveller]

Yeah, I usually have some dex plus in pure for dire dex plus needs to hook to an IV or inject. An The DexInapro mix is used where I would use inaprovaline over where I would use dex in most cases. But an excellent point if you are using it primarily for the dex use it would be more helpful.