Probably Stolen chemistry guide

Chemistry in Probably Stolen is a four-machine chain: the Blender turns plants into mush, the Heating Plate lets alcohol pull the active compound out, the Evaporator removes the leftover solvent overnight, and the Chem Finisher packs what remains into a vial or pill. The share of active compound in the finished product is its purity grade.

What do you need to start?

The Chemist specialization starts with a Chemistry Manual and Chemistry Lab Equipment. Anyone else can unlock the same content with the Retired Chemist network upgrade (1,000 credits), after which a retired chemist visits weekly and sells chemical supplies and equipment.

Machines you will use:

Machines accept the Chemical Equipment Module, which cannot be removed afterwards without a Module Extractor.

What is inside Chemical Supplies?

Unpacking a Chemical Supplies (Common) crate gives 2 Mini Alcohol Bottles (each 175 ml alcohol plus 75 ml water), a Bottle of Lipobond Agent (150 ml), a Bottle of Acidic Solution (250 ml) and a Bottle of Basic Solution (250 ml). Chemical Supplies (Restricted) gives 2 Bottles of N-Methylol Base (each 125 ml N-Methylol Base plus 125 ml Stabilizing Agent) and a Bottle of Reducing Agent (250 ml). Every bottle carries a random 2-8% of impurities, so two bottles of the same type are not identical.

How do you make Dream Dust?

1. Blend. Put Dream Caps (grown in a Hydroponic System) into the Blender. They become Dream Cap Mush.
2. Add solvent. Pour the mush and alcohol into one container on the Heating Plate. The game’s extraction rule rewards at least 5 parts alcohol to 1 part mush; below that, yield drops in proportion.
3. Heat gently. Extraction starts at 40 °C and produces Dream Cap Extract. Keep the container below 50 °C to avoid losing mush, and never above 60 °C (see the temperature table).
4. Remove protein. Dream Caps contain protein, which would end up in the vial. Add Acidic Solution: each millilitre turns about a millilitre of protein into insoluble debris. Basic Solution does the same, and acid and base cancel each other out, so Basic Solution also fixes an acid overdose. Check the Composition Spectrometer until protein is near zero.
5. Strain. Run the liquid through Kotton Fabric to remove plant matter and the debris from step 4.
6. Evaporate. Put the container into the Evaporator with a charged battery and wait a night. Water and alcohol leave; the extract stays.
7. Finish. In the Chem Finisher choose the Dream Dust recipe and press Output. The container must hold at least 2 ml of dry residue.

Player-reported, unverified: a streamer who skipped the straining step got “Star grade” garbage worth about 1 credit per vial, and typical first successes landed around 45-65% purity.

What temperatures matter?

These thresholds come from the game’s reaction code. The plate has no thermostat at its default setting, so stop heating early.

Losses are applied every second the container stays hot, so a short overshoot costs little and a long one ruins the batch. Nightmare Cap extract is the most fragile: it degrades from 50 °C.

How do Heating Plate upgrades work?

The number of Chemical Equipment Modules inside the plate changes it. With none, the target is fixed at 99 °C. With one, the maximum rises to 160 °C. With two or more you can set the target yourself in 5 °C steps. Three modules make heating faster, four make it much faster.

How do you make a Caffeine Pill?

Blend Coffee Beans into Coffee Bean Mush, then heat it with alcohol at 50 °C or more. Plain water also works but only from 80 °C and extracts far less. Caffeine has no heat-destruction rule in the code, so high temperatures are safe here, but alcohol boils off above 78 °C. Coffee beans carry both protein and fat. Remove the protein with Acidic Solution as for Dream Dust. Remove the fat with Lipobond Agent: one part binds up to eight parts of fat into debris. Add it after the plate cools, because Lipobond Agent boils off at 55 °C. Then strain, evaporate overnight and choose Caffeine Pill in the Chem Finisher. Each pill uses 5 ml of dry residue.

Which products can the Chem Finisher make?

The residue must be dry: any water or alcohol left in the container blocks output (“Wet Ingredient Detected”). Nomore is made from Dream Cap Extract, Reducing Agent and Lipobond Agent held at 45-55 °C with little alcohol; 60% of the reacted material becomes Nomore and the rest turns into insoluble debris. The Lipobond Agent supply limits how much reacts.

What are the purity grades?

Purity is the active ingredient’s share of the finished volume. Grades and the price modifier stored for each:

Clients buying narcotics never accept Junk Grade or Starch Grade, and some refuse Cut Product or Street Standard as well. Purity is random for each batch, so treat any number you read elsewhere as an example, not a rule.

Who sells ingredients and who buys the dust?

These visitors come on the Chemist start or after you buy the Retired Chemist upgrade:

Player-reported, unverified: in one Chemist run the Dealer paid 39 credits per vial of Dream Dust on day 3, enough to cover the first rent.

How do you improve yield and purity?

Add Chemical Equipment Modules to the machines. The Blender’s content loss falls from 35% with no modules to 20%, 10%, 5% and 0% with one to four. The Chem Finisher’s added contamination falls from 12% to 6%, 3%, 1% and 0%. The Evaporator takes ordinary modules, and the Evaporator Solvent Recovery Module captures only alcohol in the Distillate slot.

FAQ

Where do I get alcohol? Mini Alcohol Bottles come inside Chemical Supplies (Common). They hold 70% alcohol and 30% water by volume.

Can I put two containers in the Evaporator? No. It handles one container, and by base performance removes up to 300 ml of evaporating liquid per night.

What is the Chemist Storage Bay? A 400-credit storage bay for chemistry equipment and supplies; it cannot hold other containers or machines.

Why does the Chem Finisher say “Contaminant Introduced”? It adds physical contaminant after every batch. Modules reduce it.

See also

• Hydroponics guide
• Modules guide
• Water guide
• Machines
• Chemist specialization