Probably Stolen Guide

Chemistry Guide: Recipes, Evaporator & Lab Pure

Updated · Production

Quick answer

Every drug follows the same chain: Blender → Heating Plate (extract in alcohol) → clean with acid/base, Kotton and a water filter → Evaporator overnight → Chem Finisher. Finisher doses: Dream Dust 2 mL, Nightmare Dust 4 mL, Caffeine Pill 5 mL, Phanta Pill 0.5 mL, Nomore Injector 4 mL. Keep Dream/Nightmare mush below 50°C (40–49°C) and Phanta below 130°C (110–129°C). The batch must be completely dry before the Finisher, and Lab Pure needs all 4 Chem Modules in the Finisher plus 99%+ purity.

Full 1.0 Chemist run (stream) · Video by CthuLuck on YouTube
A shop with production machines and storage bays set up in the back room
Production machines in the back room. Screenshot © Questing Goose Studio / tinyBuild (official Steam store media)

The machines

Machine Value What it does Modules
Blender 200 Turns caps/beans into mush in real time Loses 35% / 20% / 10% / 5% / 0% of input with 0–4 modules
Heating Plate 250 Heats the extraction 0 modules: fixed 99°C target · 1: 160°C · 2: set it yourself (26–160°C in 5° steps) · 3–4: heats faster
Evaporator 300 Removes water, alcohol, Lipobond — 300 mL/night Solvent Recovery Module (275) gives back 50% of the alcohol
Chem Finisher 300 Turns a dry batch into pills/vials Adds 12% / 6% / 3% / 1% / 0% contaminant with 0–4 modules
Composition Spectrometer — Shows exactly what’s in a container “Getting great purity is almost impossible without it” (lpinch)

Chem Modules (250 each) are stuck once installed until you pull them with a Module Extractor (Basic 100, Advanced 350). Plan where they go: the Finisher needs 4 for Lab Pure, the Heating Plate needs at least 1 for Phanta.

Finisher recipes

Product Active ingredient per unit Base value Contraband
Vial of “Dream Dust” 2 mL Dream Cap Extract 18 Medium
Vial of “Nightmare Dust” 4 mL Nightmare Extract 36 High
Caffeine Pill 5 mL caffeine 10 Legal
Phanta Pill 0.5 mL Phanta 12 High
Nomore Injector 4 mL 50 Legal
Zyanide Pill 0.6 mL (refined from existing pills only) 33 Medium
Birth Control Pill 0.1 mL (refined from existing pills only) 15 Legal

Contraband adds +35% (Low), +70% (Medium) or +100% (High) to the sale price.

Purity grades

Grade Purity Price modifier
Lab Pure 99%+ +135%
Pharma 90–99% +85%
Near-Pharma 80–90% +40%
Street Standard 60–80% 0
Cut Product 45–60% −45%
Junk 30–45% −75%
Starch under 30% −95%

Rough sale formula from lpinch’s guide: base × (1 + grade) × (1 + contraband + market) × (1 + bargain). Example: Pharma Dream Dust sold during a clearance with a −10% bargain ≈ 18 × 1.85 × 1.55 × 0.90 ≈ 46 credits.

Dream Dust (and Nightmare Dust)

  1. Blend Dream Caps (23 each).
  2. Extract in alcohol at about 5× the mush volume, held at 40–49°C. At 50°C+ the mush turns into plant matter; at 60°C+ the extract breaks down. The alcohol isn’t used up, so you can add mush in portions (lpinch: ~650 mL of alcohol for 130 mL of mush at once, or ~90 mL if you add 25 mL at a time).
  3. Neutralize protein with acid or base at 1:1 (never both). If more than 0.5 mL is left over, cancel it with 1 mL of the other.
  4. Filter through Kotton Fabric, then a water filter.
  5. Evaporate overnight until dry.
  6. Finish: 2 mL extract = 1 vial. Half the mush becomes extract.

Mini Alcohol bottles are 30% water, so pour about 1.4× as much. Nightmare Dust is the same process; its extract breaks down quickly from 50°C, and 4 mL makes one vial.

Phanta Pill

  1. Put 1 Chem Module in the Heating Plate — the reaction runs above 99°C.
  2. Open a Chemical Supplies (Restricted) pack (100): 2 precursor bottles (N-Methylol + Stabilizing Agent) and 1 Reducing Agent.
  3. Destroy all Stabilizing Agent with acid, water-filter the debris, then neutralize the leftover acid.
  4. Add Reducing Agent at ¾ of the N-Methylol.
  5. Heat to 110–130°C (fastest at 120–129). At 130°C+ Phanta breaks down.
  6. Clean chlorine with a tablet plus water, evaporate, finish. 5 mL of methylol ≈ 1 pill; lpinch got ~47 pills per pack at ~86% average purity.

Caffeine Pill

Blend coffee beans, add Lipobond at about ⅛ of the fat, heat to 50–78°C (alcohol boils off above 78°C), neutralize protein, Kotton, water filter, evaporate, finish. 5 mL = 1 pill. ⚠️ Guides disagree on the alcohol: lpinch says 0.75× the mush is enough, The Exceptional Fisherman uses 5× for maximum extraction.

Nomore Injector

The recipe is a story reward from the wanted-poster visitor Li Bei Wen — don’t report him (wanted list). Make Dream Cap extract and evaporate it dry (it won’t react with more than 10% alcohol), add Reducing Agent 1:1 and Lipobond at ⅓, heat to 50–55°C, then Kotton, evaporate and finish. ⚠️ Single source (lpinch).

What removes what

Problem Fix
Water, alcohol, Lipobond Evaporator
Plant matter, debris Kotton Fabric
Physical contaminant, minerals Water filter
Microbes UV lamp, acid/base, 40%+ alcohol, or heat (70°C+, all gone at 100°C)
Protein Acid or base 1:1 (becomes debris)
Fat Lipobond at ⅛ (boils off above 55°C)
Chemical contaminant Purification tablet + water (down to 0.7%)
Heavy metal, starch, sugar Can’t be removed — scan and discard bad reagent bottles

Trick from both guides: a “Birth Control” run in the Finisher makes a 0.1 mL pill of acid, base or chlorine — a precise dosing tool.

Common mistakes

FAQ

How do you unlock chemistry in Probably Stolen?

Either take the Chemist start, or buy the Retired Chemist referral from Joe Wild's network for 1,000 favor. The kit includes a worn Blender, Heating Plate, Evaporator, Chem Finisher, Composition Spectrometer and the Chemistry 101 guide, and unlocks the Retired Chemist, Shady Farmer and Dealer as visitors.

What does the evaporator do?

It removes water, alcohol and Lipobond only — 300 mL per night, 6 energy per day, with no heating. It splits that 300 mL across whatever evaporable liquids are in the batch, so a big batch takes several nights (a 996 mL batch took 3). Since 1.0.0.5 it no longer leaves 1 µl of water behind in alcohol batches.

What is Reducing Agent used for?

It's a reagent for Phanta (add it at ¾ of the N-Methylol) and the Nomore Injector (1:1 with extract). You only get it inside the restricted Chemical Supplies pack. The bottles carry random heavy metal, which nothing in the lab removes — Gutter Tilapia can clean it beforehand.

Why does the Chem Finisher refuse my batch?

It needs a dry batch: about 0.1 mL or less of water, alcohol and Lipobond combined. Run it through the evaporator another night. Before patch 1.0.0.5 a bug could leave 1 µl of water in mixed alcohol batches.

How do you get Lab Pure (Say My Name achievement)?

Install all 4 Chem Modules in the Chem Finisher (0 modules caps you around Near-Pharma, 1–2 at Pharma) and feed it a dry batch of 99% purity or better. Use the Composition Spectrometer to check, and scan reagent bottles to throw out ones with heavy metal. 4.8% of players had the achievement on Nov 1.

Is selling drugs illegal in the game?

Dream Dust, Nightmare Dust, Zyanide and Phanta are contraband (Medium or High) and add to Security's case against you. Caffeine, Birth Control and Nomore are legal. Liquid extract is never contraband, so store your stock as extract and finish it right before you sell.

Related guides

Sources

Checked against the current version on · High confidence — confirmed by the developers or two independent sources. Spotted something outdated? Tell us.

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