Welcome to Advanced Chemistry! This page assumes you have either read Volume 1, or have a working understanding of basic chemistry. If you understand conditional effects, catalysts, and how to make the basic chems, you're probably good to go! if you didn't read Guide 1, I will be mad, >:( Tom put a lot of work into all this.
Topicals are usually to be reserved for emergencies when chems aren't available, due to how limited topicals can be in quantity. Topicals are things like brute packs, blood bags, ointment, etc. Also topicals (apart from some cryo meds) are the only meds that work on corpses.
Most doctors prefer to use advanced chems (the stuff this Guide teaches you to make) because they are usually faster and more resource efficient than basic ones. (your chemicals ARE limited after all). You are able to order chemvend restocks from cargo however, so either use the medical budget or just ask cargo to buy it with their larger budget. It rarely gets denied as everyone benefits from having healing chems in medical.
Cryo is a good option for when a patient shuffles in with multiple damage types. Say they have 50 brute of different types, 30 burns, and 10 toxin. It would take an array of chems to treat all this, however with cryoxadone and a functioning cryo tube it can be treated with just the one chemical rather trivially. A common mistake with cryo is not taking of clothing that protects from cold. So if they are wearing winter boots, winter jackets, a hardsuit etc, that can nullify the cryo process entirely. Try stripping patients (only moderately of course, NO ERP), if the cryo chems don't seem to be working in the tube. Also make sure the freezer is set to the lowest setting (select the text, put in 0 and hit enter, this will drop it to it's lowest value) and is pumping air in and waste gas like carbon dioxide out, it's quite akward if your patient is sitting in a room temperature tube... Minor issues may also arise depending on the species, lizards take increased damage from cold and may need help after cryo, some species may be harmed by a pure oxygen mix, like slimes, so try to cater to each one as best as you can.
As a chemist, it's your job to cater to the doctors. If the doctors use cryo constantly, you should supply them with ample cryoxadone. If doctors tell you they want the advanced brutes, you should make them. If a doctor needs something obscure like Oculine or Ethylredoxrazine that you don't have on-hand, you should at least make a bottle of it. It is common to give Tricordrazine to paramedics as they can heal people easily on the fly. If you're really uncertain just ask a fellow chemist or CMO on what you should be working on.
Some chemicals cannot be made with what you have on hand. Some can be acquired more easily than by making them with what you have on hand.
The grinder is one of the most important things in a chemlab next to the Dispenser, ChemMaster, and hot plate. Chemlabs may also have a centrifuge and electrolyzer. These machines can be used to turn materials into chemicals, such as grinding Coal to get Carbon. If you have some piping knowledge it can be really easy to hook up a condenser to distro, giving you things like infinite oxygen to use. There are also plenty of other basic elements you can source from every day things, it's worth learning!
Your Guidebook will tell you what methods can be used to get chemicals that cannot be crafted.
This is where botany comes into play! There are many chemicals that may be helpful to you that you will need to cooperate with botany for, examples include Stellibinin, Aloe, and Omnizine.
People from outside the medical department may ask you for chemicals, such as janitors asking for space cleaner, botany asking for EZ Nutrient, Robust Harvest, or Unstable Mutagen, clowns asking for lube, even security asking for PAX.
You are not required to satisfy the requests of anyone except for your department head or the captain. But, it may be beneficial to the station for you to do so, so you can and should use your discretion. Helping botany for instance can benefit yourself as well as the chef and others. Helping the clown is sure to result in ruin for the station. But it is funny as fuck to give the clown illicit drugs, so do it AFTER you've made all or most of the important necessary chems.
You're able to view a beaker's temperature with your chemical analysis goggles when inspecting it, this can help you gauge how long it might take until some of your chems are done on a hotplate. Pyrazine has a notoriously high temperature requirement of < 540K, which can give off the impression that it's not working whilst you wait for it to finish reaching the desired temperature. The more units of chemicals you have in a beaker the longer it will take for that beaker to heat up. A beaker may sometimes keep the amount of heat stored at the same temperature, even after you empty it and fill it with new chemicals. This can cause things like Benzene or Ash to be made accidentally whilst following certain recipes. If a hiccup occurs always double check the temperature of the beaker, as that may be the problem.
In order to reset the temperature of a beaker, simply locate the standard NT issued faucet you have in your lab, and fill the beaker with any amount of water. You can then dispose of said water (drink it cause hydration is important), then carry on with your chemical mixing. All temperature requirements are found in your guidebook, and a mixture that is done on a hotplate will make the same noise as any other mix, meaning you'll know when it's done. Some people use a "sun beaker", which is filled with a small amount of chems, usually water or plasma. This beaker is left on a hotplate and heated to a very high temperature in order to quickly mix chemicals with heat requirements. This is more recommended for those that are more comfortable in their skills, so no need to try it on your first go. You'll discover what you're most comfortable with as you work more as a chemist.
The advanced brute drugs (and Bicaridine) must NOT be mixed together, as doing so will create Razorium; a deadly poison that can quickly kill patients. The people most likely to mix these though are medical staff injecting the same patient with more than one of these, that's why you normally see them calling out the med they are injecting. Teamwork yay!
██ BRUIZINE | BLUNT | 10.5u[27 lithium + 35 sugar + 20 carbon + 5 oxygen] x3
██ LACERINOL | SLASH | 12u[50 carbon + 30 hydrogen + 5 sugar + 5 oxygen] x3
▬ Reagents will mix when heated ▬
[15 hydrogen + 20 oxygen + 20 carbon + 5 sugar] x3
▬ Reagents will mix when heated ▬
To avoid confusion, all other advanced chems are fine to mix, it's only the brutes mixed together that create Razorium.
██ LEPORAZINE | COLD | No OD[20 silicon + 20 iron + 40 copper + 1 CAT plasma] x2
▬ Reagents will mix when heated ▬
[35 silicon + 5 iron + 10 copper + 10 carbon + 1 CAT plasma] x3
▬ Reagents will mix when heated ▬
[20 oxygen + 30 iron + 30 carbon + 1 CAT plasma] x2
██ PHALANXIMINE | GENETIC | No OD, but deals radiation damage[10 silicon + 10 potassium + 10 nitrogen + 60 ethanol] + [50 radium + 20 chlorine + 20 phosphorus]
██ CRYOXADONE | ALL BASIC | No OD[20 oxygen + 1 CAT plasma] + [30 water + 30 oxygen]
██ SIGYNATE | CAUSTIC | 16u
Step 1. 10 chlorine + 10 sodium + 15 hydrogen + 5 nitrogen + 20 carbon + 20 oxygen + 20 sugar, add to ChemMaster
Step 2. 10 oxygen + 10 hydrogen + 20 sodium + 20 carbon + 20 silicon + 20 sugar, add to ChemMaster
Step 3. To a beaker transfer from the ChemMaster: 20u of sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, sugar, and kelotane.
Add 20 water and heat until mixed.
Step 4. Repeat step 3
There is a better and easier to make alternative to Sigynate called Siderlac, it requires you to grind
aloe and galaxythistle, which you can get from botany.
There are still more chemicals that may be of use that are not in volume 1 or 2. Volume 3 is much more comprehensive and detailed.