Chemfuel

Chemfuel is a flammable and explosive crafted resource used to fuel various devices and vehicles, and craft a variety of, often-explosive, items and buildings.

Acquisition[edit]

There are several different ways to obtain chemfuel:

Biofuel refinery[edit]

Biofuel refineries can be worked by crafters to turn organic matter into chemfuel via two bills:

Make chemfuel from wood: Turns 70 wood logs, worth 84 into 35 chemfuel, worth 80.5. Takes 2,000 ticks (33.33 secs) of work, scaling with the General Labor Speed of the crafter.
Make chemfuel from raw food: Turns 3.5 nutrition worth of food ingredients into 35 chemfuel, worth 80.5. Takes 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, scaling with the General Labor Speed of the crafter.
- Hay or meals are not accepted, though kibble made with hay will work. Most raw ingredients have a nutrition value of 0.05. For such ingredients, 3.5 nutrition requires 70 units, which is the same quantity required of wood.

Boomalopes[edit]

Chemfuel is produced when a animal handler milks a tamed, adult boomalope of either gender. The base amount produced is 11 but the amount scales with Animal Gather Yield of the handler. Handlers will milk boomalopes when they are ready, producing chemfuel which will then be left on the ground. Boomalopes can be milked at a base frequence of once every day, however frequence is also affected by the saturation of the animal. Chemfuel production is halved when the animal is hungry, reduced to one third when it is urgently hungry, and completely stopped when the animal is starving.

Milking an animal takes 400 ticks (6.67 secs) of work, regardless of the amount of chemfuel produced, and only modified by the Animal Gather Speed of the handler.

Infinite chemreactors[edit]

An infinite chemreactor generates 75 chemfuel every 600,000 ticks (10 in-game days) as long as it is powered by 300W. When it is done producing chemfuel, it will drop a stack of 75 onto an empty adjacent tile.

This process requires no work or input from any pawns.

Trade[edit]

Varying merchants and faction bases have stocks of chemfuel available for trade.

Boomshrooms[edit]

Boomshrooms are glowforest flora that generate a harvestable base yield of 8 chemfuel.

Summary[edit]

Mostly used in crafting.

Chemfuel is especially flammable. After being in contact with fire or being damaged beyond 1/3rd of its health, it will spark and emit a hissing sound before exploding after between 70 ticks (1.17 secs) and 150 ticks (2.5 secs), dealing 10 Flame damage in a radius around itself. The radius depends on the quantity in the stack, with a single unit of chemfuel covering a 1.1 tile radius, and expanding this radius proportional to the square root of the stack size times 0.037 up to a maximum radius of 3.45 tiles at a full stack of 150. This explosion leaves chemfuel puddles which will then ignite and burn over time. Chemfuel tanks protect chemfuel stocks from direct flame exposure. However, chemfuel tanks holding chemfuel will hiss after allowed to be damaged to under 40% hit points, before all the chemfuel inside them is dropped and immediately explodes.

The market value of chemfuel is not affected by its hit points, so deteriorated or damaged chemfuel still sells for its normal price.

Usage[edit]

Chemfuel is used to refuel the following:

Chemfuel generators, at a rate of 4.5/day.
Pod launchers, at a rate of 2.25/tile of distance.
Rocketswarm launchers, at a rate of 180/reload.
Smokepop packs, at a rate of 10, regardless of the number of charges used.
Firefoam pop packs, at a rate of 30/charge.
Jump packs, at a rate of 20/charge.
Locust armor, at a rate of 20/charge.
Phoenix armor, at a rate of 40/charge.
Gravships, at a rate of 10/tile traveled, or 50/ trip, whichever is greater.
Passenger shuttles, at a rate of 3/tile traveled, or 50/ trip, whichever is greater.

It is also an ingredient in the following crafting recipes:

Product	Ingredients	Type
Foam turret	30 (Metallic, 300 for SVMs) + 70 + 3 + 140	Building - Security
Rocketswarm launcher	20 + 200 + 2 + 180	Building - Security
High-explosive shell	15 + 15	Crafted resources - Mortar shell
Incendiary shell	10 + 20	Crafted resources - Mortar shell
Frag grenades	20 + 80	Equipment - Weapons
Molotov cocktails	25 + 80	Equipment - Weapons
Firefoam pop pack	20 + 1 + 30	Gear - Utility
Smokepop pack	20 + 1 + 40	Gear - Utility
Blood warmer	10 + 1 + 10	Medical Items - Body Parts
Tox shell	10 + 10	Crafted resources - Mortar shell
Gas mask	20 + 20	Gear - Clothing
Tox pack	10 + 1 + 35	Gear - Utility
Hunter trap	40 + 40	Building - Security
Hunter pack	60 + 40 + 2	Gear - Utility
Locust armor	120 + 10 + 3 + 3 + 100	Gear - Armor
Phoenix armor	150 + 50 + 6 + 75 + 4 + 40	Gear - Armor
Jump pack	30 + 3 + 100	Gear - Utility

Analysis[edit]

Due to its volatile nature, it should be stored safely away from flammables and power conduits capable of electric misphaps. Ideally, chemfuel should be placed in small, non-flammable rooms in modest amounts so a single explosion won't destroy your entire supply and should not share space with mortar shells. Be careful, as an unhappy colonist may decide to let out their stress out by beating up a chemfuel container until it explodes. But with a little creativity, careful placement of chemfuel stockpiles can be used as components in base defense.

Chemfuel tanks can be used as another storage option, however both options provide far less storage density than shelves.

Methods of acquiring[edit]

Infinite chemreactors are better than boomalopes, which are better than refining, regardless of what feedstock is used.

An infinite chemreactor is entirely free fuel, taking 0 work or items, only power. One chemreactor can fully load a chemfuel generator, providing both 700 W of extra power and some fuel to spare. However, they are exclusively a quest reward. In addition, the production per day is somewhat slow. These factors inherently limit its viability as a colony's sole source of chemfuel.

Boomalopes can graze on grass for free, and feeding them haygrass or corn still gives more chemfuel per nutrition than a refinery. So long as a pawn with Animals skill greater than 4 is available, milking a boomalope itself takes less work than a refinery. Of course, this comes at the usual explosive risk, and boomalopes may not always be available.

Refineries are the most consistently available way of obtaining chemfuel, but require the most work. A wood-fueled biofuel refinery and chemfuel generator is still more wood- and work-efficient than a wood-fired generator, so don't shy away from using one.

If you have to grow things yourself, growing corn is much less work per chemfuel than growing trees. You can also use insect meat / human meat / hay-created kibble / twisted meat in a refinery with no penalty.
If your biome has many trees, then harvesting wood can be a viable alternative to converting food.

Version history[edit]

0.16.1393 - Added. At this point, its only use is refueling pod launchers.
0.17.1546 - Because it was way OP, chemfuel can no longer be made from haygrass.
0.18.1722 - Boomalopes can be milked for chemfuel.
Beta 19 - Chemfuel can no longer be acquired by deep drilling.
1.0.2096 or prior - Texture updated.
1.4.3523 - Smelted armor no longer returns chemfuel.
1.4.3541 - Disallow baby food and hemogen packs for chemfuel creation recipes.
1.6.4518 - Fix: Refueling could use fogged chemfuel.

Old texture