This is the Guide to Atmospherics. When properly initialized, Atmosia can keep the station aired-up through nearly any emergency. Improperly initialized, it's a waste of space at best and an outright fire hazard at worst.

We will walk through this step by step, playing with various concepts. We will discuss the more practical aspects first, and then move on to gaseous synthesis, and finally to the why and how of atmospherics. By reading this guide you will learn how to transform Atmos from a waste of space to an actually useful addition. We will go through all kinds of theory, so this may be tough, but it will also ensure you know exactly how and more importantly how Atmos works the way it does, making you ready for all kinds of situations.

Better start learning Russian kiddo.

Atmospherics 101: Basic Theory, Layout, and Custodian of The Air

You, dearest atmospheric technician, have one main purpose: Keeping the station not too hot, not too cold, pressurized, and breathable. You might be able to synthesize difficult gases, but derelict this basic duty and you are not a good atmospheric technician.

The Standard Pipes

These days, pipes no longer have a set direction they connect in. Normal pipes will automatically connect with adjacent pipes of the same color and layer. The Omni pipes (grey colored) connect with ALL colors on the same layer. This is critical to keep in mind, as careless placement of pipes can result in accidental connections between previously separate pipenets. This feature is commonly referred to as "Smart Pipes". All pipes and pipe devices can be assigned colors, and even larger atmospherics machines also can have their color adjusted.

In the Rapid Pipe Dispenser (RPD) interface, you'll notice a few green arrow buttons on the left. These can be toggled off to restrict automatic pipe connections in a direction for the pipes you place. This is incredibly handy when working in tight spaces where there's no other way to avoid having two matching colored pipes pass each other. Pressing the circle button in the center will reset the restrictions to the default auto-connect.

If you need to connect two differing colors of pipes, a color adapter can be used in place of a regular pipe. However, an Omni pipe would work fine, as well as any device set to omni like a pump or valve.

The Atmos Devices

This will be a section detailing the overall function, and some specifics, of the various pipes, pumps, and other devices. Some details will be missed, but it will provide a basis. The first instance of a device running into a unique mechanic will be explained in further length.

Digital Valve

A valve that opens when clicked, and connects the two pipenets it separates when doing so. Counter to pumps, it experiences no delay in its gas transfer. It essentially acts as a pipe. Has 200L of volume on one side, and 200L on the other end. This can be operated by both carbon mobs such as humans, excluding xenomorphs, and silicons.

Pressure Valve

An activatable valve that lets gas pass through if the pressure on the input side is higher than the set pressure.

Manual Valve

Acts identically to a Digital Valve, however, the manual valve does not allow silicons to operate it.

Pressure Pump

An oddball case. Like all pumps, it separates connected pipenets if there is nothing else connecting them. Has a maximum pressure of 4500 kPa. All pumps work by pumping the contents within them to the other side, which is 200L on one side, and 200L on the other. Any pump can not pump gas that is not actually in it, which means that very large connected pipenets will have lower pump speeds. Pressure pumps work by gradually building up to its set pressure per tick. Because of this, pressure pumps slow down when approaching their target pressure, and will not quite match their pressure after a very long time, but will get very close.

Volume Pump

The volume pump is similar to the pressure pump, but operates differently. It has a pressure limit of 9000 kPa. However, this limit only kicks in when the output pipenet is currently over 9000 kPa. The pump will work if the output pipenet is below 9000 kPa, even if the resulting pressure of this action would be way higher than 9000 kPa. Counter to the pressure pump, this pump works on a L/s basis. This has a 2x200L volume as well, so you pick how much of the volume in the pump is actually pumped to the other side by changing the number. Because its max speed is 200 L/s, it will always outpace and outpressure the pressure pump. Can be overclocked using a multitool, which will cause its pressure limit to be dependent on the input pipenet, which will tend to make the maximum output pressure higher. However, this will cause 10% of gas running through it to spill.

Passive Pump/Gate

These are a combination of pumps and valves. They work up to their set pressure, with a maximum of 4500 kPa. These can never do more than equalise the two connected pipenets, just as valves do. However, they only work one way, rather than mixing the gas between the two pipenets perfectly as valves do. Think of them as a pressure pump that only equalises pressure between two pipenets.

Unary Vent

The vent will pump gas into the room it is in, depending on the air alarm settings of the room. The air alarm has two settings to worry about, External, or Internal. External works by making the vent pump gas from its connected pipenet into the room until the room, or more accurately, the tile, matches the pressure that is set. The max pressure you can configure for External is 5066 kPa, and it slows down when approaching the set limit, as pressure pumps do. Internal works by pumping gas into the room from the pipenet until the pressure set matches the pressure in the connected pipenet. Examples: a vent set to External 200 will pump gas into the room until it is 200 kPa. A vent set to Internal 300 will pump gas into the room until the connected pipenet's pressure is 300 kPa, regardless of room pressure. As such, Internal 0 will always pump at full strength. This same effect can be achieved by turning off both External and Internal. The vent has a maximum speed it can pump at, even when extremely pressurised.

It should be noted that the vent can be made to suck gas as well, like the Scrubber below, when set to do so in the air alarm. It should also be noted that it does so faster than the scrubber, but it can not suck in gases in a 3x3, which means it loses in speed when the extra area matters and the pressure is low. The vent has no pressure limit when sucking in gas, which can be used to hilarious ends.

Passive Vent

An unpowered vent that equalizes the internal and external gases. Think of it as a simple open ended pipe into the atmosphere. It is not interactable and cannot be closed. It too, is not restricted by pressure as with the other vents, opening possibilities for interesting shenanigans.

Injector

The injector is similar to the vent in that it pumps gas onto the tile it is on. However, it is not controlled by an air alarm, but rather works by hand. It is also in L/s units again, similarly to the volume pump. Also similarly to the volume pump, it is the faster one when compared to its pressure based cousin, the vent. It does not have a maximum pressure change per second, as vents do, and will always outpace them. This comes at the cost of the control that vents give you.

Scrubber

The gas sucking cousin of the vent, which sucks gas into the connected pipenet. Scrubbers are operated using the connected air alarm. They only suck in gas that is on their tile, unless you set their range to Expanded, in which case it'll suck in a 3x3. Setting them to Siphon will make them suck in every gas. If the scrubber is not on siphon, you can select specific gases for it to suck into its pipenet. The more gases are selected to scrub, the more power is used. The scrubber has a pressure limit of 5000 kPa, and will not suck in gas when the connected pipenet is at or above this value. This is unlike the vent, which has no limit.

Heat Exchanger

Place two of these next to each other, facing each other, and they will equalize the temperature of the gases inside them. The heat exchanger is not part of the (more widely used) heat exchange pipes system.

Filter

The filter is the first device that connects 3 pipenets. It can be set to any number of gases, and it will dump them to the side it is pointing in. All gas that is not selected will continue straight forward, as the arrow is pointing in a single line. When set to Nothing, it will allow all gas through the straight path. The filter works in L/s, and as such does not experience pressure related slowdowns, however, it has a pressure maximum of 4500 kPa. When EITHER OUTPUT SIDE is 4500 kPa or above, the filter will not function, not allowing any gas to pass. That is, both in a straight line and on its offshoot, the pressure must be less than 4500 kPa.

Mixer

The mixer also requires 3 connections to function, as the filter does. The mixer will mix the two incoming gases using the ratio the user inputs, starts off at 50/50. Node 1 is the input in a straight line with the ouput, Node 2 is the offshoot compared to the output. Both inputs need to have gas in them to function unless a side with gas in it is set to 100%, in which case it will function and purely let that side through. Is pressure based, with the associated properties. Also has a pressure maximum of 4500 kPa. The mixing is influenced by temperature following the ideal gas law. When one of the input sides is hotter compared to the other input, it will let less of this side's gas through, mol-wise. This will give you scuffed ratios if you do not equalise temperatures, if you need the precision, make sure they're equal.

Heat Exchange pipes

Functions like regular pipe, however, this will attempt to equalise the temperature between the pipenet and the space it is in. This is based on heat capacity, which can be found on this page. Higher heat capacity means a gas will soak in more energy, which means it is better at cooling when cold, and better at heating when hot. These pipes commonly see use in Supermatter setups, to cool down the coolant by using these pipes in space. However, they can also be used to heat up places, of course. Has a 10K efficiency loss. Space is 2.7K, but heat exchange pipes will only cool the gas in them to be about 22.7K.

Heat Exchange Junction

These are used to transfer from normal pipes to heat exchange pipes. These need to be between a pipe, or pump, etc. and heat exchange pipes for gas to actually be transferred between the two different kinds of pipe. While this pipe looks partially like a heat exchange pipe, it does not equalise temperature in the way that heat exchanging pipes do. It only looks like it does, so these can be safely connected to any pipe in a normal room without risk.

Layer Adapter

Connects the 5 different layers of pipenets. For most stations, the red scrubber network will be on layer 2 while the blue air supply pipes will be on layer 4. Default layer is 3. Pipes on different layers do not interact with one another.

Atmos Meter

Purple is freezing, green is room temp, red is scorching hot.

Normally attached to pipes, these useful devices can be read and examined to inform you of the value of both the pressure and the temperature of the contents within the pipe. From a glance, the visuals of the meter itself will adjust in response to said values, with the bar's color changing in response to temperature, and the length of the bar increasing in response to higher pressures. The lights will also fill in depending on how high the pressure is.

Canisters

These hold gases in a portable manner. However be VERY CAREFUL with them when you're dealing with hot gases or exothermic reactions (such as burnmixes, or even just freon formation), as they have pressure and temperature limits.

Canister frames may be made using 5 iron, Then completed by using 5 more iron on said frame. Canisters have a pressure limit of 500000kPa and a Temperature limit of 10000k

Canisters have a shield that when turned on prevents gasses inside the canister from damaging it allowing for extremely high pressures and temperatures as long as you have power, the higher the temperature and pressure inside, the higher the draw (it should peak around 25 kW). Power will be drawn from the nearest APC, Otherwise it will use an internal battery.

Power cells can be replaced by using a screwdriver to open the cover on the canister, then removing the battery with a crowbar.

Stationary Tanks

These are tanks that are immovable. They can be made by making a tank frame using 4 plasteel sheets and then using 20 sheets of a material of your choice on them. They have a volume of 2500L and a default pressure limit of 20000kPa. The pressure limit is affected by a material modifier, with glass giving 2000kPa and plasteel giving 30000kPa.

Useful Tips

Scrubbers, vents, injectors, valves, pumps, filters, and mixers can be safely unwrenched without spilling gas on a tile. Especially valves serve as a perfect alternative to a normal straight pipe, when wanting to be more safe with hot gas.

Most Atmospherics objects and machines can be operated with CTRL+click and ALT+click. CTRL+click will turn them on and off, ALT+click will max them out.

Panic Siphon on air alarms turns off all vents and sets scrubbers to Expanded range Siphoning. The contaminated setting will set the vents to normal atmospheric pressure, and scrubbers to Expanded range, and sucking in every gas that isn't Nitrogen or O2.

Pipes, vents, and other Atmospherics objects can be placed in walls! Most of the time, it is easier to dump gas into walls rather than trying to dump it in space. Even if the wall is destroyed or removed it will not spill the gas.

4-way Manifolds have the same volume as two pipes on top of each other, going north to south and east to west. Because of this, optimal usage of Heat Exchange pipes tends to be using a whole bunch of 4-way Manifolds.

Freezers and heaters can be placed directly on pipes, and they'll connect to it! Also, did you know that Freezers and Heaters can switch pipe layer by using a multitool on their board?

Because of the slow nature of pumps, they should be generally avoided unless looking for a specific purpose. Volume pumps are great for regulating speed consistently and pressuring pipenets because of their 9000 kPa limit. Pressure pumps are great for regulating pressure and slower gas movement, be creative!

Many, many things can be done using layer manifolds and different piping layers. No two ways about it, you'll have to experiment!

The Atmos Tools

Main page: Atmospherics items

Rapid Pipe Dispenser

This is your Rapid Pipe Dispenser. There are many like it, but this one is yours. The main tool of your trade, the RPD is what you use to generate new atmospheric devices. Use it in modifying the station's layout, in making new production compounds, in adding scrubbers and vents to various parts of the station, and much, much, more. Use it and use it well. Keep in mind that this device sparks when changing selections, and it sparks a lot. Sparks can create fires if there are flammable gases around.

Analyzer / BreathDeep Catridge

Where the RPD is your sword, the Analyzer is your eye. Use this in identifying various gases in various pipelines (more on pipelines later), in analyzing the air around you, in identifying problems, harmful gases, and other various atmospheric related occurances. This is slightly less related to the job, but the Analyzer also has a barometric function; giving you information on incoming storms when Alt-Clicked on planetary environments.

ATMOS Resin

The Backpack Firefighter Tank can switch modes to launch transparent ATMOS resin instead of extinguisher. This resin has the following effects:

Repairs hull breaches similarly to Metal Foam.
Cleans the air from toxins.
Normalises air temperature to room temperature (20°C or 293.15K).
Seals open vents (as if they were welded shut).
Removes slipperiness from floors (from water etc).
The foam itself is not slippery.

To use the Backpack Firefighter Tank, equip it on your backpack slot and click the new hud icon to take out the nozzle . You can then cycle modes between extinguisher, resin launcher and single tile resin launcher (foamer) by activating the nozzle in your hand. It spends water when used. Examine the nozzle to see water remaining. This anti-breach and firefighting tool can be ordered from cargo or found in atmospheric lockers.

ATMOS Holofan

The holofan is a wonderful tool that can project up to 6 holographic barriers which block gas movement. You can use these holofans to isolate breaches, prevent a spill from getting worse, or even to do basic retooling of the atmospheric layout (such as using a holofan on a pressurized plasma pipe you are about to unwrench). Keep in mind however, that holofans does not block the superconduction (explained later) of hot gases and is less reliable in very high temperature environments, especially when fire is involved.

Atmospherics Layout

A wise Atmos Tech once said: "just stare at the pipes until you get it."	"Simplified" picture of the Atmospherics pipe system. Yellow circles represent filters and the lightbrown circle represents the mixer.

Here are two pictures of the atmospheric pipe system. Right one is a "simplified" version of the left picture. Yellow circles representing the filters which filter out a certain gas from the Waste In -gasmix. The light yellow circle near the lower middle represents the mixer which mixes N2 and O2 into a breathable air mix.

Atmospherics is pretty simple, but the pipe layout makes it slightly confusing for the untrained eye. There are 4 major pipe "loops":

The dark blue pipe loop is the distribution loop. It sends air to all the vents on the station for the crew to breathe.

The cyan air mix pipe loop, which is specialized to mix and provide the air mix to the distribution loop, and is used to fill air pumps outside the front door of Atmospherics.

The red/green pipe loop, which retrieves the gas in the station via the air scrubbers (red loop) and passes them through a set of filters (green loop).

The yellow pipe loop, internal to Atmospherics, which is used for custom gas mixes that can be fed into the canister charging station in the middle of atmospherics, or fed into the mixing tank.

The tanks (the small rooms in space just outside of Atmos) of the station's atmospherics network, unlike in the rest of the station, are rooms filled with very high pressure of the appropriate gas. The output of these rooms are controlled by their respective Supply Control Computer, an on/off valve, and an output pump for each loop. Note that these rooms can be depleted, especially if someone makes a hole in a tank's external wall.

To understand how the breatheable air mix is mixed, try following these steps and looking at the map at the same time, it starts on the south end of Atmospherics, like so:

The gasses are pumped through the cyan tubes from their respective tanks (N2, O2).
They are mixed in the air tank (Air) to a 1/5 mix of O2 and N2.
The breathable gas is then pumped through the cyan loop to the north of Atmospherics.
And finally it's pumped into the dark blue distro loop and out to the station for everyone to breathe.

Next let's make up an example situation to see how the waste system works in action:

Scientist Bill messes up and fills the Toxins Lab with plasma but fortunately manages to evacuate the room safely.
Being an otherwise ideal situation Atmos-wise, the Toxins Lab's air scrubbers have been set to filter out all hazardous gases (they're not set by default, this has to be done through the Air Alarm manually or by asking the AI to do it) and plasma starts to get sucked through the scrubber into the waste pipes.
The plasma arrives to the Waste In -loop (the red pipe loop) at Atmos. It travels south through the pipes, its first stop being the N2 Filter.
If there was any Nitrogen in the waste gas, it would get filtered out here, and the rest of the gas continues its journey through the waste loop, same thing happening at every filter.
The plasma finally reaches the Plasma Filter.
Here the plasma gets extracted from the waste gas and pushed into the big plasma tank-room outside the windows.
The plasma stays in the room until someone decides to pump it out.
Scientist Bill by now notices that the Toxins Lab has no plasma anymore and is able to safely continue his work. Yay!

Setting Up Atmospherics

It's about time we stop with the theory ~~and throw it out the window~~ and get down to business. The Rapid Pipe Dispenser (found in your locker) can dispense and secure infinite pipes, and your wrench can disconnect and connect pipes to each other. There is a very old stationary Pipe Dispenser that can be found in the room as well, but it's way faster to to use the RPD.

The dumbass-version of the Atmospheric pipe system. See the steps what each colored circle means.

Next up is a very simple step by step guide how to set up the Atmospherics pipe system to be (nearly) as efficient as possible. Despite popular belief by your neighbors the Station Engineers (and the rest of the unwashed masses in the station), Atmospherics NEEDS TO BE SET UP TO WORK WELL. It's similar to the Supermatter Engine in a way; you could just start the emitters and it might make some power, but doing that with no setup is terrible and probably prone to blowing up. While atmos likely isn't going to blow up, without prior adjustments it's terribly slow and very easily clogged.

Note that this is only one style how to set up the pipes, there are many ways and they all have their own pros and cons!

For the love of Nanotrasen, at least do this:

Select a Volume Pump in your RPD and replace the green circled normal pump with a volume pump(or a valve if you are using the waste loop as a large volume mix chamber), making the waste gas -system >100x more efficient. We want the waste gas sucked from the station into the waste system as soon as possible!
Set all red circled filters ON and set them to maximum pressure (200 L/s) so waste gases will actually be moved, if they're not already maxed out.

This is good as well:

Go through the N2 and O2 (besides southern wall) and set their output to ~~4500~~ 300 kPa. 4500 kPa drains all of atmos' gases way too quickly, there really isn't any reason to turn the pumps up to maximum unless you're flooding.
Set the pumps next to the computers at ~~4500~~ 300 kPa also, so the gases being pushed out of the gas-room get moved fast too.
Set the Air-computer's output to some amount over 300 kPa, the pumps automatically keep the gas throttled.
Replace the blue circled normal pump with a Volume Pump(potentially a valve here, there are risks to this, however) as well, but notice; there are risks involved and all of them are covered at the pros and cons -section below.

Pros and cons of this whole setup:

+ Quick toxin filtering: In case of a toxin leak, waste gas will be sucked out quickly (if the area's air alarms are set to filter out all the toxins, that is, by default they are NOT filtering anything besides CO2).

+ Quick repressurization: In case of a breach, air will be poured out with a nice pace, helping you re-pressurize the room quicker after the breach is fixed. The refill setting on the air alarm will also actually work with the added pressure in the distro pipe.

+ Reduced pipe sabotaging: With this setup, its harder for the grifflords to fuck up pipes in the maintenance tunnels. In a room with the default 101.3 kPa atmospheric pressure, pipes with more than 303.9 kPa pressure fling the unwrencher in a random direction.

- Air Alarm sabotages: The station is more vulnerable for sabotage through air alarms. Someone can quite easily hack an air alarm somewhere and set the vents to push out air at maximum pressure, resulting in overpressurization.

- Space wind: In case of a breach, until the hole is fixed, you'll probably spend a small while fighting against the huge air current, a.k.a. "space wind", if you don't switch the vents off during the repair. This is mostly just annoying. to deal with this, find a pair of magboots.

- Very slow pipe manipulating: If you suddenly have to modify any of the distribution pipes around the station, you need to lower the pressure to under 303.9 kPa if you don't want to be flung around like a leaf in the space wind, which can take a long time.

One extra thing to keep in mind is the fact that the thermomachines around the station dump their heat collected from cooling gasses directly into the waste loop. Common sources are the cryo tubes in Medical and the machines in the Ordnance Lab. Waste tends to collect only a small amount of CO2 (which is filtered back into waste) to act as a buffer to absorb said heat. With this low amount of gas, it absorbs the heat VERY poorly and suddenly the station's waste line is a couple thousand degrees. Factor in any future fires that might add hot gas to the waste line, and this means the super hot waste gas coming into atmospherics for filtering are going to take forever to make it through the pumps and filters. Not good!

To fix this, you can add more CO2 to waste to act as a buffer for heat absorption, as well as setting up some sort of cooling for waste. This can be freezers or a heat exchanger array in space connected to the waste line. This is all entirely up to you how it gets cooled, but this is merely extra setup to ensure atmospherics runs well if you have the time to do it.

Done correctly, Atmosia should be pumping good air just faster than it's lost, and draining bad air away as fast as the traitors can set it on fire or alternatively draining good air away as fast as a malf AI can siphon it. You can go kick back in the bar like a boss and wait for the inevitable minor station damage and cries of "Call the shuttle!" on the radio from folks who don't even know it ain't a big deal.

Your Very Own Customized Mix

To create a custom mix of gas, turn on the output of the supply control computers, open the manual valves, and turn the output of the pump to what you wish it to be. The gas will travel through the yellow pipes into the mixing chamber. The gas mix is pumped into the mixing chamber via a pump north of the yellow loop.

The mix obtained can then be pumped into the distribution and filtering loop or used to fill canisters. Remember to turn off the pump between the yellow and red pipe network or your custom mix will just go into the red waste loop.

Atmospherics and The Station

Over the course of the shift, various parts of the station might regrettably explode and vent out your precious, precious air. This is where you come in. Grab your nearest metal or Rapid Construction Device and rush off to seal the breach. Grab adequate pressure and temperature protection if you have not. If your distribution loop is ready, refilling should be absolutely easy. Rush to the air alarm in the corresponding area and fill the air by interfacing with the Air Alarms . You might expedite the process by setting the operating mode to "Refill" or even to turn off external pressure checks by manually setting each vents under "Vent Controls" to Internal and 0 kPa. Alternatively, hauling some canisters of air , a portable pump filled with air , or even deploying a few Proto-Nitrate crystals if you've made some can all help refill the air even faster.

Over the course of the shift, the environment might become cold or hot too. Common sources of coldness include space and icemoon wind rushing in, check for opened airlocks! Common sources of heat are usually gas combustion and Pyroclastic Anomalies. To combat the temperature problems, there are many things that you could do:

You could utilize Space Heaters
You could cycle the air ; be it from the "Cycle" Operating Mode or from manually Panic Siphoning and setting the air to Refill.
You could even build a thermomachine and haul a portable pump to a location and keep cycling the air locally. This will heat up or cool down the air very quickly.
Your trusty ATMOS Resin will also set air to 20 degrees Celcius and might be of great use here, but keep in mind that it seals scrubbers and vents off.
You also have the holofan to prevent the cold from spreading further.
If you've made them in the Crystallizer, Healium crystals are quick and effective at correcting temperature issues. Just activate and throw em in!

You have great tools at your disposal, but also a great adversary to face. Good luck in your job as the Custodian of The Air!

Atmospherics 201: Gaseous Synthesis, Machinery, Further Theory, and Optimization

The Gases and Their Functions

Let's start with some theory about the gases. Below are the different gases that can be found in-game.

Quick note: The endothermic and exothermic descriptions in these gaseous reactions are measured with respect to enthalpy. Heat capacity can change, and this means that there might be cases where you have an exothermic reaction but the temperature is actually falling. Experiment!

Gaseous Export: Gas canisters can be exported through cargo in exchange for money. They are however, subject to elasticity and will give diminishing returns for each mole exported. Gases will roughly fall to half their credits per mole value at around the 2100 moles mark, quartering at 4201 moles, and becoming one tenth of their original base export price at 6978 moles. This diminishing returns are tracked individually per canister.

O₂

Our first base gas is Oxygen. All humans, pets, and lizard-people need more than 16 kPa of oxygen in the air or internals to breathe. Any less and the creature starts to suffocate.

It is required to oxidize fires. The specifics of each fire reaction will be detailed down below.

Oxygen is an invisible gas. To detect it, use your PDA or a wall mounted Air Alarm. Oxygen canisters are marked in blue. Emergency Oxygen Tanks, filled with about 300 kPa, spawn in your emergency Internals Box. Larger Oxygen Tanks are in Emergency Lockers all across ship, which start with about 600 kPa.

Export price per mol: 0.2 credits

N₂

Our second base gas is Nitrogen. Not particularly more heat absorbant than any other gas. However, it cannot burn at all, which may slow down fires simply by taking up space. It can reduce the heat penalty on the SM, which will keep temperatures down.

Export price per mol: 0.1 credits

Air

A 1:4 gasmix of O2 and N2 (20% O2, 80% N2). The station is filled with this.

Air in SS13 can be seen, strangely enough, as a 'watered down'-O₂, with N₂ being the water. Optimal atmospheric pressure for humans is 101.3 kPa. Due to the minimum of 16 kPa of O₂, the pressure of 101.3 kPa cannot be changed too much without the situation becoming excessively lethal. Under 16 % oxygen? You start dying. Under 90 kPa due to fire from a while ago? You start dying. Be mindful of this.

CO₂

The third gas available for atmosians from the start of a shift: Carbon Dioxide. What the fuck is Carbon Dioxide!? It's an invisible, heavy gas. It chokes people effectively and quickly, and if you can be bothered to set the alarms up, will result in a invisible room that kills those in it. Takes some setup and can be very, very annoying. Causes people to gasp at low levels. It is also often used to beef up the power generation of the Supermatter Crystal.

Export price per mol: 0.2 credits

Plasma

Our fourth and the most infamous of the base gases: Plasma, a.k.a. Toxins. Plasma is purple, toxic, and flammable. When ignited in an oxygenated room it will produce fires.

Plasmafires use oxygen and plasma to produce heat and waste gas. Energy released from plasmafires depends on the burn rate for plasma. The plasma burn rate itself depends on the composition of the air and the temperature of the burn. Optimal composition for maximum burn rate is 10x more O2 than Plasma, with the air temperature exceeding the upper limit of 1643.15 Kelvins. Oxygen is burned at 0.4x the rate of plasma at temperatures above the upper limit. More oxygen (up to 1.4x the plasma burn rate) will be consumed for lower air temperatures.

The aforementioned waste gas of plasmafires are either solely tritium on oxygenated plasmafires (more detail on the tritium section below) or water vapor and CO2 on a 3 CO₂ : 1 H₂O ratio on non-oxygenated plasmafires.

Export price per mol: 1.5 credits

N₂O

The final base gas available in the atmos tanks: Nitrous Oxide, a.k.a. Sleeping Agent. A white-flecked gas.

Makes you laugh at low doses and at higher ones puts you to sleep. If using this as a sleep gas mix do not forget to mix in at least 16 kPa of O₂, or you will suffocate someone. This decomposes into Nitrogen and Oxygen at temperatures at or over 1400K, creating Nitrogen equal to the amount of N2O used, and half that amount in Oxygen.

Export price per mol: 1.5 credits

Tritium

Radioactive, flammable gas that is used in plenty of chemical reactions. Created by heating loadsa O₂ with Plasma. Emits radiation when combusted in the air, as well as pipes and canisters. Might not want to put this into any engine unless you plan to set it on fire.

Tritium is created in fires that are super saturated, i.e. fires where there are 96 more units of oxygen than plasma. One popular ratio used by many Atmosians is 97 O₂ : 3 Plasma, this wont hit the super saturation threshold from the get go, but given time the oxygen input will overflow the oxygen burn rate, resulting in a net positive oxygen gain in the chamber and eventually hitting the threshold. This oxygen accumulation continues over time, and therefore it is a good idea to lower the oxygen ratio in the burn mix over time. It is recommended to bump up the plasma ratio to 50% after ignition, as that will allow more plasma to get put in and burned, while maintaining composition.

Important to remember is that tritium will likely be very hot when exiting the chamber, opening possibilites of cracked canisters and eventually toasted incinerators. Prepare accordingly! It is also worthy to note that tritium when allowed to react with oxygen will burn up into water vapor. Due to the chamber having a lot of oxygen, it is often a good idea to add a second scrubber to prevent too many tritium from being lost. Keep this in mind when attempting to get sizable amounts of it.

Tritium can burn very quickly when exposed to lots of oxygen, and can release enough energy to melt the hull in a short amount of time.

Export price per mol: 2.5 credits

Water Vapor

Pure H₂O. Keep away from the Clown - this slips people and even freezes tiles when released at low temperatures.

The Janitor starts with a tank in his closet; created as a waste product on tritium fires and unsaturated plasma fires.

Export price per mol: 0.5 credits

H₂

Hydrogen is a flammable gas which when ignited burns similarly to tritium. It is also an integral part of fusion reactions. Hydrogen is made by electrolizing Water Vapor with an electrolyzer machine.

Hydrogen is solidified in the Crystallizer with BZ as catalyst at high heat and pressure (around or above 10,000K) to produce metal hydrogen , which can be used to make Elder Atmosian armor, a fireaxe , and golems.

Export price per mol: 1 credits

BZ

BZ gas is a potent hallucinogenic that also puts slimes into stasis and degenerates changeling chemicals. As a side effect, affected people will take low brain damage. BZ sees frequent use as an ingredient/catalyst in many gas reactions.

BZ is formed in an exothermic reaction when at least ten moles of each N₂O and Plasma are combined at low pressures. The optimal pressure for this is 0.1 atmosphere, or about 10 kPa. Efficiency might be higher if you get it even lower somehow, though. Plasma is consumed at 2x the rate of N₂O.

If mixed in a tank with oxygen, it can be used for internals, to encourage spiritual development. Breathing it also produces BZ Metabolites.

Export price per mol: 1.5 credits

Pluoxium

A non-reactive Oxygen substitute that delivers eight times as much O2 to the bloodstream, with as little 3 kPa minimum pressure required for internals!

Pluoxium may be created by exposing O₂, CO₂ and Tritium together in an exothermic reaction between 50 K and 273 K. This reaction creates a minimal amount of H₂ (1% of Pluoxium created) as a byproduct. The consumption ratio for this reaction is 100 O₂ : 50 CO₂ : 1 Tritium.

Export price per mol: 2.5 credits

Miasma

Miasma (bad air) is created from bloomed Corpse Flowers. Miasma smells bad and can cause diseases to spontaneously appear. The higher concentration of miasma in the air, the higher level symptoms can appear. Sterilized into oxygen in a slightly exothermic reaction at 170 degrees Celcius. Presence of water vapor in quantities higher than 0.1 moles prevents this from happening. This reaction has the lowest priority out of all reaction in the game. It is otherwise absolutely inert in terms of atmos reactions.

Export price per mol: 1 credits

Nitrium

Nitrium (a combination of the old gasses Nitryl and Stimulum) is a gaseous stimulant that when inhaled can enhance speed and endurance. At low concentrations Nitrium will increase your top running speed while healthy and unimpaired. At slightly higher concentrations breathing Nitrium will form Nitrosyl plasmide in the bloodstream, providing immunity to sleeps. This is in addition to the speed boost. Damage slowdown from stamina damage (stun batons!) will still slow you even with the stun immunity. At high concentrations breathing it will damage a person's lungs.

Nitrium is made by combining a minimum of 20 moles Tritium, 10 moles Nitrogen and 5 moles BZ in a (slightly) endothermic reaction above 1500K. The consumption ratio for the reaction is 20 N₂ : 20 Trit : 1 BZ. Higher heat improves the rate of reaction. Also formed in high quantities by fusion.

Nitrium decomposes exothermically when in contact with Oxygen under 343.15 K, splitting into a 1:1 mix of Nitrogen and Oxygen. Meaning you will have to experiment to find a way to breathe Nitrium and not suffocate while doing so if you wish for ultimate power.

Breathing Nitrium in high concentrations will quickly cause lung failure, make sure that Nitrium makes up a minority of your tank.

Export price per mol: 6 credits

Freon

On temperature lower than 0°C (273.15 K) Freon will create an endothermic reaction with O₂, meaning it will absorb heat from the atmosphere, down to a minimum close to 50K. Adding Proto-Nitrate will catalyse the reaction so that it may begin at temperatures up to 310 kelvin, which is above room temperature. This reaction produces CO₂ and if the temperature is between 120-160K the reaction has a small chance to also produce solid sheets of hot ice .
Breathing Freon causes burn damage.

Freon is made by combining a minimum of 0.6 mol of Plasma, 0.3 mol of CO2 and 0.1 BZ, with reaction speed depending on temperature, as depicted in the graph below. The reaction is endothermic. The consumption ratio for the reaction is 6 Plasma : 3 CO₂ : 1 BZ, forming 10 moles of Freon. Unless you're able to push the reaction into high temperatures, it is best to try and maintain a temperature of 800K. The energy consumed by the reaction also scales up as temperature increases, so it may be harder to maintain a high temperature than one might expect.

Export price per mol: 5 credits

Hot Ice

Hot ice is a solid byproduct of the cooled Freon+O₂ reaction at 120-160K. Can be sold to cargo at a high price. It holds a great amount of power inside. Can be ground to produce 25 units of Hot Ice Slush.

If hit with a welder or burned the hot ice will melt, releasing the power stored inside. This releases large amounts of hot plasma into the air. (Moles of plasma released = 150 x number of sheets) and (Heat released = 20 x number of sheets + 300K).

Hyper-Noblium

Extremely inert, Hyper-Noblium stops other gases from reacting. (Specifically, it stops reactions when >5 moles and temp > 20 K)

Can be created when Nitrogen is combined with Tritium at extremely low temperatures (below 15 K). Reaction produces significant energy (exothermic) and BZ works to reduce the energy released, expect to have your temperature spike if you don't use BZ, the energy released is potent enough to be used for explosives! 10 mol of Nitrogen is used per mol of Hyper-noblium synthesised, and you also need at least this much to have the reaction occur. 5 mol of Tritium is the minimum required to have the reaction occur, and is the amount used when no BZ is present. However, the amount of Tritium used scales with the ratio of Tritium to BZ, all the way down to 0.005 mol used in a ratio of 1:1000 Tritium:BZ. In short: keep your BZ high and your Tritium low if you want to make a lot of this stuff!

Export price per mol: 2.5 credits

Proto-Nitrate

Proto-Nitrate is a highly reactive gas, but non-toxic when breathed. It is created in an exothermic reaction when Pluoxium is exposed to H₂ at temperatures between 5000-10000 K. Hydrogen is consumed at around 10x the rate of Pluoxium.

When between temperatures of 250-300k, Proto-nitrate solidifies gaseous Plasma into bars.
When between temperatures of 260-280k, Proto-nitrate reacts with BZ to produce radiation, Nitrogen, Helium, and Plasma, as well as causing localized hallucinations in an exothermic reaction.
When between temperatures of 150-340k, Proto-nitrate reacts with tritium to produce H₂ and radiation in an exothermic reaction.
Proto-Nitrate reacts with at least 150 moles of H₂ to create more Proto-Nitrate in an endothermic reaction.

Export price per mol: 2.5 credits

Halon

Halon acts as a fire suppressant by removing oxygen in the air (while producing CO₂) in an endothermic reaction if the air temperature is above 100 C or 373.15 K. The oxygen suppresion rate is 20 O2 : 1 Halon. It is created in a slightly exothermic reaction between CO₂ and N₂O in turfs with an active electrolyzer on them, below 230K, and at low pressure. 2 moles of CO₂ are used and 1 mol of N₂O is used.

Export price per mol: 4 credits

Healium

Healium (not to be confused with actual Helium) is a red gas which acts as a stronger sleeping agent than N₂O, while healing burns, bruises, suffocation and toxin damage.

It is created by exposing Freon to BZ in an exothermic reaction at temperatures between 25-300 Kelvin (keep it chill). Freon is consumed at around 11x the rate of BZ; a little bit of BZ will very quickly transform all of your Freon into Healium if you're not careful.

Export price per mol: 5.5 credits

Zauker

Zauker is an incredibly deadly gas if inhaled. It is made by mixing Hyper-Noblium and Nitrium in an endothermic reaction at temperatures between 50000-75000 K. Nitrium is consumed at around 50x the rate of Hyper-Noblium. It is worthy to note that Hyper-Noblium stops reactions when it is present in quantities above 5 moles, prepare accordingly!

Zauker also decomposes exothermically into a 30/70 O₂/N₂ mix when exposed to Nitrogen.

Export price per mol: 7 credits

Helium

Helium is an invisible, inert gas. It has minor use within the Crystallizer to make a Crystal Cell, but otherwise is functionally useless. Sell it to cargo!

Helium is produced as a common byproduct of fusion in the Hyper-torus Fusion Reactor, or from a Proto-Nitrate/BZ reaction.

Export price per mol: 3.5 credits

Anti-Noblium

Anti-Noblium is a rare gas used in high level Crystallizer recipes and as high tier fuel for the Hyper-torus Fusion Reactor. Outside of those uses, it doesn't do all that much. It does look pretty when in the air though!

Anti-Noblium can be made within the Hyper-torus Fusion Reactor when using Hyper-Noblium as the primary fuel with either Hydrogen or Tritium as the secondary fuel. It can also be created with #Hyper-Noblium in turfs with an active electrolyzer at under 150 kelvin, with a rate of 0.5 moles of Anti-Noblium per 1 mole of Hyper-Noblium.

Export price per mol: 10 credits

Physical Characteristics of Gases

TL;DR Gas flows from high pressure areas, to low pressure areas. Gas uses up more room when hot, less room when cold.

Ideal gas law: PV = nRT

Where R (ideal, or universal, gas constant) = 8.31, the following are linked by this equation.

Pressure (P): Measured in kPa, kiloPascals, Pressure is lethal above 750 kPa's. A pressure in a room above 1000 kPa's necessitates internals to breathe properly.

Volume (V): Another unseen variable, Volume is how much the area/canister/tank or piped tank has space inside it. This helps dictate how much gas it can hold. Volume is essentially the 'mole divider' when converting between a canister/air pump to your tank; having a higher volume essentially makes the tank that much more efficient, proportionally, so an Extended Emergency Oxygen Tank has twice the contained air per kPa in comparison to a regular Emergency Oxygen Tank.

Item	Volume
Emergency Oxygen Tank	3
Extended Emergency Oxygen Tank	6
Double Emergency Oxygen Tank	10
Oxygen Tank (blue/red)	70
Plasma Tank	70
All pipes	70
Pipe manifold	105
Locker	200
Coffin	200
Gas Pump (each side)	200
Volumpe Pump (each side)	200
Passive Gate (each side)	200
Heat Exchanger	200
Gas Filter	200
Vent	200
Scrubber	200
Layer Manifold	200
Portable Scrubber	750
Portable Pump	1 000
Gas Canister	1 000
Tile / turf (any area)	2 500
Pressure Tank	2 500
Huge scrubber	50 000

Moles (n): Moles are the amount of particles of a gas in the air. It is moles that cause odd effects with a certain chemical. As it dumps so many moles to a tile, to keep the pressure acceptable, the moles have to be very, very cold, causing the infectious effect. Moles can be calculated by a form of the ideal gas law. n=(P*V)/(R*T)

Temperature (T): Measures in K, Kelvin, Temperature above 360 K and below 260 K causes burn damage to humans. Canisters rupture when the air surrounding them is over 1550 K.

Heat Capacity: A gasmix has heat capacity, and it is calculated by taking into account the quantity of all of the gases in the air and their specific heat. Heat capacity defines how much energy it takes to raise the temperature of a gas. The normal air mix (%30 O2, %70 N2) has a specific heat capacity of about 20 which doesn't impede heat transfer very much. Fires spreads quicker in gases with low heat capacity, and slower in gases with high heat capacity.

Gas	Specific heat capacity (molar)
O2	20
N2	20
CO2	30
N2O	40
Plasma	200
Tritium	10
Water Vapor	40
Hydrogen	15
BZ	20
Pluoxium	80
Miasma	20
Nitrium	10
Freon	600
Hypernoblium	2000
Proto-Nitrate	30
Halon	175
Healium	10
Zauker	350
Helium	15
Antinoblium	1

Fire: An effect caused by the ignition of plasma, tritium, and hydrogen in an oxygenated room. It causes massive burn damage, and raises the temperature of the room.

In short the colder the gas and the higher the container volume, the more moles you can fit inside. This is why hot gases clog the red waste pipes - they expand, allowing fewer moles to be transported.

Breathability

Do note that breathing is based on pressure and not moles! Moles breathed has no bearing on suffocation, only on gas consumption.

Humans need 16 kPa of O2 to survive. When not breathing through internals this 16 kPa is supplied by the environment, with a normal 21-79 mix of 101 kPa O2-N2 supplying 21 kPa of Oxygen to the lungs.

For internals this means that you are going to need a minimum of 16 kPa release pressure on the tank (adjusted by clicking the tank while in hand). Unpure mixes will require a higher release pressure to be breathable!

Consumption

The consumption rate for gas is dictated by the moles breathed in, all oxygen intake will be consumed and turned into carbon dioxide. Lungs are considered to be 2 Litres. Mole consumption works as follows:

For most scenarios this is equal to 2/2500th of the environment gas.
For internals this is further modified by the release pressure of the tank, with the breathed gas targeted to reach whatever release pressure set when inside the lungs. You can calculate this by using n = Release Pressure * 2 Litres / (8.31 * Temperature). A higher temperature will mean less gas will be breathed in per tick. This does not mean a longer internal! since the ratio of gas breathed in to the total gas in tank is still the same.

Temperature

Creatures start taking damage when the air breathed in is colder than 260 Kelvins or hotter than 360 Kelvins! This is separate from the cold or hot damage taken because a mob is too cold or hot though. There are damage increases in temperatures colder than 200 and 120 Kelvins or temperatures hotter than 400 and 1000 Kelvins. This damage is further multiplied for species such as lizards who take 3/2 times as much cold damage but 2/3rd as much hot damage.

Notes on optimization

Pluoxium is considered to be 8 times as potent as Oxygen for breathing I.E. each kPa of pluoxium counts as 8 kPa. It's possible to run a pluoxium tank with release pressure as low as 2 kPa for a longer lasting internal.
If external efficiency is important, it's possible for a hotter internal mixture to be made to conserve the amount of moles while still supplying an equal amount of partial pressure to the lungs.

Thermomachines

Combined entity of freezer and heaters, thermomachines allow you to influence the temperatures of gases connected to it. Thermomachines heat or cool the gas in their port to the target temperature.

An ideal thermomachine working at full efficiency "combines" the gas mixture actually present inside it with a gas mixture of a set temperature (depending on the user input) and heat capacity (depending on the quality of matter bins present). A heater will always work under the aforementioned ideal circumstances, while a cooler can get throttled down to a minimum of 65% efficiency.

Thermomachines need to have gas present inside it to properly cool or heat.

Fusion

For a much more in-depth look to the Hypertorus Fusion Reactor, see Guide to the Hypertorus Fusion Reactor.

So you want to operate a fusion reactor? Well, it's about as dangerous as it sounds. On /tg/station, fusion has been redesigned several times and is currently on version 7: "Hypertorus Fusion Reactor (HFR)"-edition.

In version 7 of fusion, you must build a machine called Hypertorus Fusion Reactor. The HFR is a 3x3 multi machine that needs the proper setup to be built. In most maps you'll find a proper space with outlines on the floor to designate where to put each piece.

Click expand to see the how to build the HFR.

First thing first, you need to build the core of the machine. This piece has ONE port that is used for cooling the internal fusion mix, you can rotate the machine simply by using a screwdriver and a wrench (similar to how you rotate a freezer/heater)

after the core is done, build the 4 corner pieces in the corners of the grid and the 4 ports for fuel, moderator gases, waste and interface. The result should be something that looks like this:

finalize it by hitting the interface with a multitool

A little piece of paper will show up, it contains tips on how to operate the machine that you won't find here, so read it carefully!

Now that you know how to build it, let's see what all those buttons do by starting from opening the interface.

Click expand to see how to operate the HFR Interface.

The interface it’s quite big and it has an overwhelming amount of informations but we’ll go through them one by one (you can also scroll to access all infos)

Those are the main controls, they control how the machine will behave
-Start Power starts the machine main loop and allow power drain and activates the other controls
-Start cooling starts the machine cooling loop, the one connected to the core
-Start fuel injection starts the fuel injection in the machine which will start the main fusion loop and thus starting the reaction itself

This will contain the gas mixture of the fusion gases and the moderator gases

Those are the main parameters of the fusion reactor
-Power level goes from 0 to 600, from it depends the amount of power consumption (from 50 KW at PW 0 to 350 KW (it will be higher in the future)), the volume of the noise the machine makes, the damage the machine will take, the ability to turn off the machine safely (at high power level you can’t), fuel consumption, various other gas reaction/interactions.
-Integrity indicates the integrity of the magnetic containment field inside the machine, if it reaches 0 the machine will explode, is controlled by how many moles of gas are inside the fusion gasmix and their temperature and by other factors.
-Iron content is the amount of iron being produced inside the reactor, at high amounts will actively lower the integrity by damaging the fields, can be lowered by lowering the fusion temperature.
-Energy levels depends on the amount of moles inside, the kind of gas inside and the moderators too will have different impact.
-Heat limiter modifier will change depending on the power level, will limit the amount of heat the fusion can increase/decrease each tick (hotter gases are easier to heat up/cool down)
-Heat output is the main parameter affecting the temperature of the fusion reaction, is limited by the Heat limiter modifier and is affected by many other factors.

Those will show the gases temperature in real time
The flow of heat is Fusion > Moderator > coolant
(output gas will have either moderator or fusion temperature depending on the source)
If you don’t add a moderator the heat will go directly from the fusion to the coolant, but is much more inefficient.

Those are inputs that the user can change
-Heating Conductor will change the Heat limiter modifier, higher numbers means higher heat transfer. The Heat limiter modifier will affect the Heat Output by increasing/decreasing the maximum range possible; keep it at 100 for normal operations.
-Magnetic Constrictor will actively change the volume inside the fusion reactor, this affect instability and power output. Increasing the number will increase the volume available to the fusion gases, allows higher instability fluctuations and increases the influence of every gas inside the machine (positive and negative influences). Keep at 100 for normal operations.
-Fuel and moderator injection rate will change how much gas will enter the machine this affect consumption, and other gas related interactions
-Current Damper, life saver, will actively increase the instability of the fusion reaction making the reaction endothermic, that can set the heat output to negative cooling down the fusion mix, useful in meltdown situations. Counteracted by iron content.
-Waste remove will start to output helium/antinoblium at a fixed rate from the fusion mix and the gas you set to filter from the moderator mix allowing the user to filter out specific gases from the moderators

And now let's learn what each gases will do inside the machine

Click expand to see the HFR gas interaction section.

First thing to learn is the fuel: only a mixture of Tritium and Hydrogen will enter the fuel input port, no other gases will go inside (at least for now)

The moderator gases are special gases that have a double function, first they allow proper cooling for the core, second they have interactions with the functioning of the fusion reaction itself, those interactions are:
-for the fusion gasmix:
--Hydrogen = increase the energy of the system and increase the heat modifier
--Tritium = increase the energy of the system and increase the power modifier
--Helium = decrease the energy of the system, increase the heat modifier and increase the radiation modifier
-for the moderator gasmix:
--Nitrogen = increase the energy of the system, decrease the heat modifier and decrease the radiation modifier
--CO2 = increase the energy of the system and increase the power modifier
--N2O = increase the energy of the system and decrease the heat modifier
--Zauker = increase the energy of the system and increase the power modifier
--Antinoblium = vastly increase the energy of the system and vastly increase the radiation modifier
--Hypernoblium = vastly decrease the energy of the system
--H2O = decrease the energy of the system
--NO2 = decrease the energy of the system and increase the power of the system
--Healium = decrease the energy of the system
--Freon = decrease the energy of the system, decrease the power modifier, decrease the heat modifier and decrease the radiation modifier
--Oxygen = decrease the power modifier
--Plasma = increase the power modifier, increase the heat modifier and increase the radiation modifier

Now you know how to build and operate the HFR - Hypertorus fusion reactor! Many other informations and tips are provided in game in the proper pamphlet after activating the machine, enjoy!

Crystallizer

The Crystallizer is a machine that allows gases to be solidified and made into various materials.

The working principle and gaseous requirements behind the crystallizer is rather simple and explained in the machine itself. You select a recipe, pump gases in using the input (green) port, meet the temperature requirements, and wait for the material to finish crafting. The red port is used for heat control, as it will conduct with the internal mix and influence the temperature. You have a 10% wiggle room for the temperature requirements, but straying too far from the optimal temperature will influence the final quality of the item produced. Quality affects the amount of gas consumed for each product produced, with higher qualities consuming less gas. The optimal temperature for any given recipe is the median between the lower and upper temperature bound. Stay as close as you can to the median value, and you'll be able to save up to 85% of the required gas if you manage to make the highest quality!

It currently supports the production of:

Item	Properties
Metallic Hydrogen	A crafting material used for golems, axes, or the Elder Atmosian armor set.
Hyper-Noblium Crystal	A two use potion that can be used to pressure-proof two clothing items, turning them an icy blue color.
Healium Crystal	A grenade that can fix a large are of air to more reasonable temperatures. Good for firefighting and freezing temperatures.
Proto-Nitrate Crystal	A grenade that can refill a room with nitrogen and oxygen with a 8:3 split respectively.
Nitrous Oxide Crystal	A grenade that will release Nitrous Oxide (Laughing Gas).
Hot Ice	A material normally prodouced by freon combustion, also craftable with the Crystallizer. When weldered or burnt, it rapidly releases a very hot and dense cloud of plasma gas.
Ammonia Crystal	A material with not much use except for exporting. Makes 2 every time it's completed.
Supermatter Shard	A smaller version of the extremely dangerous Supermatter Crystal used for power generation.
Diamond	A sheet of diamond. Many crafting and manufacturing applications. Used thorough the station.
Plasma Sheet	A sheet of plasma. Many crafting, manufacturing, and biological applications. Used thorough the station.
Crystal Cell	A non rechargeable cell with a huge power capacity. Rated at 50 MJ.
Zaukerite	A material without much use except for bragging rights. Makes 2 every time it's completed.
Drone Fuel Pellets	Three separate recipes that create Fuel cells used for drone explorations in Cargo. Comes in three qualities denoting the difficulty of gases used.
Crystal Foam Grenade	A grenade that functions exactly like the standard Smart Metal Foam grenades that can be found roundstart. Extremely simple to make compared to most other recipes.
Nitrium Crystal	A grenade that on detonation releases a chemical smoke cloud containing chemical Nitrium and Nitrosyl Plasmide.

Bluespace Gas Vendor

This is the hub for gas purchase done by the crew. You only need to pipe your gas in and it will distribute it across vendors available station-wide. You can also set a price per mole for the gases. The gas will be at 20 degrees Celcius and is capped at 1013 kPa when purchased by the crew, do keep this in mind. You can also refill the individual vendors with metal for it to make more tanks.

After the Work is Done

This is a section dedicated to various tips and tricks, trivia, and things that you could do in your spare time:

First and by far most important: make sure pipes don't get broken and if they do, fix them.
Go around swiping your ID on Air Alarms, setting the operating mode to contaminated, and then re-swiping to lock it. You can ask the AI to do this as well, and probably should.
Fill all the air pumps with air using a volume pump, these work until 9000 kPa compared to the pressure pump's 4500.

Go to the red lockers, get a hard hat, gas mask and everything else that might be of use. Remember that you need both a fire suit and a hard hat to be resistant to weak fires. One will be useless without the other.
Go grab the Fire Axe from the wall mount and hide it somewhere so the chucklefucks won't get it and go killing. DON'T take it with you and go walking through the hallways trying to look like a badass, you'll be the prime target of any antagonist/griffon who needs an efficient weapon.

Least importantly, maintain the disposals system. You can generate pipes, but it needs welding and is generally a pain in the ass. You can also make fun slides, though.
Using H/E pipes in space you can cool things down to a very low temperature very quickly. By making a cross with two off them you can have two on
Gas pumps are for precise pressure control, volumetric pumps are for really fast pumping, and passive gates are for having 'one way' manual valves.
Extremely high-temperature gases (like those from a panic siphoned fire) can really clog the waste loop. Could you do something to correct that?
No one uses the ports outside of the 'refilling' station, but that doesn't mean that functionality can't be added onto them!
The wall section that looks like the letter 'I' can be dismantled if you need more working space for pipes.
Don't count out the grated window areas, they can be a great (har har) way to utilize the vacuum of space without an EVA suit.
Speaking of EVA suits, your engineering buddies can potentially help you with anything you might want to do in space, be it adding or modifying pipes. Watch the hilarity as that incompetent engineer fumbles when setting up a heat exchanger pipe loop!
The mining station doesn't have air recycling. Very long rounds might make this a problem for any miners working there.
Any gas at pressure over 1000 kPa will cause you to start suffocating as in a vacuum. You can just use internals, though.
N2O is invisible at low pressures. If you start giggling, put on your internals to avoid passing out.
Any gas can displace O2, and less than 16 (also useful for optimizing internals) kPa of oxygen starts the Oxyloss. CO2 can be removed with the scrubbers, but to get rid of N2 simply apply some way of removing gas from the air and adding O2. My personal favorite is 2 air pumps, 3 connectors and an Air Filter and a canister: 1 pump draws in, goes through the connection and filters N2 into the canister, and the rest to the other pump, which expels it. Can also be used for N2O which is only sluggishly scrubbed otherwise.
Pressures above 750 kPa do 10 DPS + 5 DPS for every extra 375 kPa above that mark, rounded off. Space suits completely block it all, but there is no other defense.

Atmospherics 301: Pipeline and Pipenet Theory; LINDA: Active Turfs & Excited Groups; Superconduction

LINDA? What is LINDA? LINDA is our atmospherics system. There are various theories on the origin of this name, but that is not why we are here. We are here to understand how gas dissipate, how pipelines and eventually pipenets are formed, and the more technical parts of atmospherics.

For a technical and detailed breakdown of our atmospherics subsystem and how everything works, refer to https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/blob/master/code/modules/atmospherics/Atmospherics.md

This will be an abridged version of that guide, intended for those without any experience in codediving. This not a substitute for that guide however, and we highly implore you to visit the documentation, even if you don't have any experience in reading code-heavy documentations.

We will use the supermatter and various figures as scenarios, this guide is best read once you know the basics of how supermatter works and have read the guide.

Pipeline and Pipenet Theory

If there is one part of Atmospherics 301 that you should read, this is it.

Behold, A Pipeline!

Figure 3.2

Our atmospherics susbystem does not simulate flow. Every interlinked pipe is connected into a single pipeline, and every pipeline member is subject to gas sharing. That is to say that when you use your Analyzer on a single pipe, what you are seeing is the gas mixture of the pipeline (this returned gas mixture information doesn't include gas inside of machineries like pumps, only the regular pipes, but they are considered as extra member of the pipeline and are subject to the same gas sharing rules.)

(Extra note: in the code, we store gas information for each calculated atmospheric entity in datums called gas mixtures, this is important terminology right here, but you don't need to worry too much about this.)

Each pipeline have a gas mixture, each individual member of the pipeline gets a share of this big gas mixture based on how much their share of the total volume is. Lets take the picture on figure 3.2 as an example. Notice that the pressure is preserved on all the analyzed machineries, demonstrating that once again: the gas is being shared equally between all of them based on their respective volume. This is what the supermatter guide refers to as gas directly appearing in the two ends of the pipeline as wide as the observable universe. Keep this concept of gas sharing in mind!

Most atmospheric devices perform actions only the gas directly under their influence; the gas that are directly present in their system. You can take a look back at the volume pump in figure 3.2, the volume pump will only move the gas directly inside their gas mixture. This is why taking gas out of the huge distribution loop is tedious and long, this is why some supermatter setups will lack moles directly inside the chamber if you expand the cooling space loop too much, this is why thermomachines are less reliable on very huge pipe networks.

Layer manifolds and valves connect different pipelines together by doing gas redistribution. Pumps however, does not. They have two gas mixtures that when connected, will be part of two separate pipelines. These pipelines will not interact with one another, but the gas will be allowed to move in one direction when the pump is turned on.

We go into great lengths in explaining pipelines and pipenets because it is very important and will show up again and again in your journey as an atmospheric technician. Now buckle up for a shorter exposition of environmental atmospherics!

LINDA: Active Turfs and Excited Groups

Our atmospherics system: LINDA, work based of concepts of active turfs and excited groups. A turf (tile) will become active when any gas changes happen, be it a plasma canister being opened, a breach occuring, or as simple as scrubber taking CO2 out. A turf will also become activated if a wall is deconstructed, necessitating it to be filled. These active turfs will combine into an excited group and equalize every several iteration of the subsystem ticking. This is LINDA in it's simplest, most abridged form.

Superconduction

On high temperatures (above 100 degrees Celcius), superconduction occurs. Superconduction allows heat to transfer between closed turfs, it is what allows glass to break on plasma fires, and why windows are really bad insulators. In short, superconduction is the interface between the turf and the gas mixtures. You will not need to understand the inner workings of this phenomenon during your course as a technician, but keep in mind of it's effects.

There is however, one exception: super hot turf based fires (incinerator springs to mind) As previously stated, superconduction is the interface between the turf level and the gas mixtures, the turfs are initialized at 20 degrees celcius and with a heat capacity of, well, practically infinite. This means that on every single instance of your gas mixture being hotter than 100 degrees celcius, it is sharing with the 20 degree celcius turf (losing heat, or why canisters fires are hotter than incinerator). This presents an extra challange for you, our dearest technician, in making very hot fires.

Being a Traitorous Scum

Or: How to get the AI lynched; How to call the shuttle as Atmos Tech, step-by-step:

Open valves connected to harmful gas you want to add to the station.
Set pumps to the distribution loop to maximum pressure output (4500 kPa).
Set filters to not filter harmful gasses you want to add to the station OR set the waste-in pump to 0 kPa (but leave it on to confuse the crew).
Open valve from custom mix chamber.
Turn on pump leading to distribution loop.
Wait for vents to slowly kick out your deathgas mix as regular atmos drains out through the inevitable hull breaches (alternatively turn off pressure checks on air alarms' vents to speed things up).
If you need to kill someone for your objective, and you want to be more proactive, the Fire Axe mounted in the wall is surprisingly effective. Just don't leave it lying around, because it's one of only two on the station.

To hurry this process up, you can set the air vents at local control panels to maximum output pressure. Not doing so gives the AI and Atmos Techs more time to notice what you've done and shut it off before it takes effect.

A faster process for achieving the same result is to do the following:

Disconnect, change the direction of, and reconnect the pump that feeds from the air mix to the mix tank in the north-eastern room of atmosia.
Open the valves for your deathgas mixture of choice.
Power on and max the pressure on every pump in the mix pipes (yellow pipes) from the storage tanks out to the station output (blue pipes).

This simply means that instead of the air mix being put into the mix tank as it normally does, the air mix (which may or may not contain death gasses) is fed into the station output.

Crafty atmos traitors will want to cut cameras, replace pumps with pipes, use tricky pipe configurations to avoid the AI interfering or the detective trying to fix it and make a hole in the station's oxygen and air tanks, venting the entire round's supply of oxygen into space.

An extremely fast method that involves a clever use of the waste system is the following:

Reconfigure the piping to connect the waste system directly into the pure pipes.
Find a place with a waste pipe next to a distro pipe, then configure them so that they can be united later.
Open the valves for your deathgas mixture of choice, the waste piping should now begin to fill with your gases.
Set as many air alarms as you can to have every vent at Internal 0.
When ready, go back to your distro/waste pipe spot and unite them.
Listen to screams over the radio.

Your powers don't extend to just fucking with the station's air. High level gas synthesis is a valid option and can grant you some crafty gasses and items to aid you in devious acts:

Nitrium is immediately the most obvious choice for brute force combat scenarios. Speed is incredibly strong and rare to see outside a few sources like chemistry or genetics. It also prevents you from sleeping so it can be combined with Healium for passive healing.
Healium has a strong healing effect but quickly puts you to sleep if you're breathing it. Perhaps you can find a way to stay awake while breathing it. Or you could use it as a stronger N2O to gas crowds of people with. It also sells at Cargo really well for how relatively simple it is to make, if you want to make use of what Cargo has to offer.
Tritium is notorious for creating roaring fires and can quickly send the crew into a panic if spread in large quantities. It doesn't take a genius to figure out where large amounts of tritium come from though, so expect unhappy visitors in atmospherics.
Water Vapor, a side product from tritium fires, can be collected in canisters to unleash in the halls as a sort of water bomb to make everything slippery. Consider an investment into no-slip shoes.
Freon can make things very chilly very fast, and combined with Water Vapor can create super slippery frozen tiles that send those who slip flying down the hall.
Pluoxium isn't incredibly useful for traitorous activities, but a full tank of it can let you camp out in space for a VERY long time if needed.
Zauker is... well, pretty bad for gassing places since it just turns into air when it comes into contact with nitrogen. However, a dedicated sealed chamber of it could be incredibly lethal for anyone stuck inside. Another idea is replacing the emergency tanks around the station with ones filled with pure Zauker, so that the next unfortunate soul who needs air gets nigh instantly killed upon turning on their internals. Consider sneaking these into people's pockets...
Hot Ice can be best described as pocket sized plasmafires. Much easier to target specific areas compared to plasmaflooding distro or dragging a big obvious canister of the stuff in. Ignite in hand while wearing your firesuit and drag any victims in to your new hellfire.
N2O crystals can be configured like grenades to detonate instantly like other grenades. Meaning, you could just walk up to someone and almost instantly put them to sleep by detonating N2O in their face, assuming they aren't using their internals.
Hyper-Noblium crystals can pressure proof your gear, allowing immunity to pressure hazards and removes the need for a hardsuit to spacewalk. Increasing survivability and mobility is always a plus.
Metallic Hydrogen and it's products are somewhat underwhelming but not to be forgotten. Elder Atmosian armor isn't great compared to some other options, but it does protect the limbs unlike a normal armor vest which is something to note. Metallic Hydrogen fireaxes are identical to normal fireaxes in function except for doing exactly one (1) less brute damage. Why? Fuck you, that's why. With 20 bars of your hard earned metallic hydrogen you can create a golem shell to make your own minions. Metal Hydrogen golems are immune to magic, flashes, heat and fire, but lose the cold and space immunity that all the other golems have. You'll never match xenobiology in the amount of golems you can create, but it's a nice option to have a golem bro help you in your deeds.

Other antagonistic things to do:

You can hack an air alarm to use it as a non-Atmos Tech.
You can remove the digital valves to shut down AI control, or disable the cameras if you know there are no Cyborgs on the station.
Using a gas filter turned on to pour large, ever increasing, amounts of gas onto a single connector port has no visible effects, but if you wrench a canister onto it then the canister will almost immediately fill up with the massive pressure buildup, letting you get super-high pressure plasma/CO2/etc canisters to hit area's with.
You can make a powerful single-tank bomb assembly gas mix by pumping in 2553kPa of plasma heated to 698.15 Kelvin into an empty handheld oxygen tank (not the small emergency ones).