I’ve kind of hit that point where I don’t need money anymore. The frigates are making their routes, I’ve made a couple Stasis Chambers and Fusion Igniters from gas I collected on various ventures, more money and nanites than I frankly think anyone should have, time to explore the stuff I missed.

One thing that bugged me is that refiners had up to three slots, but I never actually used more than 1. I kept it in the back of my mind, thinking the game would give me a recipe or something, but it never quite happened.

A few nights ago, I’m setting up gas farms — silly me, I’ve been getting my Radon from Atmosphere Harvesters instead of Gas Extractors, so I’m learning the ins and outs of getting gas. Here I thought the planet I was on just gave Oxygen, but nope, I can get others too. Whatever, it’s kind of nice having a fat stack of Oxygen, even if it’s kind of useless, so for a few days I go shove Oxygen in a refiner and turn it into Carbon. Neat, Carbon’s not rare, but with a stack of it coming in every day, I can fuel machines and build structures.

My Sulpherine farm is going well, great for producing Nitrogen Salt at 250 Sulpherine and 50 Condensed Carbon each (created from Oxygen), but I don’t have a proper Radon farm up. On a misclick, I put Sulpherine in the crafting menu and… cool, I can turn 3 Sulpherine into 1 Radon. I’m curious though, so I google Sulpherine for more info, and…

Neat! Sulpherine plus one Oxygen makes a Radon! I have too much Oxygen anyways, this is great, I don’t need to expand the Sulpherine farm by four, doubling it is enough and I’ll have my Radon supply. I follow the link, and it turns out I can do the same with Radon: One Radon plus one Oxygen into one Nitrogen. Neat! Maybe I can make more Nitrogen Salt now.

But I’m looking at the bottom of the page for Nitrogen Salt and there’s a new recipe I don’t recognize. It doesn’t say 250 Nitrogen and 50 Condensed Carbon, it says 100 Nitrogen, 10 Condensed Carbon, and 10 salt make a Nitrogen Salt. Wait, that’s not in the crafting menu — I mean it makes sense, Nitrogen Salt, but still, wow, I guess this is what those 3 refiner slots are for, improving the efficiency of making things like Nitrogen Salt. Well shoot, I better get my hands on some Salt.

I keep reading: I can make Salt from Chlorine, one Chlorine makes two Salt, so Chlorine is effectively my Salt supply. Oh but look, I can also make Chlorine from Chlorine and… Oxygen? Hold up, a Chlorine and an Oxygen makes two Chlorine? What?

Witchcraft.

So I go on an experimentation binge with Oxygen.

Carbon plus Carbon makes a condensed Carbon. Two Carbon plus Two Oxygen makes five condensed Carbon, a freebie pops out of nowhere.

Salt and Salt makes a Chlorine. Two Salt and Two Oxygen make five Chlorine. This is on top of Chlorine and Oxygen making two Chlorine.

I can duplicate materials with Oxygen!?

Okay, what about Pyrite? Pyrite plus Oxygen creates… Cactus Flesh? I figured since a Gold turns into a Pyrite I could turn it back into Gold, but that’s okay. On a whim though, I try Gold plus Oxygen and… yep, two Pyrite come out instead of one.

So Oxygen is basically witchcraft: in many cases it can duplicate another material or improve the exchange rate when you throw it in a refiner. Here I’ve been burning it to make Carbon when I can literally add it to Carbon to get more Carbon.