Probably Stolen Evaporator Guide: Chemistry Steps & Reducing Agent

What the evaporator actually does

The evaporator is a drying step, not a crafting step. It takes a mixture, removes the volatile parts overnight, and leaves the concentrate behind. The Chem Finisher is the machine that turns that concentrate into a vial or pill.

The evaporator runs overnight and removes water, alcohol and Lipobond from the mixture placed in its container slot.Player-tested

That one sentence explains most of the confusion around the machine: players load it, sleep, open it, see no new product, and conclude it is broken. The output is the dry material in the source container.

The six-step chemistry loop

The order matters more than the individual machines. The working sequence players describe is:

1. Mix the ingredients with the carrier liquid;
2. Heat the mixture to extract the active component;
3. Clean up the batch — acid or base for proteins, Lipobond for fats;
4. Filter the liquid;
5. Evaporate overnight until the concentrate is dry;
6. Finish in the Chem Finisher to produce the vial or pill.

A stock evaporator removes about 300 ml per night, so a litre of water-and-alcohol mixture takes roughly four nights.Player-tested

Steps 3 and 4 are where most failed batches go wrong. Skimming them and evaporating a dirty mixture gives you a dry concentrate with the wrong impurities, and the Chem Finisher cannot fix that afterwards.

Loading the evaporator and judging when it is dry

• Put the mixture in the container slot, not the receiver.
• Start it before sleeping; it resolves overnight. There is no meaningful reason to stand next to it.
• Check the source container in the morning. If the mixture is still liquid, run another night.
• Only move it to the Chem Finisher when the carrier is gone. If the finisher refuses the input, it is still too wet.

The Chem Finisher only accepts dry material; the commonly cited ceiling is water, alcohol and Lipobond below about 100 µl in total.Player-tested The 1.0.0.5 patch (30 October) fixed the evaporator leaving 1 µl of water behind in mixed-alcohol batches — a bug that previously cost an extra night and could make the Chem Finisher reject the input.Official

That fix changes the practical experience of the dry threshold, not the threshold number itself. If you are timing a batch, re-measure the nights in 1.0.0.6 rather than copying an old count.

Quality versus performance

The two stats do different jobs, and confusing them is the second most common mistake:

Performance sets the nightly removal volume; quality sets the recovery into the receiver bottle, which can be zero on a low-quality unit.Player-tested

For a single Lab Pure batch, performance is the only stat that affects your time. For a chemistry business running the same recipe every day, quality starts paying for itself.

Solvent Recovery Module

The module is the difference between "the evaporator dries my batch" and "the evaporator also gives some alcohol back". It is not a general solvent recycler.

The Solvent Recovery Module recovers alcohol only; water and Lipobond are still discarded.Player-tested

That makes it a specialist part for alcohol-heavy recipes. If your production line is water-based, the module changes nothing about your costs.

Chemistry temperatures

These are the temperature windows already documented on this site for the Chem Finisher:

The Chem Finisher starts at 12% impurity. Each chemistry module fitted cuts it: one module 6%, two 3%, three 1%, four 0%.Player-tested

Zero impurity is what separates a Lab Pure batch — the Say My Name achievement — from a batch that sells at a discount. Fit all four modules before running expensive recipes, not after.

Reducing Agent: where it fits

The Reducing Agent is not a starter ingredient. It appears in the later, more complex recipes, and it is added after a stabilising step rather than at the mixing stage.

In Phanta-style recipes the Reducing Agent is added after the Stabilizing Agent, with the batch held in the 110–130°C window.Player-tested

If a recipe calls for a Reducing Agent and you add it early, the batch usually fails at the finisher rather than at the mixing step, which makes it look like a temperature problem. Stabilise first, then reduce.

Common mistakes

• Expecting a product. The evaporator dries; the Chem Finisher produces.
• Watching the receiver. An empty receiver is normal, especially at low quality.
• Evaporating a dirty mixture. Clean up proteins and fats before the overnight step.
• Skipping the evaporator on solvent recipes. If the recipe uses water, alcohol or Lipobond, the Chem Finisher will refuse a wet input.
• Using a hot plate as a universal shortcut. It works for heat-stable products such as caffeine, but it destroys others. Do not generalise from one recipe.
• Adding the Reducing Agent too early. Stabilise, then reduce, then finish.

Open questions

These points are repeated widely but were not verified for the current build when this page was checked on 5 November 2026:

• The evaporator's purchase price — 300 credits is the figure in circulation;
• The exact dry-material threshold for the Chem Finisher;
• The nightly energy draw, reported at about 6;
• The Solvent Recovery Module's price, quality bonus and efficiency penalty;
• The full Reducing Agent ratios for each recipe;
• How many nights a standard batch takes in Rev6 now that 1.0.0.5 removed the leftover 1 µl of water.

We list them here instead of stating them as specs. If the in-game panel disagrees with any number above, the panel is right.

Read next

• Put the batch into a full production line: Water, Wine & Production Chains
• Sell the output at the right price: Money Making: Water, Wine & Liquid Luck
• Chase the zero-impurity achievement: All 21 Achievements
• Run the chemistry loop for profit: Liquid Luck & Lottery
• Handle the leftover waste: Radioactive Waste Disposal