Alchemy

Every ingredient carries a rune value — so much red, green and blue. Mix one to three ingredients and their runes are added together. The total, and nothing else, decides what comes out.

That is the whole system. The game data lists 6,960 separate combinations, but they are all the same rule applied over and over: 70 ingredients and 29 results. Learn the rune values below and you can work out any recipe yourself — including ones no guide lists.

Two independent checks back this: all 6,960 listed combinations match the sum of their ingredients' runes, and enumerating every 1–3 ingredient mix from the rule produces exactly 6,960 combinations back. No overlaps — no two results need the same runes.

Study first

An ingredient can only go into the Laboratory once you have studied it at the Study Table. Until then it does not even appear in the list of ingredients you can pick, and its tooltip shows “Runes: ???”. The 19 alchemy powders are the exception: they count as studied from the start.

Studying works like this:

  1. Put an item from your backpack on the Study Table. The item is not used up.
  2. The study costs Science, and some items also cost Faith. Science is kept in the table itself.
  3. Work at the table until it is done. You get a batch of tech points, usually 10 to 150, and the result window shows the item’s runes.

Each item can be studied once. Organs of the same kind count as one item, and so do all star qualities of the same crop or drink.

You get Science by decomposing paper and science kits on the Study Table: Clean Paper gives 1, Science Kit I 30 and Science Kit II 60 (Science Kit II is not in the demo). Decomposing does use the item up. Book writing mastery makes each swing at the Study Table count for more (see Mastery).

Mixing

At the Laboratory (Laboratory I has two slots):

  1. Pick an ingredient for each slot from your backpack or from open storage in the same room. The same ingredient can go in more than one slot.
  2. No colour may go above 5. Ingredients that would push a colour past 5 are left out of the list.
  3. If the runes add up to a result, it appears next to the flask. A question mark means a result you have not discovered yet; you can still make it, and that is how you discover it.
  4. Each mix uses up one flask. Flasks have to be on the Flask shelf in the same room; flasks in your backpack do not count. One Alchemy Flasks I put on the shelf becomes 5 flasks, an Alchemy Flasks II 10.
  5. Work at the Laboratory to finish the mix. The result drops on the floor. You also get tech points equal to the result’s runes, and progress toward the inspiration Alchemist.

The Folio lists every result you have discovered with the runes it needs, but not which ingredients you used.

The Alchemy Workbench repeats mixes without you: every exact combination you have made at the Laboratory becomes one of its recipes, and a zombie can work it. It cannot be built in the demo: no demo technology unlocks it, and it needs Iron Nails, which nothing in the demo makes or sells.

Mixer

Pick up to three ingredients and see what they make.

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Ingredients (70)

Sorted by total rune value. Click a rune header to re-sort. Study is the Science it costs to study the ingredient at the Study Table; "—" means it cannot be studied, so it never goes into the Laboratory. Prices are blank where the game data has none. The first table is what you can get and study in the demo, which has 31 Science in all.

Name Runes RGB Study Base price
Marble may be out of reach 3 3 5 50
Beeswax 12 12 3 0
Cheese 111 111 3 0
Golden nugget 21 21 3 100
Honey 21 21 3 8
Iron Ore 3 3 3 100
Tin 21 21 3 0
Melted Fat 3 3 2 10
Copper Nugget 21 21 2 0
Salt 111 111 3 20
Stone 2 2 1 5
Ash 11 11 3 10
Peat 11 11 2 0
Flax 11 11 2 7
Flour 2 2 2 5
Night flower may be out of reach 2 2 2 0
Swamp mushroom may be out of reach 2 2 2 0
Red Mushroom may be out of reach 2 2 2 0
Onion 2 2 2 10
Onion 2 2 2 14
Onion 2 2 2 18
Zombie goo 2 2 3 150
Berry 1 1 1 0
Blueberry may be out of reach 1 1 1 0
Blood 1 1 1 0
Clay 1 1 1 0
Flesh 1 1 1 35
Leaf 1 1 1 0
Sand 1 1 1 0
Seed oil 1 1 2 0
Stick 1 1 1 1
Water 1 1 1 0
Other ingredients: not in the demo, or cannot be studied (38)
Name Runes RGB Study Base price
Alcohol 3 3 2 50
Brain 3 3 3 0
Brain 3 3 3 0
Cacao 21 21 — 300
Coal 12 12 2 0
Blue Crystal 12 12 15 75
Firefly 12 12 — 10
Goldfish 21 21 3 72
Fragrance 3 3 2 30
Guts 12 12 3 0
Guts 12 12 3 0
Heart 12 12 3 0
Heart 12 12 3 0
Hops 21 21 2 11
Alchemic Powder blue runeblue runeblue rune 3 3 0 20
Alchemic Powder green runeblue runeblue rune 12 12 0 25
Alchemic Powder green runegreen runeblue rune 21 21 0 25
Alchemic Powder green runegreen runegreen rune 3 3 0 20
Alchemic Powder red runeblue runeblue rune 12 12 0 25
Alchemic Powder red runegreen runeblue rune 111 111 0 30
Alchemic Powder red runegreen runegreen rune 12 12 0 25
Alchemic Powder red runered runeblue rune 21 21 0 25
Alchemic Powder red runered runegreen rune 21 21 0 25
Alchemic Powder red runered runered rune 3 3 0 20
Pumpkin 3 3 3 20
Pumpkin 3 3 3 30
Pumpkin 3 3 3 40
Minced Meat 2 2 5 0
Alchemic Powder blue runeblue rune 2 2 0 10
Alchemic Powder green runeblue rune 11 11 0 10
Alchemic Powder green runegreen rune 2 2 0 10
Alchemic Powder red runeblue rune 11 11 0 10
Alchemic Powder red runegreen rune 11 11 0 10
Alchemic Powder red runered rune 2 2 0 10
Tooth 11 11 3 0
Alchemic Powder blue rune 1 1 0 5
Alchemic Powder green rune 1 1 0 5
Alchemic Powder red rune 1 1 0 5

Results (29)

20 results can be mixed in the demo, on a laboratory with 2 slots. Cheapest in the demo is the mix whose ingredients cost the least Science to study; Study is that cost if you have studied none of them yet.

Name Runes Cheapest in the demo Study
Dream Dust 11
Peat
2
Paint 2
Berry + Berry
1
Lacquer 2
Blood + Blood
1
Healing Potion 2
Stone
1
Healing Potion II 4
Stone + Stone
1
Healing Potion III 5
Stone + Melted Fat
3
Damage Potion 11
Flax
2
Damage Potion II 22
Flax + Flax
2
Damage Potion III 33
Beeswax + Copper Nugget
5
Zombie Motivator Potion 11
Blood + Clay
2
Zombie Motivator Potion II 12
Clay + Zombie goo
4
Berserker Potion 111
Cheese
3
Berserker Potion II 211
Stone + Peat
3
Weak growth elixir 12
Beeswax
3
Rich growth elixir 13
Beeswax + Berry
4
Preservative 3
Berry + Flour
3
Organ Improver red skull 41
Stone + Copper Nugget
3
Organ Improver white skull 4
Flour + Flour
2
Explosive Dust 22
Stone + Zombie goo
4
Spices 22
Peat + Peat
2
Other results, not in the demo (9)
Name Runes Simplest mix Why not
Zombie Motivator Potion III 33
Heart + Tin
needs ingredients the demo does not have
Berserker Potion III 322
Beeswax + Heart + Clay
needs 3 ingredients
Miracle growth elixir 15
Beeswax + Alchemic Powder green runegreen runegreen rune
needs ingredients the demo does not have
Reanimation Liquid 214
Brain + Cheese + Clay
needs 3 ingredients
Tannin Liquid 421
Beeswax + Tin + Clay
needs 3 ingredients
Alkali 142
Beeswax + Guts + Berry
needs 3 ingredients
Umami 44
Guts + Guts + Swamp mushroom
needs 3 ingredients
Philosopher Stone 333
Beeswax + Brain + Copper Nugget
needs 3 ingredients
Third Eye Salt 15
Brain + Heart
needs ingredients the demo does not have

Notes

  • Two ingredients cannot be used at all. Cacao and the Firefly have runes, but the game has no way to study them, so they never go into the Laboratory.
  • Changing an ingredient resets the amount to 1. Pick all the ingredients first, then set how many to make.
  • Mixes made at the Alchemy Workbench do not count toward the Alchemist inspiration or the achievement for making potions. You still get the tech points.
  • Only the exact mix you made moves to the workbench. Making the same result from other ingredients needs one run at the Laboratory first.
  • Six results need three ingredients, so Laboratory I cannot make them. Reanimation Liquid is one of them.
  • The tutorial says alchemy needs fire. It does not; nothing in the current game uses fire for mixing.