Basic Chemistry

Lore & Background

In the world of Oxygen Not Included, the colony exists in a vast subterranean environment where sunlight is a memory and every breath is a negotiation with the atmosphere. The duplicants—small, hardy beings with distinct personalities and needs—were thrust into this dark world and must piece together a functioning society from the ground up. Basic Chemistry represents one of the first times they stop treating the world as a series of problems to endure and start treating it as a toolkit to use.

Before this technology, a duplicant's relationship with matter was largely passive: collect water, filter it, breathe the air, eat the crops. Basic Chemistry reframes that relationship. Suddenly, the same raw inputs can be broken down, recombined, and repurposed. The Chemistry Lab becomes a small altar of transformation, where duplicants in their little lab coats hunch over mixing stations, watching reactions bubble and shift color. It is messy, occasionally hazardous, and deeply satisfying.

The in-universe implication is that the colony is no longer just surviving—it is *engineering*. Every subsequent tier of research builds on this foundation, and the duplicants' growing confidence in their ability to reshape their environment mirrors the player's own growing mastery over the complex systems of temperature, gas, fluid, and solid that define the game.

In Their Own Story

The lab hummed with the low, electric buzz of the mixing station. Duplicant Marnie adjusted her goggles, watching the pale liquid swirl into a deeper amber as the reaction reached its critical temperature. Around her, the Chemistry Lab was a tangle of pipes, beakers, and half-finished projects, the walls stained with the faint residue of a dozen experiments that had not gone exactly to plan.

She could smell the sulfur. She could always smell the sulfur. It clung to her fur and her thoughts, a constant reminder that the underground had its own chemistry, indifferent and ancient. But today, for the first time, she was not just enduring it. She was *using* it.

The colony above was quiet. The air recyclers ticked. The crops grew in their little rows of light. And here, in this small room that smelled of reaction and possibility, Marnie made something new from something old. It was, she decided, the closest thing to magic she had ever felt.

Reader's Guide

Basic Chemistry is a research node that, once completed, unlocks the Chemistry Lab blueprint and associated crafting capabilities for the colony.

**What it unlocks:** The primary machine is the Chemistry Lab, a work station where duplicants can combine raw materials and processed inputs to produce crafted items. It sits within the broader manufacturing system and works alongside other production stations the colony may already have.

**How it fits the progression:** This technology typically becomes available after the colony has secured basic life-support systems (air, water, food) and has a functioning research station. It is a natural next step: once survival is stable, the colony can invest in *making* things rather than just *finding* them.

**Practical notes for players:** - The Chemistry Lab requires a duplicant to staff it and will consume the specific inputs for each recipe it produces. - Placement near a power source and with adequate ventilation is important, as chemical processes can generate heat and byproduct gases. - Unlocking this node shifts the colony's resource economy: raw materials that were previously dead-ends become inputs for higher-value outputs. - It is a prerequisite for more advanced chemical and industrial research in later tiers.

Think of it as the colony's first step from scavenging to manufacturing.

Did You Know?

• In Oxygen Not Included, the Chemistry Lab and its associated processes can generate heat and byproduct gases, meaning even 'clean' manufacturing has an environmental cost that the colony must manage.
• The duplicants in ONI have individual moods and preferences, and working at a Chemistry Lab can affect their happiness depending on their personal traits and the conditions of the room.
• Basic Chemistry sits at a pivotal point in the research tree: before it, the colony is largely limited to collection and recycling; after it, active production and crafting become possible, fundamentally changing the pla
• The subterranean setting of ONI means that chemical byproducts like CO2 and heat do not simply dissipate into open atmosphere—they accumulate in enclosed spaces, making ventilation and gas management a constant concern e