The Evaporator removes Water, Alcohol and Lipobond Agent from a container overnight. At base performance it removes up to 300 mL per night and uses 6 kJ. For products such as Dream Dust and caffeine pills, the material you usually need is the concentrate left in the original container, which then goes to the Chem Finisher.
Recovery is a separate function. Machine Quality controls how much removed liquid reaches the distillate container, so a base machine can dry a solution while collecting nothing. Decide whether you need a drier mixture or recovered solvent before choosing modules and reserving space for the second container.
Get the machine and plan its space
The Evaporator has a base value of 300 Credits and occupies a three by three inventory area. Its compact footprint does not include every container or power item you may want beside it. Plan the working area around the source mixture, the receiver when used, and the next machine in the recipe.
A Chemist start supplies a worn Evaporator. The retired chemist's equipment route also includes one, alongside a Blender, Heating Plate and Chem Finisher. The retired chemist and retired water merchant can bring the machine for sale. A base value is an item reference, not a promise that every seller transaction or equipment package will cost that exact amount.
The concentrate remains in the original container.
Buying the machine alone does not replace the other tools named in a recipe. The Evaporator removes selected liquids; it does not perform the Heating Plate's required temperature step, measure an ingredient for you, or turn an arbitrary solution into a finished product. Its place in the production chain depends on what you are making.
If your current container is already dry enough for the next stage, do not send it through another night merely because the machine is available. Evaporation is a preparation step with a specific result, not a universal quality upgrade for every chemical item.
Load the source, battery and optional receiver
The interface separates the battery, module, source container and distillate container. Put the mixture you want to dry into the source position. A second liquid container belongs in the distillate position only when you want to collect recovered vapor.
Follow this order when preparing a batch:
- Finish the mixing and any heating required by the product's instructions.
- Inspect the source container so you know what liquids remain.
- Load a power source with enough usable energy for the overnight cycle.
- Place the source in the Evaporator's container slot.
- Add a suitable receiver if recovering liquid is part of your plan.
- Check the installed modules and advance to the next day.
- Inspect the original container before moving the concentrate onward.
A receiver is not a substitute for the source container. Putting an empty vessel in the interface does not tell the machine which separate mixture you intended to process. Likewise, the battery must be available to the machine for the cycle; owning charged power cells somewhere in the shop is not the same as supplying this job.
The process is overnight. Waiting at the counter during the business day does not provide the same production tick. Load the machine before ending the day, then examine both containers in the morning if you are using recovery.
Understand which ingredients leave the mixture
Only Water, Alcohol and Lipobond Agent are included in the Evaporator's ordinary volatile removal. Other material remains in the source. This selective removal is why a solution can become a useful concentrate without creating a finished product in the receiver.
When more than one of those liquids is present, removal is divided according to their proportions. It does not take every drop of alcohol first simply because you expect a boiling-point sequence from real chemistry. Plan from the game's mixture contents and machine behavior rather than assuming a real-world distillation order.
For a dry-product recipe, the desired change is a smaller wet fraction in the source. A reduction in that fraction can be successful even when the overall container still holds valuable chemical material. Do not discard the original vessel because it looks like the input side of the machine; it can hold the part you are trying to keep.
The receiver has the opposite role. What reaches it is recovered removed liquid, subject to Quality and any recovery restriction. It is not automatically a purified version of every substance you loaded. The fact that two containers are present does not mean both contain the same product at different stages.
Calculate how many nights a batch needs
Base removal is up to 300 mL per night. Performance increases that capacity. The useful comparison is the amount of removable liquid present, not the container's maximum capacity or the quantity of nonvolatile material inside it.
| Machine performance | Maximum removed each night | What the change helps |
|---|---|---|
| Base performance | 300 mL | Standard overnight concentration |
| Performance increased by fifty percent | 450 mL | Larger wet batches finish sooner |
| Performance increased by one hundred percent | 600 mL | More liquid can be removed per cycle |
At base performance, a mixture containing one litre of the removable liquids needs four nights to remove that volume. Three full nights account for 900 mL; the remaining amount requires another overnight cycle. A large container does not accelerate the machine, and splitting your attention across other shop tasks does not change that per-night limit.
Performance changes the amount removed during an overnight cycle.
Use this calculation as planning for the drying stage, not a guarantee that the entire recipe finishes in that many days. Preparation, heating and the Chem Finisher can be separate stages. If you count only evaporation when promising a delivery date to yourself, the batch may still need work after the source becomes dry.
Performance also should not be confused with Quality. A faster machine can remove more liquid without collecting a greater percentage of it. Pick the statistic that solves your actual bottleneck.
Choose Quality for recovery
Quality determines the share of removed vapor that is caught in the receiver. At zero Quality, nothing is collected. That does not cancel the reduction in the original solution. For a concentrate-focused recipe, improving recovery may therefore be optional even though evaporation itself is necessary.
If your goal is to retain useful solvent, inspect Quality before running the batch. The receiver can accept recovered liquid into what it already holds, so its contents also matter. A container that already contains another liquid is not equivalent to a clean empty vessel when you want to keep the recovered material separate.
A missing or full receiver does not stop the source losing volatiles. This is a significant planning distinction: the machine can complete concentration while failing to preserve the liquids you hoped to reuse. Supply receiver space before the night when recovery matters, rather than treating the presence of a distillate slot as automatic storage protection.
The right purchase depends on your production aim. If the limiting problem is a wet source taking too many nights, Performance is the relevant improvement. If the source dries on time but valuable liquid is being lost, Quality addresses a different issue. Neither statistic should be bought solely because its name sounds like a universal upgrade.
Use the Solvent Recovery Module deliberately
The Solvent Recovery Module has a base value of 275 Credits. Its listed changes are Quality plus fifty percent and Efficiency minus twenty-five percent. It restricts recovered output to Alcohol. Water and Lipobond Agent can still leave the source, but they are not collected through this module's alcohol-only recovery.
That makes the module useful when retaining alcohol is the purpose of the receiver. It does not mean the source stops evaporating water, and it does not turn the receiver into the required destination for every chemistry product. Follow the product instructions to decide whether the remaining concentrate or recovered liquid is needed next.
This upgrade recovers Alcohol while other volatiles still leave the source.
The Efficiency penalty is another reason to read module effects as a bundle. Do not evaluate only the positive Quality line while ignoring the other stat. The unmodified six-kilojoule reference describes the base machine; installed equipment can change its operating conditions.
The Evaporator accepts Universal and Evaporator modules in a four by four module grid. Physical fit and the role of each module both matter. A module that belongs to another machine or solves a different production problem is not interchangeable simply because it is an equipment upgrade.
Move a dry concentrate to the next stage
For the Chem Finisher, the important endpoint is a sufficiently dry mixture. Its acceptance condition allows 100 microlitres or less of Water, Alcohol and Lipobond Agent. A container that appears almost dry can therefore still need inspection before you move it.
After each overnight cycle, check the original source rather than judging success from the receiver alone. If the remaining volatile amount meets the next stage's condition, transfer the concentrate and follow the product's finishing instructions. If it is still too wet, another cycle may be required.
Do not re-add solvent just because the source now looks small or because the receiver is empty. Added liquid changes the condition you have just worked to achieve. Likewise, do not mix the recovered output back into the concentrate unless the specific recipe calls for that action.
If neither container changes, check power, a valid wet source and the machine's current Performance. At minus one hundred percent Performance, it removes nothing. This check is different from a receiver that stays empty while the source visibly dries, which can be normal recovery behavior.
Keep the two outputs conceptually separate throughout the process: the original vessel holds what remains, and the receiver holds what the machine successfully catches. Once you know which one your next recipe step needs, the interface becomes a production tool you can plan around rather than a pair of unexplained containers.