Probably Stolen Chemist Guide: Dream Dust, Purity and Lab Pure

To make Dream Dust in Probably Stolen, blend Dream Caps into mush, mix it with at least five times as much alcohol, hold it at 40–50°C, filter out the solids, dry it in the Evaporator and bottle it in the Chem Finisher. Purity decides the price: a Lab Pure vial (99%+) sells for 2.35 times its base value, and the Say My Name achievement needs exactly that grade.

The grade checker above turns any purity percentage into its grade. This page explains the process behind the number.

How do you make Dream Dust step by step?

The Chemist scenario starts with every machine on this list. On any other start, the Retired Chemist referral in Wild's Network (1,000 favor) gives you a starter kit and a weekly visitor who sells chemical supplies and equipment.

1. Blend the caps. Put Dream Cap into the Blender and press Start. Every liquid in the caps goes into the container, minus a loss that depends on how many chem modules the Blender has.
2. Add alcohol. Pour in at least five times as much alcohol as there is Dream Cap Mush. A bottle of Nudka is 45% alcohol; the water it brings is removed later.
3. Heat to 40–50°C. Put the container on the Heating Plate. Extraction runs within seconds once the mix passes 40°C. Take it off before it reaches 50°C.
4. Filter the solids. Pour the mix through Kotton Fabric. It catches Plant Matter and leftover mush but lets the extract through.
5. Evaporate overnight. The Evaporator removes 300 ml of water and alcohol per night. Large batches can take several nights.
6. Bottle it. The Chem Finisher draws 2 ml per vial of Dream Dust and grades each one by purity.

MidDream Cap23 ¢Heating Plate250 ¢Evaporator300 ¢Blender200 ¢Chem Finisher300 ¢Composition Spectrometer400 ¢Chemical Equipment Module250 ¢MidVial of "Dream Dust"18 ¢

What temperature does Dream Cap extraction need?

Extraction starts at 40°C and has no upper limit of its own. What limits it is breakdown: Dream Cap Mush turns into Plant Matter from 50°C, and the extract itself starts to degrade from 60°C. Alcohol boils at 78°C.

That is why the useful window is 40–50°C, not the 40–60°C you will see in some guides. Between 50 and 60°C your extract survives, but the mush that has not reacted yet is turning into useless Plant Matter. Every second above 50°C lowers your final yield.

The Heating Plate makes this harder than it sounds. Without chem modules it heats toward 99°C and cannot be set lower, so you have to lift the container off yourself. With one module the ceiling becomes 160°C. With two modules you can set a target temperature in 5°C steps, which is the point where heating stops needing your attention. Off the plate, a container cools back toward the room temperature of 26°C, and pouring liquids together averages their temperatures by volume.

How much Dream Dust do you get?

At best, half of your mush becomes extract. The conversion reaches its 50% maximum when the container holds at least five times as much alcohol as mush — and the ratio counts all the mush in the container, so add the alcohol before you heat, not in stages. The rest of the processed mush becomes Plant Matter.

The Blender loses part of every ingredient before chemistry even starts:

The loss applies to every component equally, so it costs you volume, not purity. Modules placed in chem machines get stuck and need a Module Extractor to remove, so decide where each Chemical Equipment Module goes before you install it.

What do Wet Ingredient and Not Enough Reagent mean?

The Chem Finisher only ever shows one of three states. The rules behind them are simpler than the messages suggest.

• Wet Ingredient Detected. The container holds more than 0.1 ml of evaporative liquid in total. Water, alcohol and Lipobond Agent all count. Another night in the Evaporator is the fix.
• Not Enough Reagent. The container holds less liquid than one product needs — 2 ml for Dream Dust. Only the total volume is checked, so a container with 2 ml of mostly junk will still bottle a vial, just a bad one.
• Ready. Enough liquid and dry. Each press of Output draws the required volume in the same proportions as the container.

How do purity grades work?

Purity is the share of the vial that is the active ingredient. The Chem Finisher then replaces part of every vial with physical contaminant, and the share depends on its own chem modules: 12% with none, 6% with one, 3% with two, 1% with three and 0% with four.

That single rule caps your grade. With no modules a vial can never beat 88%, which is Near Pharma at best. Lab Pure needs 99%, so it needs a container that is essentially pure extract and, in practice, all four modules.

Grade also decides who will buy. Starch Grade and Junk Grade are never accepted, Cut Product is refused by pickier buyers, and the most demanding ones refuse even Street Standard. When a vial turns out better than its label claimed, the buyer's faction gains 3 reputation.

How do you reach Lab Pure?

Every non-extract liquid in the container counts against you. A Dream Cap is mostly mush and Plant Matter, but it also carries water, protein, mineral, microbes and physical contaminant. Here is what removes each one, according to the game's real data:

• Water and alcohol — the Evaporator.
• Plant Matter and leftover mush — Kotton Fabric.
• Mineral and physical contaminant — a Water Filter catches them; Kotton Fabric does not.
• Microbes — a mix that is at least 40% alcohol kills them, so the 5:1 ratio handles this for you.
• Protein — the hard one. It has the same particle size as the extract, so no filter catches it. Acid or base turns protein into debris, which Kotton Fabric then catches. Neutralize what is left with the opposite solution.

The reagent bottles themselves carry 2–8% impurities that filters do not remove, so use only as much acid or base as the protein needs. This route is worked out from the game's real data rather than from a finished run; check every stage with the Composition Spectrometer before you spend a batch.

What other recipes does the Chem Finisher make?

Lipobond Agent boils at 55°C and counts as wet, so keep a Nomore batch under 55°C and dry it before bottling.

How does the Cartel quota work?

The Sector 13 Cartel exists only in the Chemist scenario. Community guides report a weekly Dream Dust quota — 10 vials at 40% purity or better at first, then 15 at 45% or better — and reputation loss when you deliver short. The game's data does not include those numbers, so treat them as reported, not confirmed.

What the game does confirm are the reputation tiers. At +25 your weekly stipend scales with Cartel reputation, at +50 requesting extra materials costs half the usual reputation, and at +100 your handler starts your authorized exit. At −100 a hitman is sent and the run ends with the Retired ending. While the Cartel protects you, burglary cannot hit your store, and selling to Cartel buyers adds nothing to your Security record. The factions guide covers the other five groups.

Dream Dust is Mid-tier contraband everywhere else, so an inspection will find it unless it is hidden. The contraband and Heat guide explains how to keep it out of sight.

How do you get the Say My Name achievement?

Say My Name unlocks when the Chem Finisher outputs any product graded Lab Pure. The check looks at the grade, not the label, so a Labeler does not help. Chemist is the natural scenario for it because the whole lab is there on day one; see starting scenarios for the full kit.

Budget for four Chemical Equipment Modules on the Chem Finisher before you try, and two more on the Heating Plate if you want to stop babysitting the temperature. The achievements list has the other 20, and the Probably Stolen guide home links every system page.