Probably Stolen module upgrades come down to three attributes: Quality, Performance and Efficiency. Across machines, Efficiency reduces energy draw, Performance increases output volume, and Quality raises the value or the grade of what the machine produces. Machines need an energy source and usually a container, and they live inside a machine bay.
Probably Stolen Module Guide: Quality, Performance, Efficiency
Each machine's own panel carries a note on the right explaining what each attribute does for that machine type, and on the furnace the increments are strict:
- Quality raises the produced ingot by one purity stage for every 100%, and only multiples of 100 count. 99% Quality has no effect.
- Performance has no effect on the furnace and can be ignored.
- Efficiency changes the energy requirement by 1 per day for every 12.5%, and only multiples of 12.5 count. 12% Efficiency still needs 8 energy per day.
The furnace itself costs 200 credits and turns 2 materials — scrap metal or metal ore — into metal ingots at 8 energy per day. Its unique modules are Blast, which makes 3 materials into 2 ingots, and Junk Processing, which makes 6 junk into 4 scrap metal.
| Recipe | Standard | With Blast |
|---|---|---|
| Low purity | 2 scrap | 3 scrap |
| Fair purity | 1 scrap + 1 metal ore | 2 scrap + 1 metal ore |
| High purity | 2 metal ore | 1 scrap + 2 metal ore, or 3 metal ore |
Purity values are low 42, fair 50, high 62, very high 75 and perfect 100. A Flux smelting agent improves a recipe's purity by one stage and is consumed — unless the furnace already has at least +100% Quality, which is +200% when the Blast module is fitted. With Blast fitted, the first +100% Quality is ignored.
The Chem Finisher is where those three attributes matter most day to day, and the chemical crafting page covers the run that depends on them.
Probably Stolen Machine Bay: What Every Machine Needs
A machine's slot layout is fixed and visible in its panel:
| Machine | Slots |
|---|---|
| Chem Finisher | Chem Module, Container, Output, Control Panel |
| Evaporator | Battery, Module, Container, Distillate |
| Heating Plate | Chem Module plus an Off, Low and High control |
| Cryptographic Desequencer | Power Source, Modules, Chip Slot, Input, Output |
| Hydroponic System | Module, Water, Seed Input, Produce Output |
Energy cells recharge slowly, roughly 3 per night, and power bricks from Wild's Network give +4 charge per brick even while the brick sits inside a machine.
The first machine most shops plug in is a water machine, and the water purification page covers what it needs from a bay.
The machine bay is the storage and placement slot that holds machines. Machines can be placed inside a machine bay, and a power brick in the same bay still charges the machine next to it. The Hypertech Storage Bay is one of these bays, and the Chemist Storage Bay and Mini bay also appear in 1.0 builds.
Where Machines Live And What Is Risky About It
Storage bays are also where contraband goes wrong. Hotfix 1.0.0.1 fixed items inside a Smuggler Bay being confiscated during inspections when the bay was sitting in the trash can, and, for the Mini Smuggler Bay, when it had been kept behind the poster. The same hotfix fixed the Hypertech Storage Bay being placeable inside smuggler bays.
Two achievements mark the machine endgame: Cranked to Eleven for reaching +250 Quality on any machine, and Industrious for owning 10 machines simultaneously at the start of a day.