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The entire volume of the Fusion Mix is heated by the capped heat output, and is itself capped at a maximum temperature of 1e8. A smaller Fusion Mix will heat the Moderator Mix more slowly than a large Fusion Mix while providing the same level of production, and will ultimately require less cooling.
The entire volume of the Fusion Mix is heated by the capped heat output, and is itself capped at a maximum temperature of 1e8. A smaller Fusion Mix will heat the Moderator Mix more slowly than a large Fusion Mix while providing the same level of production, and will ultimately require less cooling.
=== Viewable metrics ===
The HFR's interface provides a lot of useful information.
The exact contents and composition of the internal Fusion Mix and Moderator Mix are displayed prominently at the top. Very straightforward, keep an eye on these whenever adding more fuel or moderator gas.
* '''Power Level'''. The Fusion Power Level is a simple number, from 0 to 6. This determines which effects are active. See the table in The Moderator Mix below for moderator effects by gas and Fusion Power Level, and the lists under Safety/Healing for how integrity is lost and restored. The Fusion Power Level is solely based on the temperature of the Fusion Mix:
** The Fusion Power Level is 0 between 0 and 500 Kelvin. Very little happens here, but you can burn fuel to add heat.
** The Fusion Power Level is 1 between 500 and 1,000 Kelvin. Not many useful reactions occur here.
** The Fusion Power Level is 2 between 1,000 and 10,000 Kelvin. There aren't many useful reactions that occur here, either.
** The Fusion Power Level is 3 between 10,000 and 100,000 Kelvin. This is the first very useful Fusion Power Level, and most effects here are shared with Fusion Power Level 4, while being much friendlier to work with in terms of heat output and inherent gases created.
** The Fusion Power Level is 4 between 100,000 and 1,000,000 Kelvin. The effects aren't very different from Fusion Power Level 3, but you can get much, much higher rates of production here, if you're willing to take the risk that comes with being much closer to dangerous power levels. Note that because the temperature scale (used to determine the rate of production from current heat output) is also shared between Fusion Power Levels 3 and 4, you can reach a maximum rate of production of 10 with Fusion Power Level 4, while only being able to reach a maximum rate of production of 1 with Fusion Power Level 3, or a maximum rate of production of 5 with other Fusion Power Levels.
** The Fusion Power Level is 5 between 1,000,000 and 10,000,000 Kelvin. This is the first dangerous Fusion Power Level. Damage is taken based on the volume and temperature of the Fusion Mix, and the steady increase of Iron Content makes it hard to stay on for long. While there are better consumed-to-produced ratios for high tier moderator reactions here than on lower Fusion Power Levels, the maximum rate of production is half that of the maximum rate of production of Fusion Power Level 4, so generally isn't worth it. You could consider briefly staying on this level if you have at least 100 moles of BZ, and want to either quickly add at least 15 moles of PN to the Moderator Mix to kick start level 3-4 PN production, or quickly accumulate 50 moles of Freon to gain its cooling bonus at level 3-4.
** The Fusion Power Level is 6 over 10,000,000 Kelvin. The maximum temperature the Fusion Mix can achieve from HFR processes is 100,000,000.
* '''Integrity'''. The current health of the HFR. If this reaches 0% for 30 seconds, you get a third of the station EMPed, an impressive hole in Atmospherics, and probably lynched. Cannot fall faster than 1 percentage point per second, though there is are fewer limits to how far the cause of integrity loss can get out of hand.
* '''Iron Content'''. Integrity is constantly lost based on this value. Worsens or recovers based on Fusion Power Level:
** At Fusion Power Level 0, there is a 25% chance to recover 1 percentage point of iron content each second each update.
** At Fusion Power Level 1, there is a 12.5% chance to recover 1 percentage point of iron content per second each update.
** At Fusion Power Level 2, there is a 8.33% chance to recover 1 percentage point of iron content per second each update.
** At Fusion Power Level 3, there is a 6.25% chance to recover 1 percentage point of iron content per second each update.
** At Fusion Power Level 4, there is a 5% chance to recover 1 percentage point of iron content per second each update.
** At Fusion Power Level 5, there is a 85% chance to add 0.5 percentage points of iron content per second each update.
** At Fusion Power Level 6, 0.5 percentage points of iron content are added per second.
** When power is lost (no APC providing power to equipment), 10 percentage points of iron content are added each second (!).
* '''Energy Levels'''. E=MC^2. Matter (using the sum of values listed in Energy modifier for the quantity of each gas in the Gas Effects table below) times the speed of light squared. Amplified by the Fusion Mix temperature and heat modifier (using the sum of values listed in Heat modifier for the quantity of each gas in the Gas Effects table below). Fairly technical, it's faster to compare Heat Limiter Modifier to Heat Output instead.
* '''Heat Limiter Modifier'''. 1e[Fusion Power Level - 1] * [Heating Conductor Value]. This is the maximum amount the temperature of the Fusion Mix can incrase in one update from the fusion process. The maximum amount the temperature of Fusion Mix can decrease in one update from the fusion process is one tenth of this.
* '''Heat Output'''. This is the amount that the temperature of the Fusion Mix changes in one update. If this isn't equal to the Heat Limiter Modifier, or to negative one tenth of the Heat Limiter Modifier, your reaction doesn't have enough energy. Check the Magnetic Constrictor was minimized. Add more fuel, and remove moderator gases that kill energy or heat. There are three exceptions as moderator gas effects that bypass this cap, fixed multipliers that alter the heat output after the cap from the Heat Limiter Modifier was applied, after being used to determine the rate of production, but before the heat is applied to the Fusion Mix: N2O (FL2: +5.5% Heat), PN (FL3-5: +25% Heat; FL6: +125% Heat), Freon (FL3-4: -10% Heat; FL5: -50% Heat).
The current temperature of all mixes, the output pipenet, and coolant are also all immediately visible from the interface as well.


=== Tunable parameters ===
=== Tunable parameters ===

Версия от 10:35, 18 января 2021

UNDER CONSTRUCTION. EXPECT ERRORS AND OMISSIONS. FOLLOW AT YOUR OWN RISK!


The Hypertorus Fusion Reactor (HFR) is a complex long-round project, added to Atmospherics in Fusion's seventh major revision.

Words of Warning

Maintaining the HFR is hard. Maintaining the HFR is really hard. Maintaining the HFR makes managing the Supermatter Engine look like a breeze. Expect to spend half an hour just on building supporting infrastructure, then up to 15-20 minutes on running it, depending on what your goals are.

Getting the HFR operational requires knowledge of how to create uncommon gases. This typically means setting up the Incinerator to produce Hydrogen and Tritium.

Going all the way to Metal Hydrogen requires knowledge of the rarer atmospherics interactions, as well as memorizing many effects unique to the HFR.

Oh God Shit's Fucked What Do Halp

  • Is integrity over ~56%? Is there someone that knows what they're doing around? Do you see Healium around, either in the moderator mix interface or in a nearby canister? If at least two out of three of those were true, leave them to it, unless they're asking for help.
  • Is power offline?
    • Run for the APC with an Inducer to charge it fast.
    • Once power is back, run for the interface and fix the settings. Power disappearing forces the settings to bad values, and your old values don't come back when power does. Iron content goes up by ten percentage points PER SECOND while power is offline, every second counts. Continue down the list, everything will be very badly screwed even if you manage to restore power.
    • If this wasn't a passing problem that the Inducer could fix (Beg the AI to help with whichever of these they can):
      • Maximize SMES output.
      • Turn on the Incinerator if available (the AI can do this immediately on Delta). It was usually set up for trit/H2 production earlier, can make a modest amount of energy by default, and can more energy than the SM if fully upgraded.
      • If things still aren't fixed, proceed to If all else fails
  • Maximize the current dampener. This almost always changes the reaction from exothermic (heating things up) to exothermic (cooling things down).
  • Check: Does Heat Output's value start with a minus sign? If not:
    • Immediately minimize the heating conductor.
    • Minimize the fuel injection rate.
    • Try changing magnetic constrictor values to see if you can find values that do make heat output negative. Minimizing is a good start. Give up after five attempts. If you can't make heat output negative, proceed to Strategy: Slowdown
  • Strategy: Starvation. Good if heat output is negative, very good if the fusion mix is very small.
    • Maximize the heating conductor.
    • Maximize the fuel injection rate (make sure that no fresh fuel is being piped in).
    • Add more gas to the moderator mix. Room temperature is about as good as frozen when compared with meltdown temperatures, and coolant cooling goes through the moderator mix anyway.
    • If the fusion mix is very unbalanced, AND one of Hydrogen or Tritium is below 25 moles, CAREFULLY add whichever of the fuel components was missing at a VERY LOW RATE to help process what's left, and ultimately further reduce the fuel mix volume.
    • Double check the coolant system. Add more Freezers to the coolant network until the system either stabilizes or melts down.
    • Rationale: Fusion is almost always the hottest mix, and a smaller volume is easier to cool than a larger volume. The HFR restores integrity the more that the fusion mix drops below 800 moles. Many bad effects stop happening if there isn't enough fuel to run the fusion reaction.
  • Strategy: Slowdown
    • Minimize the heating conductor.
    • Minimize the fuel injection rate (make sure that no fresh fuel is being piped in).
    • Add more gas to the moderator mix. Room temperature is about as good as frozen when compared with meltdown temperatures, and coolant cooling goes through the moderator mix anyway.
    • Double check the coolant system. Add more Freezers to the coolant network until the system either stabilizes or melts down.
    • Rationale: If you can't make the reaction endothermic, the most you can do is minimize the rate of change and hope your coolant does the job.
  • If all else fails:
    • Call the shuttle.
    • Consider bombing the HFR before it gets any worse (decide whether or not you want to be in the room at the time to avoid lynching to restore your honor).

So how does this all work, anyway?

The HFR consists of three special gas mixes, plus a simple output port:

  • The Fusion Mix
  • The Moderator Mix
  • Coolant

Temperature transfer

Temperature is exchanged:

  • Slowly between the Fusion Mix and the Moderator Mix.
  • Rapidly between the Moderator Mix and Coolant.

Gases added to or removed from Fusion, Moderator, or Coolant retain whichever quantities and temperatures they had previously. Directly adding large quantities of room temperature gases is a very effective way of rapidly reducing temperature. They could be frozen, but when distributing billions of joules of energy, it doesn't matter too much whether the gas you're adding to dilute the heat comes with a few hundred or a few thousand joules. You could also add pre-heated gases if, for whatever reason, you don't want to burn the small amount of fuel required to get through the first few fusion levels.

The entire volume of the Fusion Mix is heated by the capped heat output, and is itself capped at a maximum temperature of 1e8. A smaller Fusion Mix will heat the Moderator Mix more slowly than a large Fusion Mix while providing the same level of production, and will ultimately require less cooling.

Viewable metrics

The HFR's interface provides a lot of useful information.

The exact contents and composition of the internal Fusion Mix and Moderator Mix are displayed prominently at the top. Very straightforward, keep an eye on these whenever adding more fuel or moderator gas.

  • Power Level. The Fusion Power Level is a simple number, from 0 to 6. This determines which effects are active. See the table in The Moderator Mix below for moderator effects by gas and Fusion Power Level, and the lists under Safety/Healing for how integrity is lost and restored. The Fusion Power Level is solely based on the temperature of the Fusion Mix:
    • The Fusion Power Level is 0 between 0 and 500 Kelvin. Very little happens here, but you can burn fuel to add heat.
    • The Fusion Power Level is 1 between 500 and 1,000 Kelvin. Not many useful reactions occur here.
    • The Fusion Power Level is 2 between 1,000 and 10,000 Kelvin. There aren't many useful reactions that occur here, either.
    • The Fusion Power Level is 3 between 10,000 and 100,000 Kelvin. This is the first very useful Fusion Power Level, and most effects here are shared with Fusion Power Level 4, while being much friendlier to work with in terms of heat output and inherent gases created.
    • The Fusion Power Level is 4 between 100,000 and 1,000,000 Kelvin. The effects aren't very different from Fusion Power Level 3, but you can get much, much higher rates of production here, if you're willing to take the risk that comes with being much closer to dangerous power levels. Note that because the temperature scale (used to determine the rate of production from current heat output) is also shared between Fusion Power Levels 3 and 4, you can reach a maximum rate of production of 10 with Fusion Power Level 4, while only being able to reach a maximum rate of production of 1 with Fusion Power Level 3, or a maximum rate of production of 5 with other Fusion Power Levels.
    • The Fusion Power Level is 5 between 1,000,000 and 10,000,000 Kelvin. This is the first dangerous Fusion Power Level. Damage is taken based on the volume and temperature of the Fusion Mix, and the steady increase of Iron Content makes it hard to stay on for long. While there are better consumed-to-produced ratios for high tier moderator reactions here than on lower Fusion Power Levels, the maximum rate of production is half that of the maximum rate of production of Fusion Power Level 4, so generally isn't worth it. You could consider briefly staying on this level if you have at least 100 moles of BZ, and want to either quickly add at least 15 moles of PN to the Moderator Mix to kick start level 3-4 PN production, or quickly accumulate 50 moles of Freon to gain its cooling bonus at level 3-4.
    • The Fusion Power Level is 6 over 10,000,000 Kelvin. The maximum temperature the Fusion Mix can achieve from HFR processes is 100,000,000.
  • Integrity. The current health of the HFR. If this reaches 0% for 30 seconds, you get a third of the station EMPed, an impressive hole in Atmospherics, and probably lynched. Cannot fall faster than 1 percentage point per second, though there is are fewer limits to how far the cause of integrity loss can get out of hand.
  • Iron Content. Integrity is constantly lost based on this value. Worsens or recovers based on Fusion Power Level:
    • At Fusion Power Level 0, there is a 25% chance to recover 1 percentage point of iron content each second each update.
    • At Fusion Power Level 1, there is a 12.5% chance to recover 1 percentage point of iron content per second each update.
    • At Fusion Power Level 2, there is a 8.33% chance to recover 1 percentage point of iron content per second each update.
    • At Fusion Power Level 3, there is a 6.25% chance to recover 1 percentage point of iron content per second each update.
    • At Fusion Power Level 4, there is a 5% chance to recover 1 percentage point of iron content per second each update.
    • At Fusion Power Level 5, there is a 85% chance to add 0.5 percentage points of iron content per second each update.
    • At Fusion Power Level 6, 0.5 percentage points of iron content are added per second.
    • When power is lost (no APC providing power to equipment), 10 percentage points of iron content are added each second (!).
  • Energy Levels. E=MC^2. Matter (using the sum of values listed in Energy modifier for the quantity of each gas in the Gas Effects table below) times the speed of light squared. Amplified by the Fusion Mix temperature and heat modifier (using the sum of values listed in Heat modifier for the quantity of each gas in the Gas Effects table below). Fairly technical, it's faster to compare Heat Limiter Modifier to Heat Output instead.
  • Heat Limiter Modifier. 1e[Fusion Power Level - 1] * [Heating Conductor Value]. This is the maximum amount the temperature of the Fusion Mix can incrase in one update from the fusion process. The maximum amount the temperature of Fusion Mix can decrease in one update from the fusion process is one tenth of this.
  • Heat Output. This is the amount that the temperature of the Fusion Mix changes in one update. If this isn't equal to the Heat Limiter Modifier, or to negative one tenth of the Heat Limiter Modifier, your reaction doesn't have enough energy. Check the Magnetic Constrictor was minimized. Add more fuel, and remove moderator gases that kill energy or heat. There are three exceptions as moderator gas effects that bypass this cap, fixed multipliers that alter the heat output after the cap from the Heat Limiter Modifier was applied, after being used to determine the rate of production, but before the heat is applied to the Fusion Mix: N2O (FL2: +5.5% Heat), PN (FL3-5: +25% Heat; FL6: +125% Heat), Freon (FL3-4: -10% Heat; FL5: -50% Heat).

The current temperature of all mixes, the output pipenet, and coolant are also all immediately visible from the interface as well.

Tunable parameters

Besides choosing which gases to add to the HFR, there are a few tunable parameters:

  • Heat conductor. Sets the maximum internal rate of change in the Fusion Mix's temperature, in either direction (though the Endothermic cap is one tenth the size). Along with the Fuel injection rate, one of the two values that will see the most tuning:
    • Maximize when attempting to increase fusion power levels.
    • Minimize if you need to leave the HFR unattended for a minute.
    • Set to the highest rate your cooling setup can stably handle when attempting to maximize production.
    • Maximize when attempting to reduce fusion power levels, if you successfully flipped the reaction to be Endothermic (cooling).
    • Minimize when attempting to reduce fusion power levels, if you could not flip the reaction to be Endothermic.
  • Magnetic constrictor. Should almost always be minimized, at 50. If your mix has an extremely large volume, constricting it to the smallest space can destabilize the reaction, flipping it to become endothermic. When this isn't a concern, higher values reduce the magnitude of the reaction and the scale of gas effects, which can be situationally useful if you need to leave the HFR unattended for a minute. The Heat conductor is generally a more effective means of control. Maximize when attempting to reduce power levels, if you could not flip the reaction to be Endothermic.
  • Fuel injection rate. This serves two purposes: It sets the rate at which gas is pulled from the fuel port into the Fusion Mix, and it also sets the scale at which gas is consumed - one of two key factors for how much gas is produced. There is no way to separate these two purposes. The HFR will always try to pull more gas in than it consumes, so be sure to have a gas pump or gas mixer keep fuel input at low pressures in order to avoid overfeeding. Along with the Heat conductor, this is the value that will see the most tuning:
    • When initially fueling the HFR, this should have a high value, to bring the Fusion Mix up to a functional volume quickly. 250 to 500 is fine. You could also have this maxed out if you want to exclusively manage the external fuel input rate with a gas pump or gas mixer, although this risks consuming gas at a far higher rate than necessary.
    • During stable production, this should have a value paired with the heat conductor value to optimize the production rate while avoiding gas waste. See the table in "Key Parameters" below for details.
    • When trying to process output gas, this should be set to the minimum value, at 5, while Waste Remove is also set to Off. This mostly minimizes (hot) gases being added to the output port, without wasting fuel, giving any freezers or space cooling time to cool existing output that was already removed. The reaction can be flipped Endothermic to completely stop output gases from being added, but this will burn fuel for no production, and setting the FIR to 5 is almost always sufficient.
    • While trying to return to a safe temperature, without attempting to starve the Fusion Mix, this should be set to the minimum value, at 5. Gas is not produced while the reaction is Endothermic, so there shouldn't be a need to burn more fuel than necessary.
    • While trying to return to a safe temperature, with attempting to starve the Fusion Mix, this should be set to the maximum value, at 1500, in order to burn away the Fusion Mix as quickly as possible. Note that this can also burn through any reserve of Healium extremely quickly!
  • Moderator injection rate. Sets the rate at which gas is pulled from the moderator port into the Moderator Mix. If the moderator port is directly linked to a connector, and supplied with canisters, it's generally safe to leave this maxed out at 1500. Leaving it maxed out also means one less setting to change when you want to rapidly add room-temperature gas to the Moderator Mix to cool it down, and every second often counts.
  • Current dampener. Increases the instability of the reaction. A sufficiently unstable reaction will flip the reaction from being Exothermic (heating) to Endothermic (cooling), albeit with a negative heat change cap one tenth of the magnitude of the positive heat change cap. A mix increasing at 5x10^6K will decrease at 5x10^5K instead! This works even at unsafe fusion power levels, and is the main way of correcting reactions about to get out of hand. Given that this flip is all-or-nothing, this should be set to 0W (nothing) or 1000W (maximum) at all times.
  • Waste removal. If enabled, 50% of the Fusion Mix's Helium per second, 5% of the Fusion Mix's Anti-Noblium per second, and any user-provided Moderator filter gas are moved from their mix to the output. Forcibly disabled at fusion power level 6. Note that any gases created by the reaction directly in the output bypass this - see the table describing moderator gas effects in "The Moderator Mix" below.
  • Moderator filter. If Waste removal is enabled, this removes up to 20 moles per second of a gas of your choice from the moderator mix, placing it into output.

Gas effects

Gas Location Energy modifier Power modifier Heat modifier Radiation modifier Fusion power
Hydrogen Fusion Mix 1 0 1.15 0 2
Tritium Fusion Mix 1 1.05 0 0 5
Helium Fusion Mix -1 -0.55 1.05 0.55 7
Nitrogen Moderator Mix 0.35 0 -0.75 -0.45 0
CO2 Moderator Mix 0.55 0.95 0 0 0
N2O Moderator Mix 0.95 -0.05 -1.45 0 10
Zauker Moderator Mix 1.55 5.55 0 0 0
Anti-Noblium Moderator Mix 20 0 0 10 20
Hyper-noblium Moderator Mix -10 0 0 0 10
H2O Moderator Mix -0.75 0 0 0 8
NO2 Moderator Mix -0.15 1.45 0 0 0
Healium Moderator Mix -0.45 0 0 0 0
Freon Moderator Mix -1.15 -0.75 -0.95 -1.15 -5
O2 Moderator Mix 0 0.55 0 0 0
Plasma Moderator Mix 0 0.05 1.25 -0.95 0
BZ Moderator Mix 0 0 0 1.9 8
Proto-Nitrate Moderator Mix 0 0 0 0.1 0
Stimulum Moderator Mix 0 0 0 0 7
Pluoxium Moderator Mix 0 0 0 0 -10

Key parameters

Effects within Fusion reference either Fuel Consumed (F) or the Scaled rate of Production (P).

The effects we want to maximize reference P, so we try to maximize P, then set F so no excess fuel is wasted.

F = fuel injection rate / 1000 * 5 * power_level

P is clamped between 0 and F, based on heat output. Heat output tends to be either non positive or the maximum, limited by the Heating Constrictor. Once we've found a stable Heating Constrictor value for the current mix and cooling infrastructure, we can work out the ideal fuel injection rate which sets P=F, so that no excess fuel is burned.

Fusion Level 1 Fusion Level 2 Fusion Level 3 Fusion Level 4 Fusion Level 5 Fusion Level 6
Temperature scale: heat / 100 heat / 1000 heat / 50000 heat / 1000000 heat / 10000000
Max P: 5 5 1 10 5 30
FIR for F=P given max P: 1000 500 67 500 200 1000
Min P: .5 .5 .1 1 .5 .5
FIR for F=P given min P: 100 50 1.34 (min 5, so always burned) 10 20 17

The Fusion mix

Optimal power is the fusion mix consists of 50% tritium and 50% hydrogen. Tritium is consumed at 0.85F, Hydrogen is consumed at 0.95F. 0.5F Helium gets produced. Counterintuitively, Anti-Noblium doesn't do anything in the fusion mix except take up space and be extremely slow to remove.

The Moderator mix

The fusion mix is always Tritium, Hydrogen, and padding. The output gases have departed, and no longer have any effect on the HFR. The moderator mix is where the most interesting effects happen.

Effects tend to reference F or P. So a gas X that gets consumes at 1.1 times the current rate of production, to produce a gas Y directly in the output port at 0.5 times the current rate of production, gets written as "Consumed x1.1P. Adds Y to Output."

Gas Description Fusion Level 1 Fusion Level 2 Fusion Level 3 Fusion Level 4 Fusion Level 5 Fusion Level 6
Inherent Regardless of the contents of the moderator mix, Fusion Levels have effects of their own.
  • Adds CO2 x0.95P to Moderator.
  • Adds H2O x0.75P to Moderator.
  • Adds CO2 x1.65P to Moderator.
  • Adds H2O x1P to Moderator.
  • Adds O2 x0.5P to Moderator.
  • Adds N2 x0.45P to Moderator.
  • Adds CO2 x1.65P to Moderator.
  • Adds H2O x1.25P to Moderator.
  • Adds NO2 x1.65P to Moderator.
  • Adds H2O x1P to Moderator.
  • Adds Anti-Noblium x0.0095F to Fusion.
Plasma The first production moderator gas. Your bread and butter.

Plasma adds a decent heat modifier to help the early fusion process, and has a high heat capacity that helps to slow change to moderator heat (and indirectly, fusion heat) in any direction, giving you much more time to react to anything that happens.

Every gas with an interesting Moderator effect can eventually be produced from Plasma.

With at least 100 moles:

  • Consumed x0.85P.
  • Adds N2O x0.5P to Moderator.

With at least 50 moles:

  • Consumed x1.75P.
  • Adds BZ x1.8P to Output.
  • Adds N2O x1.15P to Moderator.
With at least 10 moles:
  • Consumed x0.45P.
  • Adds BZ x1.1P to Moderator.
  • Adds Freon x0.15P to Output.
  • Adds Stimulus x1.05P to Output.

With at least 15 moles:

  • Consumed x1.45P.
  • Adds BZ x1.35P to Output.
  • Adds Freon x0.25P to Output.

With at least 30 moles:

  • Consumed x1.45P.
  • Adds BZ x1.15P to Moderator.
BZ The second production moderator gas after Plasma. Your stepping stone to Proto-Nitrate. Produces the Healium necessary to run dangerous Fusion Levels for extended periods of time, for those wanting to risk it.

While Fusion Level 1 will burn through BZ rapidly with little gain, Fusion Levels 3 and above treat BZ as a catalyst, only consuming BZ at the base rate common to all gases present in the moderator mix.

Massively increases radiation output. Your ability to handle Hydrogen without radiation turning it into Tritium will be very limited after this.

Causes hallucinations to anyone not wearing mesons at Fusion Levels 3 and above. At Fusion Level 6, Mesons will no longer protect you from hallucinations.

With at least 150 moles:

  • Consumed x0.95P.
  • Adds Healium x0.75P to Output.
  • Adds Halon x0.55P to Output.
  • Adds Proto-Nitrate x0.25P to Output.
No effect With at least 100 moles:
  • Adds Proto-Nitrate x1.5P to Output.
  • Adds Healium x1.5P to Output.
With at least 100 moles:
  • Adds Healium x1P to Output.
  • Adds Proto-Nitrate x1.25P to Moderator.
  • Adds Freon x1.15P to Moderator.
If present:
  • Adds Anti-Noblium x0.0045F to Fusion.
Proto-Nitrate The final production Moderator gas. Produces the rarest gases.

Massively increases radiation and heat, without increasing the rate of production. This means that when an active level of Proto-Nitrate is present, you will need to provide more cooling for the same level of production.

Since you cannot remove moderator gases at Fusion Level 6, Proto-Nitrate's direct Output production is the only way to extract Fusion Level 6 heat. Being able to transfer Fusion Level 6 heat is necessary for Metal Hydrogen production.

No effect With at least 20 moles:
  • Consumed x1.35P.
  • Increases Radiation by 55%.
  • Increases Heat output by 2.5%, without increasing the rate of production.
  • Adds Stimulum x1.05P to Output.
  • Adds Plasma x1.65P to Moderator.
With at least 15 moles:
  • Consumed x1.55P.
  • Increases Radiation by 95%.
  • Increases Heat output by 25%, without increasing the rate of production.
  • Adds Stimulum x1.25P to Output.
  • Adds Halon x1.15P to Output.
With at least 50 moles:
  • Consumed x1.35P.
  • Increases Radiation by 95%.
  • Increases Heat output by 25%, without increasing the rate of production.
  • Adds Stimulum x1.95P to Output.
  • Adds Pluoxium x1P to Output.
If present:
  • Consumed x3.35P.
  • Increases Radiation by 100%.
  • Increases Heat output by 125%, without increasing the rate of production.
  • Adds Stimulum x2.15P to Output.
  • Adds Zauker x5.35P to Output.
N2O The first gas not on the main production pathway which (technically) has a special moderator effect, and the only one that is not descended from Plasma.

Increases energy, but also massively decreases the heat modifier.

Not very useful.

No effect With at least 50 moles:
  • Consumed x1.5P.
  • Decreases Radiation by 45%.
  • Increases Heat output by 5.5%, without increasing the rate of production.
  • Adds Halon x1.35P to Moderator.
No effect
Freon A safety moderator gas which quickly reduces fusion energy, and reduces the amount of cooling necessary.

At high Fusion levels, decreases heat and radiation output, without (directly) decreasing the rate of production.

Comes with very strong negative energy, power, heat, and radiation modifiers, so if you're planning to use this to reduce the amount of cooling required, you'll need to factor in the need for a larger moderator mix to maintain positive energy.

At Fusion Level 5, has a very high threshold to activate, but has a very strong effect. Note that this almost completely removes radiation output when active, so any local Radiation Collectors will quickly drop output as well. The HFR losing power is always a catastrophic outcome unless completely inactive. This means being switched off with the first button in its interface, not just resting at Fusion Level 0!

Might be useful as an emergency moderator addition when you're losing control of a reactor. Probably more useful when combined with BZ to make more Healium.

No effect With at least 50 moles:
  • Decreases Radiation by 20%.
  • Decreases Heat output by 10%, without decreasing the rate of production.
With at least 500 moles:
  • Decreases Radiation by 80%.
  • Decreases Heat output by 50%, without decreasing the rate of production.
No effect
Healium Directly restores integrity of a heavily damaged HFR that is operating at dangerous Fusion Levels.

This is the magical red gas that will allow the daring to run the HFR at dangerous power levels for an extended period of time. However, the mechanics and their implications are quite complicated. See discussion below.

No effect With at least 100 moles, when the HFR has taken over 400 damage (below ~56% integrity):
  • Consumed x20P.
  • Restores 0.11% integrity per hundred moles.

Goals

Important gases for fusion:

  • Hydrogen
  • Tritium
  • Proto-Nitrate
  • Healium

Gases to filter and process internally:

  • H2O (for Hydrogen)
  • Freon (for Healium; can be used in moderator if you want)

Gases to at least collect to make sure other things don't clog up:

  • Pluoxium (useful directly, can also be sold for a decent price)
  • Helium (can be sold for a decent price)

Gases to optionally collect to use or sell:

  • Stimulum
  • Nitryl (may be worth collecting to avoid decomposition)

Gases to optionally collect to sell:

  • Halon (if you care about fire, you're going to be using the backpack anyway)
  • Antinoblium (doesn't do anything outside of fusion, but makes cashmoney at cargo)
  • Zauker (currently doesn't explode with PN, so oddly safe. Bug? Intentional removal? Makes lots of cashmoney at cargo)

Setups

NB: Hydrogen won't stay as Hydrogen around radiation even when stored in a canister, now. Fuel always needs to be mixed and piped in advance now, update your designs accordingly.

The "I have four minutes before the already unrecallable shuttle arrives"

Output gases are generally favorable with desirable effects in the moderator, and can be filtered out of the moderator mix if not, provided the Fusion Level is less than 6. So the simplest HFR setup just hardpipes output gases back into the moderator port, tries to stay within safe parameters at Fusion Level 3, and sprints for the shuttle when you screw up and hit Fusion Level 6. This is extremely simple to set up, and lets one get a feel for HFR operation without risking much.

The Cargonian

Tier 3 canisters functionally tolerate any degree of pressure and temperature, even beyond what Fusion Level 6 can throw at you. So the next simplest setup involves moving sets of tier 3 canisters around, repeatedly whacking them with an analyzer or your PDA, and throwing down ad-hoc filters to extract what is useful and discard what is not.

The Factorio

The Atmosia

Safety

Cooling

Power

Losing power is extremely bad. The settings are forcibly set to values that are not helpful for a meltdown:

magnetic constrictor to 100
heating conductor to 500
current dampener to 0
fuel injection rate to 200
moderator injection rate to 500
no waste removal

Your previous settings are not restored when power is restored!

Most significantly, iron content increases by 10 percentage points every second that the HFR goes without power (!).

Healing

The HFR takes damage and provides healing based on fusion volume and temperature. Examples of damage/healing at various values are provided for a sense of scale.

If the power level is 5 or more:

  • Takes damage equal to ((((fusion_mix_moles) * 1e5 + fusion_temp) / 1e5) - 2500) / 200 per atmos tick
    • Temperature of 1e8: Take 0.5 points of damage per 100 moles over 1500 moles per atmos tick
    • Temperature of 5e7: Take 0.5 points of damage per 100 moles over 2000 moles per atmos tick -- point at which metal hydrogen's efficiency maxes out
    • Temperature of 2e7: Take 0.5 points of damage per 100 moles over 2300 moles per atmos tick
    • Temperature of 1e7: Take 0.5 points of damage per 100 moles over 2400 moles per atmos tick
    • Temperature of 2e6: Take 0.5 points of damage per 100 moles over 2480 moles per atmos tick
    • Temperature of 1e6: Take 0.5 points of damage per 100 moles over 2490 moles per atmos tick
  • Takes damage equal to log(10, fusion_temp) - 5
    • 2.7 damage per atmos tick at 5e7
    • 2 damage per atmos tick at 1e7
    • 1 damage per atmos tick at 1e6

If the amount of moles in the fusion mix is less than 1200, or the power level is 4 or less:

  • Heals (800 - fusion moles) / 150 each atmos tick
    • Heals .6 damage per atmos tick when total fusion moles are 700
    • Heals 2 damage per atmos tick when total fusion moles are 500
    • Heals 2.7 damage per atmos tick when total fusion moles are 394
    • Heals 4.5 damage per atmos tick when total fusion moles are 125

If fusion is active, the fusion temperature is below 5e5, and the power level is 4 or less:

  • Heals log(10, temperature) - 5.5 each atmos tick
    • Heals .5 damage per atmos tick when fusion temperature is 1e5
    • Heals 1.5 damage per atmos tick when fusion temperature is 1e4
    • Heals 2.5 damage per atmos tick when fusion temperature is 1000
    • Heals 3.5 damage per atmos tick when fusion temperature is 100
    • Heals 4 damage per atmos tick when fusion temperature is 30

Takes damage equal to ((iron content rounded to nearest 100%) - 1) every atmos tick

The final sum from all of the above effects is capped to losing at most 0.5% integrity (taking 4.5 points of damage) every atmos tick.

In short: run with a starved fusion mix to avoid damage and start healing, and work on reducing temperature if you can.

Full power: How I learned to stop worrying and love Chernobyl