User:Elan oots/Guide to Bombs

If you're looking for explosives, you've come to the right place. I'm not sure how much I should share but here's my guide on making explosive devices. This page is a giant work in progress, so keep that in mind.

And as always:

Don't test your bombs on the station itself unless you are a legit antagonist.

For your information, yes I realize just how hypocritical it is of me to say that.

Toxins Bombs

This section will go through the three types of bombs you can make in the Toxins Lab in order of least to most destructivity.

How to run toxins

The toxins lab may look intimidating at first, but don't fear, it's actually quite simple. There are, however, a few things you need to know about using it.

Layout

The toxins lab has two burn chambers (or one if you're on Clarion), one of which has a heat exchanging loop similar to the engine burn chamber. You'll be using the chamber with the heat exchangers, ignore the other one. Each chamber has an input pipe and an output pipe, each of which has a pump and canister port attached. You can adjust those pumps at the Pump Control Computer. Turn the outlet pumps off, you won't be using those. Turn the inlet pipes down to 1, any other setting is inefficient. Put two cans of oxygen and one can of plasma on the mixer and wrench them all down, then open the valves. Wait until an atmospheric analyzer confirms they're mixed (66% Oxygen, 33% Plasma), and then take one off the mixer and put it on the inlet connector. Open the chamber exhaust vent, open the valve, wait a bit, hit the chamber igniter, and you should have a roaring fire.

Single Tank Bombs

These bombs are made with a single tank and either a timer, signaller, or proximity igniter assembly.

The explosive power is dependent on the number of moles of gas and the temperature. The temperature changes the type of detonation, and the number of moles determines the power. Pure plasma seems to work fine, but having oxygen may help as well. I haven't experimented too much with them.

Tank Transfer Valve Bombs

These bombs are the most common toxins bombs. They're not too hard to make, and have a lot of power if done right. They consist of a tank transfer valve, two tanks of gas, and optionally a detonation method, which could be a signaller or proximity sensor. It's also possible to activate these while they're in your hand, but why would you want to do that?

The two tanks should contain pure plasma and pure oxygen respectively. The plasma should be heated and the oxygen can optionally be cooled. There seems to be a limit on how much cooling the oxygen or heating the plasma helps before it starts to diminish output, but I haven't done much rigorous testing. I'll put temperature data below for different sizes.

Tank Transfer Valve bombs can be tested in the bomb simulator by placing each tank into the simulator, running the simulation, and wearing the Bomb VR goggles. They're the only bomb type that can be tested this way.

Canister Bombs

Canister bombs are absolutely absurdly powerful, and are actually relatively easy to make.

Do NOT test these anywhere NEAR the station if you aren't an antag. One of these will decimate a section of the station. Two will force a shuttle call. Three or four will make the shuttle basically uncallable from the station.

Setting up Toxins

Making canister bombs requires a bit of setup beforehand. Make sure Toxins and any area near it are vented. On Cogmap2 and Cogmap1 you only have to vent Toxins, Toxins storage, and the entry airlock into toxins. On Destiny you have to vent Toxins, Toxins Storage (including the plasma tank storage area), the entry airlock and the shower in the entry airlock, the research bathroom including all the toilet stalls, and the research hallway. It's also safe to vent the guardbuddy depot and the small storage area in maintenance above toxins. On Clarion, you only have to vent toxins, starboard maintenance, and the toxins/test chamber entry area. Once that's done, remove the floor below the heating loop connector. This will let you vent gas from the heating loop without it filling the room. If you're on Destiny or Clarion, you should also remove the floor under the exhaust vent of the chamber to let more exhaust gas flow out. Double check to make sure you vented, then light the chamber.

Making the bomb

This is the boring part. Put a canister of gas on the heating loop connector port (which is over space now). The type of gas doesn't matter at all, only temperature and pressure. You have to babysit the canister on the heating loop, being careful to keep the pressure low (the lower you keep it, the slower it rises). Once it gets close to your target temperature, make sure that you have at least 7,000 kPa or the bomb will not go off. Make sure that the release valve on the canister is closed and you've unanchored the canister from the connector before attaching the detonator assembly. If you want to be efficient, you can also make your detonators while doing this, just don't get drawn into something else and forget about your canister for too long...

Placing the bomb

So, you want to be a mad bomber? Well, make sure you place your bombs properly. Space them out to provide a wider coverage of the station for maximum destructive potential! If they're too close, there's a chance that one bomb will destroy another before the second one goes off, making all your hard work go to waste. TODO: get pictures

Other bombs

Toxins bombs are by far the most powerful, but there are many other explosive devices available to use, from firecracker-sized pops to detonations bigger than all but the biggest canister bombs.

Pipe bombs

A classic. Spawn as a syndicate member, or create your own. When you create your own, there are several different reagents you can use. Here are the relative results: TODO: get pictures

Chemistry bombs

Chemistry has the option of chlorine azide or potassium/barium and water for simple explosives, but they can make much more powerful incendiary smokes (assuming smokes get fixed eventually) which rival the area of effect of tank transfer valves, but with less blasting power and more fire.

Welder bombs

The traditional welder bomb is made by either tossing a lit welder onto one of the handheld welder fuel tanks, or dragging one of the large tanks over a lit welder. Either way, you get a nice explosion that can severely damage several rooms if placed right. Alternate options include using other reagent containers, using other reagents, or using other activation methods. A good option is to have a remote igniter assembly below a welder fuel tank, so you can activate it remotely.