/vg/station Guide to R&D

/vg/ SS13: Pro Guide to R&D
By Joe Gillian (BYOND: TimrodDX)

Step 1. The RD should immediately go to the Teleporter and grab a hand tele. This is a safety net for Step 2.

Step 2. Teleport to Telecomms. If you got spaced, use the hand tele, then throw your pen to get yourself safely to Telecomms.

Step 3. Disable the turrets, and grab three Subspace Ansibles, two Subspace Transmitters, the Subspace Broadcaster/Reciever boards, and the blue toolbox from the room on the right.

Step 4. Destro Analyze (DA) the items in this order: Ansibles, Transmitters, Analyzer from the toolbox, Reciever, Broadcaster. This should bring you to:

Materials 6
Engineering 4
Blue-Space 4
Power Manipulation 1
Plasma Research 1
Biotech 1
Combat 1
Electromagnetic Spectrum 6
Data Theory 5
Illegal 1

Sync the servers. This will give Robotics the ability to produce boards for any mech they want except the Odysseus.

Step 5. Bitch at/break into Chemistry for acid and one of their sheets of solid plasma.

Step 6. Take the Screwdriver from the toolbox, use it on the Welder, take the metal from the table north of the Protolathe and make two metal rods. Use rods on Welder to make a Flamethrower. DA the Flamethrower.

Step 7. DA the Solid Plasma from Chemistry. DA one of the Power Cells from the southern table. Put one metal and one glass sheet into the Protolathe. Make a High-Capacity Power Cell and DA it. Make an Advanced Capacitor and DA it. This will bring you to:

Materials 6
Engineering 4
Blue-Space 4
Power Manipulation 4
Plasma Research 3
Biotech 1
Combat 2
Electromagnetic Spectrum 6
Data Theory 5
Illegal 1

Step 8. Go into the RD's office and get the AI core board. If he's dead/incompetent, get a bruise pack from the fitness room or a health analyzer from medbay and DA it. Use the acid from Chemistry on the Circuit Imprinter, insert 4 or 5 sheets of glass. Make a Pandemic Circuit Board, DA it. Make a Cloning Machine Console Circuit Board, DA it. This will give you:

Materials 6
Engineering 4
Blue-Space 4
Power Manipulation 4
Plasma Research 3
Biotech 4
Combat 2
Electromagnetic Spectrum 6
Data Theory 5
Illegal 1

Sync the servers. Robotics can now make pretty much every non-weapon mech part, and can make Odysseus boards.

Step 9. Get more acid. Make three Durand Weapon/Targeting Boards. DA them. Make a PACMAN Generator Board (not a SUPERPACMAN). DA it. This will give you:

Materials 6
Engineering 4
Blue-Space 4
Power Manipulation 4
Plasma Research 4
Biotech 4
Combat 5
Electromagnetic Spectrum 6
Data Theory 5
Illegal 1

Sync the servers. Robotics can now theoretically make a fully-loaded combat Durand.

Step 10 (OPTIONAL): If you really want to max everything out, DA a single diamond. Then, make an Exosuit Fabricator (machine frame + wires + exosuit fab board from the imprinter + 2 matter bins + micro-laser + micro-manipulator + console screen), load it with some metal and glass, set it to auto-sync, and then make two Super-Capacity Power Cells (under the "Exosuit Equipment" tab). DA both of these, then make as many more as there are cyborgs on the station. Call the Cyborgs down for an upgrade if you're the RD, or give them to Robotics if you're a scientist. Next, assuming Mining is competent and has given you gold and silver, make a Hyper-Capacity Cell in the Exosuit Fabricator and DA that. If you have TONS of gold and silver, you could upgrade the borgs with these instead. Next, crank out a Radio-Enabled Man-Machine Interface from the Exosuit Fabricator and DA that. For the grand prize, get a spacesuit (you should grab the Voidsuit from Telecomms if you're the RD) and leave Telecomms by going north from the middle of the top side of the eastern solar panel. If you did it correctly, you should wind up at the Abandoned Ship. Recharge your jetpack (assuming you have one) and your oxygen tank at the oxygen canister in the back of the ship, then crowbar/smash your way through the solitary airlock to the APC. Turn the APC on. In the front of the ship is a Retro Laser Gun, grab it for swag value. Now go to the southern massdriver and grab the Syndicate toolbox from the rack. Open the outer massdriver door from the computer and walk outside. Turn around so your back is against the bottom side of the abandoned ship, and push off to wind up back at Telecomms. If you have a Jetpack and Hand Tele, go straight out the massdriver instead (DO NOT LAUNCH YOURSELF) to recieve the coordinates to Clown Planet, then hand tele back to Telecomms. DA the Syndicate Toolbox. If you have the coordinates to Clown Planet, bitch at the HoP for mining and HONK! access, grab an ore satchel from mining, use the coordinate card on any teleporter, and grab all the bananium as well as the clown mask, bike horn, and clown shoes. Go back to the exosuit fabricator and build yourself a HONK. You've earned it.

By the end of this step, you should have:

Materials 7 (if you destroyed a diamond)
Engineering 5 (if you made and destroyed a Subspace Broadcaster board)
Blue-Space 4
Power Manipulation 6 (5 if you destroyed only the two Super-Cap Cells)
Plasma Research 4
Biotech 5
Combat 5
Electromagnetic Spectrum 6
Data Theory 5
Illegal 2

Obviously, sync the servers.

This is literally as high as Research can go without Deathsquad/Traitor items. Note that it is possible to get Illegal 3 by making a TYRANT AI module and DAing it after you DA the Syndicate toolbox, but any tech levels above 2 in illegal are pointless (and you should feel ashamed for making the TYRANT module even if you're a traitor).