Dream Dust and Nightmare Dust: mushrooms, extraction and sales

Choose Dream Dust or Nightmare Dust

Product	Ingredient and active component	Dry mixture per vial	Uses
Vial of “Dream Dust”	Dream Caps; preserve Dream Cap Extract	2mL	Narcotic sales, Chemist-start deliveries and underground exchanges
Vial of “Nightmare Dust”	Nightmare Caps; preserve Nightmare Extract	4mL	Poison sales; handle separately from ordinary Dream Dust

The Chem Finisher takes a whole dose of dry mixture. Impurities occupy part of that dose and reduce the active-component percentage. Selecting Nightmare Dust does not turn ordinary Dream Cap Extract into Nightmare Extract.

For Nomore Injectors, retain cleaned Dream Cap Extract and continue with that reaction instead. Meal Caps are a different harvest and do not provide the mush needed for either dust.

Get mushrooms, alcohol and equipment

The Shady Farmer supplies Dream Caps after a Chemist start or unlocking the Retired Chemist through Joe Wild. The stock may also include Nightmare Caps. To grow your own, unlock the Retired Farmer through Wild and buy Dream Cap Spores and hydroponic equipment. The hydroponics guide covers water, nutrients and harvesting.

Desired harvest	Hydroponic module choice
Dream Cap	Keep the ordinary crop; install neither the Neutralizer nor the Nightmare module
Nightmare Cap	Install the Dream Cap Nightmare Hydroponic Module and remove the Neutralizer
Meal Cap	The Neutralizer takes priority and changes the harvest into edible mushrooms, even with the Nightmare module installed

The Retired Farmer brings spores; the Nightmare module is a possible stock item. After buying and harvesting a crop, keep the returned spores to continue growing it.

Prepare a Blender, Heating Plate, Evaporator with a charged power source, Chem Finisher, Composition Spectrometer, measuring tools and liquid containers you own with spare capacity. The receiving Water Pitcher needs a filter. Follow the Retired Chemist unpacking route for equipment, alcohol, acid and base.

Blend, then measure alcohol from the actual mush content

Put mushrooms in the Blender input, fit an empty Water Pitcher you own in its container slot and press Start. Small, regular and Large Dream Caps can share a batch: all provide Dream Cap Mush. Leave enough room in the container. Process Nightmare Caps in a separate pitcher so you can select the right recipe later.

Blender ingredient loss depends on its chemical equipment modules. 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 modules lose 35%, 20%, 10%, 5% and 0%, respectively. The same mushroom count can therefore give different mush volumes. Size and inherited traits also affect composition.

The following figures assume one mushroom of the default strain and enough container capacity. The final column uses a four-module Blender, enough alcohol and a safe temperature. It is approximate extract volume before cleaning and finishing. For edited strains, use an actual scan instead.

One mushroom	Mush inside the mushroom	Mush collected by an unmodified Blender	Approximate extract after a four-module blend
Small Dream Cap	14.430mL	9.380mL	7.215mL
Dream Cap	22.000mL	14.300mL	11.000mL
Large Dream Cap	48.807mL	31.725mL	24.401mL
Nightmare Cap	15.000mL	9.750mL	7.500mL

Scan the blended container and read the volume of Dream Cap Mush or Nightmare Cap Mush. Calculate alcohol from that component, excluding water, protein and everything else. Extraction reaches its highest ratio when actual Alcohol is five times the mush volume. Extra alcohol adds evaporation work. Less alcohol still reacts, but starts with a lower extraction yield.

Scanned mush	Actual Alcohol needed	Approximate 70% mini-bottle solution
20mL	100mL	143mL
50mL	250mL	358mL
100mL	500mL	715mL

The last column rounds up. Each 250mL mini bottle from Common Chemical Supplies contains 175mL Alcohol and 75mL Water. Scan other drinks and calculate solution volume as required Alcohol divided by its measured fraction. For 100mL mush plus 500mL actual Alcohol, leave room for the entire added solution and the other ingredients already in the batch.

Extract at about 45°C

At least two chemical equipment modules unlock the Heating Plate temperature control. Set about 45°C and check the container’s actual temperature. An unmodified plate targets 99°C; one module targets 160°C, so a sensitive batch keeps heating.

Both mush types start extracting with alcohol at 40°C. Keep the actual temperature at 40 to 50°C and scan for decreasing mush and increasing matching extract. Once the mush has reacted, remove the container from the heat before filtering.

Component being overheated	When losses begin
Ordinary Dream Cap Mush	Gradually degrades above 50°C
Ordinary Dream Cap Extract	Gradually degrades above 60°C
Nightmare Cap Mush and Nightmare Extract	Both degrade above 50°C; the extract is especially sensitive

With enough alcohol, up to about half the processed mush becomes active extract; the rest becomes Plant Matter. Alcohol remains in the mixture and must still be removed.

Remove impurities, then dry the main container

1. Finish extraction first. Filtering early removes unreacted mush. Fit a Water Filter or Advanced Water Filter in the receiving pitcher, then pour the mixture through it to remove Plant Matter, Physical Contamination and Minerals. Replace exhausted filters.
2. Scan the remaining Protein and add small amounts of acid or base to turn it into debris. Scan again, neutralize leftover reagent and filter the new debris. A UV Lamp treats Microbes. Use the impurity treatment table for other components introduced by mushrooms and reagents.
3. Put the processed batch in the Evaporator’s main container slot, fit a charged power source and end the day. Each successful overnight cycle of the unmodified machine removes up to 300mL of Water, Alcohol and Lipobond and costs 6kJ. Larger amounts need more nights or Performance upgrades.
4. Remove and scan the main container in the morning. Active extract stays there. The Distillate slot collects recovered solvent, with recovery set by Quality. Leaving that slot empty, or recovering nothing, does not stop the main container drying. See the two Evaporator slots.

Water, Alcohol and Lipobond together must fall to 0.1mL or less to pass the finishing dryness check. A container of dry mixture is the expected result. Move it to the Chem Finisher next.

Select the recipe, dispense and check the grade

Move the main container into the Chem Finisher, open its configuration and choose the dust matching your extract. Leave output space, then press Output when the status is Ready. Each press makes one vial. With 20mL of eligible dry mixture, the selected recipe gives 10 Dream Dust vials or 5 Nightmare Dust vials. The recipe sets the product; the active-component percentage sets its grade.

The Finisher replaces some input with Physical Contamination: 12% without modules, 1% with three modules and none with four. To reach Lab Pure at 99% or more, three modules need pure input; four preserve input purity. Use the full module and grade table to plan upgrades.

Make one vial and scan the matching extract percentage and displayed grade before finishing the batch. Keep leftovers too small for another vial in a labelled container and combine them with the next batch of the same dry mixture.

Match the buyers and later uses

Dream Dust is a Narcotic with contraband level 2. Nightmare Dust is a Poison with contraband level 3. Base values are 18 and 36 Credits; grade, discounts and bargaining affect the actual price. Buyers check product category and its current grade.

Customer	Dream Dust	Nightmare Dust	Grade and trading conditions
Dealer buying narcotics	Yes	No	Cut Product or better, 45%
Shady Merchant, black-market buyer	Yes	Yes	Cut Product or better, 45%; discounts by contraband level and accepts no retail markup
Desperate Addict	Yes	Yes	Cut Product or better, 45%
Worn-Out Spacer; Upper Levels Hedonist	Yes	Yes	Street Standard or better, 60%
Merchant	No	No	Refuses contraband

Substance customers judge chemical products by grade, so the listed customers can also accept suitable Nightmare Dust. Nightmare Dust itself has no Substance category, however, so displaying it alone does not attract them. Display Dream Dust or another Substance, then offer qualifying Nightmare Dust. See signs and customers for attracting buyers and crime and hiding for sale records and inspections.

If you already have Narcotic Addiction, consuming Dream Dust you own temporarily suppresses it and consumes the whole vial. Purity below 30% provides no suppression. Permanent options are in addiction and trait editing. Nightmare Dust has no equivalent consumption use.

The Chemist start’s weekly Cartel deliveries require Dream Dust. Check the representative’s current dialogue for quantity and average purity, place your delivery on the counter and choose to hand it over. The hand-in takes all Dream Dust on the counter; Nightmare Dust cannot substitute. See Cartel failure conditions for zero deliveries and very low average purity. See the weekly delivery schedule, quantities and counter setup before the representative arrives.

Dream Dust also works in underground exchanges. The ordinary exchange takes two vials. A combined purity score below 60 consumes both without a reward, so scan before handing them over. To make an injector from the extract instead, continue with Nomore production.

Follow the composition to diagnose stalled production

What you see	What to check first
No target mush in the scan	Check for Meal Caps or premature filtering; prepare the matching mushrooms again
Mush remains but extract does not increase	Check for zero actual Alcohol or a temperature below 40°C
Extract keeps decreasing	Remove the container from the heat, especially a Nightmare batch
Empty right Evaporator slot, mixture still in the main slot	Check whether Water, Alcohol and Lipobond decrease each night, then power, energy cost and overnight throughput
Finisher says the input is wet	Scan total volatile content and keep evaporating
Ready, but the product is Starch Grade	Check the recipe and matching active component, then remaining impurities and finishing loss
Dry mixture, but not enough input	Compare remaining total volume against 2mL or 4mL; combine with the next batch of the same leftover mixture