Goo

is created when you fail an alchemical combination while using the Alchemy workbench (tier I) or the Alchemy workbench (tier II), where the player combines ingredients that do not equal any existing recipes.

Before the version 1.120 update, goo was completely worthless. As of now, it's fun for those who want to experiment with alchemy on their own, and the goo can be recycled into their corresponding powers after you've collect four of them.

Also, it can be researched for a few tech points.

Experimenting With Ingredients
If you randomly mix two (tier I) or three (tier II) basic resources on the alchemy workbenches, you will usually get goo, unless you luckily stumble onto a new recipe.

Don't be dissuaded from experimenting because you get goo! When a reaction creates goo, here's a little hint that can be used to steer you into a better recipe. When mixing powders and liquids:

E.g. if you get blood one of the ingredients may have to be replaced by instead of.

The advanced alchemy resources, like blood, alcohol, water, ash, etc. are the simplest to experiment with, as they don't come in any variants. An excellent result is when you get normal when mixing the second tier alchemical agents. This means that there are no recipes with these two (or three) ingredients in this order. E.g.


 * + -> normal

means, there are no recipes that use water in the first or alcohol in the second place on a tier I workbench.

The basic resources, like powders, solutions and extracts are more complicated, as an acceleration could mean, that you have to use, , or. Which one is right? Well, you have to figure out on your own.

Now, to make things a little more complicated, you may get different variants of goo even when you mix the same two (or three) ingredients together. This is because more than one recipe is possible with the same ingredient(s). The resulting type of goo can refer to the first, the second, or the third ingredient used. A tier II workbench will yield two goos, in this case, if you want to change your recipe, you have to keep one ingredient and change the two others accordingly.

Example
Say you used a tier 1 workbench (with 2 ingredients), be sure to always use on of both your powder and solution of choice. Advanced ingredients can be used as well, though they are not in the following example:


 * + -> slowing

Now try either of those:


 * + ->  (first version)
 * + -> acceleration

Leading to:


 * + ->  (second version)
 * + -> slowing (already tried out)

So, with only 4 tries, you discovered two different ways to create an energy elixir. That's quite fast! Especially if you take into account that you've got (19*19=) 361 possibilities while mixing the 8 powders and solutions, not to mention the 11 advanced resources, together.

Usage
Don't throw away your goo, like you used to do before the update!

After researching the different types of goo on the study table, and after gaining the corresponding scientist perk, you will discover that four of a kind can broken back down into the related powder or solution it was derived from. Depending on the equipment you use to break down the goo (mixer, mill or distillery), it will change what type of resource (powder, extract or solution) you get.

The goos created with advanced resources will yield only one possible type, meaning it's not possible to create blood powder or other such things.

This can be used to turn quite common alchemical resources (like water) into rarer ones, which you are not (yet) able to obtain otherwise. Note: that you have to use 8 ingredients on a tier 1 workbench to create 4 goos, which produce 2 other ingredients (scientist perk assumed). That's a loss of 75%, but it might be worth it if you need a special resource.

Variants
Here is an overview over all 20 goo variants, how they are researched, what can be made of them, and which machine has to be used: