Keegan is an Engineer, usually a Chief Engineer. She's been Engineering since before Christmas 2024 and Chief Engineer since it.
She has witnessed engineers make a tesla layout then shove the singulo generator into it because they forget the difference between the two.
She has had an engineer try to tell her that the Tesla cannot be safely made, only for it to turn out half her engineering department were antags trying to gaslight her.
She has had atmos ghostrole the department because they messed up the TEG once and recovered from it to have a fairly good shift.

I am A Normal Clown. I play Keegan Rockwell, and I think I've hit that point in my playtime where I'm between having a good enough understanding in addition to the patience needed to teach others... and the sheer insanity that the overwhelming pressure of an entire station shouting at you to get power on tends to give.

I played SS13 once and said to myself "what the ♥♥♥♥ is a BYOND?" then turned away from that path.
I found out I could play SS14 on my work laptop because it doesn't need admin perms to install and never looked back.
I've spent a lot... a LOT of time collecting data to be able to effectively play any role. But Engineering just seems to come fairly natural to me, to the point my Google Sheets I totally didn't rip from the wiki really only has information on Frezon production for the fun of it.
I then go on to play Medical, Botany or Janitorial and watch as the station falls apart at the seams in the first 5 minutes because engineering is rarely staffed and competent.

All of this is to preface that I've seen engineers make minimal to no reading or research on how to actually do this role, and know that few will learn or listen when being taught. I don't like assuming malice in the face of stupidity, but when I see a constantly rotating engineering team... I get worried. And I'd like to change that for the few folks who're willing to persevere and actually learn how to play an Engineer.

So, let's give it a go and remember that a mistake for you is a moment of learning and a moment of rage for the rest of the station - you leave them to me (or your CE), and get the job done ASAP and right.

Also, this guide assumes you're playing on a Wizden server. A lot of mechanics between servers are often preserved, but talk to regulars on the server in case there are differences if you're not on an official Wizden server.

If you're gonna learn Engineering, you need to understand your toolkit and the resources you'll be using in order to achieve your goals as an Engineer - run power and keep the station together.

Keep in mind, some tools can have aesthetic differences even in the base variants - these won't be identified in the description unless they have functional differences but will be listed in the location.

And yes, the above implies there are upgrades. The CE has them, but we won't focus on them in this guide. Feel free to google them though and dream of the day you can wield one.

These won't have locations due to their general ubiquity - and you'll learn as the station comes apart anyway.

So it's your first shift, you've grabbed your kit, you're ready to go... now what?

Well, now you get power going, otherwise the funny weird voices in your ear coming from your headset are gonna start shouting threats and begging for power.

And remember, if you still don't understand or haven't had enough time to read this, then don't be afraid to ask for help! Yes, even antags like syndi traitors will likely teach you how to get power going if you ask nicely. They want to play a round as much as you do.

The first form of power you'll probably rely on is the SMES' initial charge. But the second one is the AME.
Don't ask me what it stand for, I don't care.

Starting out, your AME will likely look along the lines of this:

An AME is composed of several things - flatpacks, which form reactor shielding and reactor cores, and the computer. The flatpacks should be arranged in a way that they create at least a 3 by 3 square. Constructed flatpack will initially form shielding, but shielding surrounded on all sides and corners with more shielding will become cores.

But how does one turn flatpacks into shielding at all? Well, inspect those flatpacks in the corner.

You interact with the flatpack on the tile you want it constructed on, and it gets constructed! Very simple - let's see an example of one laid out and constructed.


Good work. Remember that if you ever need to deconstruct an AME, you can use welders to revert them into flatpacks.
You've likely noticed that the computer in the other corner got moved closer too. What it is?

So we use the controller in order to tell it how to make power. You'll also notice it has a HV wire connector. This is because the controller itself outputs the power, not the reactor. So make sure your controller is always on a HV wire when you're using it!



Now you just have to turn it on! AMEs use fuel jars in order to power a station - that's those blue jar/tanks. Make sure to use one on the computer, otherwise it won't power anything at all.
When starting an AME, remember: do not go above double the core count! This link here (scroll down)[wiki.spacestation14.com] has a table that demonstrates the core count to injection rate ratio. If you go below, you're being inefficient. If you go above, yes you generate more power but you also end up putting the AME on a timer for exploding, not only depriving you of a source of power that doesn't require power to start but also potentially spacing your station. It's problems on top of problems, don't risk it and just put it to the highest safe number: double the core count.


Now you've bought time for your main power producers - the singulo, tesla and the TEG!

So, you've gotten AME running and now you need to get the station's main power on. Typically, this is Singulo or Tesla.

Singularity and Tesla are often run in what is called the PA Chamber, or Singulo Chamber, called that because both are maintained by a Particle Accelerator.



The Particle Accelerator is composed of multiple parts, and is managed by the PA computer. The PA computer will always show you how the PA should look, whether the parts are correctly in position, fully constructed and therefore ready to fire.

Additionally, the PA computer will let you manage how strong the PA fires off the accelerated particles, or as I call it, the wave. Don't get hit by this if you can avoid it - as Engineer or Atmos Tech, you don't have much in the way of surviving multiple hits and you could end up down in one if you're working on something like Singularity for too long.


For all intents and purposes, you will only ever need the PA at a power of 2. Any higher, and it usually causes problems of the escape kind. Any lower, and you get problems of the power kind. I'll explain it further in each power method's section.

I'll assume you're using this to set up a chamber in real time. Do not activate anything until you're certain everything is in place. Not just containment, but power sources too, otherwise you'll be waiting for them to depower and then you'll be wasting time.

Each chamber needs to be secured using containment field generators, or field gens, and emitters. Emitters need MV to run, and create a projectile that aside from hurting a fair bit also powers fields gens. So long as two field generators are in line with each other, a powered field gen will create a containment field.



Side note: Emitters can be locked. Lock them! (You can do this by default with ALT + Left click, which is an Alternate item interaction.)

It's recommend to make a containment system using at least 4 field generators and 4 emitters, with 1 emitter dedicated to 1 field generator. That way, if one emitter fails for any reason, the others can keep it covered until it's fixed. The barest minimum you can run a system on with NT resources is 2 emitters, but it has an extremely bad bus factor. Do not do this unless you're certain no-one besides the intended crew can access it, or there is literally no other choice.



Now you know how to contain one of these two monsters, it's time to learn how each powers the station!

This is what an inactive Singularity looks like.


This is what active Singularities look like.


Yes, very scary, very mysterious but also very radioactive. It's that final bit we're gonna make use of.

Singularity power comes from using radiation collectors, or rad collectors, to convert radiation into HV power. It does this by consuming plasma gas via canisters to facilitate the change.



Having more rad collectors is always good - if you can get more, get more. Just remember, you will have to restock their plasma canisters eventually, and this can cause issues in the long term if your sources of plasma aren't strong. (Cargo can always order a canister, but that costs money and time remember.)

You can tell how full a canister in a collector is by the light on it. You can also ask borgs or AI to keep you updated on the canisters too. A flashing red light means it's empty - refill it or you won't have power soon!



A Singularity, by itself, will eventually run out of juice and dissipate unless it does one of the following:

• Consumes a tile or an entity, living or otherwise.
  
• Is hit with a PA wave.

So remember to keep the PA on when running a Singularity. Don't let it get too big though.


So you either ignored me and moved the PA to 3 or higher or someone has let it loose - an unlocked emitter or two, a bomb, maybe power got cut to the chamber. Doesn't matter now - first, call it out!

Second, you need to know how, if able, to stop it. These are the following ways to destroy a Singularity:

• Deprive it of entities to consume.
  
• Hit it with a particle decelerator or deprive it of PA waves.

You can only get particle decelerators from Science if it's researched or from Cargo for a steep 15000 spesos. (For comparison, the only other item matching it in cost is a luxury mining hardsuit. The next expensive item is the grand lottery $$$ at 10000 spesos... and apparently a crate of collector's instruments for the same.) If you're very lucky, sometimes the singularity will just drift off into space and away from the station.

Finally, assess damage. Was only engi hit? Then you can probably recover given time, generators and quick work. Is half the station gone? Call for an evac vote - if you're not confident you can get the station in a stable sustainable position, the shift should end.

This is an inactive Tesla.


This is an active Tesla.


Note the smaller enclosure. I'll explain in a tic.

Teslas are... terrifying, to most crew. They also operate differently to Singularity and thus most people don't understand them. They also, unfortunately, tend to be more dangerous when they move. Hence, we give it a small space so we're sure of where it is. Teslas generate power for the station by shocking Tesla Coils. These Tesla Coils then send that shock into HV wires to be stored and used.


Unlike radiation collectors which use plasma, Tesla Coils have durability before they're incapable of transferring power. Just check on the state of them every once in a while and remember to weld them if they're looking in need of a fix.


Teslas won't always shock Tesla Coils though. If they're allowed to, they'll shock anything nearby. That includes field gens, emitters and you. You'll probably be fine if you're wearing insuls (don't think about it) but machines aren't quite so protected. That is what Grounding Rods are for.



Grounding rods will override a Tesla's target for shocking if it isn't a Tesla coil. Say for example the Tesla tries to shock an emitter - if the Rod is in range or closer than the emitter is to the Tesla, then the Rod will take the shock instead.

You may also notice that the Tesla has some mini balls floating around it. What are they?



Basically, these spawn as the Tesla either destroy more electronics or get hit with PA waves. You need to manage their number to keep them low. Turning off the PA after generating a Tesla will usually work fine, but having them can be both a treat and a curse - they won't be contained by the containment field, but they do also shock like a Tesla does while being confined to the proximity of the Tesla..


Pray and run.

I'm not kidding - hiding can prevent you from getting shocked, but you've got insuls to protect from that. Just pray you aren't its target (it will track players and can round remove them if the Tesla itself touches you) and if you aren't then keep the crew apprised of its location and bearing but always remember your own self-preservation.

It is possible to contain one with particle decelerators but unless you've gotten Science or Cargo to preemptively stock you... you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and need to evac. You may see people turning off APCs or even ripping boards out in an attempt to prevent the Tesla reaching Evac - it won't help. You can't reason with them either, so don't bother - just don't join them.

So what is a TEG? Well, TEG stands for Thermo-Electric Generator...

No no, this is important, trust me. TEGs work by generating power from the difference in temperature between a hot loop - a pipe network carrying heated gas - and a cool loop - a pipe network carrying cooled gas. The TEG takes these two inputs, makes energy, then releases the gases. The hot loop will be cooler and the cold loop hotter. Very simple.

• It does matter how much of a hot or cold gas goes through, the pressure of those gases do.
  
• It does matter where they go - you cannot mix your hot and cold loops, they must circulate one way.
  
• It does matter what kind of difference there is between the hot and cold gases, so you can't just throw room temperature gas into the hot end and expect free power.
  
• It does need some supervision - it's not an AME that, if secured, can be left alone until it's not needed.

All you need to know now is what a TEG needs and how to start it.
This is what I'd consider the barest bones you'd need to start a TEG. It has a hot loop and a cold loop. It won't run forever for other reasons, but I'll explain those in a bit. This is what will get you started. Let's break it down a bit more.
We'll go top down. The TEG mix, or mix from now on, is typically a plasma/oxygen mix that can be 97:3 to 98:2 - it really depends on preference. We use this gas mixture because oxygen is just really prevalent and burns with plasma really really hot. Like... station ruining hot. You'll find that the burn chambers you see used on stations often use reinforced plasma glass and are separated by airlock chambers. They are there for a damn good reason - to protect you and the station.

Our mix will go up the pipe - but why? Pressure. Pumps can manipulate pressure by pulling gas through them in one direction. In this case, the mix can only go up because the "throttle" pump pushes it that way. It then gets pushed out by the gas injector - that square with the green light on its side. Gas injectors are good for pushing gases out of pipe networks because they don't allow backflow - you won't get those hot gases going back into the pipeline through here, essentially.

Our theoretical burn chamber then burns this mix. There's several ways you can do it - the most common are either flares or welding torches, which suffice for initial burns. My preferred method is using an igniter and remote signaller combo. You can connect them using a multitool to Link one to the other - it's very very basic.

You may notice the gas change into fire, then fog or smoke. This is fine - it's the byproduct of burning what we use, water vapor. The mix will reignite at high enough temps too!

The hot gases then go out the other end of the chamber through the passive vent - the square with a bunch of vertical lines. They allow gases both ways, which is fine here. We then use another pump to pull it all through towards the TEG.

Now, you're going to learn why I called the throttle pump that - different pumps have different transfer rates. Very quickly I'll explain the differences between what I'm using, volumetric pumps, and what you'll normally see, gas pumps.

This is what a volumetric pump's menu looks like by the way:
For this burn chamber example, volumetric pumps are usually better for the volumes they can move. For radiator setups, we use volumetric for the hot loop and gas for the mix because the mix won't change in pressure inside the pipes anywhere near as much.

There's an example of a burning hot loop. But wait - it's not flowing! The pumps aren't making coloured lines (that's how you know, they flash red if they're not flowing. So what's wrong?

Pressure lockout - the fiend of all Atmos Techs everywhere. Easy solution though - vent off the excess to space!

Noticed something new with the layout? The vent on the top of the burn chamber - you can use it to control pressure in the chamber and thus throughout the hot loop. You may have also noticed something else - the pumps have been turned around! Turns out even I make mistakes! But why are they rotated? Return to the TEG and check where the hot loop goes in and out of.

See those arrows? The loop must flow in that direction, otherwise the circulator won't make power. It's very easy to check for, and most stations will have placed the pumps and pipes for you already, so you won't have to, but it's good to know on the odd station that expect you to build it yourself or on the occasion you move it. Just remember - the red line on pumps point in the direction your flow will go.

You'll also notice your circulator for the hot loop now has flicking lights - two red lights and a blue one. The red lights indicate that there is flow and the blue light indicates optimal conditions for all I care - you want the blue lights as a general guideline. Now, cold loop!

You'll have noticed that the pumps here have also been rotated. For cold loop, there's multiple ways to chill but the simplest and cheapest is space! Space is free, prevalent and doesn't require anything beyond lattices (which cost a rod to place) so you can build on space. Many stations will have cold loops that can also be cooled with freezers but I recommend space radiators anyway because it won't cause power draw, which can be a problem in blackouts (from sabotage or simply failure to build in time).
Many stations use between 1 to 5 radiators, but if you can place more then do. Radiators are a little costlier to make than normal pipes but the more cooling you have the better for hotter hot loops. It helps you keep that temperature difference you need for the best power generation.

Altogether, the flow of a working TEG should look something like this in your head:

But why isn't it powering? Well, there's nothing for it to power! The TEG needs HV wire underneath the middle body part and something to power, so we wire it up and:

The TEG generates power! Just remember that it generates power based on power draw - if there's not enough draw for the TEG to supply, then it will stop generating power up to that limit regardless of how much you pump.

You can do a similar thing to hot loop as cold loop with radiators for your burn chamber:Here, we're using the radiators to transfer the burn chamber's heat to the hot loop. In this case, you can fill the hot loop with around 100-300kpa of a gas (usually plasma) to store the heat for the TEG without needing to bleed it like the burn chamber only method.

I used canisters in the examples of TEG Theory, but you can (and later should) omit the canisters and get a proper piping network going using the atmospherics miners and storage units.
"But how do I navigate this stuff?"

Calm down, remember your training. Remember the hot loop from above?

Our theoretical TEG Mix? Notice the tile I'm using with those two canisters. That is a gas mixer. We'll use that to mix our oxygen and plasma, then send it along a pipe. Just like in the picture.
"But how do I identify the gas I need?"
Relax, stay calm. Examine your surroundings.

Crazy what you miss when you only look once. See those signs on the wall? They'll identify most gases for you. Just Examine it (shift LMB by default).

This sign is for the canister to its right - so we know that the blue canister here is oxygen, and the canisters behind the description are Nitrogen (the red one with a white stripe) and Carbon Dioxide (the black/dark grey one). What about the others though?

Well, we know that the Plasma canister is the orange one - it even has a P on it in white. You can also tell by the gas it emits: the purple opaque tile filling gas is always plasma. The other canisters are Water Vapor (the black canister with the pinkish white lines, white smoke, harmless), uh...

"Atmos waste"? Don't worry, I'll save you some time.

The green canister with yellow lines is Ammonia - a purple hazy gas dead bodies tend to give off when they decompose. It can poison you in high enough doses, so air scrubbers will filter it out. (But that is for atmospherics guide...) The light blue canister with multiple white lines (unlike the oxygen canister, which has only one) is Frezon. It is a very cold blue fog-like gas which will put you to sleep if inhaled then chill you to death. Not very fun, potentially good for cool loops but I don't use it due to it often not being on stations.

But now we know what gases we want, we just need to make a pipeline for them and the mixer.

Very simple. You can rotate your camera with Numpad 7 and 9, and zoom with Numpad 4 and 6. So we've placed everything, how do we make it mix right? Well, click on that mixer and a menu will pop up:

Status is just the on or off switch, leave that til the end.
Output Pressure should be familiar - it's like the menu for the pump from earlier on.
And then we have the Primary and Side Ports. You'll remember from before that we mentioned mixing the gases to certain ratios. These ports are how we do that. The arrows on the mixer determine which port is which - the arrow that's parallel to the exit arrow is your Primary port and the perpendicular arrow is your Side port. Which gas goes in which can change depending on how you make it - for this example, Oxygen is in the side port and Plasma in the main.

All we have to do is set the Primary port to 3% and the menu will automatically set the opposing value for you.

You should also take the liberty of maxing out your output - the more the merrier, after all! (It also helps create a 'backlog' or storage of fuel in the pipes, in case one of the mix inputs runs out of gas.) Now all we have to do is turn them on, and:

Near instant TEG mix! Remember, it still needs an ignition source once inside the burn chamber.

What is pipe burn?
Basically, whatever was in the pipe... burned. Just like in a burn chamber. This can cause problems for many... MANY reasons. But for 3 pertinent reasons?

• First, your hotloop can easily overpressure if its separate from the mix pipe but its contents receive an appropriate propellant. Plasma receiving oxygen for example.
  
• Second, it can stall your mix from entering the burn chamber and weakens the heat as it has to travel up the pipe first. And the gases are already going to be locked out due to pressure lock. (DO NOT RELY ON CONVECTION OR CONDUCTION TO FIX THIS.)
  
• Third, it's just frowned upon by everyone and is easily avoidable.

Your only solution is venting the pipe system it's occurred in to empty. As in, to 0.0kpa. (ignore the temps at no pressure, they'll reset when you add gas in.)
There's multiple prevention methods too:

• Use air injectors. They're one way, meaning they won't let the gases back into the pipe system, unlike passive vents.
  
• Use passive gates and pumps. They separate the pipe system like a gate in addition to forcing flow in one direction. Passive gates do this without actively pumping, making it useful if you do want a one way pipe system but don't need to force it that way.
  
• Be careful with your piping. A stray vent can lead to your whole hotloop being compromised. Clear out any pipes you're not using from the workspace by dismantling or physically moving them out, and double check that your pipes are a single loop before you begin a burn.

This generally isn't a problem for veterans unless they get lazy on certain maps. I'm guilty of this too.

Here's Liltenhead's video on GarTEG.


GarTEG is essentially a super compact version of the TEG that uses a passive vent in space to draw gases through the pipe networks. Rather than a traditional loop, it pulls hot gases through one circulator then cold gases through the other before spacing the gases as waste. Very efficient, very wasteful, doesn't run for long on stations without miners.

Personal request: don't use this. It's lazy and it doesn't actually teach any kind of good atmospherics. It's very good to conceptualize the very basics of how a TEG runs, yes. It'll run a station, sure. So can something else without spacing pipe networks as a "pump".

Side note: I'm continuing to see increased use of this TEG and a glaring vulnerability - the windows themselves are easily sabotaged. That's not to say all burn chambers aren't vulnerable to this, but any revenant can easily break it with its weakest ability and subsequently cook/space TEG while shutting down power. You can easily amend this with stronger windows like shuttle windows, but at that point you may as well use a burn chamber and thus literally any other design in my eyes.

to be written

The image does a decent job explaining how to build it, and gives an example build without the glasses for the relevant chambers. It can power a station well, with its main claim to fame being that it can self regulate using the pressure valve. You can always amend the design with scrubbers or filters if you want to get trit or the vapour out for any reason.

The design as depicted is out of date - it most likely existed during a time where pipe staking like that was allowed. Just replace the radiators under the vents and injector with normal pipes and expand the hot loop's burn chamber to add more radiators if it's a problem. actually got outdated a little recently - I'm just blind - because Roomba himself pushed an update to upstream that means the burn chamber is too small to generate or hold enough heat to actually sustain the TEG. Just expand it a little bit and it should function.

Side note - I recommend yanking the pressure valve part of the design for your own use if you can. It's a little more work, but you CAN do it after starting the TEG with (if you're an Atmos Tech or get your hands on a holofan) minimal waste and minimal fuss. The valve will help regulate your TEG's burn chamber for you, meaning less work and management of the TEG's hot loop.

This is gonna be wordier than the others (writing this at work means I don't have access to private servers or the uninterrupted time needed to create examples) but I'll try to break it up a little better.

So how does power get moves across the station and stored?

Wires, SMES, Substations and APCs.

Wires carry different 'levels' of power.

• HV wires can carry power from high power generators like the TEG, Tesla and Singulo as well as the AME and SUPERPACMAN generator. Very few machines will use this voltage. SMES and Substations accept this wire - SMES to store it and substations to downgrade it to MV. You'll usually find it going through most stations in order to transfer it efficiently. Think of this like an artery.
  
• MV carries power from Substations to some machines and APCs. It's often found leading to the department's closest substation. This would be closer to a vein.
  
• LV carries power from APCs to most machines. It usually doesn't need to be directly connected, only within a 3 tile radius of the wire. Consider this the capillary.
  
• There is technically a fourth 'voltage' in cells, however this doesn't factor into station power.

Cutting these wires can cut power to various departments or even the whole station depending on where you cut. Of course, you won't, but traitors and thieves will. Knowing how to trace these wires is vital in order to keep power running. There's two ways - in person, and via the power monitor computer.


In person will require a T-Ray scanner. You can find them in Engineering's vending machines pretty easy. When active, they'll show wires under tiles and (as of Update Vlog 98) sub tile entities, like catwalks. It's pretty much paramount to have one if you're going to work on wires anywhere in the station unless you like pulling up tiles constantly.

Next, you're going to need to understand context. If power goes out somewhere, knowing exactly where can help immensely. It means you can save looking around half the station and crawling through maints wondering if the next person you see is gonna be a greytider, a clown or an antag. If Medbay goes out entirely, you can safely assume power is gone between the substation and the APCs of the department (especially if the APCs read as no charge). If only Tech Vault or Artifacts loses power, you can generally assume the power issue is more local, at worst an APC got pulled.

Of course, even the human eye isn't perfect. So using the power monitor computer can help to narrow down power issues immensely. You can filter out wires to narrow down the power issues locally if needed and guide other engineers to the substation or SMES as needed.

SMES are basically big batteries for HV power. It's your station's power capacity for when things go wrong - a timer for how long you have before things go off, rather than boom. Unlike other machines, SMES accept inputs from HV cables and an object called a cable terminal.

Unlike other power devices like substations or APCs, SMES accept HV for the purpose of dispersing power - they use cable terminals to accept power from HV wire. Just make sure the red wires are pointing at the SMES you want charged and you should be fine if you're repairing or setting up new ones.

Make sure you have SMES arrays! Without SMES arrays, your power generation is your only source of power - if something needs to be shut down for any reason, or you lose a singulo or tesla to sabotage, you need something to fall back on to give you time besides solars.

I've kinda released this guide early to try and help newer engis with running the station sooner. There are parts I still want to improve and expand, and even I'm still learning more and more about how to be a better Engineer and Atmos Technician. A lot of my time playing is spent in Leviathan and sometimes Lizard, if not playing as Engi or Atmos then as anything from a Chemist to a Clown, so if you do want to learn and see me online, don't be afraid to reach out on Steam or in LOOC!
And most importantly, don't be afraid to rely on the rest of the crew - the Syndies won't get much in the way of time to do their job if the Station recalls in the first half hour, and the Crew won't get much fun without power to run their jobs' machines. If you need help, ask. If someone offers to help, don't ignore them if you do need it.

I hope this guide helps at least one TA evolve into a functional Engi/Atmos. If you do have any questions, don't be afraid to ask here! I'll do my best to answer what I can, and if not me then other players will.

NilkTeg provided by Nilk the Nilf's player


Roomba TEG by ArtisticRoomba in the SS14 Discord
For those in the discord, image taken from here[discord.com]
Branding image taken from https://lemmy.spacestation14.com/post/168059