Beginner's Guide to TTVs
Generally when someone is "doing toxins, they're making TTVs. TTVs, or Tank Transfer Valves, are a versatile type of bomb that can range from the smaller end to decently large, depending on what you put in them.
The basic concept is as follows: The valve has two tanks, one on either side, and when the valve is turned/activated, those gases are allowed to flow together and mix. The goal is to make it so the difference in temperature (more accurately, the difference in pressure between a very cold gas and a very hot gas) is sufficient to create a BIG reaction when they're allowed to mix. BOOM!
First, find the gas mixer. It should be a three-way set of pipes with valves on them and connectors at each end. You want to mix up some gas to make a combination suited for burning decently hot and decently long. A good all-purpose burn mix is 1 plasma to 2 oxygen (remembered by the mature acronym "POO mix"). A wrench will connect canisters to a connector port they're on top of, and make sure to click on all three valves as well so the mixer can mix them.
Hit one of the canisters with your atmospheric analyzer, and the contents (bottom section of the readout) should look like this:
Optionally: I like to use a hand labeler to label my burn mix canisters as "burn mix", so I don't get them confused with my other canisters later on.
Next, we're going to start filling the burn chamber. It'll vary by map, but what you're looking for is a connector port that leads to the air injector that's within whichever chamber has the conducting pipes in the floor. Those are what our plasma is going to flow through, so it'll get hotter when the chamber is lit.
Attach one of your canisters of burn mix (it doesn't matter which one, it can be any of them) to the port, hit the valve, and you should start seeing plasma in the chamber after a bit.
Then, connect a plasma canister (a fresh one, not your burn mix!) to the port that leads to those conducting pipes. Just follow the lines on the floor and you should be able to get an idea of what attaches to what, even if you're on a station where the ports and pipes aren't labelled. Once again, make sure all the valves between the canister and where you want the gas to flow (in this case, those pipes in the chamber floor) are green.
To ignite the chamber, find and hit the "ignition switch". You should shortly begin to see the plasma canister heating up.
If you find the burn chamber is taking awhile to get as hot as you'd like it (easy to spot when it's HOT hot, as the "flames" become lighter), try flipping the chamber's "exhaust" button, or whatever the equivalent is called on the station you're on. It'll let out some of the CO2 **(is that what it does, i need to actually check), which is what usually leads to burns getting stifled. However, if you leave it open too long, it'll end up releasing all your gases and the burn will die out that way instead. I tend to just pop it open until it starts getting pretty light along the edge exposed to space, then close it and let it simmer at its own pace. It's not the fastest, but it gives you more control over the temperature of plasma you end up with since it heats slightly slower.
Next, you need o2 for the other half of the TTV. There are actually two main ways to do this: with a space loop or with a freezer. Depending on the station you'll either have one, the other, or both available.
Same as you did with the plasma before, you're going to wrench a fresh o2 canister onto the port that leads to the conducting pipes. This time, however, you don't need to do any other prep work -- you're just going to use the temperature of space to cool the o2.
If you've got a freezer available, you can use that in place of the cold loop to cool your o2. To do so, just wrench your o2 canister down on the freezer port, then open the freezer's interface. Activate it, and set the temperature to whatever you're aiming for -- or set it lower, and just watch it til it hits where you want it to be.
Now that you have your hot plasma and your cold o2, it's time to fill some tanks. But first: You have to get empty tanks! Plasma and oxygen tanks can be acquired from the Tank Storage Unit, but they come about half full with room temperature gas. You need to empty them out before you can put your mix in, or it'll mess up the temperature.
Orange plasma tanks can be emptied by use of a portable air scrubber, and blue oxygen tanks can be emptied by use of a portable air pump. Make sure to turn them both off after you've got your tanks empty.
Next, to fill them. Put the plasma tank in your plasma canister, crank up the pressure and open it up. Then do the same with the oxygen. You want them both to be sitting at 1013 kPa.
Now all that's left is to stick them on a valve. OPTIONAL: I like to label my valves with the temperature of each tank for easier keeping track of them and recording the results.
