True Alchemist

[crimsonfatalis]

its pull lever # on panel

[Guestsa]

The one consistency I've noticed is that as far as I can tell, duplicating a lever ALWAYS gets a puff of smoke. I realize this is inconsistent with what earlier posters have said, but I've never seen anything else happen with duplicate pulls.

Assuming order doesn't matter and duplicates are always puffs, I have systematically tried every possible combination of 6 different levers (there are only 210 of them). Nothing useful there.

Repeating combinations... I haven't yet stumbled upon one that did not include multiple pulls of the same lever that always gave the same result. This is not to say there aren't some, just that I haven't seen any. I've done 10 9 8 7 6 5 probably 50 times and I've gotten every possible result from it except for the one desirable one.

[tespis]

Ok... I'd like to hope that you're remotely at least on the right track, as that would give us something to work upon, other than mere absurd randomness...

I do still get smoke from combinations with no duplications, though.

If every time you pull the machine, there's then the possibility of 210 random different combinations, that makes it a 1/210 chance then. I'll try keeping to the same set of levers till I tire out...

[tespis]

ARGH!

This is the most stupid and frustrating quest EVER!

...

[Herennian]

Has this quest been removed? Doesn't appear in the quest lists...

Would be reasonable too, as it is definitively bugged and silly...

[Blah]

It's being written, very intelligently too!

[tespis]

Okay! Now the quest is changed! To it, lads and lasses! It probably is hard, but not unattanable...

The syntax now is 'pull lever <number>'. You have to pull six, too, and press the button. Order is now relevant and important.

In theory, the 'results' you get with each combination (specially, the number of 'explosions') should be clues as to how well you're going towards the desired explosion. Dunno if you now get a result that works for you or each time you go it is random, but guessable.

As before, the combinations are limited to the last 6 levers. Using any of the previous ones will get you a message in all your pulls: You reach out to what you think is the correct lever and pull, but you're not sure you got the right one.

A list with the correct progression in messages would be very useful. If I get any results, i'll post here...

[guest231]

So what do all the levers have in them now?

Lever 1: shiny blue powder
Lever 2: fluorescent lime powder
Lever 3: silver metallic powder
Lever 4: pitch black powder
Lever 5: bone white powder
Lever 6: diarrhoea brown powder
Lever 7: blood red powder
Lever 8: bright puce powder
Lever 9: dull orange powder
Lever 10: glowing yellow powder

[questing girl]

From the official site:

Go to the labratory on the top floor of the Alchemists' Guild, in the room with the amalgamator and Two-Fingers McKluskey. Pull six levers, then push the button to start a chemical reaction. Pay attention to the results to determine how close your combination of chemicals is to what is required to blow up the guild. A bigger explosion means you have more chemicals in the proper order relative to each other. The quantities that are dispensed by one pull of a lever isn’t enough to cause a reaction by itself, but that might change with larger quantities. Any chemicals that don't react with their current neighbours during a reaction may cause adverse side effects. To find out which effects are produced by which chemicals, research in the Alchemists' Guild library. Each chemical only reacts with the chemicals immediately above or below it, hence order of chemicals relative to each other is essential. Multiple explosions can also result, when appropriate.

[questing girl]

And the scrap of paper with information being:

... caused the headache instead of curing despite blue ...... nexus between lime powders and projectile vomiting ...... blindness from light reflecting off metallic particles ...... then the hues comprising true black fractured ...... mysterious white powder ... optical illusion of invisibility....ably, the brown organic powder smelled quite foul, and ...... combustible red powder burned quite intensely for ...... hallucations resulted from accidental inhalation of the puce substance ...... corrosive effect of the orange powder, strangely localized to facial ...... however, an excess of this yellow powder can result in a poisonous gas ......I have discovered the secret properties of cinnabar! This red mineral pebble has created the most wondrous....

[quest007]

Ok, important facts, put aside all previous comments by people:

* It's always 6 levers.
* It might require multiple pulls of the same lever.
* It might involve any/all of the levers - not just the final 6.
* Every person will have their own unique combination of 6 lever pulls.
* The order the levers are pulled in is vital.
* You can log out, and the alchemy guild can do it's own natural "blowing up" - it will not alter your unique combination. Reboots however may re-randomise your unique combination, I do not know.
* A useful alias I set up:
alias lpull pull lever $1$;pull lever $2$;pull lever $3$;pull lever $4$;pull lever $5$;pull lever $6$;push button
So you can just enter for example:
lpull 1 2 3 4 5 6
And watch the results.


Now here's how to go about solving it:

Firstly, every lever has a negative effect associated with it. The effect associated with each lever might be random for each person, in which case you'll have to go through a bunch of combinations "ruling out" which levers were and were not present when a particular negative effect happened until you have linked 1 effect to 1 lever (that is how I linked each effect to each lever).

There are 10 possible negative effects, no more, no less. Some are more dangerous than others. Here are the negative effects associated with each lever for me, this may always be the same for everyone, I don't know, even if not, at least you have a list of every negative effect to work our your own lever-effects yourselves:

Lever 1: Headache Mist (get a migraine)
Lever 2: Nauseating Light (vomiting/farting)
Lever 3: Blinds You (*you will pull random levers while blind*)
Lever 4: Colourful (people turn colourful)
Lever 5: Invisibility (people turn invisible)
Lever 6: Squeaky (think you are a bat)
Lever 7: Fire Belch (items of clothing smoulder)
Lever 8: Hypnotic colours/hallucinate (*you will pull random levers while hallucinating*)
Lever 9: Chemicals Ignite (doesn't really do anything)
Lever 10: Poisonous Gas (room fills with damage-inflicting gas for a while)

Note: While either blind, or hallucinating, DO NOT PULL LEVERS - you will pull random levers, not the ones you wanted to pull, making the result of those pulls pointless.

A negative effect will only occur if that chemical did *NOT* react with it's neighbours, for example if you pulled this combination:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
And you had a result "people turn colourful", then that means chemical number 4 does not react with 3 or 5.
You will ONLY get ONE negative effect at most per pull. So pulling the above same combination a second time:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
You might get "colourful" again, or you might get blindness - if you got blindness the second time, then it would mean that chemical 3 does not react with chemicals 2 or 4.
Therefore you can if you wish pull each particular set of levers a few times each, to ensure you get to discover all of your "non-reaction partners" from any one combination of levers.

Every combination will generate two sets of important information:
* Puffs of smoke or various strength flashes of light, either one or multiple.
* A negative effect, or no negative effect.

The puffs of smoke, low level flashes of light, small flashes of light etc. are hints that you are along the right lines. If you get multiple flashes, it means there are multiple "good signs" that you have the right levers in the right order (or close to the right order) somewhere in your combination. Eventually as you start narrowing down your unique combination of levers (which remember can include multiple pulls of the same lever), you will reach the stage where you get a "HUGE BANG" and rivets ping out of the device. This means you are very, very close to your combination.

As far as I could interpret the puffs/flashes, I got this:

* Puff of smoke means nothing/rubbish/try something different.
* Low level flash means you've got 2 chemicals right, though they may be up to 4 levers apart (eg your 1st and 6th pull may, in relation to eachother, be correct, not a very helpful clue though)
* Small flash means you've got at least 3 chemicals right (or perhaps 2 chemicals in the right order next to eachother?) - a fairly helpful clue. Start changing 1 lever at a time, or moving 2 levers next to eachother in the pull-order, and seeing if the flashes lessen, remain, or get stronger.
* Huge bang means you've practically solved it.

If you get a negative effect, then a chemical is not reacting with it's neighbours (or just 1 neighbour for pull #1 and pull #6 of course), which is no good - the goal is to have no negative effects, and then to get the right levers in the right order.

If you start getting "flashes of light", particularly multiple flashes, then you need to start paying very close attention to your lever combination. Start changing only 1 lever at a time, and see if the strength of the light flashes increase, decrease, or stay the same. If they decrease, go back a step and try altering a different lever. If they increase, continue experimenting one step at a time.

Once you achieve "HUGE BANG", you are very close to completion. I was achieving huge bangs with this lever combination:
2 3 6 4 8 3
I tried changing the last lever, which reduced the huge bang to small flashes again. So I tried changing the first lever, which did nothing. If changing the first lever did nothing, I decided that the rest of the combination was good, so I removed the first lever, in effect "shifting" the rest of the combination one step left, and moved the first lever to the end spot, which was:
3 6 4 8 3 2
Which netted me the quest (note that #3 was pulled twice!)

On completion, you will end up on the roof of the tower of art with two broken legs. You can get them fixed at the doctors in the Flintwick building for AM$5 or at the doctor's in DJB. You'll have to get somebody to teleport you there, or crawl there yourself.

You will also have a lump of gold, and a diamond, in your inventory for completing it.

It's not exactly a full exact "how to complete it" quest, and this quest still needs a huge amount of patience, calculating, and effort on your part to succeed - but it is not luck driven. You can calculate it! Hopefully the advice/tips here will help you calculate your own combination

[quest007]

I did it I'll edit my findings in to my above post. Below is what happened:

A silver metallic powder pours into the glass cylinder in the main chamber of the amalgamator, forming the bottom layer.
You pull lever three on the alchemy lab.

A diarrhea brown powder pours into the glass cylinder in the main chamber of the amalgamator, forming a layer on top of the silver metallic powder.
You pull lever six on the alchemy lab.

A pitch black powder pours into the glass cylinder in the main chamber of the amalgamator, forming a layer on top of the diarrhea brown powder.
You pull lever four on the alchemy lab.

A bright puce powder pours into the glass cylinder in the main chamber of the amalgamator, forming a layer on top of the pitch black powder.
You pull lever eight on the alchemy lab.

A silver metallic powder pours into the glass cylinder in the main chamber of the amalgamator, forming a layer on top of the bright puce powder.
You pull lever three on the alchemy lab.

A fluorescent lime powder pours into the glass cylinder in the main chamber of the amalgamator, forming a layer on top of the silver metallic powder.
You pull lever two on the alchemy lab.

Two-fingers McKluskey pulls a few levers to configure the machine, and an intense flame hits the inner glass cylinder from the side, heating it evenly.
As the chemicals start to react (or not) with those above (and/or below) them, an expectant silence descends on the room.

You push the "Button of Death" on the panel.
Something clicks within the amalgamator, and it shudders slightly. Some students run into the room to watch the reaction.
The shuddering builds in intensity as the machine begins to start working.
There is a clattering sound from within the amalgamator, and suddenly an imp is dropped into the cylinder. He doesn't look very happy about the situation.
The hum gains in intensity, while the room gains some sort of charge, causing some people's hair to stand on end.

The whole lab begins to rumble ominously, causing the students to flee immediately.
Two-fingers McKluskey yells: Run for your lives! She's going to blow!
There is an enormous explosion as one of the vats blows up in a shower of deadly shrapnel, which is quite unfortunate for those brave students who did not choose to run.
There is an enormous explosion as the amalgamator explodes with a force that makes the Disc rock.
A Creator Collector Card appears in your inventory with a flash.
The force of the explosion blows you through the roof of the guild.
As you fly higher and higher you notice the streets of Ankh-Morpork receding below.
As you hurtle into the sky, limbs flailing, you manage to shriek out an incoherent invective from your tortured lungs before the Unseen University rushes up to meet you at an alarming rate.
You plummet towards the ground.
You land somewhere hard with a sickening crunch and a lot of pain.

= 2 broken legs (and a lump of gold plus a solid diamond as reward!)

[QC]

Most of the above is correct, but the combination is reset every time the building explodes, and no one gets their own unique combo. So 2 people working on it at the same time are working toward the same combo, which then changes when the building explodes for any reason.

So, 10 levers in the room, 6 levers must be pulled with each attempt. Every time you pull 6 levers then hit the big button, you will get two types of results. The first is one or more explosions (or lack thereof) of chemicals in the right order relative to each other, and the second is the side effect from one of the chemicals you selected.

The side effects are annoying and slow things down a bit, but don't really help to figure out the combination. To minimize damage and delay, don't wear clothes if possible and bring healing tea.

The little explosions tell you how many chemicals you have in the right order, and if you have more than 1 set of chemicals in the right order. The explosion messages are:

No combination of chemicals are in the right order:
A small puff of smoke comes from the ingredients in the central cylinder. The watching students laugh at you.

One pair of chemicals in the right order:
There is a brief low-level flash and a few puffs of smoke from the ingredients in the cylinder.
The students snigger at you.

One triplet of chemicals in the right order:
There is a small flash of light and a small cloud of smoke rises from the ingredients in the cylinder.
The students look as if they are about to run, but then merely look nonchalant as they realise nothing is going to happen.

One quadruplet OR quintuplet of chemicals in the right order:
There is a small flash of light and a small cloud of smoke rises from the ingredients in the cylinder. You and everyone else in
the room are knocked over onto the floor.

All chemicals in the right order: BOOM! Don't leave the room. You'll end up on top of the Tower of Art with a diamond and lump of gold.

There can be multiple reactions per combination. If we had the target combination of 147784 for example, the following attempts would give the following results:
141414 - 3 pairs
747877 - 2 pairs
877777 - 1 triplet
877141 - 1 triplet and 1 pair
487741 - Quest accomplished

So chemicals don't have to be in the same order or in the same position (2nd from left, etc) to get a reaction, they just have to be in the right order relative to each other.

I like the following system to find pairs (10 written as 0):
112233
445566
778899
001314
151617
181920
242526
272829
313435
363738
394041
etc

So after each combo, you jot down the results, and if there was a pair, you immediately try to find a third chemical adjacent to the pair. So if you try 112233 and immediately get the pair reaction, you can then narrow down which 2 numbers were the pair by trying 111111 222222 333333 121212 232323 until one reacts as a pair again. Except it should react as 3 pairs because you're repeating the correct pair 3 times.

So if 121212 shows three pairs, you know 12 (or 21) is in the target combination somewhere. Then you try to find the number(s) adjacent to 12. If 12 is at the beginning or end of the target combination, there will be only one adjacent number, otherwise there are two. So now you want to try 12 in combination with other numbers, such as:
331233
441244
551255
etc

Then when you get a triplet, such as from 332133, you test whether the 3 is next to the 2 or the 1:
321111
312222

So if 312222 gives the triplet, we know the triplet is 312, not 321. We then repeat the same process, now with the 312 triplet adjacent to other numbers, and so on.

This system should get the target combination in 15-30 minutes, depending on how lucky you are with side effects and the early combinations you try.

[Guest]

Make sure that Two Fingers doesn't die from toxic gas. So far its been an hour and counting since he died and i got 4/5 numbers right. Really frustrating.

[Guest]

also what i noticed is sometimes i'd get the response
There is a brief low-level flash and a few puffs of smoke from the ingredients in the cylinder.

Sometimes once, sometimes two times one after the other and sometimes three times so does this mean ive got the pairs right i jus need to rearrange do you think?