Bond the raw essences. Harvest the stable compounds. Never let the crucible run hot.
1 Pick an essence from the tray. 2 Tap a hex to set it down. Bonds form with neighbors automatically. 3 A closed ring of 3+ same essences becomes a stable compound — harvest its worth and drain the volatility. 4 Stray, open bonds only feed the crucible. When VOLATILITY hits 100, the lab explodes and the round ends. Tools: Purify (hold / right-click) removes a stray · Stabilizer (Space) cools things down · Chain-Breaker detonates one compound for a point windfall — and heat.
Each essence has valence — how many bonds it can make. Bonds exceeding valence are unstable and add volatility per second. Open, stable bonds add a little too; closed rings never do. Mercury (2) wants two neighbors — great at edges and corners. Fluorine (1) is a loner. Sulfur (3) and Ember (4) love the center. Quartz (2) and Aurora (2) form the prettiest rings. Build a small cluster, close the loop, and watch it resolve into pure compound: points in, volatility out. Chain resolves quickly to build the combo multiplier on every harvest. Spend sigils between rounds on a third Stabilizer charge, or on a permanent Coolant Coil that slows all volatile gain forever.