Fd:Frackin'Universe Guide

Introduction
So, you fancy yourself a botanist? A scientist? Chemist? Whatever the case, you've a long road ahead of you. This guide will brief you on what you need to know to play with Frackin' Universe effectively. You need to keep in mind that a lot of the default play of Starbound has been altered by many aspects of the mod. I'll tackle the basics of stations for you here.

Fd:Well
You're going to potentially need water before your Matter Manipulator can siphon it. For this, there are Fd:Wells. Once you build a Foraging Table you will be able to create one. They produce buckets of water. These can be extracted from, thrown to create lakes, or tossed into a growing tray or hydroponics tray to feed plants.

The Machining Table
Your immediate task is to construct a Fd:Machining Table, which is the core station of FU from which you can build all other stations. Once you do, you can access some basic materials for crafting, robots and stations. This table can be upgraded to an Fd:Auto-Assembler, and finally a Fd:Matter Assembler around the time you obtain Titanium.

The Hand Mill
Next up, you'll want a Fd:Hand Mill, constructed in the Fd:Machining Table. It is the most basic form an Fd:Extraction Device - a new type of station which will break down items you place inside it to produce crafting materials. The Fd:Hand Mill, and its faster successors, mainly breakdown Blocks often requiring 50 units to process, as well as other things like Food. Materials that the Hand Mill cannot handle may be the specialty of other kinds of Extraction Devices, buildable amongst FU's myriad of crafting stations.

Fd:Extraction
You'll typically get one of a few things when extracting. Nutrient Paste, Tissue Cultures, Raw Minerals, or Genetic Material. All have their uses, and you will definitely need many of each. Material outputs vary greatly, however, and you may find yourself with exceptionally more valuable resources.

☀As of Update 5.5.0. a new currency, Fd:Research, has replaced: Nutrient Paste, Tissue Culture, Raw Minerals, Genetic Material, DNA Samples and Mineral Samples.
 * Fd:Methanol: - Methanol is an important resource for several goods. Where it's found is pretty straightforward. Cut down some trees. Extract from the wood in your extractor. Simple as that!
 * Fd:Hydrogen: - Hydrogen is common and relatively easy to obtain. Toss some water in your extractor and you're good to go. Later on you'll be able to create an Atmosphere Condenser and suck it right out of the air around you!
 * Caliche: - Caliche stone is extremely useful, producing both saltpeter and iodine. You'll need both. Finding Caliche can be tricky if you don't know where to look. Check deserts, they typically have a lot.

Fd:Alchemy Table
The Alchemy Table allows you to dabble with chemicals and compounds. It upgrades to a Fd:Chemistry Lab with access to more options. It's third tier upgrade, the Fd:Bio-Chem Lab, is a state of the art station with access to bizarre and alien resources. Without this series of stations you will be unable to produce certain key materials such as plastic, morphite and fertilizer.
 * Fd:Fertilizer: - A large portion of recipes for research or plant seeds will require Fertilizer in order to be created. That means you'll need a myriad of materials. There are varying strengths of fertilizer, and some plants will require the more advanced forms. You can also use it in a Fd:Growing Tray or Fd:Hydroponic Tray to increase plant yield and growth rate.
 * Plastic and Silicon: - To make some products, you'll need Fd:Advanced Plastic. In order to make it, you'll first need to obtain some silk. Bracken Trees shed silk, as do moths. Alternatively, Spider Silk extracts quite well into silk should you find any in your travels. Silicon is much easier: Sand. Deserts are a handy source of caliche stone as well. They also contain the oil required to craft plastics, so you may as well head to one when you can.

Fd:Sprouting Table
This Fd:Extracting Device breaks down seeds into basic genes for use in the Fd:Greenhouse. It is very slow at doing so, unlike the Xeno Lab, which you can build once you Upgrade your Machining Table into an Auto-Assembler.

Fd:Greenhouse
A Fd:Greenhouse is where you will create new types of seeds. This station upgrades to the Botany Lab and then the Gene Design Lab. Each tier has access to new seeds, unlocked as you find and study other plants in your travels.

Fd:Incubator
An Fd:Incubator allows you to grow farm animals at a more frequent pace than what nature herself allows.

Fd:Tinkering Table
A Tinker Table allows you to create some very useful augments, techs, upgraded armor sets, upgraded weapons and useful tools. It upgrades into a Engineering Bench, and then into the Nanofabricator.

Fd:Armorworks
An Fd:Armorworks is similar to an anvil. However, it allows produced of more advanced armors and weapons than a typical anvil has access to. This includes upgradable suits of armor (which you can upgrade in the Tinker station) and much more! It upgrades into the Armory and finally the Auto-Armory. Each tier gains access to increasingly powerful goods.

Mining
You probably don't want to do much hard work. You're a science guy, after all right? Tough cookies. Get your matter manipulator and start digging (or build a Basic Miner in the Matter Assembler). Otherwise you'll never find what you need.

Fd:Mining Laser
A bit of info about the mining laser: They function differently than the Matter Manipulator in a few respects. First, they cannot gather liquid. Second, they cannot directly target background blocks. Third, they use energy. However, they differ in their behavior. They target like a weapon, allowing greater mobility. You can also pair this with an Ore Detector. Once you upgrade a Mining Laser a few times it will truly start to shine. Don't dismiss them as wimpy. Trust me.

Finding Resources
Genetic Material is most commonly found in meats, certain plants and similar stuff. You'll find Raw Minerals in stone, ore and other things rich in mineral content. Tissue Culture is most common from plants, seeds and produce. Nutrient Paste is common in most soils.

Lab Space
With your Matter Assembler placed, you are probably starting to realize that you will need a substantial amount of space for your lab. Any self-respecting scientist would make room for such a glorious thing! Who DOESN'T want a lab?!?! But I get ahead of myself here...You'll be able to create several more stations now.

Storing Your Goods
Need somewhere to store the dozens of resources you're inevitably going to create through your research? Well, the solution is simple enough: Gene Cabinets. Build a couple of these and you will be good to go. They're cheap and easy to make!

Other Labs,
You've only just scratched the surface, and there are over a dozen additional labs that can increase productivity, output and so very much more. When you can, take a look at the Fd:Power Station and the myriad of insanely useful devices it will open up to you.