Mixmatics colour mixing and processing, explained
Most Mixmatics orders ask for something you do not have. The sources give you plain red, blue, yellow and white; the customer wants purple, or heated orange, or exactly three light blue followed by two pink. Getting there means understanding two kinds of machine: mixers, which make new colours, and chambers, which treat a liquid without changing its colour. This guide explains exactly how both work.
The liquids
Every drop in Mixmatics is a single unit of one colour, and each colour has a letter so that colour is never the only cue:
| Colour | Letter | Made from |
|---|---|---|
| Red | R | a source |
| Blue | B | a source |
| Yellow | Y | a source |
| White | W | a source |
| Purple | P | red + blue |
| Orange | O | red + yellow |
| Green | G | blue + yellow |
| Pink | K | red + white |
| Light blue | L | blue + white |
The five recipes
Every campaign puzzle uses the same five recipes, each combining two base colours in equal amounts:
- Red + blue = purple
- Red + yellow = orange
- Blue + yellow = green
- Red + white = pink
- Blue + white = light blue
There is no recipe for mixing two of the same colour, and none for mixing a mixed colour again. Purple plus white does not make lavender; it jams the mixer.
How a mixer works
A mixer takes liquid in from its two sides and sends the result out of the top. Inside, it has a small buffer, usually two units. When the units in the buffer match a recipe, the mixer starts a batch:
- It waits for the right pair. One red and one blue in the buffer start a purple batch.
- It works for a set number of ticks. Most campaign mixers take one or two ticks per batch, drawing one unit of energy for each tick they are working.
- It releases the output one unit per tick. Volume is conserved: one red plus one blue makes two purple, not one.
That last point matters for planning. If an order asks for four purple, you need two red and two blue, not four of each.
Why mixers jam
If the buffer fills up and no recipe matches what is inside, the mixer jams and the run fails. The most common causes:
- Two units of the same colour arrive together. Red and red is not a recipe.
- The wrong pair arrives. Red and green cannot mix.
- A treated liquid reaches the mixer. Mixers only accept untreated liquid, so a heated unit in a mixer will jam it. Mix first, then treat.
The fix is usually timing: make sure the two colours reach the mixer at the same rate. Sources release one unit per tick, and a pipe moves each unit one cell per tick, so two sources at equal distances from the mixer will arrive in step. If one side is longer, its units arrive later, and the shorter side can fill the buffer with two of the same colour. Balancing the path lengths, or holding one side back with a valve, solves it.
Chambers: heating, chilling and polishing
From Chapter 5 onwards, orders start asking for treated liquids: heated orange, chilled blue, polished green. Chambers do the treating. They are fixed on the board, and each performs one step.
- A chamber takes in one unit at a time from below and releases it from the top.
- It works on that unit for one to three ticks, using one or two units of energy per tick.
- It does not change the colour. A red unit that goes in comes out as heated red.
- A new treatment replaces an old one. A heated unit that goes through a chilling chamber comes out chilled, not heated and chilled.
Orders want an exact match
An order accepts a unit only if both its colour and its treatment match. A plain orange unit will not fill an order for heated orange, and a heated orange unit will not fill an order for plain orange. A unit that does not match is discarded and counts as waste, though the run continues.
Some orders are marked as a sequence: they need their colours in a set order, and each item only becomes acceptable once the one before it is complete. Those puzzles are where valves come in.
Contamination and filters
From Chapter 3, some sources carry contaminated units. A contaminated unit spoils everything it shares a tank or mixer with, and delivering a contaminated unit to an order fails the run immediately.
A filter pipe is the defence. It lets through only the colours it is set to pass, and cleans those units as they go through. Any other colour is removed and counts as waste. Filter puzzles are the one place where a little waste is unavoidable, so the three-star target allows for it.
Planning a mixing puzzle
- Work backwards from the order. What colour, how many units and which treatment?
- Count the inputs. Each mixed unit needs half a unit of each base colour: four green means two blue and two yellow.
- Mix before you treat. Route the mixer's output into the chamber, never the other way round.
- Balance the arrival times. Equal path lengths into a mixer keep it from jamming.
- Run, watch and adjust. Step through the simulation tick by tick to see exactly where a unit goes astray.