How to use the Drug Packer

So you've begun your journey in Big Pharma, and researched the 'Drug Packer'. If you're wondering what it does, how it's useful, or just looking for tips, this guide is here to help.

Intro

The Drug Packer is a machine in Big Pharma, researched through 'Alternative Delivery'. This machine intakes a base of 2 units (upgradable to 7) of the same drug and packs them into a single 'cardboard box' unit.

Usage

The Drug Packer is an immensely useful machine. While it has no effect on your drugs (aside from marginally increasing the cost), used correctly it will massively boost your profits.

The Packer is placed after the drug's 'Maker' (Pill Printer, Creamer, Sachet Fabricator, or Syringe Injector), and before the drug goes to the export socket. The finished drugs go into the packer to be packed into boxes. Once enough of the same drug has gone into the packer, the packer will output a box containing that amount of that drug.

The box is moved on the production line like any drug or ingredient, however it contains multiple copies of the drug it contains. This means that a single belt heading to an export socket, filled with boxes containing 2 drugs each, can export 2 drugs per day instead of 1.

In short, the Drug Packer allows for exporting multiple production lines' worth of drugs using a single export socket.

Example

So how does it work in practice? Let's look at an example:



Currently, I am producing a diabetes medication. Each production line produces 1d/d, but I need to use the two export sockets to do so. If I simply chained them together, it would cut their speed in half, and I would produce 1.0d/d for the whole thing, which normally produces 2.0d/d. To avoid this, I will use the Drug Packer. It is under the Auxillary tab in the building menu.



Now, I place it down, like so, giving each production line it's own packer, and then chaining the lines together.



I then connect the output of the production line to the single export socket.



Note that if I look in the Company tab, I am producing 2.0d/d. Why? Because when the Packer packs two drugs into one unit, I can chain them together to produce one line of double units. This means that I can now produce my drug using only one socket, but producing double the quantity.

Why use the Drug Packer?

By using the Packer, you can have multiple drug production lines export to a single export socket!

If your building has 4 sockets, without the packer you could have two simultaneous lines running, each producing 1.0/d. But by packing the drugs, you can combine two lines to a single export socket, and thus free up the fourth socket to make a third production line!

As the packer is upgraded, it gains additional packing capacity. With clever usage, you can have a building with 8 sockets be able to house 7 simultaneous production lines, compared to 4 without the packer.

Production Control and the Stock Gate

One of the most important considerations for using the drug packer is stock control. If done incorrectly, your entire production line for a building could become completely blocked.

There are two ways of controlling stock:

• The first way is by setting a limit in the Company tab. When the stock passes this limit, the export sockets will no longer allow that drug to exit the factory.
  
• The second is using a Stock Gate. These gates can be used to accomplish the exact same thing, but will limit the export at the gate's location.

So what's the difference?

Let's say we have three different drug production lines, all connected to packers and sharing the same export socket.



Here we can see three production lines, for products A, B, and C. Using the Drug Packer, we can export all three simultaneously using a single export socket.

But let's say Product C isn't selling well. If we have a stock limit of 5, then when the stock exceeds that limit, this drug won't be exported anymore.



So why are Product A and B also having no sales? That stock limit has now killed our entire production!



In this image we can see what's going on. The box containing Product C has reached the end of the belt. Because of the stock limit, it's not being exported. But since this is a shared belt, that box is now blocking Product A and B from export as well.

To fix this issue, we can use a Stock Gate instead. Let's place one just after each packer, before each branch merges with the main belt:



We've now fixed the problem. When a stock gate trips for a product, it will only prevent that product from merging into the main belt, rather than blocking the entire production line. The other products are still being exported:



We now can limit a single drug's production, without affecting the others on the same export line. All thanks to the stock gate!

Tips

• Remember that the amount of drugs packed into one box increases as you upgrade it. (2 -> 7)
  
• Be sure to keep in mind that the number of drugs packed into one box is equivalent to the number of production lines that can be chained to a single socket using the packer. If three lines are funneled to packers that only pack two drugs into a box, then the line will back up and lose efficiency.

[XTS (Away)]

Thank you so much for this guide ♥

[H2SO4]

I've updated the guide to use clearer language, and give more information!

[H2SO4]

Yes you do need to print the pill. All drugs must go through one of the four ‘makers’ (pill, cream, sachet, syringe) before being exported in any circumstance.

The drug packed only changes whether drugs go straight from the production line to the export socket, or are packed first.

The drug packer doesn’t affect the drug itself, rather it allows you to use sockets more efficiently.

[Lettuce]

Please H2SO4, If you are still here. I have one question: Do I need to Print the Pill before Shipping? I print all my d's into Pills, am I doing it correctly? Thank you so much Sir.

[Bacculus]

@Khaim / @Dodge One caveat to sharing an output slot is that when a new drug reaches an output slot for the first time, it pauses the line until that drug is named. The hiccups from tweaking a formula on an active line can really impact the bottom line if you're not careful.

[H2SO4]

Yes, that's a great example!

[vezrilx]

Yeah something like this right?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2506765554

[Dodge]

the packer allows for export to SHARE a wall socket they don't have to be same drug.

reasons your drugs wont export and cause a Traffic jam:

1) you not named your drug and it wont export until then this will hold back all other drugs on the SHARED LINE.

2) you put a stock gate in a SHARED BELT AREA and the gate stops the traffic as programmed.

3) you are putting too many drugs to SHARE EXPORT SOCKET and havent used them science point to upgrade the packers

[kingjames488]

theoretically 3 syringe injectors should also produce 1d/d... tho I haven't tried it and not sure if it'd bottleneck a bit.

[Khaim]

Something the author missed (or didn't explain) is that the "must be identical" only applies to the input for an individual packer. You can mix different types of drugs on a single output socket.

Take any two 1/day production lines, and where you would normally connect the end of each line to the output, instead connect it to a packer. The merge the packer output-belts together and connect that to an output socket. Upgraded boxes allow you to merge more production lines onto the same output.

Essentially, an N->1 packer accelerates an output line from 1/day to N/day. Thus you can merge up to N full-speed production lines onto the same output.