Use purification tablets for microbes and some chemical contamination, Kotton Fabric for large contaminants in chemistry mixtures, and an Evaporator to remove Water, Alcohol, and Lipobond Agent overnight. These tools perform different jobs, so choosing between them starts with whether you want cleaner water, a strained mixture, or dried chemistry residue. The Evaporator can also recover vapor into another container, but it catches nothing without a Quality module. For water treatment, the launch-build guide pairs tablets with a filtered pitcher and reserves Pure Water for a Water Purifier fitted with Quality modules.
Choose by what you need to remove
Purification tablets address microbes and reduce some chemical contamination, making them the relevant choice when those are the problems in your water. The launch-build water guide says a tablet is enough for a large bottle of Rustwater, so that specific example does not require a stack of tablets. A Water Filter handles a different set of contaminants: physical impurities, microplastics, and organic waste are removed while pouring through a filtered pitcher. That division matters because the tablet and filter steps address different contamination categories within the same water-treatment workflow.
Kotton Fabric appears as an optional straining step in the chemistry workflow, where its stated job is removing large contaminants from a mixture. That gives it a clear role before evaporation, rather than making it interchangeable with the tablet step used for microbes in water. The chemistry sequence places straining before the mixture spends the night in a powered Evaporator. Choose fabric when that large-contaminant step is relevant to your chemistry batch; choose tablets when following the water guide's microbial and chemical treatment step.
How the Evaporator removes and recovers liquids
The Evaporator takes a liquid container holding Water, Alcohol, or Lipobond Agent and removes those liquids during the night. Its base removal is up to 300 mL per night, divided among those substances according to how much of each the input contains. Everything else stays in the original container, which is why the chemistry workflow can use evaporation on the way to obtaining dry residue. The removed volume is therefore a combined amount across the listed substances, rather than a separate allowance for every substance present in your mixture.
Removal and collection are separate parts of the machine's behavior: Module Quality determines the share of evaporated vapor that reaches the distillate container. Without a Quality module, nothing is caught, even though the machine's description still specifies evaporation from the input container. The receiver can be any liquid container, and recovered vapor is added to whatever that receiver already holds. Check both the module setup and the receiver's existing contents when collecting liquids, since collecting vapor does not replace what is already inside the receiving container.
The listed power use is 6 kJ per night, while the performance examples show how the nightly processed volume changes with Performance. At Performance +0% the listed volume is 300 mL, rising to 450 mL at +50% and 600 mL at +100%. The module grid is 4 x 4 and accepts Universal and Evaporator modules, providing the machine's stated space and module categories. Watch the Solvent Recovery Module in particular: only Alcohol goes to the distillate with it, and its listed modifiers are Quality +50% and Efficiency -25%.
Follow the treatment workflow for water grades
Start by testing water instead of treating its apparent quality as a reliable indication of its grade. A Water Testing Strip reveals the real grade when dipped into water, and the launch-build guide recommends doing this before buying or selling. Then use the tablet and filtered-pitcher steps for their respective contamination types, rather than assuming either step covers every category. Filters wear out, and Gutterflow destroys them quickly, so filter wear is part of the practical difference between treating that water and simply adding a tablet.
The launch-build guide says tablets plus a filter bring most water to Basewater or High-Quality, leaving a further requirement for Pure Water. It specifies a Water Purifier with Quality modules for that final grade, rather than giving the same promise for fabric straining or the Evaporator. The listed purity bands are 98% to 99% for Basewater, 99% to 99.9% for High-Quality, and 99.9%+ for Pure Water. Keep those grade bands separate from Evaporator Module Quality, whose stated meaning is the proportion of vapor recovered into the distillate container.
The Water Purifier also behaves differently depending on how dirty the input water is, according to the launch-build guide. It removes up to 20 times more contamination per night from water below 50% purity than from water that is already close to clean. The guide consequently recommends feeding it your worst water, a useful distinction when deciding which batch should receive purifier treatment. This concerns the purifier's contamination-removal rate; the Evaporator's listed Performance volumes instead describe liquid removed from its input during the night.
Use fabric and evaporation together in chemistry
In the chemistry workflow, the Blender turns plants into mush inside an attached container, establishing the mixture that later processing works on. Kotton Fabric can optionally strain out large contaminants before the powered overnight evaporation step removes water and alcohol. The instructions call for continuing evaporation until those liquids are gone, then moving the dry residue to the Chem Finisher. The Finisher packages fully dried residue into a product, so straining, drying, and packaging occupy distinct places in this workflow rather than replacing one another.
The Chemistry starter equipment includes Kotton Fabric, a Water Pitcher, an Evaporator, and the other chemistry machines, giving that setup access to the straining and evaporation steps. For another fabric-related route, the launch-build growing guide lists Kotton as taking about 4 nights at its base growing time. Its listed yield is Kotton fiber, or Kotton Fabric when the Kotton Loom module is used. That module condition matters when looking for fabric through growing, because the guide distinguishes the ordinary fiber yield from the fabric produced with the Loom.
Find equipment that matches your intended workflow
For the water-trading route, the launch-build guide lets you start as the Water Merchant or buy Water Trading from Wild for 300 credits. The listed kit contains testing strips, purification tablets, a Water Pitcher, a Water Filter, and a used HydraTech Micro Water Purifier. The tablets, pitcher, and filter supply the tools named for the initial tablet and filtration steps. Keep the kit's used HydraTech Micro Water Purifier distinct from the Water Purifier with Quality modules specified for making Pure Water.
For an Evaporator, the wiki lists the Retired Chemist and Retired Water Merchant as always bringing one, while the Chemist start provides a Shabby Evaporator. It also lists an Evaporator in the Retired Chemist upgrade starter kit, alongside a Blender, Heating Plate, and Chem Finisher. The upgrade is listed at 1,000 Credits on Cozy and Normal, so retain that difficulty condition when comparing this acquisition route. After obtaining the machine, match its setup to your task: powered evaporation supports drying, while collecting vapor additionally requires the Quality condition described for recovery.