Episode 17 is another live stream, and it has one goal from the first line: "Today we're going to be trying to get some blue science." Nothing is researching, on purpose, while Basket works out what blue science needs. Over the hour that turns into a chain of new builds: sulfur, batteries, plastic and red circuits, then assemblers for inserters. The stream ends one ingredient short, and a short segment recorded afterward shows the first blue science packs moving and a new research started.
Water, sulfur and batteries
The recipe check comes first. Blue science needs batteries and advanced circuits, so batteries come first, and those need sulfur from a chemical plant fed with water and oil products. Basket crafts a pump and pipes, then runs water up from the lake, using underground pipes to bridge long gaps. The first chemical plant gets no water until one underground pipe is swapped for a regular one: "now we're making sulfur."
The battery step brings a surprise. Basket lays out assemblers for batteries, then finds they have to be made in a chemical plant too. "Really? It has to be made in a chemical plant?" The pipes run out more than once. Meanwhile the oil setup stalls because one product is backing up. A filter inserter pulls some off the line and storage tanks go in to hold the extra. When the battery plants finally run, the output is slow ("slow production of batteries"), so a second plant is added beside the first.
Red circuits in a tight space
Next is the advanced circuit, which the crafting menu shows as a red chip. It takes green circuits, copper cable and plastic. Basket squeezes two assemblers for it next to the existing circuit line, with filter inserters to pick copper cable and green circuits off the belts. "Hopefully this is making sense to everybody."
Plastic is the missing piece. Basket splits off a belt of coal and sends it underground to a new chemical plant, reroutes the gas pipe to reach it, and puts plastic and batteries on the same belt. A filter inserter moves plastic over to the circuit assemblers, and a few minutes later: "we're slowly making red circuits." The commentary also notices a gun turret with no ammo at the edge of the base, and attack alerts keep coming in from the copper mine.
One part short
The Science pack 3 recipe also needs filter inserters and steel plate. Basket brings batteries and red circuits south on one belt, then builds a line that turns regular inserters into fast inserters, and fast inserters into filter inserters, with splitters and filter inserters feeding it iron and green circuits. The commentary sees the bottleneck in the circuits and cable rather than the inserters.
The first blue science assemblers go in at the end of the stream, crammed in a row. They still have no steel, and one of the chemical plants has stopped for lack of petroleum gas. "This is not as pretty as all of this," the commentary admits, and the stream signs off with a redesign planned.
After the stream
The episode then picks up with a segment recorded later, "to the same episode that you've been watching." The blue science assemblers have been rebuilt in a column so each one can take all four ingredients, and a splitter sends the finished packs down both sides of the science area, all on the left side of the belt. The commentary also points out a new line of turrets spaced two apart with ammo running down to the copper area, and a second copper patch just past the northern border.
Where it ends
Blue science is "slowly stockpiling," and the commentary suspects the petroleum gas supply is now the slowest part. Solid fuel is still backing up, so more of it is pulled off the line. To finish, Basket opens the research screen to spend the new packs and picks Inserter capacity bonus 1, then notes "that one didn't require blue science." It is researching as the video ends, after an attack somewhere in the base is over before the camera gets there.
