Guide
How to Play Little Chemist
Little Chemist is one action repeated: pick two elements, drop one on the other, and discover a third. Start with air, earth, fire, and water and grow the tree to all 157.
Play Little ChemistThe objective
Discover all 157 elements
Little Chemist begins with four elements: air, earth, fire, and water. Combining any two elements checks a recipe table; a match produces a new element and adds it to your library. Every element is reachable, and there are 157 in total.
There is no score, no timer, and no way to lose. The only measure is your completion percentage. Discovering the final element plays a short chime, and you can keep building on the workspace afterwards.
The game is free, runs in the browser, and needs no account. Open the workspace when you want to play; use this guide for the mechanics and the branches that open up the tree.
The loop
Four steps you repeat all game
- 1
Start with four elements
Every game opens with air, earth, fire, and water in the library on the right. Nothing else is unlocked yet — those four are the seeds of all 157 elements.
- 2
Drag one onto another
Drag an element from the library onto the open workspace, then drag a second element on top of it. If the pair reacts, the two disappear and their result takes their place. Earth on water makes mud; fire on water makes steam.
- 3
Read a failed reaction
If two elements do not combine, they simply stay where they are with a short sound. That is information: not every pair has a recipe, so try the new element against things you already have before reaching further.
- 4
Fill the discovery library
Each new element joins the library and can be combined again and again — the library copy is never used up. Keep chaining until every element is found: life, humans, cities, spaceships, and dragons are all in there.
Controls
Drag, tap, or use the keyboard
Every method moves the same elements. Pick whichever fits the device in your hand.
Everywhere
Drag and drop
Drag from the library to place an element, drag a placed element onto another to combine them, and drag any element off the workspace or onto the bin to remove it.
Fast placing
Double-click / double-tap
Double-click a library element to drop a copy onto the workspace without dragging. Handy when you are combining the same element many times in a row.
Desktop
Keyboard
H asks for a hint, C clears the workspace, M mutes the sound, and / focuses the library search. Every on-screen control also has a visible focus ring.
First combos
Combinations to start with
Every pair of the base four has a recipe, including an element with a copy of itself. These eight results branch into most of the tree.
- Fire + Water = Steam — The first pair most people try.
- Earth + Water = Mud — Mud plus plant later becomes swamp, then life.
- Earth + Fire = Lava — Lava plus air makes stone — the whole materials line.
- Air + Fire = Energy — Energy plus storm makes lightning, then electricity.
- Air + Air = Pressure — Pressure plus coal makes diamond.
- Water + Water = Puddle — Puddle, sea, ocean — the water chain.
- Air + Lava = Stone — Stone plus fire makes metal, then tools.
- Air + Steam = Cloud — Cloud plus water makes rain, which grows plants.
Rules
How combining works
The objective
Discover all 157 elements. There is no score, no timer, and no way to lose — the only measure is how much of the tree you have uncovered, shown as a percentage.
Combining
A recipe is an unordered pair of elements. Dropping one element on another checks the pair against the recipe table; a match replaces both with the result and, if it is new, adds it to your library.
The library never runs out
Elements in the library are templates. You can place as many copies of water as you like, so a combination you have done before is always repeatable.
Hints
A hint points at two elements you already own that make something you have not found yet. Hints are unlimited, and they never spoil more than one step.
Progress
Discovered elements are saved in your browser on this device. The workspace itself is cleared when you reload, but the library and completion percentage stay.
Branches
The four big lines of the tree
Most elements sit on one of these lines. Open a hub element and a cluster of recipes comes with it.
- 01
Materials
Lava → stone → metal → steel → tool. From tools you get wood, wheels, blades, and everything built from them: houses, ships, cars, and machines.
- 02
Weather and land
Steam → cloud → rain, storm, and lightning. Rain on earth makes plants; sea plus earth makes lakes; lava plus ocean makes islands.
- 03
Life
Mud plus plant makes swamp; energy plus swamp makes life. Life plus land makes animals; life plus mud makes humans — and humans unlock the whole civilization branch.
- 04
Civilization and beyond
Humans plus books make knowledge, then science, computers, and robots. Sky plus sky makes space, leading to stars, planets, galaxies, astronauts, and aliens.
Common mistakes
Why players stall
Only combining with the base four
Air, earth, fire, and water open the tree, but most recipes pair two derived elements. After a few discoveries, start combining your new elements with each other.
Forgetting doubles
It is easy to overlook combining an element with a copy of itself. Sea plus sea, tree plus tree, and house plus human are all real recipes.
Not re-testing new elements
A discovery like "tool" or "life" unlocks a wave of new pairs. Whenever you find a hub element, sweep it against everything you own.
Ignoring the search box
Once the library has fifty entries, scrolling for one element is slow. Type its first letters into the search box instead.
- Exhaust the base pairs first: every combination of air, earth, fire, and water (including a thing with itself) has a recipe.
- Whenever you make a new element, immediately try it against air, earth, fire, water, and your other recent discoveries.
- Follow the water chain — puddle, sea, ocean — early; it feeds beaches, islands, and life.
- The tool line is the backbone of the tree. Get stone, then metal, then tool, and dozens of elements open up.
- Doubles matter: air plus air, water plus water, plant plus plant, and stone plus stone all make something.
- If a branch stalls, ask for a hint — it always points to a pair you can already build.
- Use the bin freely. Clearing the workspace does not touch your library, so tidy up whenever it gets crowded.
Where you can play
Same game on phone and desktop
littlechemist.app runs in any modern browser with no app to install. Progress stays on the device you played on.
Desktop browsers
Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari all run the game with no plugin. Drag with the mouse, double-click to place, and use the keyboard shortcuts for hints, clearing, and mute.
Phones and tablets
The layout is touch-first. Drag elements with a finger; the workspace pans so it never feels cramped, and the library docks to the side in landscape or the bottom in portrait.
Progress on this device
Your discovered elements and completion percentage live in local browser storage. They stay until you reset them or clear site data, and they do not sync between devices.
Still stuck? Read the Little Chemist FAQ or jump in and play.
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