Mixing in Schedule 1 is not additive. An ingredient does not simply stack its effect on top of what is already in the mix - it can replace effects that are there, set off a chain reaction, and leave you somewhere you did not expect.
The Mix Explorer shows that resolution one step at a time. Add an ingredient and you get the rule that fired, the effect it replaced, the effect it produced, and the full state of the mix afterwards. The point is the why, not the total.
If you already know the recipe and just want the numbers, the Mixing Calculator is quicker. If you want the most profitable mix without naming it first, use the Recipe Optimizer. This tool is for understanding the system itself.
How mixing resolves
Every ingredient carries two things: a default effect it contributes when nothing gets in the way, and a set of transformation rules of the form “if X is present and Y is not, turn X into Y”. Across the 16 ingredients there are 114 such rules - Gasoline alone has 11, Horse Semen has 4.
The rules always resolve first, and the default effect is only added afterwards, if the mix still has room.
Two passes, not one
The rules are evaluated against the state of the mix as it was before the ingredient landed, so several can fire at once. Then a second pass runs: a rule blocked the first time because its target effect was already present can now fire, if that blocker was itself removed during the first pass.
A real case from the engine: a mix holding Smelly and Toxic, with Banana added. First pass, Smelly becomes Anti-Gravity. That frees Smelly - so on the second pass Toxic becomes Smelly. One ingredient, two replacements, the second only possible because of the first. The Explorer labels these chained after the first pass.
Why order changes everything
Because each rule reads the mix at the moment its ingredient is added, the same ingredients in a different order give different results. On OG Kush, Gasoline then Cuke gives Calming, Euphoric, Energizing: Gasoline adds Toxic and Cuke turns Toxic into Euphoric. Reverse them and you get Calming, Euphoric, Toxic - a different mix, worth a different amount.
The eight-effect ceiling
A mix holds at most 8 effects. There is no limit on how many ingredients you add, but once the mix is full, a new ingredient can still transform what is there while its own default effect is turned away at the door. That is usually the moment a promising recipe stops improving, and the Explorer calls it out explicitly rather than leaving you to notice the count stopped moving.
Reading a step
Step 0 is the base product and whatever effect it starts with. Every step after it is one ingredient, and states what happened in plain terms: which effect became which, what was added, or why nothing was.
Below each explanation is the complete mix at that point. Effects the step touched are shown at full strength; everything carried over from before is dimmed, so you can see at a glance how much of the mix this one ingredient actually moved.
Removing a step removes everything after it. That is deliberate - the steps that follow were computed against a mix that would no longer exist, so keeping them would show you a sequence the game would never produce. Cut at the point you want to reconsider and rebuild forwards from there.
