Grist

“Good grief, look at all this grist.”

Grist is the name of a range of resources used in Sburb. In order for a server player to manipulate their client's surroundings, they must expend the most basic type of grist, build grist. Other types of grist are used as the ingredients to create objects with the Alchemiter. Grist can be acquired through victory in Strife, or by recycling objects into the grist components that are used to create them. Higher level enemies seem to drop exponentially higher amounts of grist, with imps - even nigh-unkillable undead ones - dropping hardly any, while the denizens sit on hoards vast enough to perform Ultimate Alchemy.

The most up-to-date grist cache seen so far in Homestuck is in the LOHAC Stock Exchange, in the top right of this screen.

Build grist

Build grist, which takes the form of a blue elongated hexagonal bipyramid, is the most common type of grist.

Build grist is primarily earned by the client player during Strife, and is then utilised by the server player to modify the client's domicile: altering room dimensions, creating new floors, stairs, or ladders, and moving/placing/copying/pasting objects. Each additional server/client pairing enters the session with an increased quota of starting grist. John's server has 20 (2×10¹) build grist to start with, while Rose's server has 200 (2×10²), Dave's server has 2,000 (2×10³) and Jade's server has 20,000 (2×10⁴). This implies that in the trolls' session, Karkat may potentially have started with a whopping two trillion (2×10¹²) build grist as Sollux's server, unless larger player chains gain grist in smaller increments precisely to avoid this kind of ridiculous quantity.

It should be noted that although they resemble Rockin' Blue Raspberry Gushers, attempting to ingest any amount of build grist – and presumably any other grist types, for that matter – is considered an "idiotic and frivolous action", as they are gaming abstractions that do not exist on the physical plane during the Sburb session. Upon touching the client player during a session, the grist is stored in the grist cache. Server players are unable to interact directly with grist and must rely on their clients to collect it for them. Build grist comes in several sizes, with each size being worth a different amount of grist. The exact quantity of build grist dropped by an opponent seems to be randomly determined, with only the general order of magnitude determined by the opponent's nature.

Build grist is also a component of most alchemized items, though the amount needed varies. For example, John's awesome Pogo Hammer requires 10 units of build grist, as well as 16 units of shale. While the type of building material needed for a particular item seems to be determined by certain aesthetic qualities of the desired object, build grist often acts as a generic requirement for construction – if you're ever in need of perfectly ordinary 'stuff', build grist will probably be involved in the creation of it.

Other types

The grist cache implies that there are thirty-six different types of grist, but thirty-eight types have been clearly shown (although only twenty-one of these have been named), making it unknown how many types of grist there are. Displays have also shown what appear to be 12 additional types of grist. While build grist is used mostly to alter the client's environment, the other grists' purpose seems to be to be used in conjunction with the Totem Lathe and Alchemiter.

Grist	Source(s)	Applications
Amber	Amber Imps, Sulfur Ogres, "Yellow" Basilisks	iShades, Foam Mutant Smuppet Encased In Amber, Amber Mutant Smuppet Abomination, Iron Lass suit
Amethyst	Unknown LOLAR Underlings	Silken Wizardbeard Yarn, Velvet Squiddleknit Dress, Thorns of Oglogoth, Sooth Specs, Junior Compu-Sooth Spectagoggles
Artifact	Produced by alchemising SBaHJ-related items	Unknown, possibly useless
Caulk	Caulk Liches	Hubtop, Captcharoid Camera
Chalk	Chalk Imps	Hubtop, Needlewands, Thorns of Oglogoth, Snoop Dogg Snow Cone Machete, Transparent Magic 8 Ball
Cobalt	Cobalt Imps	Magnetic Wodka, Silken Wizardbeard Yarn, Snoop Dogg Snow Cone Machete, Dress of Eclectica
Diamond	Caulk Liches	Fear No Anvil, Hubtopband, Magnetic Wodka, Needlewands, Turntop, Snoop Dogg Snow Cone Machete, Transparent Magic 8 Ball, Sooth Specs, Junior Compu-Sooth Spectagoggles, Girl's Best Friend, Lunchmuffs, Johnnytop
Garnet	LOHAC Giclopses, unknown LOLAR underlings	Fear No Anvil, Turntop, Red Plush Puppet Tux, Silken Wizardbeard Yarn, Needlewands, Dead Shuffle Dress
Gold	LOHAC Giclopses, unknown LOLAR underlings	Fear No Anvil, Needlewands, Velvet Squiddleknit Dress, Thorns of Oglogoth, Captcharoid Camera, Foam Mutant Smuppet Encased in Amber, Turntop
Iodine	Unknown LOLAR underlings	Bronzed Vacuumbrella, Thorns of Oglogoth
Marble	Marble Imps	Hubtopband, Captcharoid Camera
Mercury	Mercury Imps, Crude Ogres	Serious Business Goggles, Telescopic Sassacrusher, Magnetic Wodka, Captcharoid Camera
Quartz	LOQAM Imps, unknown LOWAS Giclopse.	Fear No Anvil, Broken Scarlet Ribbitar, Scarlet Ribbitar
Ruby	Ruby Giclopses	Silken Wizardbeard Yarn, Broken Scarlet Ribbitar, Scarlet Ribbitar, Junior Compu-Sooth Spectagoggles, Lunchmuffs, Johnnytop, Iron Lass Suit
Rust	Rust Imps, "Yellow" basilisks	Red Plush Puppet Tux, Thorns of Oglogoth, Foam Fetal Mr. T in a Jar
Shale	Shale Imps, Crude Ogres	Punch Designix, Pogo Hammer, Bronzed Vacuumbrella, Captcharoid Camera, Snoop Dogg Snow Cone Machete, Green Slime Ghost Suit, Wise Guy Slime Suit, Jane's hat (one recipe), Obelisk, Hellacious Blue Phlegm Aneurysm Gushers
Sulfur	Sulfur Ogres, "Yellow" Basilisks	Unknown
Tar	Shale Imps, Crude Ogres, Tar Basilisks	Wise Guy Slime Suit, Serious Business Goggles, Telescopic Sassacrusher, Remote Ghost Gauntlets, Bodacious Black Liquid Sorrow Gushers, Velvet Squiddleknit Dress, Thorns of Oglogoth, Turntop, Suitarangs, Four Aces Suited, Transparent Magic 8 ball Dead Shuffle Dress, Three in the Morning Dress, Obelisk
Uranium	Uranium Imps	Felt Duds, Proton Cannon, Green Sun Streetsweeper, Three in the Morning Dress, Iron Lass Suit
Zillium	Possibly an extremely rare drop from any underling (e.g. LOHAC Giclops, unknown LOLAR underling) Drop from any underlings defeated by a Trickster Mode character One unit produced by alchemising each of the cherubs' suckers	Warhammer of Zillyhoo, Battlespork of Zillywut, Flintlocks of Zillyhau, Cutlass of Zillywair, Blunderbuss of Zillywigh, Unbreakable Katana, Thistles of Zillywich, Zillywave, Sawhoo, possibly Zilly Santas
???	Unknown	Dead Shuffle Dress
???	Unknown	Dead Shuffle Dress
???	Unknown	Johnnytop, Jane's hat (one recipe)
???	Unknown	Proton Cannon, Green Sun Streetsweeper, Dutton Bubble Goggles (none required), Jane's hat (one recipe)
???	Unknown	Ahab's Crosshairs
???	LOLCAT Ogres	Unknown
???	LOLCAT Ogres, "Lich Queen"	Unknown
???	LOLCAT Imps	Unknown
???	LOPAH Imps	Unknown
???	LOHAC Giclopses	Unknown
???	LOHAC Giclopses	Unknown
???	LOHAC underlings, "Lich Queen"	Unknown
???	"Lich Queen"	Unknown
???	"Lich Queen"	Unknown
???	Unknown	Obelisk
???	Unknown	Obelisk
???	Unknown	Obelisk

Minor unknown types

Some displays have shown what may be at least twelve additional unnamed grist types.

1st row: Caulk, Amethyst, ?? 2nd row: ??, ??, ??, ??, ?? 3rd row: ??, Quartz, Diamond, Iodine, Cobalt, ??, Mercury 4th row: Amber, Garnet, Build, Shale, Uranium, ?? (obelisk), Marble, Tar, Gold	Build, Mercury, Quartz, Marble, Cobalt, Iodine, Garnet, Diamond, Gold, Ruby, ??, Uranium, ?? (LOLCAT), ??, ??, ??, ?? (LOHAC). Note the size of the scrollbar, seemingly indicating a large number of grist types.

Further Information

Combining the Problem Sleuth game with the Claw Hammer makes something which requires build grist, mercury, and three grist types not yet encountered by John. They could be Elf Tears, Weasel Snot, Hog Slop, or Pie Filling. Alternatively, they could be replaced with a similarly colored eyedrop shaped grist, like tar or amber.

Grist may be transferred from one user to another using the GristTorrent client. When a player collects more grist of a type than their cache limit will allow, GristTorrent places it in the Grist Gutter. From there, it is gradually redistributed to other players who have room for it.

Each player has different associated types of grist. John's grists are related to oil, Rose's are related to calcite, Dave's are related to amber, and Jade's are related to radioactive elements.

Since one can recycle items into grist, much like how Rose and Jane did, it is possible to simply recycle any unneeded items into grist for use later or to possibly find new types of grist. This should be approached with caution however, as weird plot shit or weird puzzle shit may make this dangerous.

Some objects such as the SBAHJifier cost negative amounts of grist, hypothetically allowing players to acquire infinite amounts of grist by creating these objects repeatedly (although this has never been shown in-universe). Since the grist cost of Fear No Anvil was reduced by making a smaller version of it, it could also be possible to create infinite grist by repeatedly creating a small object, enlarging it, and then converting it back into grist.

Trivia

• Jade's Dress Of Eclectica costs 8 cobalt grist, in an apparent reference to Vriska Serket and her blood color.