Ironically, if we'd sunk 500 more XP into the project, it would have Critical Success'd.
Instead we got, well... an episode.
Hm. Someone remind me what's special about that machine?
Also, I'm pretty sure whoever we're up against has Intrigue 52 or so. And also, is either King-tier and has hero units on payroll, or has a +25 trait to something relevant. I wouldn't be...
entirely surprised if Negaduck had traits along those lines.
Prediction:
Uburnium turns out to be a Flubber derivative.
Why you catastrophize so? Relax. Besides...
Half the inator rolls are good, and half are bad. If we get to roll twice, half the time this does nothing, because the first roll gives us the inator we would have chosen anyway. Of the remaining half of all cases, a quarter will simply be choosing between two good options or the lesser of two evils.
So "Tinker with your inators" lets us exchange a bad roll for a good one only a quarter of all times we take the action, and lets us choose the lesser of two evils on another quarter of all occasions.
We are therefore sacrificing
two personal actions (on separate turns) for each time we avert or even mitigate a crisis with "Tinker with your inators."
Is losing two of Doof's personal actions worth it? Debatable. We get a lot of mileage out of those actions.