Welcome to your crash course in lunar janitorial economics. If you want to stop wandering the moon with a sad little toothbrush and start raking in dust like a space tycoon, you need a plan. Below is a friendly, slightly snarky roadmap of which upgrades to scoop up first so your operation goes from embarrassing to efficient without bankrupting your astronaut ego.
Start Smart: Swap the Toothbrush for a Real Broom
Don’t be sentimental about the Toothbrush. It’s cute, but it’s tiny and slow. Upgrading early to a Household Broom gives you a wider sweep and more storage so you stop making ten trips over the same dusty crater. It’s cheap and immediately satisfying — the kind of small flex that actually speeds up your cash flow.
If you’re tempted by oddball middle-tier brushes, resist unless you have a very specific reason. Save your cash for upgrades that actually change how much dust you collect per run.
Widen Your Reach: Wide Broom and Wide Heads
After the Household Broom, focus on coverage. The Wide Broom lets you clear more ground in one pass, and Wide Heads boost the effectiveness of each stroke. Together they turn tedious back-and-forth sweeping into a smooth, efficient glide across lunar dirt.
These feel like incremental upgrades, but they compound — more ground covered means more dust sold, which means more upgrades unlocked. Pick the ones that fix your current slow spot rather than buying every broom that looks shiny.
Money Moves: Invest in Market Contracts Early
Upgrades are great, but money runs the show. The Economy upgrades — especially Market Contracts — should be on your early shopping list. They increase the payout you get for selling dust, so every trip becomes more lucrative. Even a modest percent boost can add up quickly and accelerate everything else you want to buy.
After you lock a Market Contract, keep an eye out for things like regional bonuses or exchange upgrades that stack with your payouts. More income = less waiting around for that sweet garage or vehicle purchase.
Build It Up: Buy the Building Tool and Get a Vehicle
Manual sweeping is fine for a minute, but vehicles change the game. The Building Tool unlocks structures like a garage, and once you build a garage you can park actual sweepers that cover massive areas. A Push Sweeper is your first meaningful vehicle step — you’ll suddenly collect way more dust per trip and spend less time hoofing it across the lunar landscape.
Treat the garage and starter vehicle as your first big milestone. After that, aim for higher-tier sweepers that keep lifting the efficiency ceiling.
Don’t Underestimate Speed: Servo Stride and Movement Upgrades
Walking time eats into productivity. Speed upgrades in the Suit category — like Servo Stride — cut down travel time between tasks, which is especially helpful before you have a fleet of vehicles. Faster movement means you spend more minutes sweeping and fewer minutes stuck in the spacewalk equivalent of rush hour.
Also consider utility items from the supply wall once you can afford them: jetpacks, lights, or gravity boots can be surprisingly handy for niche situations.
Smooth Logistics: Rapid Transfer and Packagers
As your collection rate climbs, so does the need to move dust efficiently. Rapid Transfer reduces transfer delays so you’re not wasting time depositing goods. Packagers and conveyors let you automate the prep and shipping of material, which is where the game begins to feel like a real factory instead of a tiring cleanup job.
Think of these as the plumbing of your operation: boring but indispensable once you’re handling large volumes.
Automation Comes Later: Save Big for Robots and Factories
Automating everything is tempting, but expensive. Robot vacuums and autonomous systems are amazing once your basic income and logistics are stable, but they’re not the best first buys. Invest in automation only when it’s no longer a stretch — these purchases should amplify a working machine, not be the thing that makes everything work.
In short: set up strong basics first (tools, vehicles, and economy boosts), then let automation take over when the cash flow is steady.
Quick FAQ (Because You’ll Ask)
What should I buy first? The handheld-to-household broom upgrade. It’s cheap, immediate, and improves how much dust you get per sweep.
Which upgrade category matters most early on? Economy upgrades are hugely useful early because better payouts speed up every other purchase.
Should I save for a vehicle from the start? Upgrade your broom and coverage first, then work toward the Building Tool and a starter vehicle. That sequence keeps your income steady so the vehicle purchase hurts less.
Parting Tips
Keep checking what slows you down: is it area coverage, money, transfer speed, or travel time? Buy the upgrade that removes the current bottleneck, not the one that looks coolest. And remember: the moon has a lot of dust, and you have a small broom. Upgrade wisely, laugh at your own terrible fashion choices in a spacesuit, and enjoy turning lunar grime into profit.
Other guides you might actually read later: beginner tips, automation basics, and how-to for the big robot helpers. They’ll help when you’re ready to go full factory mode.
