Before you put $500 into a Garage ($200) and a Push Sweeper ($300), spend your early money on three things: a cheap brush path up to the Household Broom ($25), that broom's $30 container upgrade (about 3 kg to 6 kg), and the first level of Market Contracts (listed at $120 for a 6% launch payout in early runs). Everything else can wait until you know whether you are heading into vehicles or automation.
The key limitation is timing. Players with many hours on record report that handheld tool upgrades lose their value soon after the first vehicles arrive, so heavy spending on brooms delays the purchase that actually changes your clearing speed. Prices below were read from launch-week shop and Upgrade Matrix screens; always confirm the number on your own screen before buying. In co-op on patch 1.0.3, the whole crew uses the host's Upgrade Matrix, so one person buying an upgrade covers everyone.
The Short Priority List
This order assumes you are playing the normal opening: Toothbrush from the supply wall, cleaning near the station, depositing at the Depot.
| Order | Purchase | Reported cost | Why it earns its place | Skip or delay when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nail Brush or Handbrush | $5 / $10 | Wider strip than the Toothbrush for very little money | You are already close to $25 |
| 2 | Household Broom | $25 | Practical width for working a whole hex | Never skip it in a normal opening |
| 3 | Household Broom container upgrade | $30 | Doubles the container from about 3 kg to 6 kg | Your container rarely fills before you stop |
| 4 | Market Contracts, first level | $120 in early runs | Raises the payout on every launch, including later vehicle loads | Dust is not reliably reaching the Depot yet |
| 5 | Region Bounty | Check in game | Extra $15 for each completed region | You leave most regions half cleaned |
| 6 | Garage plus Push Sweeper | $200 + $300 | Moves you out of the handheld stage | You have no plan for unloading |
The Wide Broom ($75) is optional. The Extra Wide Broom ($150), Wide Head and Dust Compactor are covered below as purchases to delay.
Why Handheld Upgrades Lose Value Fast
The opening stage of Moon Sweepers is short compared with the rest of the game. One of the most upvoted launch reviews, written after more than 19 hours of play, says you can move from basic tools to vehicles so quickly that buying tool upgrades becomes pointless after the first hours. Another long-session review notes that the best broom and a vehicle are both available well before the Moon-wide counter reaches 0.1%.
That changes how you should judge each early purchase. A brush upgrade only pays back while you are still sweeping by hand. An economy upgrade keeps paying for the rest of your save, because it applies to dust you launch no matter what collected it. Capacity upgrades sit in between: they matter a lot while the container is tiny and very little once a vehicle hopper is doing the work.
So the guiding rule is simple: buy handheld upgrades that pay for themselves within the next few trips, and treat everything else as money taken away from the vehicle budget.
Step 1: Brushes Up to the Household Broom
The supply wall tool shop lists this brush ladder:
| Tool | Price |
|---|---|
| Toothbrush | Free |
| Nail Brush | $5 |
| Handbrush | $10 |
| Household Broom | $25 |
| Wide Broom | $75 |
| Extra Wide Broom | $150 |
The Toothbrush starts with a 12 cm width and a 0.5 kg container, so even the $5 Nail Brush is a noticeable step. You do not need every rung, though. If you are already most of the way to $25, skipping the Nail Brush or Handbrush and going straight to the Household Broom saves money that would otherwise be thrown away within minutes.
To reach $25 quickly, stay close to the station and finish your first hex completely. Early runs show a $10 bonus for completing a hex, separate from the dust you sell. On a budget where the next tool costs $10 or $25, that bonus is often worth more than starting fresh ground.
Where the Wide Broom fits
The Wide Broom at $75 is a reasonable buy if you expect a long manual phase, for example if you are saving for automation rather than vehicles. If your plan is the $500 Garage and Push Sweeper, compare the $75 against how many trips it would take to earn it back. For many players the faster route is to keep the Household Broom, upgrade its container, and bank the rest.
Step 2: The Container Upgrade That Doubles Capacity
The Household Broom's container holds roughly 3 kg. Its $30 container upgrade raises that to 6 kg, which halves the number of times you stop to pack capsules or walk back to the Depot.
The Household broom container is the $30 entry that doubles early capacity.
This is the best-value capacity purchase in the opening because it is cheap and targets the most common early interruption. Use this check before you buy it:
- Buy it when you keep pressing Q to pack a capsule mid-pass, or you return to the Depot with a full container long before the hex is done.
- Delay it when your container rarely fills before you stop anyway; a wider brush helps more in that case.
- Prioritise it further when your cleaning area has drifted away from the station, because each return trip now costs more time.
Capacity and width solve different problems. Width increases the ground cleared per stroke; capacity reduces how often you stop. Look at which interruption happens more often in your own session before choosing.
Step 3: Economy Upgrades That Keep Paying After Vehicles
The Upgrade Matrix is split into cleaning, suit, logistics and economy categories. The economy category is the one most likely to stay useful after you leave handheld tools behind.
Market Contracts
Market Contracts raises the payout for every kilogram you launch. Early runs listed the first level at $120 for a 6% launch payout, and the following level showed 12%. At least one later recording showed a higher price for this upgrade, so read the cost on your own screen rather than assuming $120.
The reason it ranks so high is reach. The bonus applies to everything you sell, so it becomes more valuable as your income grows. A Push Sweeper or Lunar Sweeper load is far larger than a broom load, and the same percentage on that load is worth far more.
Buy it once dust is actually reaching the Depot and being paid out. If capsules are piling up somewhere before the Depot, an earnings multiplier does nothing until the delivery problem is fixed.
Region Bounty and Supplier Network
Region Bounty adds a bonus each time you finish cleaning a whole region; the first level showed an extra $15 per region. It suits players who work methodically and finish areas, and it pairs well with the hex completion habit from Step 1. Further levels were shown at higher prices, so treat it as an ongoing purchase rather than a one-off.
Supplier Network makes tool and container upgrades cheaper, with a 5% discount shown on the first level. Discounts only pay back when you have several expensive purchases ahead of you. Before vehicles, with only a handful of cheap brush upgrades left, the saving is small. It makes more sense later, if you plan to buy many upgrades in a row.
Upgrades to Delay Until You Know Your Next Tool
These upgrades are not bad, but their value before vehicles is weak compared with the items above.
- Wide Head: an early version offered 8% more cleaning width for $40, applied to every tool. That percentage is modest on a small broom, and it is not confirmed in the research whether it carries over to vehicles.
- Dust Compactor: an early version offered 15% more container capacity for $150 and required a container upgrade first. At that price it loses to the $30 Household Broom container upgrade by a wide margin.
- Extra Wide Broom: $150 for a strip that grew from about 65.9 cm to 98.8 cm in one shop comparison. It is satisfying, but it is almost a third of the Garage plus Push Sweeper budget.
- Suit upgrades: Leg Servos make you walk and run faster, and other suit options exist. They help on long walks, but a vehicle solves the same problem more completely.
- Logistics upgrades: Rapid Transfer speeds up deposits at stations and collectors, and Express Dock was described as halving deposit time. These help most once you are making many deposits per hour.
- Auto Packer: packs a capsule at your feet when your container fills. It removes a key press, not a trip, so it is low priority.
If you are unsure whether an upgrade applies to vehicles, read its in-game description carefully. Descriptions that say "every tool" may not cover vehicle hoppers or vehicle brushes.
Step 4: Saving the $500 Vehicle Budget
The entry point to the vehicle stage is the Garage at $200 plus the Push Sweeper at $300. Bigger vehicles come later:
| Vehicle | Price | Reported key stats |
|---|---|---|
| Push Sweeper | $300 | Cheapest vehicle-stage cleaner |
| Ride-on Sweeper | $1,000 | First drivable sweeper |
| Crew Transport Van | $2,000 | Transport, not a cleaner |
| Lunar Sweeper | $2,500 | Three brushes, 2.8 m strip, 1,200 kg hopper |
| Mega Vacuum Rover | $6,000 | 4 m intake, 3,000 kg base tank |
A few cash sources speed up the save without more brush spending:
- Flags: untangling a flag paid $100 in early runs. It is worth a short detour if one is nearby.
- Survey sites: completing a survey paid $250 in one exploration run.
- Hex and region bonuses: finishing what you have started keeps the $10 hex bonus and any Region Bounty coming.
Before the Garage goes down, decide where its vehicle will unload. A vehicle hopper holds far more than a broom, and that load still has to reach the Depot through a collector or conveyor route. Place the Garage carefully too: players report that removing a building returns only part of its cost, so a badly placed Garage is an expensive mistake at this budget.
Co-op Spending on Patch 1.0.3
On patch 1.0.3 the whole crew uses the host's Upgrade Matrix, and anyone's purchase upgrades everyone. That means the priority list above applies to the crew, not to each player. Agree on who buys the container upgrade and Market Contracts so the money is spent once. Vehicle purchases are a separate question; check the Garage store before a second player buys the same vehicle.
Quick Checks Before Each Purchase
Run through these before you spend early money:
- Will this still matter after vehicles? Economy upgrades usually will; brush upgrades usually will not.
- Which interruption is most common right now? Narrow passes point to width; frequent packing points to capacity.
- Is dust reaching the Depot and paying out? If not, fix delivery before buying payout bonuses.
- How far does this push back the $500 vehicle step? If a purchase delays it by many trips, it needs a strong reason.
- Does the on-screen price match what you expected? Launch-week prices are a guide, not a guarantee.
Follow this and you reach the vehicle stage with a Household Broom that did its job, a container that stopped wasting your time, and a payout bonus that keeps working on every load your new vehicle brings back.