Your first few purchases in Moon Sweepers can make the difference between spending ages sweeping tiny patches of lunar dust and getting a proper cleaning operation underway. You start with almost nothing, but there are a few ways to make those early earnings go considerably further. If you're starting a fresh game, here's the opening route I'd recommend, including what to buy first, where to focus your cleaning, and when to start saving for something bigger.
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Best Starting Strategy
What to Buy First
Getting Money Early
Saving for Your First Vehicle
Starting Mistakes to Avoid
Best Starting Strategy in Moon Sweepers
The best way to start Moon Sweepers is to clean the area immediately surrounding your station, earn enough for a Household Broom, and avoid spending your first few hundred dollars on upgrades you won't use for very long.
Here's the opening route:
- Grab the free Toothbrush from the station's Supply Wall.
- Clean nearby lunar dust, pressing Q to pack it into capsules when needed.
- Return to the Depot, deposit your dust, and launch your shipment to earn money.
- Save your first $25 for the Household Broom.
- Continue clearing nearby sectors, collecting completion bonuses and exploration rewards along the way.
- Decide whether you need more broom capacity or whether you're ready to start saving for a vehicle.
I'd keep the opening focused around the station rather than heading off across the Moon immediately. Your Toothbrush has very little storage, and long trips become tedious when you're still working with such small loads.
Finish nearby sectors when you can, too. Each completed sector provides an additional $10, which is meaningful when your next equipment purchase only costs $25.
What Should You Buy First in Moon Sweepers?
Your first purchase should generally be the Household Broom. It costs $25 and offers a much more useful combination of cleaning width and container capacity than the starting Toothbrush.
The Nail Brush and Hand Brush are cheaper alternatives, but you can skip them if you're happy to save directly for the Household Broom.
After that purchase, I'd use the following priorities:
| Purchase | Cost | When to Get It |
|---|---|---|
| Household Broom | $25 | Your first purchase |
| Household Broom Capacity | $30 | If your container keeps filling |
| Wide Broom | $75 | If you're continuing manual cleaning |
| Building Tool | $50 | When preparing for construction |
The Household Broom's $30 capacity upgrade is a particularly good example of a situational purchase. It doubles the broom's container from 3 kg to 6 kg, letting you collect more dust before packing another capsule.
But if you're constantly sweeping over the same ground because your brush isn't wide enough, the $75 Wide Broom might be a more useful next step.
My preference is to make the Household Broom your first meaningful upgrade, then limit additional handheld spending unless you're committed to cleaning manually for a while. Every unnecessary purchase pushes your first vehicle a little further away.
How to Get Money Early Without Constantly Sweeping
Cleaning and selling dust is your main source of income, but it's worth paying attention to the opportunities scattered around the Moon.
Untangling flags rewards $100, while completing survey sites can award $250. Compared with your first few cleaning tools, those are substantial amounts of money.
A single $100 flag reward is enough to cover the Household Broom and Wide Broom together, for example.
I wouldn't spend your entire opening session searching the Moon for rewards, though. Grab them when you encounter them while cleaning and exploring, rather than making long journeys that interrupt your early progress.
Once you've established a reliable cleaning routine, these extra payouts can help you save for your next major purchase without having to rely entirely on small manual dust shipments.
For additional earning methods, our Moon Sweepers Money Making Guide covers the different ways to increase your income.
When Should You Save for Your First Vehicle?
Once the Household Broom is making your early cleaning comfortable, your next big target should be getting a vehicle rather than purchasing every remaining handheld upgrade.
The first practical vehicle setup requires three purchases:
- Building Tool: $50
- Garage: $200
- Push Sweeper: $300
That's $550 in total if you haven't purchased the Building Tool yet, excluding any additional conveyor infrastructure you decide to construct.
You don't need to save the entire amount before buying anything, but having a clear target makes it easier to resist spending money on upgrades that aren't going to help much once you're driving.
Before taking on larger cleaning jobs, think about where the vehicle's collected dust will go. A Garage can receive vehicle loads, but you'll still want an outgoing transport route to move that material toward the station.
Conveyors can take care of that journey once everything is connected properly. Our Moon Sweepers Auto Selling Guide covers setting up a working delivery route.
I'd consider reaching the Push Sweeper the end of your opening phase. From there, the way you approach cleaning changes considerably, and you can begin making decisions about larger vehicles, automation, and processing equipment.
Starting Mistakes to Avoid in Moon Sweepers
The opening is fairly forgiving, but a few spending habits can make those first purchases take much longer than necessary.
- Buying every brush in order. You can save directly for the Household Broom instead of purchasing both smaller alternatives first.
- Upgrading the Toothbrush too heavily. Its tiny starting cleaning width makes replacing it a more attractive early investment than stacking percentage bonuses.
- Cleaning too far from the station immediately. Shorter trips are more practical while your container is small.
- Spending on convenience upgrades before improving your cleaning equipment. Mobility and lighting upgrades have their uses, but they don't directly improve your first broom's dust collection.
- Buying a vehicle without considering unloading. Make sure you have a plan for handling the much larger loads you'll be collecting.
You also don't need to rush into solar panels, processing machines, or a complicated automated base during your opening session. Those become more useful once you're bringing in enough dust to keep them working.
For the best start in Moon Sweepers, I'd keep things simple: earn your first $25, grab the Household Broom, take advantage of nearby rewards, and build toward your first vehicle without getting distracted by every available upgrade. That gives you a practical foundation for the rest of the game without spending more than you need to get there.
