Moon Sweepers gives you plenty of ways to improve your cleaning operation, but buying upgrades in the wrong order can leave you spending hundreds of dollars on equipment you're about to replace. Some purchases are excellent early on and almost pointless later, while others become considerably more valuable once you're collecting larger dust shipments. If you want to get the most out of your money, here's the upgrade path I'd follow, including when to change direction and which improvements aren't worth rushing.
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Best Upgrade Order
Best Brush Upgrade Path
Upgrade Matrix Priority
Best Vehicle Upgrade Path
Alternative Automation Path
Upgrades to Skip or Delay
Best Upgrade Order in Moon Sweepers
For a general-purpose cleaning setup, I'd recommend upgrading your handheld cleaning equipment just enough to earn money comfortably, then putting most of your savings toward your first vehicle and improvements that benefit your long-term operation.
This is the purchase order I'd use as a starting point:
| Priority | Upgrade | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Household Broom | $25 |
| 2 (Optional) | Wide Broom | $75 |
| 3 | Building Tool | $50 |
| 4 | Garage | $200 |
| 5 | Push Sweeper | $300 |
| 6 | Market Contracts Level 1 | $120 |
| 7 | Vehicle-specific upgrades | Varies |
Following this route through the Push Sweeper costs $575 if you skip the optional Wide Broom, or $650 if you purchase it. That excludes additional infrastructure such as conveyors.
Market Contracts comes afterward in this recommended order, although it's worth buying earlier if you're already making substantial dust sales.
The goal isn't to purchase everything in this exact sequence regardless of circumstances. It's to avoid putting too much money into equipment you'll soon stop using while making sure each major upgrade has something useful to contribute.
Best Brush Upgrade Path: Household Broom or Wide Broom?
The Household Broom is where I'd begin. At $25, its 43 cm cleaning width and 3 kg starting capacity are a substantial improvement over the Toothbrush without consuming much of your early earnings.
From there, the decision gets more interesting.
The Wide Broom costs $75 and increases the starting cleaning width to 65 cm while providing 6 kg of capacity. Alternatively, you can spend $30 to upgrade the Household Broom's container from 3 kg to 6 kg.
Both choices address a small container, but only the Wide Broom improves your basic cleaning coverage at the same time.
When to Skip the Household Broom Capacity Upgrade
Suppose you're planning to buy the Wide Broom anyway.
Spending $30 on the Household Broom's capacity first, then another $75 on the Wide Broom, costs $105 after your initial broom purchase. Going directly to the Wide Broom saves that extra $30 and gives you its larger cleaning width sooner.
That makes the capacity upgrade something I'd purchase only when I expect to continue using the Household Broom for a while.
If you're already close to $75, saving is usually more attractive. If your broom constantly fills and the Wide Broom is still a long way off, the $30 improvement can make those remaining cleaning sessions more comfortable.
The Extra Wide Broom costs another $150 and offers 98.8 cm of base cleaning width with 12 kg of capacity. It's an excellent improvement for players who intend to keep cleaning manually, but not necessarily the best purchase for someone already saving for a vehicle.
My preferred handheld route would therefore be Household Broom, followed by the Wide Broom only if I'm expecting a substantial amount of manual cleaning before reaching the Garage.
Which Upgrade Matrix Upgrades Should You Get First?
I'd prioritize Upgrade Matrix purchases based on whether they improve an activity you're still doing regularly. A bonus that affects every dust sale can remain useful long after you've changed cleaning equipment, while a handheld width improvement becomes less important once you're driving everywhere.
Market Contracts: The Long-Term Money Upgrade
Market Contracts Level 1 costs $120 and provides a 6% increase to dust launch payouts.
There's a useful calculation here: at a 6% bonus, you need $2,000 in additional base-value sales after purchasing the upgrade to earn back its $120 cost.
For example, if you would otherwise earn $2,000 from dust sales, the extra 6% adds $120. Sales beyond that point continue benefiting from the bonus.
That makes Market Contracts more attractive once you have equipment capable of bringing in larger loads. It can still be purchased earlier, but if spending $120 prevents you from buying your first practical cleaning tool, I'd improve collection first.
Our Moon Sweepers Market Contracts guide covers the selling bonus in greater detail.
Wide Heads and Dust Compactor: Buy Them While Using Brooms
Wide Heads Level 1 costs $40 for an 8% improvement to handheld cleaning width. Dust Compactor provides additional handheld container capacity, with an early upgrade offering 15% more capacity for $150 after its prerequisite.
These are worthwhile bonuses if you spend most of your time cleaning with brushes, but I'd be cautious about purchasing them immediately before switching to vehicles.
For perspective, an 8% improvement on the Household Broom's 43 cm base width adds around 3.4 cm. Buying the Wide Broom instead takes the starting width to 65 cm.
The two purchases aren't equivalent, especially since Wide Heads is a broader handheld improvement, but it shows why replacing weaker equipment can have a bigger immediate effect than applying a small percentage increase.
I'd save the expensive handheld bonuses for a setup I'm actually planning to keep using.
Supplier Network: Best Before Expensive Purchases
Supplier Network offers a discount on eligible equipment and upgrades, with one level providing a 5% reduction.
This is a purchase where timing matters more than the immediate effect.
A 5% discount on $2,000 of eligible future spending would save $100. Buying the improvement after you've already made those purchases doesn't retroactively give you that money back.
I'd check Supplier Network's current price and which purchases qualify before a major vehicle or equipment upgrade spree. If the expected savings outweigh the price of the perk, that's when buying it makes sense.
What About the Other Matrix Upgrades?
Auto Packer automatically creates capsules when a handheld container fills, while Rapid Transfer improves dust depositing and transfer speed. Servo Stride helps with movement, and Region Bounty increases the reward you receive for completing regions.
None needs to be an automatic early purchase.
Rapid Transfer is appealing if depositing dust is eating into your cleaning time. Region Bounty makes more sense when you're frequently completing sectors. Auto Packer becomes less valuable if you're moving away from handheld cleaning altogether.
The useful approach is to purchase these improvements when they remove an inconvenience you're actually encountering, rather than treating every Upgrade Matrix option as something you must unlock immediately.
Best Vehicle Upgrade Path in Moon Sweepers
Once you have a Push Sweeper, upgrading its performance can be more worthwhile than immediately saving for another vehicle.
Vehicle improvements are purchased through the Garage, and they address different limitations depending on how you're using the machine.
| Your Problem | Upgrade to Consider |
|---|---|
| Hopper fills too quickly | Big Hopper |
| Unloading takes too long | Quick Release |
| Cleaning passes are too narrow | Suction Control |
| Traveling takes too much time | Tuned Motors or Turbo Kit |
Suction Control is particularly interesting because increasing cleaning coverage comes with a tradeoff in driving speed. You can clear a wider strip but won't necessarily move across the surface as quickly.
Big Hopper is a good choice if you're regularly returning to unload before finishing the area you intended to clean. However, it becomes a less attractive purchase if the vehicle already holds more dust than your delivery system can comfortably process.
I'd prioritize Quick Release when unloading itself has become the slowdown, then look at additional capacity once the dust can move through the rest of your operation efficiently.
When Should You Buy a Better Vehicle Instead?
There's no need to purchase every vehicle model on the way to the most expensive one.
The Ride-on Sweeper costs $1,000, the Lunar Sweeper costs $2,500, and the Mega Vacuum Rover costs $6,000. They offer increasingly capable starting equipment, but each represents a substantial purchase.
If your current sweeper is working well after a few upgrades, there's nothing wrong with continuing to use it while saving for a larger jump.
Before replacing it, I'd ask whether the new vehicle offers something your current machine genuinely lacks, such as substantially wider cleaning coverage or enough storage for the areas you're working on.
Once you've reached that point, a better vehicle may be a more meaningful investment than continuing to improve the one you already own.
Alternative Upgrade Path: Start Automation Before Vehicles
Not everyone needs to follow the vehicle-focused route. If you'd rather keep cleaning manually while another machine works nearby, a Robot Vacuum offers an alternative early investment.
The Robot Vacuum Mk I costs $250 and cleans 19 hexes around its dock. Combined with the $50 Building Tool, that's $300 before the cost of conveyors.
That's less than the $550 required for the Building Tool, Garage, and Push Sweeper combined.
However, the robot is limited to the ground within its coverage. Once that area is clean, it won't continue producing dust from the same location.
I'd choose this route if I wanted some cleaning to happen automatically while I continued working elsewhere. For actively covering large stretches of untouched terrain myself, I'd still favor the vehicle route.
Either way, getting the dust into a working selling system matters. Our Moon Sweepers Auto Selling Guide
Later, advanced automation such as JOONAS becomes another option. At $20,000 for JOONAS and $1,500 for a Capsule Catcher, I'd treat it as a major investment for an established operation rather than part of the early upgrade path.
Which Moon Sweepers Upgrades Should You Skip or Delay?
There are very few upgrades I'd call completely useless, but several are worth postponing depending on how you intend to play.
- Small brush upgrades before replacing the Toothbrush: A better broom can provide a much larger immediate improvement.
- Household Broom capacity when you're about to buy the Wide Broom: The Wide Broom already starts with 6 kg of capacity.
- Expensive handheld bonuses immediately before switching to vehicles: Put the money toward equipment you'll continue using.
- Additional hopper capacity when unloading is already slow: Improve the delivery process before collecting even larger loads.
- Movement and visibility upgrades when money is tight: Gravity Boots, the Forward Jetpack, and Night Vision Goggles are useful conveniences, but they won't directly improve dust sales.
- Advanced automation without a working delivery route: A powerful cleaner isn't particularly useful if its collected dust can't reach the station.
One other consideration applies to multiplayer. Since Patch 1.0.3, the Upgrade Matrix is shared across the host's crew, and a Matrix purchase by one player benefits everyone. Individual tools and vehicles still have their own ownership rules, so there's no need to assume buying personal equipment gives the entire team the same upgrade.
For a complete look at the available equipment, bonuses, and purchase locations, see our Moon Sweepers All Upgrades Guide.
The upgrade path I'd stick with is simple: replace weak equipment before spending heavily on percentage bonuses, invest in a vehicle or automated cleaner that suits how you play, and then improve the parts of your operation that are actually holding you back. You don't need to max every upgrade to make good progress, and saving for one meaningful improvement is often better than buying several smaller ones you'll hardly notice.
