One flag in Moon Sweepers is worth $100, so finding a few before buying expensive cleaning equipment can give you a surprisingly strong start. You don't need a special detector or an upgraded broom to collect them, either. What you do need is a good place to begin looking, because the Moon is enormous and flags aren't marked with convenient collectible icons. Here's how I'd approach an early flag hunt without turning it into hours of aimless exploring.
Note: This is a WIP and will be updated as we map out flags.
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Where to Look for Your First Flags
How to Recognize a Flag
Best Flag-Hunting Route
How Much Money Flags Give
Can You Find Every Flag?
Where to Look for Your First Flags in Moon Sweepers
If you're starting near North Station, the area beyond its surrounding mountains is a good first destination. Around five flags and a survey site have been discovered in that general area, making it a much more useful starting point than choosing a random direction.
Don't spend all your time circling the station itself. Head beyond the mountains and look across the open terrain on the other side.
There are also flags to discover during journeys toward East Station and West Station. The distinction is that you're searching the ground between destinations, not expecting a collection of flags to be waiting outside each station.
Those are the strongest location leads currently available. They identify useful areas to investigate, but they aren't precise coordinates or a guaranteed collectible route.
How to Recognize a Flag in Moon Sweepers
The collectible flags are small national flags mounted on poles. They're easy to mistake for ordinary scenery when you're looking across a large stretch of lunar ground.
Rather than trying to identify the country from a distance, look for the shape of the pole itself. An upright object breaking the otherwise low lunar landscape is worth checking.
Once you're close enough, the game provides an interaction to untangle the flag. Complete that action to claim the $100 reward.
There's one detail that can save you some unnecessary searching: not every flag displayed in the world is a separate collectible.
Historic landing sites can feature flags as part of their scenery. If you're standing beside a lunar lander and the available interaction is to survey the site, you've found a different type of discovery.
Both are valuable, but untangling flags and surveying landing sites are separate activities.
The Best Way to Search for Flags
I wouldn't make collecting every flag your immediate goal. Instead, treat your first outing as a short expedition with a destination and a return route.
- Leave North Station and make your way beyond the surrounding mountains.
- Search the open ground on the other side, stopping whenever you spot a flagpole.
- Collect any survey sites you encounter instead of passing them by.
- Return along a different stretch of terrain so you aren't looking at exactly the same ground twice.
- If the area isn't producing more discoveries, make your next expedition toward East or West Station.
The return journey is something I'd pay particular attention to. If you follow the same path in both directions, you're spending a large part of your trip inspecting terrain you've already seen. Even a modest change in direction gives you another opportunity to spot something you missed.
You can also make use of the Moon Map's waypoint controls, which were expanded in Patch 1.0.4. Set a destination before leaving and use the map to help you maintain your intended route.
Remember that the map's colored sectors represent cleaning progress, not flag positions. An orange sector isn't proof that a collectible is waiting there.
How Much Money Can You Make From Flags?
Each flag pays $100, while surveying a landmark pays $250.
That means three flags are worth $300 without requiring any dust shipments. Five flags are worth $500, and adding a survey site takes the total to $750.
Here's why that makes flag hunting so attractive early in Moon Sweepers: the Building Tool costs $50, the Garage costs $200, and the Push Sweeper costs $300.
Those three purchases total $550. Finding five flags and one survey site would give you enough for all three, leaving $200 before accounting for anything else you've purchased.
It's a useful alternative to relying entirely on your starting Toothbrush for income.
However, I'd avoid turning every play session into a flag hunt. Once your cleaning operation is earning consistently, traveling a huge distance for one $100 reward becomes less attractive. Our Moon Sweepers Money Making Guide
Can You Find Every Flag in Moon Sweepers?
There isn't a verified complete flag location map available in the information we have, so I wouldn't trust a supposed list of exact coordinates without checking it against the game.
Even the total number has shown a small discrepancy. Some in-game information indicates 195 flags, while a Moon Map counter has displayed 196. Check your own map for the total shown by your version.
For players who want to collect everything, the challenge eventually changes. Early on, you're looking for easy rewards near recognizable landmarks. Later, you're trying to identify which stretches of the Moon you haven't searched thoroughly.
At that stage, it's worth keeping track of your exploration routes rather than relying on memory. The landscape is too large to expect that you'll remember every place you've driven past.
If you're only interested in getting money quickly, though, you don't need every flag. Start beyond North Station's mountains, collect whatever you encounter, and use trips toward the other stations as further opportunities. A handful of flags and a survey site can finance a meaningful equipment upgrade long before you've explored much of the Moon.
