Moon Sweepers Guide: from toothbrush to Mega Vacuum Rover
Moon Sweepers is the co-op "clean the Moon" game where you start with a toothbrush and end up running a fleet of rovers and robots. This guide covers what to buy first, the full upgrade path and the fastest way to grow your income — updated for patch 1.0.4.
On this page
- What is Moon Sweepers?
- Your first hour in Moon Sweepers
- Moon Sweepers brush upgrade order
- Best Moon Sweepers upgrades to buy
- How to make money fast in Moon Sweepers
- Which Moon Sweepers vehicle to buy first
- Reading the Moon map
- Night time in Moon Sweepers
- Moon Sweepers co-op tips
- How long does it take to clean the Moon?
- FAQ
What is Moon Sweepers?
Moon Sweepers is a co-op cleaning sim from DragDrop Games that launched on Steam on October 23, 2026 for $8.99. Your job sounds simple and is absurd on purpose: the whole surface of the Moon is covered in dust, and you have to clean all of it. You play solo or with up to 15 friends in an online lobby, and the map is split into roughly 163,830 sectors, so nobody finishes it in an afternoon.
The core loop in Moon Sweepers is easy to learn. Sweep dust into your tool, carry it to a Depot, launch it, get paid, and spend the money on a bigger brush. Every purchase makes the next trip faster, which is why the game is so hard to put down. If you have seen clips of people "cleaning the Moon with a toothbrush", this is the clean the Moon game they were playing.
Your first hour in Moon Sweepers
- Grab the free Toothbrush from the supply wall at the station and start on the dust right next to the Depot. Short trips matter more than speed at this stage.
- Fill your container, then deliver it. Dust only earns money once it reaches the Depot and gets launched — collecting it is not the same as selling it.
- Buy the Nail Brush for $5 as soon as you can, then the Handbrush for $10. Both pay for themselves within a couple of trips.
- Finish the hex you started. A completed hex pays a small bonus on top of what you earn from the dust, and completed regions pay more once you buy Region Bounty.
- Save for the Household Broom ($25) and a container upgrade ($30). From here, every trip carries roughly twice as much.
Moon Sweepers brush upgrade order
Hand tools are your main income for the early game, and the upgrade order in Moon Sweepers is linear: each brush unlocks the next. Buy them in this order and do not skip ahead by saving for a vehicle too early.
| Tool | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Toothbrush | Free | Starting tool, taken from the supply wall at the station |
| 2. Nail Brush | $5 | First upgrade — buy it straight away |
| 3. Handbrush | $10 | Cheap step up in width |
| 4. Household Broom | $25 | About 3 kg container to start |
| 5. Wide Broom | $75 | Big jump in coverage per pass |
| 6. Extra Wide Broom | $150 | Best hand tool, roughly 99 cm wide |
Best Moon Sweepers upgrades to buy
Besides brushes, the Upgrade Matrix holds the upgrades that change how efficient each trip is. Width and capacity come first; payout and discount upgrades are worth more once your income is steady.
- Early: container upgrade, then Wide Head. More width means fewer passes; more capacity means fewer walks to the Depot.
- Mid: Dust Compactor for extra capacity on every tool, and Auto Packer so a full container turns into a capsule at your feet instead of stopping you.
- Later: Market Contracts and Region Bounty. Percentage bonuses are small at first but scale with everything you earn afterwards.
| Upgrade | Price | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Container upgrade | $30 | Roughly doubles the Household Broom container (about 3 kg → 6 kg) |
| Wide Head | $40 | About 8% wider cleaning strip at the first level |
| Dust Compactor | $150 | 15% more container capacity on every tool (needs a container upgrade first) |
| Auto Packer | — | Packs a capsule at your feet automatically when your container is full |
| Market Contracts | $120+ | About 6% higher launch payouts at the first level; later levels cost more |
| Supplier Network | — | Discount on equipment or upgrades (about 5% on one option) |
| Region Bounty | — | Extra cash for every region you finish (+$15 at one level) |
| Night Vision Goggles | $350 | Added in patch 1.0.4; toggle with N |
How to make money fast in Moon Sweepers
Money in Moon Sweepers comes from four places, and the fastest players use all of them:
- Dust launches. The steady income. Keep your route to the Depot short and launch full shipments.
- Hex and region completion. Finishing an area pays a bonus, so clean areas fully instead of skimming the easy patches.
- Flags and survey sites. Untangling a flag pays about $100 and a completed lunar survey about $250 — worth a detour early on, when those amounts are large compared with your income.
- Processing. Later, a Pressure Chamber turns dust into Moon Sand worth three times as much, and a Stone Press combines dust and sand into Moonstone worth seven times as much. Use our Moon Sweepers calculator to plan the split and the power you need.
Since patch 1.0.3, dust and stone that arrive at the Depot by conveyor are sold automatically, so a single conveyor line back to the Depot is one of the best early investments. See the automation guide for how to set one up.
Which Moon Sweepers vehicle to buy first
Vehicles are where Moon Sweepers starts to feel like a different game. You need a Garage first, and each Garage holds one vehicle in its bay at a time, although any Garage can recall, store and upgrade a vehicle you own. Since patch 1.0.3, demolishing a Garage no longer deletes the vehicles stored in it.
The Push Sweeper is the cheapest machine, but most players get more out of saving for the Ride-on Sweeper. The Lunar Sweeper and the Mega Vacuum Rover are the late-game workhorses; the Crew Transport Van moves people, not dust.
| Vehicle | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Garage | $200 | Needed before any vehicle. Stores, recalls and upgrades your vehicles. |
| Push Sweeper | $300 | Walk-behind sweeper. Cheapest machine, but does not count as driving for the Finally, Wheels achievement. |
| Ride-on Sweeper | $1,000 | First real driving vehicle. |
| Crew Transport Van | $2,000 | Moves the crew around. It is transport, not a cleaner. |
| Lunar Sweeper | $2,500 | Three brushes, about 2.8 m strip, 1,200 kg hopper, enclosed cab. |
| Mega Vacuum Rover | $6,000 | About 4 m wide with a 3,000 kg tank that can be upgraded much further. |
Reading the Moon map
The map is your progress tracker in Moon Sweepers. Orange areas have not been touched, blue areas are started and green areas are finished. Use waypoints to mark unfinished pockets — the last few dirty sectors are the hardest part of reaching 100%, and players regularly report being stuck one sector short of a full Moon.
The map also shows stations plus counters for flags and survey sites, which makes it easy to plan an exploration run between cleaning sessions.
Night time in Moon Sweepers
Moon Sweepers has a day and night cycle. Your helmet lamp switches on in the dark and gets brighter with upgrades, and patch 1.0.4 added Night Vision Goggles for $350, toggled with N. Night matters most for machines: solar power drops to zero, so anything that relies only on solar panels stops unless you have stored energy. Plan your power before you build a processing line.
Moon Sweepers co-op tips
Up to 16 players can share a world. In patch 1.0.3 the developer changed how upgrades work in co-op: the host's Upgrade Matrix is now shared with the whole crew, and older saves keep the highest level anyone had bought. Vehicles are still bought by each player, and every player has to be on the same patch to join.
- Split the roles. In a big lobby, most players sweep while one or two run logistics: conveyors, power and the Depot.
- Clean by region. Assign each player a region so you finish areas and collect completion bonuses instead of overlapping.
- Share the map. Use waypoints for unfinished sectors and flags so nobody wastes a trip.
- Moderate the lobby. The host can kick, ban and unban players from Your Crew in the ESC menu.
How long does it take to clean the Moon?
There is no story to finish in Moon Sweepers — the goal is the cleaning itself, and the final achievement is for cleaning 100% of the Moon. With around 163,830 sectors, a solo player sweeping by hand would take a very long time. Vehicles, robot vacuums and the J.O.O.N.A.S. cleaner are what make a full Moon realistic, and a big co-op lobby cuts the time dramatically.
Because every setup is different, the honest answer depends on your own speed. Our Moon Sweepers calculator estimates how long you need to reach 1%, 10%, 50% and 100% from the number of sectors you clean per hour.