Match Your Upgrade to the Job Slowing You Down
Choose Wide Head for wider cleaning, Dust Compactor for larger tool containers, or Auto Packer to pack a capsule at your feet when your container fills during cleaning. Market Contracts improves launch payouts, Supplier Network discounts purchases, and Region Bounty increases rewards for completing regions.
Watch what interrupts your cleaning before buying: slow coverage, a full container, capsule handling or a delivery backlog call for different solutions. Follow collected Dust through to the Depot if your crew is busy but income feels slow. A better payout becomes useful when material is actually reaching the selling system.
Compare Upgrade Effects and Shop Prices
These prices and bonuses describe particular shop entries, so compare them with the level currently offered in your Upgrade Matrix. Later Market Contracts levels become more expensive, and you should read their displayed benefit before buying. Choose the improvement that helps the work you are repeating most often.
| Upgrade | Effect and Best Use |
|---|---|
| Wide Head | A shop entry shows $40 for 8% more cleaning width. It widens handheld cleaning, making it a useful choice when clearing ground takes longer than handling the collected Dust. |
| Dust Compactor | A shop entry shows $150 for 15% more tool-container capacity, with a container-upgrade prerequisite. Consider it when repeated fills interrupt work across your upgraded tools. |
| Auto Packer | Automatically packs a capsule at your feet when a container fills during cleaning. Choose it to reduce manual packing interruptions, while keeping a plan for getting those capsules to the Depot. |
| Market Contracts | A shop entry shows $120 for a 6% launch-payout increase. It suits an operation already collecting and selling Dust regularly, because the bonus improves the return on that existing flow. |
| Supplier Network | A shop entry displays a 5% purchase discount. Consider it before planned equipment purchases, when the savings have more room to matter than after your shopping is already finished. |
| Region Bounty | A shop entry offers an extra $15 per completed region. Favor it when you regularly finish regions; collecting Dust while leaving areas partly cleaned does not make the same use of its benefit. |
Make Your Next Upgrade Matrix Purchase
- Select the entry matching your current bottleneck. Compare the benefit with your actual routine so that the purchase addresses the interruption you want to remove.
- Repeat your usual cleaning and delivery route after the purchase. Notice whether the old interruption has eased before deciding where the next investment should go.
Choose Capacity or Packing for the Right Reason
A tool-container upgrade and Dust Compactor both help with storage, but compare their cost and scale. In the Household Broom example, a $30 container upgrade raises capacity from 3 kg to 6 kg. That is a more substantial immediate capacity change for that broom than buying the $150 Dust Compactor entry for 15% more capacity across tools.
Auto Packer tackles the packing interruption rather than increasing the amount held in the container. Its capsule appears at your feet, so plan a delivery routine that suits the ground you are cleaning. Collecting or packing Dust is still separate from getting it into the Depot's receiving system.
If packed capsules are already accumulating, improve their delivery before investing further in cleaning coverage. More width helps you clear ground, while a larger container reduces how often you handle collected Dust. Reassess those choices once the delivery problem is under control.
Share Matrix Purchases With Your Crew
Starting with version 1.0.3, the whole crew uses the host's Upgrade Matrix, and a purchase by any crewmate upgrades everyone. Older saves retain the highest upgrade level previously purchased by any player. Coordinate the next purchase around the crew's needs rather than budgeting to repeat the same Matrix upgrade for each teammate.
If most of the crew is cleaning while Dust waits for delivery, assign someone to check the route to the selling system before buying another collection improvement. If material is selling reliably, discuss whether better payouts or a discount on upcoming purchases helps your next goal. Shared upgrades make agreeing on the next purchase useful for everyone.
Check Why the Upgrade Has Not Helped
- Income still feels slow: follow Dust to the Depot instead of judging progress by how much you collected. An earnings bonus cannot resolve a delivery backlog; the deposit intake pays Dust and stone arriving by belt as they come in.
- Region Bounty feels underused: concentrate on completing regions rather than leaving many areas partly cleaned. Its usefulness depends on how often you finish them, not simply on how much Dust enters your tool.
- A teammate expects a separate Matrix purchase: check the host's matrix together. The crew shares that matrix, and anyone's upgrade purchase benefits everyone, so use the shared level when planning further spending.