How Dust becomes spendable money
Make money in Moon Sweepers by delivering Dust to the Depot, completing manual shipments, and fully cleaning regions for separate completion rewards. Belt-fed Dust and stone pay their displayed intake value on arrival, while payout upgrades and processing can improve the return from your cleaning route.
Collecting Dust is the beginning of the sale, so a full tool or a pile of capsules still needs delivery. For manual shipments, check the station's sale or launch control after depositing. For automated deliveries, watch the material enter the intake and check that your balance increases.
Build a cleaning route that keeps paying
- Collect Dust near the starting station with the free Toothbrush from the supply wall. Staying close keeps the return journey manageable while your tool has little storage, helping you turn the opening cleanup into regular deliveries.
- Pack collected Dust into a capsule with Q when you need to free your tool's container. Packing lets you continue working, but keep the capsules within a delivery routine you can comfortably manage.
- Deposit your collected Dust through the Depot's receiving interaction. This moves the material into the selling system; leaving it in your tool or outside the station does not complete the delivery.
- Launch a full container when the station shows it is ready to send. Check that the launch finishes before returning to your cleaning route, so a completed deposit does not leave the shipment waiting.
- Finish the convenient partly cleaned hex before moving farther away. Completion adds a reward beyond Dust sales, and checking the edges, corners, and remaining narrow strips helps you finish work you have already started.
- Reinvest in the part of this route that interrupts you most. A wider brush improves coverage, a larger container reduces handling, and a better delivery routine helps when packed capsules are already accumulating.
Choose payout upgrades that match your work
Market Contracts increases the payout from lunar Dust sent through the launch system. It becomes useful when you already deliver and sell material regularly, because it improves the return from that existing work. If cleaning still feels painfully slow, compare it with a wider tool before spending your savings.
Region Bounty increases rewards for completed regions. Favor it when your route regularly finishes areas, rather than leaving many patches partly cleaned. Use the Moon Map to revisit unfinished ground near completed areas, then inspect the remaining Dust instead of repeatedly sweeping a clean center.
Upgrades are shared across the crew through the host's upgrade matrix, and a purchase by any player upgrades everyone. Coordinate the next purchase around the work your group is actually doing. A crew collecting plenty of Dust should check delivery before spending more on collection.
When processing makes the same Dust worth more
| Option | Details |
|---|---|
| Raw Dust delivered to the Depot | Establish this selling route before adding processing. Reliable raw sales give you a working foundation for later machinery. |
| Pressure Chamber producing Moon Sand | The machine costs $500, and Moon Sand sells for three times the value of raw Dust. Delivery, power, and the outgoing Conveyor determine how consistently it can produce sales. |
| Stone Press producing Moonstone | The machine costs $1,000 and requires both raw Dust and Moon Sand. Moonstone sells for seven times raw Dust's value, provided the line has the ingredients, power, and delivery capacity it needs. |
Higher material value does not guarantee the same increase in money earned over time. Processing takes time, and a blocked output cannot turn valuable material into a sale. Compare how much money reaches your account during similar periods of operation before committing to another expansion.
A Stone Press needs some incoming Dust to remain raw while another portion becomes Moon Sand. Sending everything through the Pressure Chamber can leave the press missing an ingredient. Budget for supporting power and Conveyors alongside the machine, so the purchase can actually contribute to your income.
Fix stalled income before buying more equipment
- Dust moves along a belt but your balance stays unchanged: follow the capsules to the Depot. Check that the Conveyor reaches a loading hatch and that arriving material produces the displayed intake payment.
- A vehicle unloads without producing money: inspect the collector's outgoing Conveyor. The silo holds material temporarily, so successful unloading can still leave the load waiting inside your logistics network.
- The Pressure Chamber refuses Dust: check the inlet on the side without the handle. If Dust enters but Moon Sand does not emerge, inspect the machine's power and the route leaving its output.
- The Stone Press remains idle: check that raw Dust and Moon Sand reach their separate inputs. When both ingredients are available, inspect operating power and whether Moonstone can leave the machine.
- Production stops after daylight fades: check stored energy and connected demand. Solar output can fall away at night, leaving batteries to supply the machines; expanding processing also increases the power your installation needs.
- Capsules keep accumulating: find the earliest queue that fails to shrink. Correct its connection, power, or output problem before adding processing capacity, then let a complete batch reach the Depot and pay out before expanding again.