Moon Sweepers Capacity Upgrades: How Much Storage Is Worth It
A break-even method for handheld container upgrades, the reported kilogram values per tool, and a role order for who should expand first in a 16-player lobby.
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Capacity is three systems wearing one name
In Moon Sweepers, "I need more storage" can mean the container in your hand, the hopper on a vehicle, or the buffer at your base. Only the first is cheap, and only the first is priced here. The figures below come from launch-week guides that agree with each other; the supply wall in your build is still the authority, because DragDrop Games is actively rebalancing costs.
Three Kinds of Capacity
The word covers three purchases at three price points, and mixing them up is how players spend $150 to fix a problem a $30 upgrade would have solved.
| Layer | Bought where | Reported cost | What it removes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Handheld container | Supply wall, per tool | $30 for the first doubling | Walking back to a depot |
| Vehicle hopper | Garage | $300 to $6,000 | Walking, and most trips |
| Base buffer | Build menu | Not published | Unloading queues |
The handheld layer is the cheapest upgrade in the game relative to the time it saves. The vehicle layer is a separate decision, covered in the vehicle cost breakdown. The base layer is a conveyor and launch-cadence problem, not a capacity problem, and the auto-sell setup is the page for it.
The Reported Container Numbers
Two guides describe the same early numbers, and one repeats the other almost word for word, which is a reason to hold them loosely rather than a reason to trust them twice.
| Tool | Reported base capacity | Upgrade | Result | Source strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toothbrush | Minimal | None documented | — | Confirmed start |
| Household Broom ($25) | About 3 kg | $30 | About 6 kg | Two guides agree |
| Wide Broom ($75) | About 6 kg | Not documented | — | Two guides agree |
| Extra Wide Broom ($150) | About 12 kg | Not documented | — | Two guides agree |
| Dust Compactor (matrix) | — | $150 | +15% handheld | Two guides agree |
Capacity is sold twice: once as a small per-tool upgrade, and again bundled into the next tool. That is why the per-tool upgrade is a trap when a new tool is close — paying $30 to double a container you will replace in twenty minutes is money spent on a tool you are about to stop using. The tool tier list covers which tier to skip, and the full tool reference has the wider ladder.
The Break-Even Math That Decides It
A capacity upgrade does not make you clean faster. It makes you walk less, and walking is the only part of the loop that produces nothing.
- Count the loads you deliver in an hour at current capacity.
- Time one round trip, full container to empty and back to dirty ground.
- Double the capacity, halve the loads, multiply saved trips by round-trip time.
At twenty loads an hour, halving the trip count saves ten walks. What those walks are worth depends on distance.
| Round-trip walk | Walking per hour | Saved by doubling | Value at $2/min |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 seconds | 6.7 min | 3.3 min | $6.60 |
| 60 seconds | 20 min | 10 min | $20.00 |
| 120 seconds | 40 min | 20 min | $40.00 |
Read the first and last rows together. The same $30 upgrade is a waste at a 20-second depot and a bargain at a two-minute one. The $2-a-minute figure is a placeholder; replace it with your own earnings divided by session length, and the table becomes a decision tool instead of an argument.
One nuance the table hides
Doubling capacity also doubles how long you spend filling before turning around. The upgrade does not double throughput. It removes walking, and only walking. If your container already fills faster than you can find new ground, a bigger container just means a longer stare at the same empty hex.
Capacity or Width?
| Symptom | Buy | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Container fills before you cross a hex | Capacity | You pay the walk tax too often |
| Hex takes many passes, container still has room | Width | Coverage per pass is the limit |
| Both, and the depot is far | Capacity first | Travel dominates when it is long |
| Both, and the depot is close | Width first | Short walks make capacity cheap to skip |
| You unload into an on-site packager | Neither yet | Fix the delivery route first |
A clean rule: capacity is a travel upgrade, width is a cleaning upgrade. Buy the one that matches your bottleneck, and stop buying the other until the bottleneck moves. The dust farming guide works through the same logic with its own test numbers.
Who Expands First in a 16-Player Lobby
| Player | Priority | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Sweeper on the farthest frontier | 1 | Longest walk per load, highest return per dollar |
| Anyone holding the widest tool | 2 | Fills fastest, so the most trips per hour |
| Depot runner | 3 | Their bottleneck is a hopper, not a pocket |
| Base builder | 4 | Their session happens at the terminal |
| Mid-session joiner | Last | Inherits a short walk and a stocked base |
One exception reverses the order. Since patch 1.0.3, the host's upgrade matrix is shared across the crew, so a matrix purchase like the Dust Compactor benefits all sixteen players at once. A personal $30 container upgrade benefits exactly one. If the crew is pooling money, buy the shared multiplier before anyone buys the private one. The multiplayer guide covers the money rules.
Where Capacity Money Goes Wrong
- Upgrading a tool you are about to replace. The container upgrade does not transfer.
- Buying the Dust Compactor before a vehicle. Fifteen percent of a small container is small, and handheld matrix upgrades reportedly do not touch hopper capacity.
- Treating the Auto-Packer as capacity. It packs a capsule at your feet; you still carry it and still move it.
- Buying capacity instead of moving the depot. If the walk is the problem, the depot is the cheaper fix — the depot placement score settles it.
Confirming It in Your Own Build
The supply wall shows kilograms before and after, and the delta is what you are buying. Time one fill now, buy the upgrade, and time it again. If the second number is not close to double, the upgrade is doing something other than what the label says, which is worth knowing before you spend the crew's money on the next tier.
How much is the first capacity upgrade?
Reportedly $30, doubling the Household Broom's container from about 3 kg to about 6 kg. Two launch-week guides agree, but they describe it in nearly identical language, so confirm the price on your supply wall before budgeting around it.
Is capacity better than a wider broom?
Only when the walk is long. A wider broom reduces cleaning time; capacity reduces walking time. Measure one round trip. Under about 30 seconds, width usually wins. Over a minute, capacity almost always does.
Does the Dust Compactor stack with per-tool container upgrades?
It reportedly adds 15% to handheld containers, on top of what the tool already holds, for $150. Whether that is calculated before or after a per-tool upgrade is undocumented. Test it on one tool and read the kilogram figure rather than assuming the two multiply cleanly.
Do container upgrades apply to my whole crew?
No. Tool and suit purchases are personal. The upgrade matrix is shared through the host's world since patch 1.0.3, which is why a matrix purchase like the Dust Compactor is a better group buy than sixteen private upgrades.
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