Moon Sweepers Depot Placement: A Three-Factor Score
A weighted rubric for depot sites, a loaded-return test most players skip, and the sunk-cost math that makes a badly placed depot worse than no depot.
Last updated:
No depot price is published, and no depot can be moved
The store page says to build stations near your work area, the only official placement advice. It publishes no depot price, and no guide we can verify agrees on one. Structures cannot be moved: there is no move tool, and the rebuild route is demolish-and-repurchase at a reported 75% refund. Placement is a purchase you make once.
What a Depot Is Actually For
A depot does two jobs. The first is conversion: dust is not money until it reaches a depot and launches, which is why the official advice is to build near the work. The second is navigation: patch coverage describes 1.0.4 adding right-click waypoints and teleports. Whether a player-built depot counts is unconfirmed, but structures clearly become part of how the crew moves.
So a depot is a node in two networks at once, hauling and movement. A site that scores well on one and badly on the other is a site you will rebuild.
The Three Factors
Most advice stops at "put it close." That is one factor of three.
Distance. Measure it loaded, one way, from the edge of your working ground to the intake. Not straight-line distance, and not the empty-vehicle drive. A pad that is 20 seconds away empty and 50 seconds away full is a 50-second pad.
Density. How many kilograms sit within one hopper of the pad. A depot ringed by cleaned ground is a building with a view.
Return route. The path back, loaded, in the direction you will travel. This is the factor that kills otherwise perfect sites: a downhill approach that becomes a climb, a single narrow gap, a lip at the entrance, or a turning circle a Lunar Sweeper cannot make. The base location score applies the same logic to main bases.
The Score
Rate each factor from zero to five, multiply by its weight, and add. The total is out of 100.
| Factor | Weight | Score 5 | Score 3 | Score 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Distance, loaded one way | 40 | Under 30 seconds | About 60 seconds | Two minutes or more |
| Density within one load | 35 | Full hopper inside one sector | One hopper per two sectors | Sparse ground you must drive between |
| Return route | 25 | Straight, wide, two approaches | One slope, one approach | A climb or a gap you thread loaded |
Distance carries the most weight because it is paid on every trip; density is paid once per site; route quality is paid only when it is bad. With vehicles, flip the first two: speed erases distance but not emptiness.
Three Worked Sites
| Site | Distance | Density | Route | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flat pad 40 seconds from a half-cleaned plain | 5 → 40 | 2 → 14 | 4 → 20 | 74 |
| Basin pad 90 seconds from mixed ground | 4 → 32 | 3 → 21 | 5 → 25 | 78 |
| Crater floor, thick dust, one narrow ramp | 2 → 16 | 5 → 35 | 2 → 10 | 61 |
The crater loses despite the best dust, because the ramp taxes every load. That surprises people who pick sites by looking at the ground instead of the route out.
The basin wins by being unremarkable everywhere: not the richest ground, but the one with no factor below three.
The Loaded Return Test
Drive the route with a full load before confirming. An empty test tells you almost nothing; slope and turning circle appear only under weight.
- Climb out loaded. If the exit is uphill, a full hopper may need a run-up. Test with the heaviest machine you expect to use.
- Make the final turn. Large vehicles reportedly turn wide, which is why the base guide asks for three grid blocks of clearance in front of a garage. Apply the same to a depot intake.
- Enter from both directions. A pad that works from one approach costs half your crew a minute every trip.
- Check the ground for dust. Loose dust blocks placement, so vacuum the pad first.
- Confirm the output path. Dust still has to launch or belt onward. A depot with a blocked output is a warehouse, not a sale.
If any check fails, the site fails, whatever the score says.
Sunk Cost: Why Placement Is a Purchase
Buildings are immovable: no pickup, drag, or rotate, and the patches that fixed vehicles and belts never added one. The only way to relocate a depot is demolish and re-buy, at a reported 75% refund.
| Cost | What it takes |
|---|---|
| 25% of the purchase price | Reported refund rate, so the depot is bought twice |
| Belt and conveyor re-run | Materials plus the time to lay them again |
| Launch downtime | Nothing sells while the depot is down |
| Crew habit | Everyone learns a new route and parking spot |
For a base, relocation is normal. For a depot it should be rare: cheap enough that the fee is small, expensive enough in time that you notice it. Place the first depot 60 to 90 seconds from your working edge, not in the richest crater, then let the frontier come to it. The moving buildings guide covers the demolition workflow.
If you already placed one badly
Do not demolish it the moment the frontier moves. A depot at the edge of finished ground still serves as a launch point, and the 25% loss plus a belt re-run is real money. Build the second depot forward, keep the first until its launches stop paying, then retire it. If the new site is still far from the dust, the packager guide may be the cheaper bridge.
Depot Spacing in a Crew
A 16-player lobby does not need sixteen depots or one giant one. Three small depots, one per active region, beat one central building.
| Crew size | Depots | Arrangement |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | 1, plus a forward one when the walk passes a minute | Keep the first near the landing site |
| 4 | 2 | One per active region, one owner each |
| 8 | 3 | Two working depots, one at the base |
| 16 | 3–5 | One per squad area, named by direction |
Name each depot by direction, because "the one by the big rock" does not survive a session. Give each an owner who watches its launch cadence.
The zone map guide explains how regions relate to where depots pay off, and the auto-sell setup covers what to do when the depot itself becomes the queue.
How much does a depot cost in Moon Sweepers?
No price is published, and the guides that quote one disagree. Open the build menu and read the figure for your build rather than budgeting from a wiki. The missing number is not an oversight on our side — it is the state of the sources five days after launch.
Can I move a depot after placing it?
No. There is no move or rotate function. The only route is demolish and repurchase, which reportedly returns 75% of the price and costs every belt and connection you ran to it.
How far should a depot be from my work area?
Roughly 30 to 90 seconds loaded, one way. Under 30 seconds you probably did not need a second depot. Over two minutes, build forward before buying another tool.
Should I put a depot in a crater because the dust is denser?
Only if the route out survives a full load. Dense dust with a narrow ramp scores worse than ordinary dust on flat ground, because the ramp taxes every trip while density pays once per area. Drive the exit loaded before committing.
Related Guides
Best Base Location in Moon Sweepers: A Scoring Method
Score candidate base sites on slope, dust density, haul distance, and expansion room. Includes three site archetypes, foundation rules, and when to move.
Moon Sweepers Zone Progression Order: What to Clear First
The order to push through Moon Sweepers zones, the money and gear gate at each stage, and why finishing blue ground beats chasing orange.
Moon Sweepers Zones and Map: Reading the Surface
How the Moon Sweepers map works: hex sectors, the orange-blue-green color code, craters versus plains, and how to pick a base site without guesswork.
Moon Sweepers: How to Move Buildings and Depots
There is no move tool in Moon Sweepers. Here is what demolishing and rebuilding actually costs, how garages behave now, and how to avoid paying twice.
Lunar Dust Farming: Moon Sweepers Money Loop
How to farm lunar dust efficiently in Moon Sweepers: capacity math, route planning, station placement, and the automation steps that scale your income.
Moon Sweepers Achievements Guide: All 33 and Fastest Order
All 33 Moon Sweepers achievements grouped by tracker, the hidden conveyor-loop unlock, and the order that clears easy ones before the long grind begins.