Which Upgrade First?

Quick answer

Buy Auto Packer first if you still sweep by hand, then Market Contracts once your dust actually reaches the depot reliably. Save Wide Head for when you plan to keep using hand tools. Treat Supplier Network as a pre-spending-spree discount, and Dust Compactor as a late hand-tool purchase. Region Bounty only pays if you finish regions.

What the matrix actually is

The Upgrade Matrix is a terminal in the station that sells permanent improvements to your operation. Unlike brushes and vehicles, these are not objects you hold — they change rules. Some affect your tool, some affect your payouts, one affects prices.

Since patch 1.0.3, the matrix is crew-wide. The host's upgrade levels apply to everyone, and anyone's purchase upgrades the whole crew. Older saves keep the highest level anyone had bought. This single change invalidated most co-op advice written before 24 October.

All six upgrades compared

Wide Head — $40, +8% width

A percentage increase to your cleaning width. Because it is multiplicative, it scales with whatever brush you are holding. On a toothbrush, 8% of almost nothing is almost nothing. On an Extra Wide Broom, it is nearly 8 cm of extra coverage per pass.

Buy it if you have a Household Broom or better and no vehicle plans this session. Skip it if the Garage is next.

Dust Compactor — $150, +15% capacity

Requires a container upgrade first, which makes the real cost $150 plus whatever the container upgrade cost. That is a lot for 15%. The value only appears when 15% of your load is a meaningful amount of dust — which means a wide brush and a large container.

Verdict: a late hand-tool purchase, not an early one. If you are heading toward automation, skip it entirely.

Auto Packer — automatic capsule packing

When your container fills, the tool packs a capsule at your feet automatically. It does not deposit, transport, or sell anything. What it removes is a repetitive interruption, and interruptions are the main reason the manual phase feels slow.

Verdict: the best early matrix purchase for a solo player who sweeps by hand. It does nothing once your operation is fully automated, so do not buy it on a save where you already have conveyors running.

Market Contracts — $120, +6% launch payout

A multiplier on what the depot pays for dust sent through the launch system. Because it applies to a flow rather than a single sale, its value grows with your production.

Verdict: buy once dust reliably reaches the depot. Buying it while your conveyors are stalled is buying a multiplier on zero. Later levels cost more, so check the displayed price each time rather than assuming a flat rate.

Supplier Network — 5% discount

A flat discount on purchases. Buying it after you have already bought everything is obviously pointless; buying it immediately before a large spending run is genuinely efficient.

Verdict: time it. If you are about to buy a Garage plus a vehicle plus a Building Tool, the discount is worth more than the upgrade costs.

Region Bounty — +$15 per completed region

Adds a bonus each time you complete a cleaning region. This is a behaviour-dependent upgrade: it pays nothing if you drift between half-finished areas, and it pays reliably if you finish what you start.

Verdict: buy it if you are a finisher. Skip it if you are an explorer who leaves hexes at 80% and moves on.

Three build orders

Solo, slow, hand tools

1. Auto Packer — removes the worst interruption early.
2. Wide Head — compounds with your next brush.
3. Market Contracts — multiplies the flow you now produce reliably.
4. Region Bounty — if you finish areas.
5. Dust Compactor — much later.
6. Supplier Network — just before a big purchase.

Small co-op crew (2–4)

1. Market Contracts — everyone benefits from one purchase.
2. Auto Packer — shared now, so the cost per player is trivial.
3. Supplier Network — before the group buys vehicles.
4. Wide Head — if the crew still sweeps manually.

Automation-first

1. Supplier Network — immediately before the Building Tool and first machines.
2. Market Contracts — your factory produces regardless of player attention.
3. Everything else — optional.

The two traps

Trap one: buying multipliers before throughput

Market Contracts is the most attractive upgrade on the list and the easiest to waste money on. A 6% increase on a stalled conveyor is zero. Before buying any payout multiplier, follow one capsule from collection to depot intake and confirm it actually gets paid.

Trap two: buying tool upgrades after switching to vehicles

Wide Head and Dust Compactor affect hand tools. Once you are driving a Lunar Sweeper most of the session, those upgrades are dormant. Spend the money on the machine chain instead.

When to stop buying upgrades

The matrix stops being the best use of money once a single machine would increase throughput more than a percentage buff. In practice that is around the time you can afford a Pressure Chamber: $500 for a 3x value multiplier beats most of the matrix for the same money.

Read the automation guide for the machine order, or the money guide if you want to see how the multipliers stack.