- Moon base layout should pair dust collection with pressure chambers and stone presses
- Stone presses sell moonstone at 7x dust value, the best early-mid profit margin
- Solar power is the backbone: add large solar trackers and batteries to survive long lunar nights
- Economy upgrades raise launch payouts and per-region bounties, often outperforming new vehicles
- Region bounties scale from $10 up to $30+ per cleared region when maxed
Moon Base Core Principles
Your Clean the Moon moon base is more than a garage—it is a small factory that turns raw lunar dust into sellable products. The core production chain is simple: sweepers deposit dust at a station, the dust feeds pressure chambers that compress it into sand, and stone presses combine dust and sand into moonstone blocks that sell for seven times the raw dust price.
The most common mistake players make is upgrading sweepers faster than production. A single pressure chamber only processes about 5 kg every 12 seconds (roughly 25 kg per minute), while even a mid-tier ride-on sweeper can pull in far more than that. When your dust collector backs up, you are leaving money on the surface.
Video Highlights from community playthroughs:
- Four pressure chambers per station is roughly the sweet spot for two conveyor output lines
- Stone presses consume 1 kg dust + 1 kg sand every 6 seconds and need 18 kW each
- Conveyor belts have no speed upgrades, so throughput is capped by belt count
- Night cycles are long—batteries and extra solar trackers keep production running
A single collector output belt cannot feed four pressure chambers plus stone presses at full speed. Balance your machine count against belt throughput, or the whole line starves.
Power & Solar Setup
Power management makes or breaks a moon base. Every machine—pressure chambers, stone presses—draws constant kW, and the lunar night lasts a very long time. Solar trackers only generate during daylight, so your grid needs surplus capacity to charge batteries for overnight operation.
A practical rule: for every two stone presses (36 kW combined demand), run at least four solar panels plus a dedicated battery. When your base shows a surplus during the day, that surplus is charging batteries. If your batteries drain before dawn, add another large solar tracker ($300) before adding more machines.
| Power Item | Approx. Cost | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solar panel | Low | Baseline generation | Space them out to cover new machines |
| Large solar tracker | $300 | Bulk generation | Best value per panel |
| Battery | Mid | Night storage | Charge rate ~5.1 kW each when surplus |
| Stone press | Mid | 18 kW draw each | Heaviest constant consumer |
| Pressure chamber | $500 | Dust to sand | 5 kg per 12 seconds |
Do your big building sprees right after dawn. If you construct machines at dusk, the construction draw plus charging demand can wipe out your batteries before sunrise.
Production Chain Step-by-Step
Secure Dust Intake
Run a conveyor from the station collector outward. Remember input sides on machines are fixed—check the arrow before wiring splitters.
Add Pressure Chambers
Place 3-4 chambers per output belt with splitters between them. Each converts 5 kg of dust into sand every 12 seconds.
Split Dust and Sand to Stone Presses
Stone presses need dust on one input and sand on the other—the sides are not interchangeable. One chamber chain supports about two presses.
Merge Outputs to the Launcher
Use mergers to combine moonstone outputs into a single delivery belt to the launch/sell point. This is where the money is made.
Raise Belts for Vehicle Traffic
Belts support height control. Lift cross-base runs high enough to drive sweepers underneath, keeping your base navigable.
Moonstone sells for roughly 7x raw dust, and sand alone sells for about 3x. Always route excess dust through the full chain rather than launching raw loads.
Economy Upgrades Priority
Economy upgrades in the upgrades tab are frequently the highest-ROI purchases in the game, yet many players skip them entirely. One community player discovered a $600 region bounty upgrade after already clearing 38 regions at the base rate—a significant missed payout.
| Upgrade | Effect | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Launch payout boosts | +6% to +12% per launch | ★★★★★ |
| Region bounty | +$15 to +$30 per region cleared | ★★★★★ |
| Lunar exchange seat | +10% launch payout ($2,500) | ★★★★ |
| Supplier bulk deals | Cheaper tools and containers | ★★★ |
| Dust compactor | +15% tool container capacity | ★★ |
| Wider cleaning heads | Broader sweep per stroke | ★★★ |
Most cleaning upgrades (wider heads, dust compactor, servo stride) apply to hand tools only. Vehicles have their own separate upgrade set in the garage tab. Test before buying—the $150 compactor, for instance, does not increase sweeper hopper capacity.
Sweeper Progression Comparison
Your vehicle ladder determines how fast dust reaches the base. Here is how the main options compare:
| Vehicle | Capacity | Strength | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Push sweeper | Small | Manual, cheap | Early game workhorse |
| Ride-on sweeper | 500 kg | 2 m sweep width | ~$1,000, big jump in speed |
| Lunar sweeper | 1,200 kg | Fast, boost mode | Lights for night sweeping |
| Mega vacuum rover | Larger | Top-tier suction | Upgrade this one, skip mid-tier upgrades |
| Junas robot | N/A | Autonomous tile-to-tile cleaning | $20,000, ejects dust to nearest collector |
Vehicle First
- Fastest dust income
- Fun traversal and flips
- Risk: production bottleneck
Production First
- Higher value per kg
- Passive overnight income
- Risk: slow early cash flow
Balanced (Recommended)
- Alternate vehicle and factory spending
- Keep collector roughly half full
- Buy economy upgrades whenever affordable
Airborne flips award small cash bonuses ($3-6 per trick), and there are 195 flags to untangle across the moon's 163,000+ hexes. Stations sit far apart—open the map with M before heading out.
Base Expansion Checklist
Moon Base Milestones:
- Buy launch payout and region bounty upgrades
- Set up 4 pressure chambers with splitters and mergers
- Build 2 stone presses with dedicated solar power
- Purchase the ride-on sweeper ($1,000)
- Add batteries that last through a full lunar night
- Lift conveyor belts for vehicle underpasses
- Save toward the Junas autonomous cleaner ($20,000)
There are no belt speed upgrades. Once both station output belts are saturated, expand by building a second production cluster or moving toward the Junas drone instead of forcing more machines onto one line.
FAQ
Q: How many pressure chambers should a moon base have?
Roughly four per output belt is the sweet spot. A single collector line cannot feed more than that at full throughput, so additional machines just sit idle or starve your stone presses.
Q: Is the stone press worth the power cost?
Yes. Moonstone sells for about 7x the price of raw dust, versus 3x for sand. Each press needs 18 kW and consumes 1 kg of dust plus 1 kg of sand every 6 seconds, so plan solar panels accordingly.
Q: Do tool upgrades affect vehicles in Clean the Moon?
Mostly no. Wider cleaning heads, the dust compactor, and servo stride apply to hand tools. Vehicles have a separate upgrade menu in the garage, so verify before spending.
Q: How do I keep my moon base running at night?
Build surplus solar capacity during the day so it charges batteries, and avoid constructing new machines at dusk. If batteries run dry overnight, add another large solar tracker before expanding production.