Field Manual
The Field Manual of Moon Sweepers, quoted chapter by chapter in the order the game shows it. It opens with H on the keyboard; on a controller it is in the pause menu. [key] marks a key the game fills in from your controls.
- 9
- Chapters
- 70
- Lines quoted
Someone decided the Moon was too dusty. You have been hired to fix that. This manual covers everything you need to know. Reading it is unpaid.
Know your buttons. Management knows theirs.
The manual's key tables are on the Controls page.
Clean the Moon. All of it.
The Moon is covered in dust, and the Lunar Surface Division has decided that this is unacceptable. You start with a toothbrush and no money.
The Moon is split into hexagonal sectors. Clean one completely for a bonus.
The dust you sweep up fills the container on your tool. Take it to a station and sell it by the kilogram.
Spend the money on bigger tools, upgrades, machines and vehicles. Then clean faster.
There are 163,842 sectors. Nobody has counted twice.
New hire, day one. Still smiling.
Press [key] to scan the sector you're standing in: you'll see its edges and how clean it is.
The Moon won't clean itself. We checked.
Hold [key] to clean with the tool in your hand. [key] locks a brush's sweep angle.
Every tool has its own dust container. When it's full, the tool stops picking up dust.
Full? Press [key] to pack your dust into a dust capsule. Tap [key] to set it down, hold it to throw.
Aim at a capsule: [key] empties it into your tool, [key] picks it up.
One clean line. Only 163,841 sectors to go.
Every tool cleans its own width and carries its own amount of dust. Better tools cost more. The shop has them all.
A bigger tool has a bigger container. The toothbrush is a starting point, not a lifestyle.
Dust is money. Not much money. But money.
At any station, hold [key] at the deposit intake to fill its tray. Press its button to sell it, by the kilogram.
Every sector you finish pays a bonus. So does every flag you raise and every lunar site you survey.
Your whole crew shares one wallet.
In the Collector, aim at the supply wall and press [key]. Buy tools and suit gear there, and hang tools on your belt.
The deposit intake. Dust goes in, money comes out. Slowly.
Behind each station's service table stands the upgrade hologram. Aim at it and press [key], then hold the install button to buy.
The upgrade hologram. Looking is free.
Everything here was built by someone like you. Mostly.
Buy the building tool in the shop and put it in a slot. With it in hand, [key] opens the build menu.
[key] places a piece, the wheel turns it and Ctrl + wheel lifts it. [key] is remove mode: you get most of the cost back.
Foundations only go on hexes you've cleaned completely.
A packager takes your dust ([key]) and sends it down its belt in capsules. Run belts to a station's intakes and the dust sells itself.
Belts can split and merge to sort the traffic.
Production machines turn dust into moon sand and moon stone, which sell for more. They need solar power nearby.
Belts, panels, a packager. Management calls it a start.
They never ask for a raise.
Robot vacuums clean the hexes around their dock while you're busy. Better robots cover more ground.
A robot brings its dust home, and the dock packs it into capsules onto a belt. No belt? The dock fills up and the robot waits.
Aim at a dock and press [key] to see how it's doing, or to switch it off.
A robot dock. Its robot is out working. Allegedly.
A dock only holds so much. Keep its belt moving and its robot never stops.
Faster than a toothbrush. Slightly.
Build a garage, aim at it and press [key] to buy a vehicle. Each player buys their own, with the crew's money.
Bigger vehicles clean wider and carry more dust in their hoppers. Some carry people and capsules instead.
Upgrade each vehicle at its garage: speed, hopper, boost, cruise control, suction and lights.
Stop on a garage's collector pad and the hopper empties into its silo.
Drive carefully. The nearest mechanic is on Earth.
Seats one. Cleans a lot.
In the air W and S flip you, A and D spin you. Tricks pay!
It's a big Moon. We measured it.
There are four stations: North (where you start), East, West and South.
[key] scans the sector you're in: its edges and how clean it is.
[key] lifts the camera for a survey view, then the whole Moon.
Each station's main console holds the Moon map: orange is untouched, blue is started, green is done. Place waypoints there for your crew.
Nights are dark. [key] switches your helmet lamp on; upgrades make it brighter.
Flags lie tangled all over the Moon, one for every country. Hold [key] at one to untangle it and raise it.
Lunar sites are real landers, rovers and crash sites. Hold [key] at one to survey it.
A real lander. Please don't sweep it.
The map counts what you've found.
Many hands make light work. And more dust.
Clean together on the host's Moon. Invite friends from the main menu or the pause menu.
Money and waypoints are shared. Tools, upgrades and vehicles are your own.
Hold [key] for the scoreboard.
Lockers change your suit and visor. The whiteboard is for plans, or doodles. The lounge has chess and air hockey.
The bunks are for lying down. The Moon keeps turning while you do.
Team meeting. Attendance is mandatory.
Since patch 1.0.3 upgrades are shared by the whole crew; the manual's line on upgrades is older.
Day 1: got a toothbrush. Asked about a vacuum. Was told to show initiative.
Day 12: the dust comes back if you think about it too hard.
Day 40: found a flag. Felt nothing. Then got paid. Felt something.
Do NOT lick the dust.
Day 83: a robot waved at me. I think. I waved back. Nobody saw.