Moon Sweepers Automatic Dust Selling

To automatically sell moon dust in Moon Sweepers, buy the Building Tool ($50), set up something that turns dust into capsules (a Packager, a Robot Vacuum dock, a garage silo or, much later, a Capsule Catcher), and run a Conveyor from that machine's output into the dust station's intake. The in-game hint sums it up: run belts to the station's intake and the dust sells itself.

Patch 1.0.3 (October 24, 2026) is the version that makes this reliable. Its notes say the deposit intake now pays exactly what its screen shows, and that dust and stone arriving by belt are paid as they come in. Older posts claiming that belt deliveries vanish without payment describe the launch build.

Two limits matter before you spend money. A Packager still needs you to bring it dust, so it removes the walk to the station but not the sweeping. A Robot Vacuum only cleans a fixed ring of hexes around its dock, so its income stops once that patch is clean.

What Automatic Selling Means in Moon Sweepers

At the start, selling is entirely manual. You brush dust into your tool, press Q to pack it into capsules, carry them back to the station, deposit them and launch the container to get paid. Every kilogram passes through your hands.

Automatic selling replaces the carrying and depositing part. Capsules ride a conveyor into the station's intake and the money is credited when they arrive. You never have to walk inside the station to sell that material.

How much of the job becomes automatic depends on what feeds the belt:

• Packager: you still clean by hand, but you unload into a nearby machine instead of walking home.
• Robot Vacuum: cleaning, packing and delivery all run without you, inside the dock's coverage.
• Garage silo: you drive the vehicle, but unloading and delivery run on their own once you park on the collector pad.
• J.O.O.N.A.S with a Capsule Catcher: a late-game sweeper that cleans the nearest dusty hexes anywhere on the Moon and fires capsules at the nearest Catcher.

Think of the chain as three links: source, belt, station intake. If any link is missing, dust piles up somewhere instead of turning into money.

What You Need Before You Start

Everything in an automatic selling line is bought through the Building Tool. These are the prices shown in the build menus on the current version.

A first robot line costs roughly $315 in one community example: the Building Tool, a Mk I vacuum and about 30 m of belt. Longer routes cost more, at $0.50 for every extra meter.

On stream, the Packager did not appear to need power. Processing machines such as the Pressure Chamber and Stone Press do need power, which matters once you start upgrading what you sell.

Choose the Capsule Source for Your Selling Line

Pick the source that matches how you play right now. You can run several later and combine them.

Packager: semi-automatic selling for brush loads

The Packager sits in the Logistics tab next to the Merger and Splitter. Interact with it using E while carrying dust and it sends that dust out in capsules over a belt from its rear output. Place it near the area you are cleaning, not next to the station, or it saves you almost nothing.

One video guide suggests laying around 90 to 100 m of conveyor away from the base and putting the Packager at the far end. You keep sweeping, walk a few steps to unload, and the belt does the long trip.

The Packager turns brush loads into capsules that a belt can carry away.

Robot Vacuum dock: hands-off selling from a fixed area

The Robot Vacuum is the first source that needs no player input. Its description says the robot cleans the hexes around its dock, brings the dust home, and the dock packs it into capsules onto a belt. Connect that belt to the station and the whole loop runs while you do something else.

Place the dock where most of its coverage is still dirty. Players report that the game will not let you place a robot where dust remains under its footprint, so clean the spot first. Once the ring around the dock is finished, income from that dock stops, and the next vacuum should go on fresh ground.

Garage silo: selling vehicle hopper loads

Vehicles collect far more dust than a brush, so unloading them by hand quickly becomes the bottleneck. The garage text describes the solution: stop the vehicle on the collector pad under the hood, it empties into the silo by itself, and belts from the silo's two back ports carry the dust away in capsules.

Build the belt from a silo port to the station before you drive off with an empty hopper. A full vehicle with no outgoing belt just moves the backlog into the silo.

J.O.O.N.A.S and the Capsule Catcher: late-game remote selling

J.O.O.N.A.S cleans the nearest still-dusty hex, one at a time, and fires capsules at the nearest Capsule Catcher. Without a Catcher it waits with a full bin until one is built, so treat the two as one $21,500 purchase.

The developers still list J.O.O.N.A.S stopping when players move away as an open issue after 1.0.3. If you plan to leave it running unattended, expect that limit until a later patch says otherwise.

Build Your First Automatic Selling Line Step by Step

This walkthrough uses a Robot Vacuum Mk I because it is the cheapest fully automatic source. The same belt steps apply to a Packager or a garage silo.

1. Buy the Building Tool ($50) and keep at least $265 for the vacuum and a short belt.
2. Pick a patch with plenty of dirty hexes and clear the dust from the exact spot where the dock will stand.
3. Open Services, select Robot Vacuum Mk I and check the highlighted coverage area before placing it.
4. Rotate the dock so its capsule output points toward the station, then place it.
5. Open Logistics, select Conveyor, and start the belt at the dock's output.
6. Extend the belt toward the station in sections of up to 30 m, checking the direction arrows before you confirm each one.
7. Finish the last section inside the station's intake rather than beside the wall.
8. Wait for the robot to fill up, return and release its first capsule.
9. Follow that capsule to the station and watch your balance change when it enters the intake.

Build from the source toward the station whenever possible. A belt drawn the other way can look perfectly joined while carrying capsules away from the station.

Confirm the Chain Is Actually Paying

Placing everything is not the same as earning money. Check the result once, then you can leave the line alone.

• Capsules move: the first time dust rides a conveyor, the achievement Let the Belt Do It unlocks. If it never appears, nothing has reached the belt yet.
• Capsules disappear into the station: they should enter the intake and not pile up at the end of the belt.
• Money rises: your balance should increase as each capsule arrives. On 1.0.3 the amount should match the intake's own screen.

Give a Robot Vacuum time before you judge it. It has to clean, fill and return before the dock releases anything, and a dock that sits idle for a while is often still working.

Capsules arriving inside the station mean the chain is delivering.

If capsules stop moving, find the first place they gather. A pile at the end of the belt means the final section never entered the intake. A pile right at the dock output means the first belt section is not attached. Where a selling line passes through a splitter or merger, check that device before you rebuild the rest.

Add Processing Without Breaking the Sale

Once raw dust sells reliably, you can raise its value before it reaches the station:

The selling rule does not change: the processed capsules still need a belt that ends in the station intake. Put the machine between the source and the station, then continue the belt from its output.

Keep three cautions in mind:

• The Pressure Chamber's input is on the side without the handle. A backwards chamber blocks the whole line.
• Solar-powered machines can stop at night when stored energy runs out, which pauses your income even though the belts look fine.
• The 1.0.3 note names dust and stone as paid on arrival. Moon Sand is not named, and one guide notes player reports of inconsistent automatic selling for processed material. Send one small batch of sand and watch the balance before you route everything through the chamber.

Machine ratios and profit comparisons are a separate topic. For selling, the rule is simple: never let processing interrupt a raw-dust line that already pays.

Version Notes That Change Old Advice

Moon Sweepers launched on October 23, 2026 and was patched the next day. Several early tips are now wrong or unnecessary.

In co-op, every crewmate must be on 1.0.3 to play together. If a friend's splitters or mergers still do nothing, confirm the version before rebuilding the line.

When Auto-Selling Suddenly Stops

A line that worked yesterday usually stops for one of a few reasons:

• The source ran dry. A Robot Vacuum that finished its ring has nothing left to send. Move to fresh ground with a new dock.
• Night fell. Processing machines on solar power stop when the battery empties. Raw-dust belts keep moving; anything behind a Pressure Chamber waits for daylight.
• A belt section was removed or replaced. Rebuilding near the line can leave a gap. Walk the belt from source to intake.
• A processing machine filled up. If its output belt is blocked, it stops accepting input and capsules back up all the way to the source.
• You are far from J.O.O.N.A.S. See the version notes above.

Fix the first failure you find, then let one capsule complete the trip before changing anything else.

Expand the Selling Network

Once one line pays, adding sources is mostly belt work:

• More robots: place each new dock where its coverage reaches untouched hexes, not beside an existing dock. Overlapping coverage wastes the purchase.
• Combine lines: a Merger can bring two dock belts together into one delivery belt toward the station, so you do not need a separate run for every source.
• Vehicles: set up the garage silo belt before buying a bigger vehicle. A larger hopper only helps if its load can leave the silo.
• Distance: at $0.50 per meter, a long belt is cheap compared with the time spent walking. Extending your main line toward new work areas is often better than starting over.

Belts can be raised and lowered as you build. On PC, players report Ctrl plus the mouse wheel adjusts height, which lets one line cross another or rise high enough for vehicles to drive underneath.

The end state to aim for is a station with one or more belts feeding its intake, sources that each sit on fresh dirt, and a balance that climbs while you clean somewhere else. From there, every new purchase should either add capsules to that network or raise their value before they reach the intake.