Reading the Map and Facing 100%

Quick answer

The map uses three colours: orange untouched, blue partly cleaned, green complete. A hex is a section. Regions are groups of sections. The percentage at the bottom is Moon-wide, and with roughly 163,830 sectors you should expect 0.1% to feel like a lot of work — because it is.

Hex, section, region

Moon Sweepers uses three related terms and the achievement list switches between them without much ceremony, so it is worth pinning down.

• Hex — the hexagonal tile your brush works across. The smallest unit of cleaning.
• Section — what the achievements and map counters call a hex. One section is one hex.
• Region — a group of neighbouring sections. Completing a region is a bigger deal than completing a hex, and it pays a larger bonus.

What the colours mean

Blue is the state that should worry you. Blue means you started and stopped. It pays no completion bonus, it does not count toward section milestones, and the remaining dust is harder to see later because the surrounding area looks clean.

Why the percentage barely moves

At launch, one player's map showed 163,830 total sectors, with 145 cleaned, 182 partly cleaned, and 163,503 not cleaned. The percentage read 0.09%.

That is not a display bug. It is the actual scale. A region you can see from the station might be a few dozen hexes; the Moon is a hundred and sixty thousand.

What to track instead

For the first several sessions, use these as your progress signals:

• Completed hexes in the area you are working.
• Completed regions, which pay bonuses.
• Money per hour, which tells you whether the operation is improving.

The Moon percentage is a long-term dashboard. Check it once a session, not once an hour.

The four Moon milestones

Four achievements track the Moon-wide percentage, and the gap between them is the real difficulty curve of the game.

• You Missed a Spot — 1% of the Moon.
• Visible From Space — 10%.
• Half Way There — 50%.
• Time To Go Sleep... — 100%.

The gap between 1% and 10% is where most players either commit to automation or stop playing. Not because the game changes, but because manual cleaning cannot scale to that.

Estimate your remaining time

The most useful measurement in the game is your own cleaning rate. Take two map readings an hour apart, subtract the sector counts, and you have sections per hour. Then multiply.

Cleaning efficiently

Once you accept the scale, efficiency becomes about finishing rather than covering.

1. Work the perimeter first. Corners and edges are where the last dust hides, and they are easiest to see when approached from a clean side.
2. Finish adjacent hexes as a block. A tight green cluster is worth more than scattered high-percentage hexes because regions complete as groups.
3. Do not chase 100% on a huge hex with a small tool. Come back with a wider brush or a vehicle; the cost of finishing scales badly with a narrow tool.
4. Let machines take the boring parts. A Robot Vacuum is best used on ground you have already partly cleaned, where its fixed radius finishes rather than starts.

The 1.0.4 map changes

Patch 1.0.4 substantially improved the map, and most guides written before it describe the old one.

• Right-click to set waypoints, focus the view, or teleport.
• All robots appear on the map with their current activity, and each robot type can be toggled on or off.
• Teleport panel added for stations you have already discovered.
• Full section payments now show correctly, including the Region Bounty.

The teleport panel changes route planning more than it first appears. A distant untouched area is no longer a long drive; it is a station you have visited once.

For the achievement side of completion, see the achievements checklist. For the machines that make 10% possible, see automation.