Rake, blower or bag: what to buy first

The bottleneck is not your speed

Every clearing game feels like it is about how fast you clear. This one is not, at least not at first. Your bag fills, you stop, you walk to the trash can, you walk back. That round trip is dead time and it scales with how fast you clear — a better blower makes it happen more often.

So the first thing to buy is capacity, because capacity is the only upgrade that removes an interruption rather than shortening a task.

Then buy range, then buy speed

Once the bag is comfortable, range beats raw speed. A wider blower clears a strip in one pass where a fast narrow one needs two, and the passes you never make are worth more than the passes you make quicker.

Speed is the last thing to max. It compounds with everything you already bought, which is exactly why it should come after them rather than before.

How to tell you got the order wrong

• You are emptying the bag more than twice per area

• You finish an area with time to spare but run out of bag halfway

• You are walking back over ground you already cleared

Any of those means capacity or range is behind, not speed.

What we are not telling you

We have not published a cost table for these upgrades. No source we would stand behind has documented the prices, and a made-up price list is worse than no price list — it sends you saving for a number that does not exist.

If you have the actual costs in front of you in game, tell us and they go on the tools table with your name on the source line.