Every Tool in Sludgineers: Vacuum, Van, Drones and Purifiers
Sludgineers gives you a small, escalating toolkit: the cleaning van you work from, the vacuum hose that does the cleaning, the refinery that processes what you collect, and two late-game hi-tech tools — vacuum drones and air purifiers — that arrive only in the full release.
Key facts
- Starting tool
- Vacuum hose, worked from the van
- Transport
- Cleaning van / truck
- Processing
- The refinery on the overworld map
- Late tool 1
- Vacuum drones
- Late tool 2
- Air purifiers
- Demo tools
- Van and vacuum only
- All upgraded via
- The UPGRADES tree
The cleaning van
Your base of operations. The Sludgineers van parks at the roadside of every job and stays there — you do not drive around inside a scene. It carries the vacuum rig, the crew in hi-vis orange, and the barrels your collected material goes into. On the overworld map a van icon marks your position between jobs.
The developers describe the game as cruising the countryside completing quests, and the van is what makes that framing work: each job is a callout, you arrive, you work, you get paid, you drive on.
The vacuum hose
The core tool and the one you use in every Sludgineers job from the first minute to the last. Aim it, hold, and sludge dissolves under the beam while cash ticks up. Two upgrade lines govern it — suction power (how fast it clears) and range (how far it reaches) — plus the energy capacity that determines how long you can run it before the Low Energy warning ends the job.
| Property | Governed by | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Clearing speed | Suction power nodes | Throughput — matters once energy is comfortable |
| Reach | Range nodes | Lets you work more of a scene without repositioning |
| Run time | Energy / battery nodes | The early-game constraint. Guide |
| Income per unit cleared | Cash multiplier nodes | Compounds across every job |
The refinery
Not a handheld tool but unquestionably equipment. The Sludgineers refinery is the industrial complex you build and expand on the overworld map, converting raw sludge into the refined resources that every upgrade node demands alongside cash. Refinery automation — the ability to have it process while you are out on jobs — is a full-release feature and the biggest quality-of-life unlock in the game.
Read the full breakdown on the refinery guide.
Vacuum drones
The first hi-tech tool, and a full-release addition the developers confirmed explicitly in their launch announcement. Drones clean autonomously alongside your own hose, working area in parallel so jobs stop being a solo race against your energy meter.
They bring their own upgrade sub-branch. The confirmed node is Vacuum Drone Battery — three ranks, described in-game as increasing the battery size of vacuum drones, scaling 100% to 150%, costing $2,150 plus 20 refined resources at the rank observed. Neighbouring nodes cover further drone properties including density.
Air purifiers
The second hi-tech tool named by the developers, and the latest unlock in a Sludgineers run. Where the vacuum handles ground sludge, air purifiers address pollution types the vacuum does not — which lines up with the full release adding additional pollution types over the demo.
Screenshots of late Sludgineers jobs beside industrial sites show a green beam visibly distinct from the purple vacuum stream, consistent with a second tool operating on a different contaminant.
Tool availability by version
| Tool | Browser build | Steam demo | Full game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleaning van | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Vacuum hose | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Refinery (manual) | Limited | Limited | Yes |
| Refinery automation | No | No | Yes |
| Vacuum drones | No | No | Yes |
| Air purifiers | No | No | Yes |
| Power-ups | No | Magnet only | Full system |
This table is the clearest answer to “is the full game worth it over the demo”: the demo gives you the cleaning game, the full release gives you the automation game. See the demo page and the price page.
Sludgineers FAQ
What tools are in Sludgineers?
Sludgineers has the cleaning van, the vacuum hose, the refinery, and two late-game hi-tech tools — vacuum drones and air purifiers. Drones, air purifiers and refinery automation are full-release features not present in the demo.
What is the best tool in Sludgineers?
Vacuum drones change job pacing the most, because they clean autonomously alongside your own hose. But refinery automation is the biggest quality-of-life improvement, since it removes a manual step from every loop.
Do you drive the van in Sludgineers?
Not within a job. The Sludgineers van parks at the roadside and you work the vacuum from it. The van moves between jobs on the overworld map.
Related Sludgineers pages
Fact-checked against the official Steam store page, the developer FAQ thread and in-game screenshots. Last verified .