Sludgineers Drones and Air Purifiers: Unlock and Best Use

Sludgineers drones and the Sludgineers air purifier are the two hi-tech tools that define the late game. Both are confirmed full-release features — neither appears in the demo or the free browser build. Drones clean autonomously alongside you and carry their own upgrade branch, including a three-rank Vacuum Drone Battery node.

What drones do in Sludgineers

Vacuum drones are autonomous cleaners that work the job alongside your hose. Instead of every square inch of sludge passing through your own beam, drones chew through area in parallel — which changes what a Sludgineers job feels like more than any other single upgrade. Jobs stop being a race against your own energy meter and start being a matter of managing a small fleet.

The developers confirmed drones as one of the headline additions the full release brought over the demo. Their launch post lists refinery automation and drones together as the two systems the demo never showed, and the official FAQ describes the full version as giving access to more hi-tech tools — drones and air purifiers — as new mechanics are introduced.

The drone upgrade sub-branch

Drones are not a single purchase. Once unlocked, they open their own set of nodes in the Sludgineers upgrade tree. The one we have photographed in full detail is Vacuum Drone Battery:

Neighbouring nodes in the same cluster point at other drone properties — density and behaviour modifiers among them. In-job banners for active job modifiers reference drone density as well, which suggests the number of drones working a scene is itself a tunable value.

Air purifiers

The second hi-tech tool the developers name is the air purifier. It is confirmed as a full-game, later-stage unlock introduced alongside new mechanics, and it addresses airborne pollution rather than the ground sludge your vacuum handles — a different pollution type needing a different tool.

That fits the launch notes, which list additional pollution types as one of the full release's additions over the demo. Late Sludgineers jobs visibly contain more than one kind of contamination, and screenshots of coastal and industrial jobs show a green beam distinct from the purple vacuum stream.

When to invest in drones

Not early. Drones multiply your throughput, and multiplying a weak throughput just gives you a slightly less weak throughput. The order that works:

1. Fix energy first. If your own jobs still end on a Low Energy warning, that is the constraint.
2. Get your multipliers up. Cash and resource multipliers make everything afterwards cheaper.
3. Automate the refinery. Drones cost cash and resources; a starved refinery blocks the purchase.
4. Then buy into drones, and immediately follow with drone battery ranks — a drone that runs out of power halfway through a job is doing half its job.
5. Air purifiers last, as the new pollution types that need them appear.

How drones change job strategy

• Split the map. Let drones work open ground while you personally target objects. Object Bonuses are lump sums and worth your direct attention; open sludge is flat-rate and ideal drone work.
• Stop sweeping. With drones covering area, your own beam is best spent on high-value density — buried cars, buildings, token clusters.
• Re-run old jobs. Jobs you scraped through pre-drones become full clears. See making money fast.
• Watch two energy bars, not one. Yours and the drones'.

Fact-checked against the official Steam store page, the developer FAQ thread and in-game screenshots. Last verified 26 August 2026.