Robot Vacuum Mk1

Overview

The Mk1 robot vacuum lives on a dock. When you place it, the hexes it will clean light up blue; walk up to it to see its progress. It cleans its two rings one hex at a time, packs the dust into capsules at the dock and pushes them out onto a belt. If that belt runs to a station intake or a Packager, the dust sells automatically.

It is slow. It takes a long time to pay off its $250, and finished hexes only pay their region bonus as it gets to them. What it really buys you is time: it keeps earning while you sweep elsewhere, and the hexes it clears are 19 fewer you have to do by hand. Once its area is done, the robot disappears, so place it in the middle of untouched dust rather than next to hexes you already cleaned.

Tips

• Place it at least two rings away from cleaned ground so all 19 hexes have dust.
• It can drive under conveyors, so you can run its belt straight across its own area.
• Merge several robot belts into one line before it reaches your base.