Buying Cleaner Help

[Nigel Thornberry]

I purchased the metal cleaner for one level and used all of it. The next level requires me to use the metal cleaner again. It shows that I purchased the cleaner, but I'm empty and can not buy more? Not sure what to do. Any hints or advice?

[TangoBunny]

First of all, you never need to use soap, it just makes things super fast.

If you still want to use it though, the R key seems to 'reload' the soap, but it automatically takes money each time you do this. If it's not working, it's probably because you don't have the money to buy it again.

[76561199065882028]

This is something the team are looking into and will be changing how soap works in future updates. I believe one of the the more recent Dev Logs covers what is planned.

[KingBobCat]

I'm in the same boat: Out of Metal Cleaner, I have plenty of money and it won't let me refill (playing the new motorhome level)...

[ima420r]

ATM you can only buy so many cleaners, depending on how many levels you have completed since the update. I am told you can have 14 of each cleaner if you started at the beginning and work your way through all the levels. However, if you did all of the levels and now are playing the newer ones added in the last update, you don't get 14, you only get like 3.

That said, you don't need any cleaners to finish a level. Upgrade your washer nozzle (I think the 3000 is currently the best) and you can get everything clean in no time.

[KingBobCat]

Thanks for your response. So, what's the point in being able to only buy a certain amount of cleaner? If you earned the money, you should be able to spend it... BTW, I ran out of metal cleaner on that level after only 2 bottles.

[Adventure Square]

Originally posted by KingBobCat:

Thanks for your response. So, what's the point in being able to only buy a certain amount of cleaner? If you earned the money, you should be able to spend it... BTW, I ran out of metal cleaner on that level after only 2 bottles.

I'm not sure I love the soap system, but I can see some possible reasons for the limit.

First, if we can spend as much money as we want on the soap, players might spend too much money on soap and cramp their ability to buy upgrades. Since there's a finite amount of funds in the campaign, that would be a sad outcome.

Second, If the soap is cheap and plentiful, then it may not feel like a meaningful boost to consider when to use.

Third, if soap is very easily acquirable, players (like the OP), may not realize that soap is optional.

I agree that many players will respond similarly to you "why is this limited?" so I'm not a big fan of the current state of things, but it's easy to imagine some reasons why this was implemented.

[KingBobCat]

Originally posted by Adventure Square:

Originally posted by KingBobCat:

Thanks for your response. So, what's the point in being able to only buy a certain amount of cleaner? If you earned the money, you should be able to spend it... BTW, I ran out of metal cleaner on that level after only 2 bottles.

I'm not sure I love the soap system, but I can see some possible reasons for the limit.

First, if we can spend as much money as we want on the soap, players might spend too much money on soap and cramp their ability to buy upgrades. Since there's a finite amount of funds in the campaign, that would be a sad outcome.

Second, If the soap is cheap and plentiful, then it may not feel like a meaningful boost to consider when to use.

Third, if soap is very easily acquirable, players (like the OP), may not realize that soap is optional.

I agree that many players will respond similarly to you "why is this limited?" so I'm not a big fan of the current state of things, but it's easy to imagine some reasons why this was implemented.

I've always been a big fan of letting players play a game however they want, within the limitations of the game itself. Also, as a simulation, if you were going to try to restrict the use of soap, wouldn't it be more realistic/make more sense if money wasn't so easy to get? And like real life, if you blow all of your money on something early (soap on everything) and you don't have money for other things that you need later (better/more powerful equipment), then you will suffer the consequences of having to work harder (doing everything manually with your lesser equipment).
Speaking for myself, I rarely used soap in the earlier levels and have only really used it were there were large areas or tough rust & the like. So now, I'm sitting on a pile of money with no real purpose as I cannot buy any more equipment or enough soap to get the job done, making the money pretty pointless. I obviously have since gone on and blasted everything manually with a 0 degree tip and gotten it all 100% clean. But despite this being a great game that I've really enjoyed, the money part/soap limitation is pretty unbalanced and confusing in it's current state.

[sneaker]

Originally posted by kett41:

I purchased the metal cleaner for one level and used all of it. The next level requires me to use the metal cleaner again. It shows that I purchased the cleaner, but I'm empty and can not buy more? Not sure what to do. Any hints or advice?

Cleaners is one of my big irritations with the game, early stage at least. The game forces you to be slow and Inefficient, turning the game into a repetitive stress injury simulator. This makes the game just a tedious grind for no reason.