Best Upgrade Order for Factory Growth

Plan a profitable Can 'Em All upgrade order: prioritize can value, the Industrial Vacuum, Grinders, conveyors, and weapons without wasting cash.

A smart Can 'Em All upgrade order turns a slow, hand-operated factory into a reliable can-selling machine. Spend your first cash on higher output and better can prices instead of every shiny weapon, because income compounds only when each creature becomes a completed sale. This Can 'Em All upgrade order guide covers the purchases that matter, the bottlenecks that signal when to switch priorities, and the late-game upgrades that keep money flowing.

The Core Can 'Em All Upgrade Order

Early production is inefficient on every level: one creature makes few cans, each can sells for little, and nearly every step demands manual work. The opening factory upgrade path lets you produce two cans from a single creature, which is a stronger first step than expanding arrivals. More creatures are profitable only after you can kill, process, and sell the ones already on the floor.

Use this Can 'Em All upgrade order while the factory is still small:

Priority	Upgrade or action	Cost / effect	Why it comes here
1	Increase cans per creature	Two cans from one creature in the opening tree	Raises output without requiring more arrivals
2	Premium Cans	First upgrade costs $12; can value rises from 0% to +200%	Makes every completed delivery worth more
3	Industrial Vacuum	$40 unlock	Speeds up body and can handling once manual hauling hurts
4	More creature arrivals	Spawn more targets	Buy after the current batch is processed on time
5	Combat improvements	Damage, attack speed, or an early weapon	Buy when creatures survive long enough to delay production
6	Conveyor sections	Partial automated routes	Buy when carrying cans by hand consumes the shift

The Baseball Bat is useful, but it does not deserve your first available cash automatically. Punching handles small groups of weak creatures. Buy the Bat when fights are taking time away from collecting and processing, not simply because it appears in the tree. The Knife is another early melee option, yet neither purchase should delay a can-value upgrade that raises every future sale.

Premium Cans and extra cans per creature reinforce each other. If you produce four cans instead of three, that additional can also benefits from your existing price bonus. Once deliveries are consistent, keep improving quantity and value together rather than pouring everything into one side of the equation.

How to Diagnose Your Factory's Bottleneck

A Can 'Em All upgrade order is only useful if it responds to what actually limits production. Early on, another kill usually means more money. Later, another kill can mean another body beside an already busy Grinder while unsold cans wait elsewhere.

Ask one question after each shift: What stopped the next can from being sold?

What is slowing you down?	What to upgrade next
You finish processing everything with time left	More creatures or higher-value creature types
Bodies pile up beside busy Grinders	Faster processing or another machine
Processed cans wait to be delivered	Missing conveyor sections or better manual delivery
Enemies remain alive because attacks run out	Weapon damage, ammunition, or automatic turrets
The shift ends while productive work is underway	Longer workdays, once processing and transport keep up

Walk the factory after the last delivery. Check bodies near the machines, cans stranded along the belt, and creatures still alive when the timer expires. That quick inspection is more reliable than buying the next expensive upgrade on impulse.

Processing, Vacuum, and Conveyor Priorities

When Should You Buy Another Grinder?

A Grinder processes creatures one at a time. As weapons improve, bodies can arrive faster than a single machine can handle. The early tree offers reduced processing time, which is usually the first answer when your Grinder is constantly occupied.

Grinder situation	Better next purchase
One Grinder finishes early	More creatures or better can value, not another machine
One Grinder runs continuously but bodies remain	Faster processing or a second Grinder
Several Grinders are busy and bodies still accumulate	More processing capacity before another combat upgrade
Grinders finish, but cans remain unsold	Improve transport instead of adding machines

Inspect your current machines before buying another one. Spending heavily on extra processing capacity while existing Grinders sit idle will not increase output. Cans per creature and Grinder speed are complementary upgrades, but the wrong order can leave money trapped in unfinished production.

Basket, Vacuum, and Roomba

The Basket in the factory corner carries multiple cans at once. It does not increase can output or value, but it reduces trips while you still deliver by hand. Use it to consolidate finished cans before they pile up on the floor.

The Industrial Vacuum costs $40 and changes how you move bodies, cans, and other objects. Instead of walking each item into position, you collect it and launch it toward the next part of the line. Its ordinary upgrades address different problems:

Vacuum upgrade	What it improves	When it matters
Storage capacity	Holds more material before unloading	Collecting several bodies together
Suction range	Collects objects from farther away	Items are spread across the floor
Firing speed	Launches collected objects faster	You spend too long unloading a full Vacuum
Firing range	Sends bodies farther toward a machine	You can aim at a Grinder from a distance

One capacity upgrade, Where Does It All Fit, raises Vacuum storage from 150 to 250 for $20,000. Do not buy every Vacuum improvement automatically. Identify whether collecting, moving into range, or unloading is the slow part, then improve that part.

Conveyor belts are purchased in sections. A partial belt may move cans closer to the seller while still leaving a manual step. The real milestone is a connected route that carries processed cans without repeated pickups. After output rises, Conveyor Speed becomes worthwhile when a connected line has a backlog.

Corpse Roombas help when bodies scatter faster than you can collect them, especially if you keep stopping to recover corpses. A Roomba cannot fix an overloaded Grinder, though. Moving more bodies into a machine that is already behind does not increase its throughput.

How to Raise Can Value and Late-Game Income

The next stage of your Can 'Em All upgrade order focuses on making each creature and each finished can worth more. Premium Cans remains central because its value bonus applies to every sale, and the bonus grows more valuable as your factory produces additional cans per creature.

Shiny and duplication upgrades are not interchangeable:

Upgrade type	What it improves
Shiny creature chance	Chance that valuable Shiny creatures arrive
Shiny can chance	Chance to produce more valuable Shiny cans
Shiny value upgrades	Worth of Shiny output
Can duplication	Chance for produced cans to duplicate
Money duplication	Chance for money earned from cans to duplicate

One midgame upgrade raised the chance of duplicating each produced can to 10%, which shows why the production tree becomes more profitable once multiple cans come from each creature. Probability bonuses still depend on a steady flow of finished product, so do not ignore basic output.

Hole in One costs $20,000 for its first upgrade and raises the chance of bonus money from directly shooting cans into the seller from 0% to 10%. Each direct shot takes time that could go toward collecting bodies or feeding Grinders. Manual shots are manageable with a few cans; connected conveyors become more attractive once several machines produce continuously.

Smoked Meat costs $100,000,000 and makes Smoked Cans worth twice as much as normal cans. The Flamethrower is relevant because fire-based production can combine combat with the smoked-output bonus. Higher-priced cans still need to reach the seller, so keep processing and transport capable of handling the extra value.

Weapons, Workday, and Final Priorities

Weapons belong in the Can 'Em All upgrade order when combat is the limiting step, not because a new gun looks stronger. Melee weapons work early without ammunition concerns. The Pistol helps when melee attacks take too long or targets are hard to reach, but limited ammunition can run dry during a long shift. Damage and ammunition upgrades then matter more than unlocking another firearm.

Weapon or defense	Main role	Upgrade focus
Baseball Bat / Knife	Early melee clearing	Use when fights delay processing
Pistol	Reliable ranged option	Damage and ammunition
Shotgun	Powerful short-range attack	Pellet count and shot delay
RPG	Explosive attacks	Explosion radius and damage
Chainsaw	Close-range damage	Remember its fuel limitation
Automatic Turret	Attacks without direct aiming	Firepower, firing behavior, ammunition

Turrets are especially helpful when large groups arrive, when you need time for the Vacuum or Grinders, or when ammunition is a concern. If creatures regularly survive until the timer ends, improve turret damage and ammunition. If they are cleared reliably, spend the next upgrade on whichever step is delaying can sales.

Workday extensions can raise the original 60-second shift to 1 minute 45 seconds. Buy more time when you regularly reach the timer with machines still running, bodies waiting, or cans nearly delivered. If everything is already processed and you are waiting for creatures, a longer shift is less urgent. When arrivals seem to stop, check for surviving creatures before assuming spawn upgrades failed.

Near the end of a shift, finish a sale you can actually complete. A body that cannot reach processing and delivery before closing may add nothing that day. Secure your next important production purchase before using the Slot Machine, since a failed bet can remove money needed for a Grinder, conveyor, or weapon upgrade. Treat gambling as optional.

After automation, late expansion can include a $50 million creature unlock and other expensive purchases. Run a full shift before committing: bodies beside busy Grinders or cans stranded before the seller mean the existing line needs work first. Selling the factory for permanent upgrades or working toward Freedom become important once ordinary purchases grow expensive.

FAQ

What should I buy first in Can 'Em All?

Start with more cans per creature, then Premium Cans. The first Premium Cans upgrade costs $12 and can raise can value from 0% to +200%. The Industrial Vacuum is a strong next purchase when manual body and can handling starts consuming too much of the shift.

Is the Industrial Vacuum worth $40?

Yes, when carrying and throwing bodies is delaying processing. It lets you collect bodies, cans, and other objects and launch them toward machines. Improve capacity, suction range, firing speed, or firing range only after you identify which part of that handling process is slow.

Should I buy another Grinder or increase cans per creature?

Buy another Grinder, or its processing-speed upgrade, when bodies remain beside a machine that runs continuously. Increase cans per creature when your Grinders have spare capacity and can turn the extra output into finished cans. Buying in the wrong order can leave money stuck in unfinished production.

What is the best Can 'Em All upgrade order late game?

Stabilize the production chain first: keep Grinders supplied, connect conveyor routes, and make sure cans reach the seller. Then invest in can duplication, Shiny bonuses, Hole in One, Smoked Meat, stronger weapons, and automated defenses as your budget allows. Do not buy an expensive creature unlock while your current factory still leaves bodies or cans unfinished.