Playrooms Upgrades Guide (2026): What to Buy First
The Playrooms upgrade order for 2026: hand skills, capacity, tools, the vacuum robot, the whiteboard and two hands, with what each one changes in practice.
Quick answer: Buy capacity first, then the handheld vacuum, then hand speed, then the robot. The whiteboard and two hands are quality-of-life upgrades for the late rooms, not early power spikes. Every upgrade is paid for with delivered balls, so a faster cleaning route funds the next purchase.
A bigger tank feels efficient, but the handheld vacuum and hand skills save more time per ball. Buy capacity when the walk between deliveries is the bottleneck, not before.
How the upgrade economy works
There is one currency in Playrooms: delivered balls. You do not earn money separately, and there is no shop outside the rooms. The pit is the bank. Every ball you deliver adds to the total, and the upgrade terminal spends that total.
That makes the upgrade decision a routing decision. A purchase that lets you carry more per trip pays for itself quickly; a purchase that saves a second per ball takes much longer. The early game rewards capacity, not convenience.
The upgrade order
1. Carry capacity
Capacity is the first upgrade in almost every run. The rooms are built around trips to the pit, and every extra ball per trip reduces the number of trips. In the Playroom and the Poolroom, capacity is the difference between a comfortable clear and a constant walk back.
Buy capacity until the price starts to climb steeply, then move on. There is no achievement for maxing capacity specifically, but "Fully equipped" requires the full set eventually.
2. Handheld vacuum
The handheld vacuum is the second priority. It is not a cleaning upgrade in the usual sense; the scoop is faster for open floors. Its value is the last few balls: corners, wall seams, under furniture and the geometry bugs that otherwise cost a room reset.
The vacuum also matters for the stuck-ball fixes→. A ball inside a wall seam is often recoverable with the vacuum and not recoverable any other way.
3. Hand skills and speed
Hand skills affect how you pick up, carry and handle tools. Speed affects movement and, indirectly, how much of a room you can clear before a blackout. These are comfort upgrades: they make the mid-game less tedious rather than unlocking new routes.
"Mighty Hand" requires fully upgrading all hand skills, so this line is mandatory for completion. Do it after capacity and the vacuum, when the ball income is stable.
4. The vacuum robot
The robot is the most expensive early tool and the least useful in small rooms. It cleans autonomously, which sounds like free labor, but it pathfinds poorly around furniture and it cannot recover stuck balls.
Buy it for two reasons: the "A new colleague" achievement, and the large rooms where a second cleaner actually helps. The ball vacuum guide→ compares the two tools in detail.
5. The whiteboard
The whiteboard is a planning tool. It adds a pen, an eraser, lines, rectangles, circles and four brush sizes, plus undo and redo. You can mark routes, room numbers and the locations of stuck balls.
It does not change the pit or the economy. It is genuinely useful in the Hotel, where the layout shifts and a written route survives when your memory does not.
6. Two hands
The two-hands upgrade lets you carry two tools at once. The obvious combo is scoop plus vacuum, or scoop plus flashlight. It reduces tool-switching in the dark and in the larger rooms.
Like the whiteboard, it is a late purchase. It improves the quality of a run more than the speed of one.
What not to buy first
Cosmetic upgrades. They do not affect the clear condition. Buy them last, after "Fully equipped" is the only thing left.
The robot before capacity. The robot is slower than a full pair of hands in a small room, and capacity is cheaper.
The whiteboard before the vacuum. The whiteboard helps you plan; the vacuum helps you finish. Finish first.
Upgrade checklist for completion
- Max carry capacity.
- Buy the handheld vacuum.
- Max all hand skills ("Mighty Hand").
- Buy the vacuum robot ("A new colleague").
- Buy the whiteboard and the two-hands upgrade.
- Max every remaining upgrade ("Fully equipped").
"Fully equipped" is the last upgrade achievement and it requires the full set, including the utility upgrades. Budget for it before you start the 100,000-ball grind; the grind is faster with a maxed loadout.
Do upgrades carry across saves?
The upgrade state is per save file. A new save starts with nothing, which matters for the no-replacement run: you cannot rely on a maxed loadout from your main save.
The achievements are global, so you do not need to max upgrades twice. Once "Fully equipped" unlocks, it stays unlocked.
About Playrooms (2026)
Playrooms is a single-player casual simulation game with horror elements from Two Pixels UG. It released on November 4, 2026 for Windows PC via Steam at $6.99, and it includes 30 achievements across eight ball-pit areas.
The Steam store listing ↗, the patch notes ↗ and the community hub ↗ are the places to confirm details after an update.
Official source: Playrooms on Steam ↗
FAQ
What should you buy first in Playrooms? Carry capacity. It pays for itself fastest because every trip to the pit carries more balls.
Is the vacuum robot worth it? For the achievement and the large rooms, yes. For small rooms, no; it pathfinds poorly and cannot recover stuck balls.
What does the whiteboard do? It lets you draw routes and notes in-game. It is useful in the shifting Hotel but does not affect the economy.
Do upgrades carry between saves? No. They are per save file. Achievements are global.
How do you get Fully equipped? Max every upgrade, including hand skills, capacity, tools and utility upgrades.