Cleaner Company Getting Started as a Star Wiper

Cleaner Company drops you into the galaxy’s first orbital infrastructure maintenance company as a Star Wiper. Developer Wildflame Studio and publisher Mythwright are aiming for a 2026 Steam and Epic Games Store launch. Until then, the free Flying Canteen demo is the best on-ramp, and earlier playtests already proved the loop on Experimental Laboratory and Polar Facility. This getting-started guide is your first-hour playbook: what the job is, how mess actually behaves, which tools to trust, and how to set difficulty so the game matches the vibe you want.

What you are signing up for

Your contracts send you into abandoned stations, ruined restaurants, research outposts, and worse. You clean blood, alien fluids, spores, trash, appendages, and the occasional predecessor corpse. Physics is not window dressing—kick a pile, tip a bucket, or spray the wrong surface and you create new work. Hostile lifeforms (Parasites, Slimes, Screamers, and friends) can interrupt the flow state. Guns and a flamethrower exist for a reason, but the mop is still the star of the show. Official copy even jokes that the mop is mightier than the flamethrower—though bringing both is wiser.

You can play solo or in online co-op with up to four players. Solo is excellent for learning tool identity before friends turn every hallway into a slapstick crime scene. When you are ready for squads, jump to the Co-op guide.

Cleaner Company beginner gameplay overview

First-hour checklist

1. Confirm platform and install — Steam or Epic; verify system requirements if performance stutters.
2. Learn the binds — Open Controls and rebind anything awkward before a live contract.
3. Tour the tool kit — Mop for liquids and stains, cosmic vacuum for loose debris, trash grinders for solid waste, powerwashers for stubborn layers. Details live on Cleaning equipment and the Equipment tier list.
4. Pick your threat comfort — Difficulty can untoggle monsters. Pure cleaning nights are valid; survival nights are valid. Commit before drop-in.
5. Run the tutorial / early contract — Treat it as tool school, not a speedrun. Notice how combat mess becomes cleanup debt.
6. Clear Flying Canteen — Follow the Demo walkthrough for room order, chickens, and gore priorities.
7. Review ranks and upgrades — Completing challenges unlocks gear and levels; skim the Guides hub and Updates so you know what the current build emphasizes.

Understanding physics-based mess

Every stain type wants a different answer. Liquids smear if you walk through them; solids bounce if you fling them; pressure tools can push sludge into corners you already cleaned. In co-op, one player’s “helpful” spray can undo another’s mop pass. Build habits early:

• Clear solids and bodies before fine mopping when possible.
• Keep buckets and grinders staged so you are not sprinting across wet floors.
• Fight in rooms you have not finished only when you must—each shot can re-paint walls.
• Call out before using high-splash tools near finished zones.

If monsters feel like the wrong difficulty for learning, disable them and master the cleaning loop first. Re-enable threats once tool muscle memory is solid; then read Survive threats.

Roles before you have “roles”

Even solo, think in roles: decontamination (mop/powerwash), extraction (vacuum/grinders), security (guns/flamethrower), and logistics (moving objects, opening paths, watching objectives). In a four-stack those roles map cleanly to players. In solo you rotate intentionally instead of trying to hold every tool at once. The Tools hub is the catalog; this page is the mindset.

Locations you will meet early

• Flying Canteen (demo) — Orbital restaurant turned bloody wreck; cheap food lore, spectacular views, alien chickens, and dense gore.
• Experimental Laboratory (playtest) — Research gone wrong: containment failures, toxic leaks, hostile specimens.
• Polar Facility (playtest) — Ice-planet station where extreme cold shapes how you move and clean.

Compare them in the Locations guide and track what returned or changed via Demo & playtest notes.

Progression without FOMO

Climbing company ranks unlocks gear and contracts. Focus on clean clears and challenge objectives rather than hoarding every trinket on the first run. Upgrade tools that erase the mess types you hate most—usually that means better liquid control or faster solid disposal. Cross-check community rankings on the Tier list hub once you have a few hours of hands-on feel; early meta takes can shift between playtest, demo, and launch builds.

Common beginner mistakes

• Shooting everything first — Combat creates stains. Clear a lane, then clean, unless a Screamer is already in your face.
• Ignoring difficulty options — Monster-off runs teach tools faster for some players.
• No callouts in co-op — Two vacuums in one closet and zero mops in the kitchen is how contracts fail.
• Skipping bind setup — Cleaning sims punish clumsy swaps mid-panic.
• Treating physics as decoration — It is the core toy. Experiment in safe rooms.

Where to go next

Finish this page, then: Demo walkthrough → Co-op guide → Survive threats → Locations. Keep Links and the Wiki handy for storefronts and official channels. Welcome aboard, Star Wiper—try not to mop your teammates.