Check for a road-connected building site inside breathable air. If the Cleaner is missing from the build menu, it has not unlocked yet: your Burner Generator has to produce 50 Soot first. A Cleaner that is already built but not cleaning is a different problem, covered further down.
Why can't I place cleaners in my city anymore?
Placement fails when the site breaks one of the general construction rules: every building has to sit inside the breathable atmosphere and connect to a road. Toggling the Cleaner's settings will not fix a site problem, so check the ground first.
- Choose a building site within breathable air and connect it to a road.
- Once the footprint is placed, let Peeps deliver the construction resources. Placing the footprint and finishing construction are separate stages.
- If construction drags on, check the buildings producing the required resources. A paused supplier can leave construction waiting indefinitely; work through your Beyond These Stars resources chain before committing more construction.
Why is my cleaner built but not cleaning?
Manually enable the cleaner and check its inputs. Open its building panel: Active is the operating control, while MISSING INPUT points you toward its supply.
- Enable the cleaner rather than assuming it starts automatically when construction ends.
- For early cleaning, supply soot and water. Later, chemicals can replace soot and require less water.
- If soot is short, switch your energy buildings to continuous production to build a stockpile. Watch the trade-off: soot comes from polluting production, so feeding cleaners by making more soot can add to the pollution you are trying to contain.
For tiles that have already become toxic, use a scraper. Keep cleaners working on polluted tiles before they reach that stage; see Beyond These Stars pollution for pollution and toxic-waste management.
Where should I put cleaners around industry?
Cluster polluting production around reserved cleaner positions, and use the pollution overlay to decide where cleaning is needed. Cleaners can be relocated, so you can move them as your industrial layout changes.
One player's early-game approach is to move a pair of cleaners around, including moving a cleaner to the mining area that currently needs it. Keeping slots in an industrial cluster gives you another practical layout to work toward. Nearby trees also absorb pollution, reducing the load on your cleaning setup.
Cleaners also cannot work on flooded tiles, so do not count on them for pollution under water; trees are the only thing that reduces it there.
Leave room inside breathable air around industry. Peeps cannot work beyond the atmosphere boundary, so pushing factories right up to that edge risks pollution spreading into areas they cannot reach to clean.
With construction supplied and your cleaner enabled, you can focus on keeping polluted ground from turning toxic. Before extending the industrial district toward the edge, plan the surrounding land with Beyond These Stars terraforming.