Quick Answer
In Can 'Em All, buy Cold Storage first, then prioritize cheaper damage, profit, and processing upgrades with your remaining gears. Permanent upgrades survive factory sales, and buying every upgrade unlocks The Perfect Employee. Budget about 545 gears plus Starting Cash I, going by the listed prices.
What does each permanent upgrade do?
Permanent upgrades improve your damage, earnings, processing speed, starting cash, deliveries, or stamina across factory resets. Use these effects and listed costs to decide where your next gears go.
| Permanent upgrade | Effect and gear cost |
|---|---|
| Brute Force I–IV | Each adds 100% damage. Costs: I 5, II 10, III 20, IV 35; 70 total. |
| Starting Shockwave | Improves shockwave activation, helping instantly kill the lowest creature tiers. Costs 15. |
| Lucky Hits | Doubles your critical hit chance. Costs 20. |
| Damaged Delivery | Makes 25% of arriving creatures wounded, with half their health. Costs 25. |
| First Blood | Adds bleeding. Costs 30. |
| Death Touch | Gives you a chance to kill instantly. Costs 30. |
| Profit Boost I–IV | Each adds 100% earnings. Costs: I 5, II 20, III 40, IV 70; 135 total. |
| Grinder Speed | Doubles your grinder's processing speed. Costs 10. |
| Luxury Cans | Increases shiny cans' value; another description says it doubles shiny creatures' value. Costs 20. |
| Shiny Shipment | Makes every creature in each day's first truck shiny. Costs 25. |
| Cold Storage | Keeps unprocessed contents overnight, including surviving cutelings. Costs 100. |
| Starting Cash I–III | Gives you cash for your next run. Costs: II 25, III 50; I is not shown. |
| Never Skip Leg Day | Reduces stamina consumption so you can run longer. Costs 10. |
Starting Cash III gives you $20,000 to accelerate your next opening. For First Blood and Death Touch, exact damage or activation values are still being filled in. Luxury Cans has conflicting descriptions, so its precise value target remains unresolved.
What should you buy with your first gears?
Prioritize Cold Storage, then buy dependable boosts from cheapest to most expensive. Treat this as a practical spending order, rather than a required route.
Save 100 gears for Cold Storage
Buy Cold Storage to keep unfinished processing available the following morning. You also retain surviving cutelings, so the benefit covers more than material already waiting for the grinder.
Buy inexpensive damage and income boosts
Pick up cheaper Brute Force and Profit Boost tiers before their expensive equivalents. Each tier lists the same percentage increase, making the cheaper tiers sensible early purchases. Add Grinder Speed for 10 gears to move contents through your machines faster.
Improve your next opening and deliveries
Use Starting Cash when you want to shorten the next run's opening grind. Buy Shiny Shipment before Luxury Cans, giving you an entire shiny first truck each day. Get Starting Shockwave before Damaged Delivery to improve your early creature clearing.
Leave lower priorities until later
Delay Never Skip Leg Day, Lucky Hits, First Blood, and Death Touch until you have the other upgrades. Favor dependable damage before the chance-based instant kill.
A first-sale example earned just over 125 gears. That bought Cold Storage, Starting Cash I, Brute Force I, Profit Boost I, and Grinder Speed. Use that basket as a reference, not a required route. For the wider progression choices, return to Can 'Em All upgrades.
How many gears do you need for The Perfect Employee?
You must buy every permanent upgrade to unlock The Perfect Employee. The listed prices add up to about 545 gears, plus Starting Cash I. Players have also reported totals of 520 to 530, so check your own remaining purchases.
Permanent upgrades survive later factory sales, so you can keep buying across repeated resets. Your first sale does not need to fund the entire collection.
To earn more points, read the sell factory guide. Buying them all also counts toward the achievements.
FAQ
Your permanent purchases survive factory resets, and completing the collection unlocks The Perfect Employee.
Yes, your permanent upgrades remain after future factory sales. You can restart, earn more upgrade points, and continue buying the remaining upgrades.
No, it makes every creature in the first truck of each day shiny. It does not describe an all-day bonus for every delivery.
Cold Storage preserves contents that were not processed before the day ended, including surviving cutelings. You can continue processing the retained contents the next morning.
Prioritize dependable damage from Brute Force before Death Touch. Death Touch offers a chance to kill instantly, while Brute Force directly increases your damage.
The listed prices add up to about 545 gears, plus Starting Cash I. Players have reported 520 to 530.