Gas is the late-game mechanic that punishes a cleanup-first mindset. In current full-release footage, the Air Filter becomes available when the gas stage opens, and using the vacuum on Vexon gas brings that tool into play automatically.
The key lesson is simple: if a vent is still producing gas, cleaning the rest of the screen first can mean doing work twice.
Kill the source before polishing the map
Current video play repeatedly gets better once exposed vents are treated as priority targets. A vent left alive keeps adding cloud pressure while you are spending energy elsewhere.
A practical gas-map opening is:
- identify the most exposed vents;
- remove the easy vents before the clouds spread further;
- use Turbo on dense gas when it gives a real time saving;
- let drones work on sludge/crystals while you focus on the gas bottleneck;
- only then polish the leftover objects and edges.
This is also why the Preventative Measures achievement — destroying vents before they erupt — fits naturally with good play rather than being a totally separate stunt.
Vexon to Vexigen
Full-release footage confirms the gas refinery chain:
Vexon Gas → refinery → Vexigen
As with other refined resources, later upgrades can depend on this output. Once Vexigen starts gating Air Filter or drone upgrades, the same throughput questions apply: are you short on input, waiting on processing, or simply not collecting the finished resource often enough?
The Air Filter upgrades that matter most
If you can clean almost everything except the clouds, your Air Filter is under-upgraded relative to the map.
Prioritize:
- Air Filter suction / power when clouds disappear too slowly;
- energy-drain reduction when the filter burns through the battery;
- Air Filter drone power/battery/radius once those helpers are available;
- refinery automation if Vexigen itself is what gates the next upgrade.
Current play also shows late upgrades involving lightning damage on gas clouds. The official achievement list confirms Clearing the Air for destroying Vexon gas clouds with lightning storms, so the lightning mechanic is real; we do not invent a hidden proc table beyond what the current UI visibly states.
Launch performance warning
Patch #1’s “What’s Next” section says Patch #2 will focus on performance, specifically late game and gas vents. That matters for guides: if a gas-heavy late map is stuttering on launch week, it may be a performance issue rather than a strategy problem.
The developers also listed Steam Deck cursor/control issues and a sludge-detector range issue for review in Patch #3.