Building Your First Lunar Colony: A Beginner's Guide to THE MOON BOY
Seven Buildings, One Economy
Moon Base has exactly seven buildings. Each one produces Moon Dust (MD) per hour once built, each one gets more expensive with every level, and most are locked behind another building's level. Your job is to climb the chain in the right order.
Here's the full roster:
| Building | Base cost | Output per level | Unlocks at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solar Array | 50 MD | +5 MD/h | Nothing — available day one |
| Reactor Core | 150 MD | +3 max energy and +2 MD/h | Nothing |
| Regolith Extractor | 500 MD | +20 MD/h | Reactor Core level 3 |
| Ice Harvester | 2,000 MD | +50 MD/h | Solar Array level 5 |
| Hydroponics Bay | 8,000 MD | +120 MD/h | Ice Harvester level 8 |
| Orbital Relay | 30,000 MD | +300 MD/h | Reactor Core level 15 |
| Quantum Extractor | 10 TMBX | +1,500 MD/h | Orbital Relay level 10 |
Every building goes to level 25 — except the Quantum Extractor, which caps at 10 and is a different beast entirely (more on that at the end).
What to Build First
Solar Array first. It's 50 MD, has no requirements, and starts your passive income immediately. You can afford it after your first hundred taps.
Reactor Core second. At 150 MD it's the only building that pays out twice — every level adds +3 to your energy ceiling *and* +2 MD/hour. Bigger tank means longer tap sessions, which means more MD, which means more buildings. It's the engine of the whole economy. Bonus: it's also the thing you tap, and its appearance upgrades through four visual tiers as you level it from 1 to 25.
Then work the gates. Reactor Core level 3 opens the Regolith Extractor. Solar Array level 5 opens the Ice Harvester. Check the requirement *before* you start saving — hoarding 2,000 MD for an Ice Harvester you can't unlock yet is dead money.
Cost Curves: Know When to Stop
Every level costs more than the last. Solar Array climbs at ×1.5 per level; the Reactor Core runs ×1.6 up to level 10, then eases to ×1.35 from 11 onward; the Orbital Relay is a steep ×1.6 the whole way. The practical takeaway: early levels of a *bigger* building usually beat late levels of a smaller one. Level 1 of a Regolith Extractor (+20 MD/h for 500 MD) is a better buy than grinding a Solar Array into its expensive teens.
The 8-Hour Rule
Your buildings keep producing MD while the app is closed — for up to 8 hours. After that, production caps until you come back and collect. It's not a punishment; it's a "come say hi" mechanic. But it does mean an overnight sleep costs you nothing, while a 48-hour absence quietly costs you 40 hours of production.
Check in twice a day and you'll never leave MD on the table.
Don't Forget the Score Side
Buildings are the MD game. There's a parallel game running the whole time: score. Taps, your daily streak, tasks, and referrals all feed a monthly score, and at month-end a fixed pool of TMBX gets split among everyone who played, proportional to their tier-weighted share. Building your colony doesn't earn TMBX directly — but the Reactor Core's bigger energy tank lets you tap more, and taps are score. It all connects.
The Endgame: Quantum Extractor
One building breaks the pattern. The Quantum Extractor costs TMBX, not MD — 10 TMBX for level 1, rising ×1.25 per level — and buying it triggers a real on-ledger TMBX payment, not an in-game deduction. In exchange: +1,500 MD/hour per level, five times the Orbital Relay. It's gated behind Orbital Relay level 10, so most players won't touch it for a long while. That's by design. It's the late-game flex, not the starter kit.
The Bottom Line
Tap, buy the Solar Array, level the Reactor Core, respect the gates, collect before 8 hours. That's the whole opening book. The Moon Dust compounds from there — and one day you'll be staring at an Orbital Relay wondering how you ever lived on 5 MD an hour.
