Selling your factory in Can ‘Em All resets your current progress, but it gives you access to permanent upgrades that give you a starting bonus in your future runs. You will lose your purchased weapons, upgrades, and other progress, but you can spend the Gears/ credits earned from selling the factory on permanent bonuses.
You can unlock upgrades for damage, profits, starting cash, and movement. However, choosing the right upgrades early can save you a lot of time during your next run.
This guide covers all permanent upgrades in Can ‘Em All, including their costs, benefits, and the best order to purchase them. You’ll also find out how many Gears you need to unlock every upgrade and when it’s worth selling your factory to get the most out of your next run.
How to Unlock Permanent Upgrades
Once you progress far enough, you will receive an email giving you the option to sell your factory.
You have two choices:
- Continue Working: Keep your current factory, weapons, and upgrades. You can continue killing creatures and earning money.
- Sell Your Factory: Reset your current progress and receive gears that you can spend on permanent upgrades.
Once you sell the factory, you will start again from zero. However, all permanent upgrades you purchase will remain available in future runs.
All Permanent Upgrades in Can ‘Em All
There are several upgrade categories, including damage, profit, starting cash, and movement.
You can unlock the entire upgrade tree with approximately 570–600 gears.
Damage Upgrades
These upgrades help you kill creatures faster and reduce the time spent dealing with higher-tier enemies.
| Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Brute Force I | 5 | Increases damage by 100% |
| Brute Force II | 10 | Increases damage by 100% |
| Brute Force III | 20 | Increases damage by 100% |
| Brute Force IV | 35 | Increases damage by 100% |
| Starting Shockwave | 15 | Increases the chance of triggering a Shockwave |
| Lucky Hits | 20 | Increases critical hit chance |
| Damaged Delivery | 25 | Some delivered creatures arrive wounded |
| First Blood | 30 | Adds bleeding damage |
| Death Touch | 30 | Gives attacks a chance to instantly kill creatures |
Brute Force should be one of your first purchases. Each level provides a 100% damage increase, so prioritize the cheaper levels before spending gears on the more expensive options.
Starting Shockwave is another useful upgrade. It increases the chance of triggering a Shockwave, which can instantly kill lower-tier creatures and save you time and ammunition.
Damaged Delivery is helpful against higher-tier creatures because some of them arrive already wounded.
Lucky Hits, First Blood, and Death Touch are useful additions, but I would leave them until you have purchased the more dependable damage upgrades.
Profit Upgrades
Profit upgrades increase your earnings and help you generate money faster during each run.
| Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Profit Boost I | 5 or 10 | Increases profit by 100% |
| Profit Boost II | 20 | Increases profit by 100% |
| Profit Boost III | Not confirmed | Increases profit by 100% |
| Profit Boost IV | 70 | Increases profit by 100% |
| Grinder Speed | 10 | Speeds up the grinding process |
| Luxury Cans | 20 | Increases the value of shiny cans |
| Shiny Shipment | 25 | Makes your first daily meat shipment shiny |
| Cold Storage | 100 | Preserves unprocessed creatures and meat overnight |
Cold Storage is one of the most useful upgrades in this category. It saves anything that hasn’t been processed by the end of the day, allowing you to continue grinding it the next morning. It also keeps surviving Cutelings around overnight.
Shiny Shipment is another strong choice. Your first meat shipment each day arrives shiny, which gives you a big boost to your daily income.
Grinder Speed is also worth purchasing early. It processes creatures faster and frees up space in your machines, allowing more creatures to move through the factory.
I would leave Luxury Cans until later. Although it increases the value of shiny cans, the other profit upgrades provide better overall benefits.
Starting Cash Upgrades
Starting Cash gives you money at the beginning of your next run. This helps you purchase weapons and upgrades sooner instead of repeating the slow early-game grind.
| Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Cash I | 10 | Gives starting money |
| Starting Cash II | 25 | Gives starting money |
| Starting Cash III | 50 | Gives starting money |
Starting Cash III provides around 20,000 starting money, making it particularly useful when restarting your factory.
I recommend investing in these upgrades once you have purchased the most important damage and profit bonuses.
Movement Upgrades
| Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Never Skip Leg Day | 10 | Makes stamina drain slower |
Never Skip Leg Day reduces stamina consumption, allowing you to run for longer.
It’s a useful quality-of-life upgrade, but I would put it near the bottom of your priority list. Other upgrades provide much better benefits for your Gears.
Best Permanent Upgrade Order in Can ‘Em All
You don’t need to purchase everything immediately after your first factory sale. Focus on upgrades that improve your damage, income, and starting money first.
My recommended priority is:
- Cold Storage: Buy this as early as possible to preserve unprocessed creatures overnight.
- Brute Force: Purchase the cheaper levels first to increase your damage.
- Profit Boost: Start with the cheapest available levels to improve your earnings.
- Grinder Speed: Process creatures faster and keep your machines running.
- Starting Cash: Get extra money for your next run.
- Starting Shockwave: Improve your chances of instantly killing lower-tier creatures.
- Shiny Shipment: Increase your daily income with shiny meat shipments.
- Damaged Delivery: Make some creatures easier to kill.
- Luxury Cans: Increase the value of shiny cans.
- Lucky Hits, First Blood, Death Touch, and Never Skip Leg Day: Purchase these after getting the more important upgrades.
My Factory Reset Progression
I used three factory resets to purchase most of the permanent upgrades. Here’s how I spent my Gears during those runs.
First Reset – Around 125 Gears
I purchased these upgrades:
- Cold Storage
- Starting Cash I
- Brute Force I
- Profit Boost I
- Grinder Speed
I focused on improving my next run rather than spending Gears on smaller bonuses.
Second Reset – Around 160 Gears
During the second reset, I purchased:
- Brute Force II and III
- Starting Shockwave
- Profit Boost II
- Starting Cash II
- Shiny Shipment
- Luxury Cans
- Damaged Delivery
These upgrades made the next run much faster and improved my factory’s income.
Third Reset – Over 275 Gears
I collected the remaining upgrades during my third reset. I hadn’t even realized how quickly I had accumulated so many Gears.
You can follow a similar approach instead of waiting until you have enough Gears to purchase everything at once.
One important tip: Don’t rush to sell your factory as soon as the option becomes available. If your current run is still generating a good amount of Gears, keep playing and build up your total before resetting.
