How to Play Moldwasher — Moldwasher

When you launch Moldwasher, you begin outside a dirty door. Click to spray with your pressure washer until the door is clean enough to open. Enter the home hub—a cozy basement room where you will return between missions to spend currency, play CDs, and decorate with collectibles.

Clean the small objects in the home area before opening the mission map. Early pickups include coins for the gachapon machine and your first collectible. The map icon unlocks once the home tutorial area is cleared. Select your first fridge mission from the map to begin the core gameplay loop.

Each mission displays a required tool icon. Your starter pressure washer handles early jobs. Read the mission description for hints about mold type and optional hidden drops shown on the results screen after completion.

Moldwasher uses intuitive mouse controls on PC. Left-click activates the wide spray for covering open floor and wall areas. Right-click switches to the precise stream for stickers, tight corners, and stubborn single-pixel mold patches that wide spray misses.

Scroll the mouse wheel or press Tab to cycle between unlocked tools when a mission requires more than water. Press R or enable auto-fire in the settings menu to hold spray continuously without keeping the mouse button down—a quality-of-life feature especially useful on Steam Deck.

Controller and Steam Deck support is fully verified. Trackpad sensitivity can feel jumpy on Deck; many players use touch-screen aiming with L2 held for auto-fire. See our full Controls page for keyboard, controller, and Deck-specific bindings.

Every mission follows the same satisfying loop. Clean required surfaces until the progress meter hits 100%, then review the results screen for FreshCash earned, coins collected, and hidden drop counts. FreshCash buys new tools and upgrades at the shop. Coins feed the gachapon machine in your hub for cosmetic decorations.

Early missions pay modest amounts. Focus on completing required objectives first, then replay for optional mold if you want bonus cash. The garage unlocks as a reliable money loop—clean toy batches repeatedly for steady FreshCash without the pressure of complex mission mechanics.

Unlock new tools before maxing upgrades on a single tool. The leaf blower, pickaxe, and flamethrower each open mission types that water alone cannot solve. Our Upgrade Order guide details the optimal purchase sequence.

The most common beginner mistake is using one tool for every situation. Rice piles, rubbish bags, and air duct objects need the leaf blower to move—not wash. Hard cookies and crust require the pickaxe before water works on residue. Mushrooms and cockroaches need the flamethrower burn trigger first.

Mold regrowth punishes incomplete cleaning. Cut off spreading edges before sweeping inward. If regrowth feels overwhelming, enable Zen Mode to slow regeneration speed significantly.

Always check the results screen hidden drop counter. A 0/1 hidden drop means something collectible remains in that mission—replay before advancing too far. Missing early drops makes the Gamer Brain 100% achievement much harder later.

After the first few fridge jobs, missions introduce moving hazards like flies, sticker layers requiring precise spray, and the dog bowl route that precedes pickaxe unlock. Mid-game adds sink clogs, rice movement objectives, and cockroach infestations. Late game culminates in multi-tool boss-style missions like the dinner fight.

When you feel comfortable with basics, continue to the Early Game walkthrough for mission-by-mission routing. Players wanting a visual companion can watch the full demo gameplay in the video below, which covers shop purchases, leaf blower introduction, and early fridge progression.