The Can Em All machine unlock order runs in one direction: vacuum, then crusher pit, then conveyor belt, then the machines that automate feeding. Each one is useless without the previous one, and each one unlocks the next. Skipping ahead is the reason new players end up with a half-built factory that cannot ship a single can.

Can Em All machine unlock order: the whole chain

  1. Vacuum — pick up bodies and cans without carrying them by hand.
  2. Crusher pit — turn bodies into cans.
  3. Conveyor belt — carry finished cans from the crusher to the transport tube.
  4. Machines that automate feeding — keep the line running without you.

The store page states the intended loop in one line: a truck delivers creatures, you kill them, you grab the bodies and throw them into the crusher, you get those cans into the tube, you sell the freshly processed cans, and then you reinvest — stronger weapons, a better vacuum, machines, conveyors, more production, more creatures, an automated factory.

The SKILL TREE screen: a wide dark green upgrade board with colour-coded branches of round nodes, several of them still locked with padlock icons, the money counter at the top left and the NEXT DAY button in the bottom corner.
Every machine is a node in this tree, and the chain runs left to right.

Step 1: the vacuum

Buy it before anything else. It is the biggest time saver in the game, and every machine after it is designed to work with a vacuum rather than with your hands. The two upgrades worth buying immediately afterwards are in the vacuum upgrade guide.

Step 2: the crusher pit

The crusher is what turns a body into a can, and nothing else in the tree does that job.

  1. Unlock the crusher pit node.
  2. Power it and let it run.
  3. Feed it bodies from the vacuum.

Do not buy the belt before the crusher works. Cans that have nowhere to be made are just objects on the floor, and objects on the floor stop the trucks.

Step 3: the conveyor belt

The belt carries finished cans from the crusher and the canning machine to the transport tube, and it is the point where the shift timer stops mattering: you can empty the vacuum and let the factory finish the job.

  1. Unlock the conveyor belt node.
  2. Run it in a straight line from the crusher to the hole.
  3. Work down the belt upgrade chain — several conveyor upgrades in a row, then a final upgrade that shoots cans into the tube.

The layout details and the object-count rule are in the conveyor belt guide.

Step 4: the machines that automate feeding

Once the belt runs, the last group of nodes takes over the feeding itself so you are not the one feeding the crusher by hand.

  1. Unlock the automation machines as they become affordable.
  2. Keep the belt upgrade chain going at the same time — the chain is long and every node in it raises throughput.
  3. Stop buying raw weapon damage and put the money into multipliers instead.

What the automated factory is actually producing, and how to push the number higher, is in the production guide.

Two crusher details that break the chain

Damage only lands on the teeth. A creature takes damage only when it hits the actual grinder teeth, so one that clips the edge of the pit can survive the drop. It ends up wedged instead of canned, and it still counts as a live object in the factory.

Creatures wedge behind the raised lip. Between the pit and the canning machine there is a raised lip on the pit edge, and creatures get stuck behind it. Clear them out before unloading the vacuum into the pit, or the pit never empties and the whole chain backs up.

Both details also decide whether a particular kill counts, which matters for a specific achievement. The Fresh Meat guide explains why a creature that dies before the teeth does not register.