All Straws and Tools in Drink the Ocean: Belly, Vacuum, Whirlpool

The Starter: Plastic Straw

Every run begins with a plastic straw — one sip at a time, the weakest drinking tool in the game. It defines the deliberately slow opening: tiny sips, tiny belly, walks to the PRESS (how to play covers the full loop). Every upgrade track exists to retire it, and the moment you buy your first real upgrade you feel the difference immediately.

Track 1: Bigger Belly

The capacity track. Each level lets you carry more seawater per trip before waddling back to the PRESS. It’s the least glamorous track and the most valuable one early — capacity raises the payout of every single trip you will ever make. The recommended opening buys are belly-first; see upgrade order for the phase-by-phase plan.

Track 2: Extra Straws

The drinking-speed track. More/better straws means more water per second while holding left click, compressing the longest part of the early loop — the “hold and wait” at the shoreline. Levels are named thematically (the community references things like the mega straw), but per-level numbers are unverified — we won’t publish a stats table until we’ve confirmed it in-game.

Track 3: Mouth Vacuum

The mid-game power spike. The vacuum doesn’t just sip faster — it pulls water in volume, which changes which water is worth drinking: deep water, dense patches, whole tide pools in seconds. Practically, it’s when the game stops being about individual trips and starts being about draining regions, which is what actually moves the sea level and reveals landmarks (the chain is mapped in the sunken city guide).

Track 4: Pocket Whirlpool

The late-game tool. A portable whirlpool for draining open water at scale — and “scale” is the right word, because this track matters precisely when the four new oceans (cola, lemonade, slime, lava) open up after the plug is pulled. Buying it earlier isn’t wrong, but its value is endgame-shaped. The context is in the ending explainer.

The Odd One Out: Sky Duck Boons (Free)

The Sky Duck is not a SHOP track — it’s a duck that periodically drops boons, free bonuses collected with the E key. Easy to miss, impossible to buy, and entirely separate from the salt economy. What individual boons do at each stage is being verified; treat “boon effect tier lists” on other sites as unconfirmed until they cite something checkable. The habit that matters is in tips and tricks: see duck, press E.

Treasure: The Other “Item”

The ocean floor isn’t just terrain — as the water recedes it gives up treasure chests and shipwreck salvage, which sell to the merchant for salt. Treasure is income, not equipment: nothing is equippable besides your growing toolkit. Still, in practice the treasure economy rivals the PRESS economy in the midgame — a good reason to watch the waterline rather than staring at the SHOP (beginner guide has the reveal checklist).

What We Refuse to Publish Yet

A table of exact salt prices and stat multipliers per level exists on some fan sites. Those numbers don’t come from any public source we can trace, and incremental-game communities regularly invent “confirmed stats” during hype weeks. This wiki’s rule: unverified numbers don’t go up. When our in-game verification pass finishes, this page gets the full table — levels, prices, and the drinking-power math per tier.