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).

Community-Estimated Stats (Labeled as Such)

Official per-level numbers are not published — even other fan guides state plainly that no tested numbers exist yet. The most detailed public dataset is the parameter set behind a community calculator (drinktheocean.wiki, November 2026). We reproduce it here as community estimates, clearly labeled, because it’s the best available picture of the progression curve — not as verified fact. Take it as directional; your in-game SHOP is the truth.

Drinking tools (community-estimated rate):

Tier	Tool	Est. rate
1	Tiny Plastic Straw	2 L/s
2	Twin Straws	8 L/s
3	Extra Straw Bundle	28 L/s
4	Mouth Vacuum	110 L/s
5	Pocket Whirlpool	450 L/s
6	Abyssal Vortex Pump	1,800 L/s

Belly / tank capacity (community-estimated):

Tier	Capacity	Est. size
1	Starter Belly	25 L
2	Bigger Belly I	90 L
3	Bigger Belly II	320 L
4	Salt Press Barrel	1,200 L
5	Pelagic Tank	5,000 L
6	Trench Reservoir	20,000 L

Read the shape, not the decimals: each tier is roughly a 3–4x jump over the last, which is why the recommended purchase order alternates capacity and drinking power — a two-tier jump in either one alone is bottlenecked by the other.

What We Refuse to Publish

Salt prices per level are a different matter: no public source has them, the community calculator doesn’t include them, and inventing them is exactly how hype-week wikis go wrong. Until prices are measured in-game, our upgrade order guidance stays principle-based (what each track changes about the loop), not fake-priced math.