Barfender cleaning is an essential gameplay loop in Proto Division's co-op bar simulator. Between serving tap beers, pouring whiskey shots, and breaking up barroom brawls, players must constantly mop up vomit, empty overflowing trash cans, wipe down sticky counters, and wash dirty glassware. Neglecting cleaning duties quickly turns your establishment into a health hazard, frustrating waiting patrons and damaging your bar's decoration and service rating.
Mopping Floors and Clearing Vomit
Customer stomach troubles and spilled drinks will rapidly dirty your barroom floor. When patrons drink too quickly or get knocked down in fights, they frequently vomit near tables, around bar stools, or even behind the counter.
- Grabbing the Mop Correctly: Aim your reticle specifically at the upper handle of the mop to draw it from the bucket. Interacting with the lower mop bucket itself will cause your character to pick up and carry the entire bucket rather than the cleaning tool.
- Scrubbing Floor Stains: Target puddles of vomit or mud directly with the mop head to wipe them away. The developers tuned mopping frequency across early updates to prevent it from overwhelming service, but regular checks between drink orders remain necessary.
- Preventing Customer Puking: Patrons show pre-vomit animations and sounds before they heave. While drinks will inevitably cause some sickness, keeping order flow steady prevents agitated customers from wandering into unauthorized staff areas.
Bagging Trash and Emptying Dumpsters
Broken bottles, snack wrappers, and misplaced clutter accumulate across the bar after rush periods and fights. Managing this solid waste requires keeping your interior trash cans functional.
- Collecting Rubbish: Pick up discarded beer bottles, broken glass shards, and debris scattered across the floor or knocked off customer tables, then deposit them directly into your indoor waste bin.
- Bagging the Waste: When the trash bin fills up, hold the primary interact button (Hold Left Click) to tie off and produce a bagged trash bundle. Press F to set the trash can back down in its designated floor position.
- Dumpster Runs for Extra Cash: Haul tied trash bags out through the back door or side alley to the outdoor dumpster. Depositing full trash bags into the dumpster rewards your crew with small cash payouts and bar XP.
- Weaponizing Garbage: If a sudden brawl breaks out while hauling waste, you can hold right-click to charge a throw and launch a garbage bag at aggressive drunks or vagrants to stagger them from a distance.
Wiping Tables and Resetting Dining Areas
Customers will not sit at tables coated in drink residue, and dirty furniture prevents you from turning over tables for new groups waiting outside in the queue.
| Cleanup Task | Required Tool | Primary Hazard |
|---|---|---|
| Dirty tabletops | Hands / Sponge wipe interaction | Accidentally knocking glassware or table decor onto the floor |
| Overturned chairs | Interaction pickup | Drunks kicking chairs over during street brawls |
| Broken bottles | Direct pickup to trash can | Glass shards blocking customer pathing |
When wiping down tables, position your reticle carefully. In earlier builds, interacting with a dirty table occasionally forced players into an unwanted wipe animation while trying to clear empty mugs. Approach the edge of the tabletop, collect empty glassware and plates on a serving tray first, and then execute the surface wipe to keep your table decoration bonus intact.
Washing Glasses at the Bar Sink
Every drink served on tap or poured from liquor bottles requires clean glassware. A shortage of clean mugs and glasses will immediately stall your ability to fulfill drink tickets for lager, amber beer, and cocktails.
- The Dishwashing Station: The manual wash sink is situated in the back. Carry dirty beer mugs and whiskey glasses back from vacated tables and deposit them at the station.
- Manual Washing: Click on the sink to initiate the dishwashing mini-game. Once scrubbed clean, set the mugs and glasses back onto the bar shelves or designated drying racks next to the taps.
- Staff Limitations: Hired NPC servers currently do not wash dishes on their own. According to Steam developer feedback discussions, the studio plans to introduce either a dedicated Cleaner role or an option to assign standard waiters to the sink in future updates.
- Managing Glass Shortages: Solo and co-op teams often hit bottlenecks during evening surges. Purchasing extra sets of beer mugs and whiskey glasses from the in-game shop gives your team enough buffer to handle cleaning during post-shift downtime.
Dragging Out Knocked-Out Brawlers and Intruders
Cleaning your bar also involves physical crowd removal. Uninvited vagrants, pickpocketing thieves, mob enforcers, and knocked-out patrons leave ragdoll bodies scattered across your dining room floor after fights.
- Moving Bodies: Switch out of fight mode, grab unconscious characters by their limbs or clothing, and drag them through the front exit or alley doors.
- Preventing Repeat Brawls: Leaving downed fighters inside your bar is dangerous. Many knocked-out NPCs will revive on a hidden timer, stand back up, and immediately begin swinging at staff or breaking nearby furniture again.
- Clearing Walking Paths: Pathfinding for both paying customers and hired servers is easily disrupted by obstacles. Dumping bodies outside onto the pavement ensures paying guests can enter freely and find available bar stools without pathing freezes.
Barfender Cleaning FAQ
Can hired servers wash dishes automatically?
No. In the current version of the game, hired waiters only deliver orders and collect payments from assigned tables. Dishwashing must be handled manually by players at the bar sink, though the developers have confirmed plans to address automated cleaning or sink assignments in upcoming patches.
Do you earn money for throwing away trash?
Yes. Tying full trash bags from indoor rubbish cans and tossing them into the outdoor dumpster rewards players with bonus cash and bar XP.
Why does my character carry the entire mop bucket instead of the mop?
The mop bucket and the mop handle have separate interaction hitboxes. Aim your crosshair specifically at the top half of the mop handle to pull the mop out. Targeting the lower bucket will pick up the entire unit.
