Clean the Countries Controls

Karpath Games printed the bind sheet in the Roblox description. This page is that sheet, expanded with the HUD names you actually see (Shop, Upgrade, Inventory, Pets) and the device gotchas that make people think the game is broken. Keep it next to How to Play. For a filterable version, use the controls finder.

PC

Action	Bind
Pickup / Place	E or Click
Drop	F
Switch tool	Number keys
Unlock equipment / Upgrade	T
Special ability	G
Clean	Hold Click

Click does double duty. A tap picks up or places. A hold cleans. If you tap-hold by accident, you will start mopping with a country in your other hand. Drop with F first when the action feels sticky.

Number keys matter more than players think. Slot 1 is usually grab. A later slot is the cleaner. Inventory on the HUD confirms which is active. Do not trust the icon art if the place action stopped working — you swapped tools.

Controller

Action	Bind
Pickup / Place	RT
Drop	LT
Upgrades	Y
Clean	Hold LT

Notice the overlap: LT drop is a tap, Hold LT is clean. That is the console equivalent of click versus hold-click. If you are mopping while trying to drop, you are holding too long. Karpath’s own text recommends this layout; first-person is optional, third-person is fine in a hall this bright.

D-pad and face buttons beyond Y are not listed officially. Do not invent binds from Clean the Library. If a new ability ships, launch notes will add a row.

Mobile

Mobile is not on the official table, but the loop is the same verbs:

• Tap a piece to pick up; tap a shelf to place.
• Hold on the floor to clean.
• Open the Shop / Upgrade / Inventory / Pets stack with the HUD buttons — there is no T key.
• If the camera freezes after you equip a cleaner, that is a genre habit (the washer steals the swipe). Unequip or switch back to grab in Inventory, then pan, then re-equip to mop a patch.

Third person helps on phones. First person makes continent signs harder to read. Use the Getting Started first bay drill on mobile before you try FILL 25; thumbs plus a frozen camera is how FILL 2 fails.

HUD buttons that are not “controls” but block you

• Shop — Cash sink. Close it during a timer.
• Upgrade — same cluster as T / Y. Reach and carry first (tools tier list).
• Inventory — tool truth.
• Pets — optional. Not a bind.
• FILL COUNTRIES timers — not a button; they are the win condition. Read them before you walk.

There is still no verified Codes button. When Karpath adds one, How to Redeem will screenshot it. Do not install a script menu to create a fake one (scripts hub).

Troubleshooting

Nothing picks up. You are on the clean tool, or you are holding click instead of tapping. Switch numbers, tap once.

Piece will not place. Wrong continent sign, or you are still in clean mode. Read the prompt on the piece (Africa, Asia, …).

You keep cleaning while trying to drop on controller. LT tap versus LT hold. Practice in spawn for thirty seconds. It is muscle memory, not lag.

Mobile taps place the piece at your feet. Camera freeze. Unequip cleaner, pan to the shelf, then place.

Special (G) does nothing. You have no charge, or you used it on an empty tile. Save G for a buried centre cluster as described in How to Clean Faster.

Accessibility notes

Hold-to-clean is harder on sore hands than tap-to-clean. Take breaks between FILL quotas. Recolouring flags is not a bind; if you have trouble telling Ireland from Italy, sort strictly by silhouette and continent text, never by hue. The countries tier list calls out lookalikes.

Co-op does not change binds. It only changes who walks which aisle. Share this table in Discord if you must, but prefer the official links page over random servers — we still have no confirmed Karpath Discord.

Print the row for your device, pin the controls finder, and go back to a real run.