Viscera Cleanup Detail: Complete Janitor's Guide

A practical guide to cleaning a Viscera Cleanup Detail level to a passing score without making the mess worse: tools, the right order of operations, co-op etiquette, the level list, collectibles and achievement tips.

Researched September 2026. Current as of the final 2015 release build of VCD (Unreal Engine 3). RuneStorm's active work is now the sequel, VCD 2, which is still in development as of their December 2025 update. Check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• Work top-down and outside-in. Clear debris and bodies first, then mop, then do final passes. Mopping before the big stuff is gone just gets re-dirtied.
• Keep your mop clean. A dirty mop spreads blood instead of removing it. Dip it in a bucket often, and swap to a fresh bucket before the water turns deep red.
• Never kick or spill a dirty bucket. A full dirty bucket spilled across a clean floor is the classic VCD disaster. Park buckets against walls, out of walkways.
• Burn everything in the incinerator. Bodies, limbs, trash, casings in bins and used buckets all go in. Use bins from the bin dispenser to carry many small items in one trip.
• Watch your boots. Walking through blood leaves footprints everywhere. Clean pools near doorways first, and avoid walking through wet blood.
• Use the sniffer tool. It detects the leftover mess you can't see (biological and non-biological) and is how you find the last few percent.
• Fix walls with the welder. The plasma welder repairs wall damage and can also fry items.
• Punch out only when you're sure. The punch-out clock ends the level and scores you. Below 75% you're fired and lose your accumulated office items.
• Save often. The game supports saves. A long level ruined by one spilled bucket is a lot less painful with a save from 20 minutes earlier.

Your Tools

Tool / station | What it does | Tips

Mop | Cleans blood pools, splats and soot | Dip often; a dirty mop smears

Broom | Sweeps casings and small debris into piles | Sweep into a pile, then bin the pile

Sniffer | Detects remaining mess | Use it in the last pass of every room

PDA | Keeps notes about the level | Useful for tracking which rooms are done

Gloves / hands | Carry bodies, limbs, trash and items | Carry one item at a time; use bins for bulk

Bucket dispenser (the Slosh-O-Matic) | Provides clean water buckets | Get a new bucket rather than rinsing in red water

Bin dispenser | Provides bins for carrying many items | Mind your hands on the bin machine

Incinerator | Destroys anything you put in it | Your main disposal route

Plasma welder | Repairs wall damage; burns items | Fixes bullet-hole and scorch damage

Medkits and light sources | Found around many levels | Punching out with medkits restocks them (and counts toward "First Aid")

Woodchipper (some levels) | Shreds items | Counts toward "Not Quite a Lumberjack" (200 items)

How Scoring Works

When you punch out, the game grades how much of the mess is gone and moves you to The Office. That's your personal room, with your score, news clippings about any consequences of your work, and any trophies you've carried home.

• 75% is the line. Scoring under it gets you fired and costs you the items you've built up in your office.
• Consistent good work earns Employee of the Month awards. Twelve of them unlock "Employee of the Year."
• Collectibles: some levels hide unique items (film props, figurines, a ring, masks). Carrying them to your office and then punching out keeps them as trophies.

A Proven Cleaning Order

1. Scout and plan (5 minutes)

Walk the whole level once without touching blood. Find the incinerator, the bucket and bin dispensers, and any hazards. Pick a "clean route" between the dispensers and the incinerator.

2. Big items out

Carry bodies and large parts to the incinerator. Put small bits (limbs, organs, trash) in bins and burn the whole bin. Clear casings with the broom into piles, then bin them.

3. Structural fixes

Weld bullet holes and wall damage before you mop around it, so you aren't working over a finished floor while you do it. The welder also fries loose items, which is handy for small junk far from the incinerator (500 fried items is the "Disintegrator" achievement).

4. Mop in sections

Work from the far end of a room toward the door so you never walk back over clean floor. Keep a fresh bucket nearby, dip after every few strokes, and swap buckets before the water saturates.

5. Dispose of dirty buckets carefully

Carry dirty buckets to the incinerator and burn them. Don't carry them through areas you've already cleaned if you can help it.

6. Sniffer sweep and touch-ups

Walk each room with the sniffer and clean anything it picks up. This is where you go from about 85% to 95% and above.

7. Punch out

Only when the whole map is done.

Levels

These are the official levels named in the Steam achievements, so completing each one is also an achievement:

Level | Achievement

Evil Science | Surgical Sweeper

Waste Disposal | Operation Brownwash

Caduceus | Anti-Virus

Frostbite | Cold Storage

Unrefinery | Refined

Paintenance | Deep-Sea Dry-cleaning

Revolutionary Robotics | Brushed Steel

Uprising | Swept Under The Carpet

Hydroponic Hell | Pine Fresh

Cryogenesis | Ice-Cold Cleana

Gravity Drive | Louis and Clean

Pestilent Penitentiary | Pest Control

Core Sample | Crystal Clear

Overgrowth | Bushwhacked

Incubation Emergency | Biomassive Breakdown

Unearthly Excavation | Sandblasted

Athena's Wrath | The Mops Of Wrath

Penumbra | Bleach and Clear

Completing all the major official levels unlocks "One Mop To Rule Them All."

Add-ons and spin-offs:

• House of Horror (DLC, October 29, 2015): a crime-scene house full of horror-film collectibles.
• The Vulcan Affair (DLC, December 10, 2018): a supervillain lair, with an orbital beam weapon, a death ray and sharks.
• Santa's Rampage (December 2013; included, and also installed as a standalone copy): the North Pole workshop.
• VCD: Shadow Warrior (October 2013; included): cleaning up Flying Wild Hog's Shadow Warrior temple.

Add-on goals at a glance

Add-on | Clean-up achievement | Other goals

House of Horror | "House of Honor" (clean the entire level) | Horror-film homage props; the achievement list has several horror-prop pickups (a clawed glove, an axe, a mask and machete, a white mask and butcher knife), each earned by carrying it back to your office

The Vulcan Affair | "Lair Care" (clean the entire level) | "Audacious Oddities" (all its unique collectibles), feeding the sharks 500 items, and several orbital-beam gags

Santa's Rampage | "Cleanliness is Godliness" (clean all mess and clock off) | A clean run without breaking any Christmas items, a destroy-every-item run, and a deliberately worse-mess run are all separate achievements, so plan three runs

Shadow Warrior | "Sanitary Supremacy" (clean the entire temple) | Carry the two million dollars of cash back to your office in one go

Hazards and Level Gimmicks

• Sand traps (Unearthly Excavation) eat items and janitors. You can use them for disposal, and 100 items thrown in is an achievement.
• Inter-dimensional cracks can consume you.
• Sharks (The Vulcan Affair) will eat or destroy items you feed them.
• The Big Banger (a loud music box) appears as a gag item in several levels. Destroying it or its variants unlocks several achievements.
• Explosives (TNT and a red explosive charge) can kill you or other janitors. Keep them away from co-op partners, unless that's the plan.
• The bin machine can crush your hands if you reach in at the wrong time.

Co-op

Friends can clean together online through Steam, and split-screen co-op is also supported. Mac users should note that the macOS version lacks Steam multiplayer, Workshop and achievements. Co-op roles that work:

Role | Job

Hauler | Moves bodies, bins and debris to the incinerator

Mopper | Floors and walls, keeps a clean bucket supply

Fixer | Welding and sniffer sweeps

Runner | Fetches buckets and bins, disposes of dirty buckets

Agree on a clean route and a "no walking through wet blood" rule, or you'll spend the session re-mopping footprints.

Workshop

The Steam Workshop has a huge number of community levels and props. They're the main way to keep playing once the official levels are done. Official-level achievements need the official maps.

Achievement Roadmap

There are 85 Steam achievements (Windows only). They split into four kinds, and it pays to know which is which before you start a level.

Level completions

One per official level (see the table above), plus "Spring Fresh" for adequately cleaning any map and "One Mop To Rule Them All" for completing all the major official levels. Get these on your normal passing runs.

Career counters

These tick up across every level and every session, so never grind them on purpose:

Achievement | Target

Bloody Hell! | Mop up 10,000 splats

Blaze of Glory | Incinerate 2,000 items

Top Brass | Pick up 800 casings

Taking Out the Trash | Pick up 1,000 pieces of trash

The Nose Knows | Use the sniffer for a total of 2 hours

Need a Hand? | Receive 35 helping hands from the Slosh-O-Matic

First Aid | Restock 50 medkits by punching out with them

Pedestrian | Track over 20,000 footprints

Identity Theft | Carry 30 or more P.I.D.s from cleaned levels to your office

Employee of the Year | 12 Employee of the Month awards

Deliberate failures and gags

Several achievements reward messing up, so do them on a throwaway save or a level you've already passed: "You're Fired!" (get fired), "Blood Soaked" (spill 100 dirty buckets), "Who's for Dinner?" (get eaten), "Lost in Space and Time" (get consumed by a space-time crack), "Thunder Candle" (TNT yourself), "Bins? Limbs!" (get hurt by the bin machine 75 times), "Tower of Babel" (stack 10 stools) and the various Big Banger destruction achievements.

Co-op only

"Janicide" (blow up a fellow worker with the red explosive charge), "Pass The Torch" (take a lit flare from another janitor) and "Locked In" (lock another player in a holding cell) need a second player. Warn your partner first.

Collectibles

The "return it to your office" achievements (ring, P.I.D.s, heads, painted eggs, Rooks Keep figurines, Ballistic Weapons toys, film props) and the capstone "Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe" (all unique and hidden collectibles). You have to get the item home to your office when you punch out, and a failing score (under 75%) costs you what you've collected, so only do collectible runs on levels you'll pass. "Bob's Legacy" (find Bob) and "Red Keycard" (unlock Bob's secret stash room) are hidden; a Steam community guide is the fastest way to find them.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Mopping with a filthy mop or bucket. You're only spreading blood.
• Leaving buckets in walkways. One kick can undo an hour of work.
• Mopping before hauling. Carrying bodies drips and spreads mess.
• Walking through pools. Footprints add up fast; the game even counts them.
• Punching out early. Under 75% loses your office trophies.
• Forgetting the sniffer. The last few percent are usually invisible splats on walls and ceilings.
• Throwing explosives around in co-op. It's funny once.

Advanced Tips

• Batch disposal: fill a bin with casings, limbs and trash, and burn the whole bin in one trip.
• Stage buckets: leave one fresh bucket at each room you're mopping and one "dirty" corner near the incinerator.
• Clean ceilings and walls before floors. Drips fall, and splats on high surfaces are easy to miss.
• Work in light. Carry a light source into dark sections; splats you can't see are splats you'll miss. In co-op, a partner can hand you a lit flare (that's the "Pass The Torch" achievement).
• Collectible runs: Workshop guides and the achievement list give hints about trophies such as the ring, the clawed glove, the white mask and butcher knife, the mask and machete, the axe, Santa's shotgun, the reindeer nose and the Rooks Keep figurines.
• Speed runs: "Ubermensch" needs you to beat par time with 25% to spare. Route the level first on a normal run.
• Medkits: punching out with medkits restocks them, and there's an achievement for 50 restocks.

FAQ

What score do I need to pass a level? At least 75%. Below that, you're fired and lose accumulated office items.

How do I find the last bits of mess? Use the sniffer, and check ceilings, walls and behind furniture.

Do I get Santa's Rampage and Shadow Warrior with the game? Yes. Both spin-offs are included with Viscera Cleanup Detail, and Santa's Rampage is also installed as a standalone copy.

Is there split-screen co-op? Yes, alongside online co-op on Windows. The macOS version doesn't have Steam multiplayer.

Is Viscera Cleanup Detail 2 out? Not as of September 2026. RuneStorm is building it in Unreal Engine 5 and is working toward an early showcase build; their December 2025 update said it was still in progress.

How do I avoid spreading blood with footprints? Clean doorways and routes first, avoid wet pools, and don't mop yourself into a corner.

Sources

• Viscera Cleanup Detail on Wikipedia
• Steam store page (app 246900)
• Steam global achievements list
• RuneStorm news on Steam (VCD 2 updates, 10-year anniversary)