Content reference: demo v0.5.4
A useful purchase order
First make planting and watering repeatable, then reduce travel and collection friction, then reinvest in productive plants and fruit value. This is editorial guidance, not a hidden developer ranking. If your plants are dry, a decorative shell will not resolve that delay; if fruit piles up, another plant unlock alone will not collect it.
Read the actual next level
The v0.5.0 update added next-upgrade values in tooltips, brush-size upgrades that also affect Eraser, more fruit-value upgrades and a powerup for placing trees together. v0.5.1 clarified next range values and added shop indicators. Those displayed values are a better purchase basis than a fixed price list copied from a different save.
Sprinting must be bought from The Water in v0.5.4. Treat that unlock separately from ordinary movement-speed upgrades.
Compare return and convenience
For a production purchase, compare cost against the increase in your measured collected juice per minute. The payback tool uses your supplied values; it does not invent the game’s price-growth formula. For water, movement and convenience upgrades, also consider time saved. Cosmetics can be a deliberate late goal, while Insight belongs to the demo ending path.