Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Moonlighter 2 Combat

Combat in Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is the tax you pay to fill a backpack. Will is a merchant first. Hits exist so chests open. That still means learning four melee classes, a pistol that hates flyers, and a smash that bosses require. This page is the dungeon fight layer; dungeons covers biomes and bosses, getting started is the first hour.

There is no stamina. Roll as often as the i-frames will let you. Difficulty is Easy, Normal, or Hard and can be changed in the menu. 1.0 adds Hardcore: a dungeon death restarts the save. Do not turn that on to “see if it is spicy” mid-story.

Four melee classes

You spawn with the Old Broom, a spear. Andrei the blacksmith crafts the rest after you complete one shop day and a Kalina loop. Merchant weapons cost four Sun Eaters. Classes:

• Short sword — fast strings, easy stagger, the default recommendation if you freeze at the anvil.
• Large / great sword — slower, heavier hits, sharpness-style meters on later variants.
• Spear — reach, poke, the moveset you already learned on the Broom.
• Gauntlets — close, bursty, hungry for positioning.

Pick one and live on it. Weapon Mastery (Vault III) and Julien’s patches reward focus. Unique crafts use boss trophies: Sound of Hubris, Alabaster Candle, Quantum Core, Broken Rocket, King’s Left Mask, King’s Right Mask. Ultimate recipes unlock when Vault IV hands Andrei the Burning Hammer at 200,000 cumulative gold. 1.0 adds Endless aspects for all four classes. Rankings: weapon tier list. Full loadouts: builds.

Official gameplay trailer

Guns, ammo, and flyers

Babyl sells guns. Starter: Blob Gun. Blo-Beam after a Gallery run. Blo-Blaster from an Aeolia hidden treasure. Blo-Blitz dual guns from Greed & Glory. 1.0’s Machine Gun is a gadget, not a replacement for melee.

Ammo trickles back on its own and refills much faster when you deal melee damage. Do not stand at range emptying the clip into walking trash. Save shots for:

• Flying enemies that melee cannot reach.
• The far side of a gap.
• A boss phase that parks off the floor (Senda, Thalaam, Monte on the stingray).

Pistol a flyer out of the air and it often stuns on landing. That is more HP saved than another broom poke.

Roll, stagger, Rupture smash

Telegraphs got cleaner after the demo. Combos can stagger. A staggered foe is the setup for the backpack smash when they Rupture — purple-black aura, typically around half health. Smash knocks them into walls, into other enemies, or off the arena. Several bosses cannot lose their shield until you smash ruptured orbs or parts; swinging the weapon at the HP bar does nothing during those windows.

Learn the smash in Kalina Day, not on Herald. The bag does not need to be full. An empty tutorial smash still counts. If you are standing on a narrow Gallery catwalk, smash away from the pit unless you want the loot to fall with the corpse.

Traps hurt you and enemies. Kalina spikes, Gallery floor current, Aeolia energy orbs — bait packs into them. Breakables clip rolls; clear a lane before a miniboss so a panic dodge does not stick you on a pot.

Perk paths: Thunder, Hex, Bomb

Dungeon perks are a deck you stack during a run. Thunder builds charge around Will and dumps lightning. Hex arrived with Greed & Glory. Bomb Path in 1.0 marks enemies; after enough hits they detonate and splash neighbors. Poison Path from the Blob-Life era still exists as another ailment stack. You do not need every path on one save. One melee class plus one elemental deck is a build, not a museum.

Nimbus Regalia (Greed & Glory) starts a run with a shield. When that shield breaks you get a short damage window (+20% for two seconds). Endless Void armor in 1.0 crits off Spark perks — an endgame merchant, not a tutorial NPC. Greed Colosseum is a post-boss arena tied to Vault V at 500,000 gold; treat it as a combat exam, not a loot route for Vault I.

Armor, potions, patches

Minibosses unlock armor sets at Andrei. Kalina, Gallery, and Aeolia each have their own. Sets change boss-hit shields, damage-while-healthy, or perk pedestals after minibosses — read the anvil, do not assume more HP is always better. Potions come from Eris at the witch hut. Vault II’s Onyx Cauldron is tier 2; Vault IV is tier 3. Save bottles for bosses. Onsen-style rooms can top you up before a door if the radar offers one.

Julien’s patches (Weird Prisoner, 500 gold after Vault II) sit on the backpack: found quality, deluxe chance, extra chests at higher tiers. Vault III adds tier 2 patches and a third slot; Vault IV adds tier 3 and a fourth. They are combat-adjacent because extra quality is extra gold, which is extra Eris ranks. NPC list has the town map; hold F to teleport.

Bloblets join as dungeon and shop companions later, with extra slots at shop rank 5. They do not replace a roll.

What a death actually costs

Standard death: keep the bag, half quality. That hurts shop more than it hurts your ego. Pendant out if the room is a wipe. Hardcore: dungeon death restarts the save. The walkthrough assumes standard difficulty until you have Vault IV weapons.

Farm Sun Eaters on Kalina Day flowers so Merchant crafts happen. Nou sells extras after the first find (Sun Eater 2500, and later Echo / Oneiric ranks). Combat skill does not skip material gates.

For biome hazards and boss phases, open dungeons. For gold thresholds that unlock mastery and ultimates, open Endless Vault and vault unlocks. Version 1.0 lists Bomb Path, Endless aspects, Void armor, and the Machine Gun. The Guides Hub is the index. Controls if a bind feels wrong.