Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Moonlighter 2 Difficulty Modes

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault ships with four named modes that change how death, loot, and the shop interact. Version 1.0 on 2 September 2026 locked in these four alongside Hardcore (a separate optional toggle) and Very Hard (a slider above Hard, added in Blob-Life on 20 May 2026). This page maps every mode, what it costs to fail, and which one to start your first save on. Pair it with Getting Started before you pick a name.

The game is single-player. No mode opens a lobby. There are no redeem codes that skip content. $29.99 buys the same story whether you play Adventurer or Endless.

The four modes at a glance

Mode	Death penalty	Hunger speed	Relic drop quality	Endless Vault access	Best for
Adventurer	Lose gold on floor	1.0×	Standard	Yes (capped Tier 15)	First 1.0 playthrough
Shopkeeper	Lose shop stock on death	1.0×	Standard	Yes (capped Tier 15)	Players who love the merchant minigame
Hardcore Adventurer	Lose all relics in that run	1.25×	+25%	Yes (uncapped)	Veterans chasing Tier 20+
Endless	Softcore respawn, no relics	1.5×	+50%	Yes (uncapped, leaderboard)	Leaderboard climbers

The mode picker appears when you start a new save. You can switch between Adventurer and Shopkeeper later in the menu. Hardcore Adventurer and Endless are fixed once chosen — a mode-locked trophy cannot be earned on a save file started in a different mode.

10 Advanced Tips for Moonlighter 2

Adventurer — the default

Adventurer is the closest thing to a tutorial mode. Death in a dungeon drops gold on that floor, which you can recover by returning before the run ends. Relic quality is not halved on death. The shop and town upgrades stay. Vault progress (lifetime gold) is not affected.

This is the mode this wiki assumes in guides unless a page specifically names another mode. It is also the mode to start on if you have never played a roguelite shop sim. The capped Endless Vault at Tier 15 is not a wall — it is a ceiling while you learn. After Tier 15, you keep vaulting on this save, just without the leaderboard context.

Shopkeeper — the merchant’s choice

Shopkeeper flips the death penalty. Instead of losing floor gold, you lose shop stock: relics on the floor and in showcases vanish. The bag itself is untouched. Lifetime gold and vault progress still survive a wipe.

This mode punishes the shop management half of the loop rather than the dungeon half. If you are the type who spends real-time hours pricing and repricing every showcase, Shopkeeper makes a failed dungeon run genuinely painful — because the next customer walks in to bare shelves.

Trade-off: the lack of dungeon death pressure means you can be slightly more aggressive in Kalina than an Adventurer who is terrified of losing floor gold. The skill ceiling is the same; the consequence is different.

Hardcore Adventurer — the veteran’s mode

Hardcore Adventurer is the canonical mode for following the endgame guide seriously. Death in a dungeon wipes all relics you are carrying in that run — not the bag permanently, just whatever was on Will’s back when you fell. The town, shop rank, Vault keys, and crafted weapons stay.

The +25% relic drop quality boost is permanent and compounds across tiers. The 1.25× hunger clock means food management starts mattering around Tier 10. Community testing on Steam shows the highest sustained Tier 50+ climbs happen on Hardcore Adventurer saves, not Endless.

Do not turn this on mid-save. Mode-locked trophies will not unlock retroactively. If you started in Adventurer and want Hardcore prestige, start a fresh file.

Endless — the leaderboard game

Endless removes the death penalty almost entirely. You respawn softcore — no gold lost, no stock lost, no relics lost from the run. The 1.5× hunger clock and +50% relic drop quality make it the most rewarding mode for pure grinding.

The catch: without the tension of losing relics on death, Endless players report that the loop feels like a spreadsheet rather than a roguelite. The 50% drop boost looks better on paper than it plays in practice, because the content it enables (Infinite Vault, Endless aspects) does not require that boost to clear.

Community leaderboard data from Steam shows that Tier 50+ is consistently held by Hardcore Adventurer saves. Treat Endless as a cosmetic-grinding side mode, not the main prestige track.

Very Hard — the Blob-Life slider

Very Hard is not one of the four named modes above. It is a difficulty slider introduced in the Blob-Life Balance update on 20 May 2026, sitting above Hard in the standard Easy / Normal / Hard / Very Hard list. It increases enemy health, damage, and curse room density.

Very Hard does not change death mechanics (no Hardcore-style save wipe) and does not unlock anything exclusive. It is a toggle you flip when Normal feels too easy and you want harder fights without the relic-loss consequence of Hardcore Adventurer.

Hardcore — the 1.0 optional death rule

Hardcore (1.0, separate from Hardcore Adventurer) is a toggle that says: dungeon death restarts the entire journey. Not just the run, not just the relics — the save file. Official 1.0 notes: “back to the very beginning.”

This is not a difficulty mode. It is an optional permadeath rule. The Hardcore page covers it fully. Do not confuse Hardcore the toggle with Hardcore Adventurer the mode — they are different jobs. Hardcore is off by default on all saves.

When to switch modes

• First save: Adventurer. Learn the loop before you add stakes.
• After Vault IV: If you want to chase Tier 20+, switch to Hardcore Adventurer on a fresh file.
• Never: Shopkeeper is valid but niche; most players prefer Adventurer and just play carefully.
• After Infinite Vault: If you cleared the 300,000-gold day and want to grind cosmetics, Endless is a relaxed end state.
• Very Hard: Whenever Normal feels too easy. It does not block trophies or lock content.
• Hardcore: Only when you can stamp Perfect without thinking and you explicitly want the Moonlighter 1 tension back.

Index: Guides Hub. Context: Version 1.0 and Hardcore.