Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Getting Started in Moonlighter 2

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is a single-player dungeon crawler and shop sim from Digital Sun and 11 bit studios. Will has been banished from Rynoka. Moloch holds the old dimensions, and you wake up broke in Tresna. The 1.0 release on 2 September 2026 is the version this page assumes: Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch 2, Game Pass day one, $29.99 (Steam launch promo −30% to $20.99 through 16 September 2026). A demo exists, the Steam build is Steam Deck Verified, and Steam Cloud is on.

The loop never changes: dungeon run, backpack puzzle, shop sale, then spend gold on town, gear, and the Endless Vault. Read this page before you dump a bag of junk on the floor and wonder why Vault I will not open.

Difficulty and controls

New saves pick Easy, Normal, or Hard. You can change difficulty later in the menu, so start on Normal unless combat is the only reason you are here. There is no stamina. Rolls are free, forever. That is the whole dodge lesson.

Moonlighter 2 is single-player only. There is no multiplayer — local or online. Bindings for movement, smash, gun, and shop tags are on the controls page. In Tresna, open the town map and hold F to teleport to NPCs instead of jogging the whole square.

Moonlighter 2 gameplay commentary

The desert tutorial

Ms Scratch throws Will into Kalina with a backpack and the Old Broom, a spear. The tutorial rooms teach traps, breakables, encounter doors, the pistol, the backpack smash, potions, and the pendant.

Save the gun for flyers. Melee hits refill ammo much faster than waiting. The smash only works when a foe is in Rupture — a purple-black glow that usually appears around half health. Practice it here; later bosses require smashing ruptured objects, not just swinging at HP bars.

Potions are scarce on day one. Keep them for the first miniboss or a bad Herald attempt. The pendant (hold the mapped button) sends you home with no extra death penalty. Dying still halves relic quality, so leaving early is often cheaper than greed.

When the chase sequence ends, you are in Tresna. Open the shop once even if the bag looks sad. Andrei will not offer Merchant weapons until you have completed a shop day and a Kalina loop.

First sale, then first real weapon

Place whatever survived the tutorial on the four starter showcases. Customer faces tell you if a tag is cheap, perfect, expensive, or overpriced. Chase the red perfect stamp, not the highest number a tourist will still swallow. Early stamps you will see constantly: Silence Shell 21, Sand Fruit 31, Firewood 42. Full tables live on shop prices and in shopkeeping.

After that sale, the cube erupts in the square. The Endless Vault asks for 10,000 lifetime gold. You do not pay a fee. Sales count; spending gold on Andrei does not rewind the meter. Track later keys on vault unlocks.

Talk to Andrei at the blacksmith east of the Dimensional Gate. Merchant weapons cost four Sun Eaters after that first shop plus Kalina. The four melee classes are short sword, large sword, spear, and gauntlets. If you cannot decide, stay on spear — you already know the Old Broom — or take short sword for simple combos. Class rankings are on the weapon tier list. Loadouts that mix patches and perks are on builds.

Babyl handles guns. You start with the Blob Gun. Blo-Beam comes after a Gallery run, Blo-Blaster from an Aeolia hidden treasure, Blo-Blitz from Greed & Glory. You will not see those yet.

First Kalina Day run

Go back through the gate into Kalina Day. Tomo’s radar (the encounter map) color-codes loot quality. Walk toward relic rooms and the halfway miniboss; the miniboss drops two chests and is how Andrei unlocks your first armor set. Spike Flowers in the Day realm drop Sun Eaters when smashed — farm them, because Merchant weapons and Nou both want that material.

Kalina relics burn or armor neighbors in the bag. Do not cram every common into a full grid and then watch Firewood delete your only uncommon. The backpack guide explains the adjacency rules; the relic tier list flags which commons are tools versus trash.

If the radar looks terrible, pendant out. A short run with three priced relics beats a death that halves a full bag. Combat covers rolls, Rupture, and why flyers eat unprepared merchants.

Who to visit in Tresna

Hold F on the map and hit these people in order after the first real sale:

• Andrei — melee crafts and armor after minibosses.
• Eris at the witch hut south of the shop — potions and health. Vault II later unlocks her Onyx Cauldron and tier 2 brews.
• Tomo by the gate — radar upgrades. Vault I gives her the Merchant’s Grimoire.
• Babyl — guns.
• Nou in south town — material vendor. He only sells a material after you have found it once. Later prices include Sun Eater 2500, Echo Link 2500, Oneiric Quartz 2500, Moon Flower 5000, Echo Bond 5000, Oneiric Stone 5000.
• Ms Scratch / Doña Guita — shop floor upgrades after vault keys.
• The Countess — furniture and showcases.

Julien and the Weird Prisoner appear after Vault II (50,000 gold, then 500 gold to free the prisoner). Bloblets are a later companion layer. Faces and shops are listed on the NPC page and the players hub.

First gold goals

Spend in this order until Vault I pops:

1. One extra backpack slot if the bag vendor has appeared on a ? room.
2. Potion count or potency at Eris so Kalina Night is not a coin flip.
3. Merchant weapon plus a couple of Sun Eaters from Day flowers (or Nou once unlocked).
4. Leave gold in the pocket so lifetime sales can hit 10,000. Vault I unlocks the Grimoire and The Gallery.

Do not save every common for a perfect layout. Sell. The walkthrough takes over once Herald is dead and you are routing Night Kalina. 1.0 extras — Bomb Path, shop rank 5, Hardcore, Endless aspects — wait until the cube is feeding you keys; see version 1.0.

Soundtrack is Chris Larkin. The game is Unity 6, 3D isometric, and deliberately not a multiplayer project. If you want official store links, use the wiki links page or the links hub. For a map of every guide, return to the Guides Hub.