Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Moonlighter 2 Review

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is out. Version 1.0 launched on 2 September 2026 for Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch 2, with Game Pass, a demo, and Steam Deck Verified. It costs $29.99. It is single-player. Digital Sun built it; 11 bit studios publishes it. This review is for people who liked the 2018 original, people who bounced off Early Access, and people who only saw a 3D trailer and smelled a downgrade. Official pages and Discord sit on the Links Hub. How to play sits in Guides. How the press numbers compare to a loadout sits on the Tier List Hub.

The loop is still the drug

By night Will runs a node map in Kalina, The Gallery, or Aeolia. By day he stamps relics in Tresna. The Endless Vault asks for lifetime gold and pays keys. That triangle — dungeon, bag, shop — is why the first game worked, and it still works. A run that looks failed can become a Perfect Stamp morning. A Perfect morning buys Andrei a hammer. The hammer buys a weapon that makes the next run look easy until Aeolia petrifies your best relic. You will say “one more shift” out loud. That is the compliment.

1.0 finishing the story helps. Early Access was a town with a cliff. The full release has credits, Vault VII, Hardcore, and Endless toys. It is a complete product, not a beta with a cash register.

Moonlighter 2 trailer

The backpack is the star

Inventory in 2018 was Tetris with swords. Inventory in 2026 is a chemistry set. Kalina burns neighbors. Gallery shocks them into Overcharge and then into dust. Aeolia petrifies loot into Aetherium you must absorb or lose. Quality is a 5% tick that turns a 168 Brood Charm into a till event. Deluxe diamonds, calendar hearts, and “do I keep Firewood?” decisions are the actual game. Combat is good. The bag is great. If you hate managing tiles, this sequel will feel like homework. If you loved the first backpack, this is the reason to buy.

Nintendo Life’s 8/10 gets the loop right: a visual overhaul plus combat and dungeon changes make a bigger, bolder sequel. Checkpoint’s 7/10 and Finger Guns’ 7/10 get the other half: three biomes start to blend, and EA veterans may feel 1.0 added cosmetics, encyclopedia, Greed Alert, Bomb Path, and a finished plot more than a new world.

The shop is thinner than the dungeons

Digital Sun changed shopkeeping on purpose. The first game’s “guess the price once” loop went stale; the sequel uses perks, furniture, tips, and a meter that wants smiles. Faces still teach Cheap / Perfect / Expensive / Overpriced. Perfect Stamps still exist. Unique customers still ask for weird bands. It is fine. It is not the equal of a Hex-Thunder-Bomb room or a full Absorb chain. Several critics said the same in plainer words: Gamereactor called the shop underdeveloped; COGconnected called it slow; Metro said shopkeeping is ironically not the most engaging third. After 1.0 I agree. You will optimize stamps with our price table and then you will wish the customers had as many systems as the relics.

That is not a deal-breaker at $29.99. It is the reason this is not a 9. Checkpoint actually liked the shop skill tree more than some of those earlier takes; Gamereactor still called the shop underdeveloped. Both can be true depending on whether you play the till as a minigame or as the main course.

3D versus pixel

The original was a pixel jewel. The sequel is a chunky 3D diorama. Finger Guns called the leap “cozy 3D” and took back scepticism. NintendoWorldReport’s 8.5 likes the new readability in combat and the toy-box town. Players who wanted SNES Zelda silhouettes will still bristle. Both takes are honest. If pixel art was Moonlighter for you, watch a 1.0 dungeon clip before you pay. If you bounced off 2018 because it felt small, the 3D kit plus four melee classes plus guns is the better game.

Combat itself is a step up: Rupture smashes, gun aim, class specials, Hex, Bomb Path. It is not Hades 2. It does not need to be. It needed to be more than “click the broom,” and it is.

Scores, Steam, and a number for this wiki

Press clustered in a 7/10 to 8.5/10 band. Metacritic 77 on PC (7 critic reviews at launch), 75 on PlayStation 5, 84 on Nintendo Switch 2. Named scores this wiki actually checked: Nintendo Life 80, NintendoWorldReport 85, Vandal 85, Game8 84, Nindie Spotlight 88, Loot Level Chill 95, Softpedia 80, GamingTrend 80, Checkpoint Gaming 70, Finger Guns 70, Gameliner 70, Gamereactor 70. Steam user reviews sat Very Positive through Early Access (about 86%) and 1.0 week; Metacritic user score was still tbd on 3 September 2026. That spread is the game: addictive loop, star backpack, shop that some outlets call deeper and others call underdeveloped, art argument. This wiki’s working grade is 8/10 if you like inventory puzzles, 7/10 if you came only for the till or if you already burned hundreds of EA hours and expected a fourth biome.

Buy it if you want a finished single-player merchant-roguelite with a demo you can try on Deck. Skip it if you need multiplayer, live-service codes, or a shop as deep as Recettear. Play the Getting Started guide if you already own it and died to Herald with a full bag of Silence Shells. Patch history is on Version 1.0.