| Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault | |||
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| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Early Access Review |
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is an early access sequel to the legendary indie title from 2018. Read our review of its early access build to see what it did well, what it didn't, and whether it's worth buying when it fully releases!
Everything We Know About Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Story
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault picks up after the events of the first game, following Will, the dungeon-delving shopkeeper of Rynoka, as he attempts to rebuild his life, livelihood, and community in a strange new land. In the wake of Rynoka’s conquest under the interdimensional collector Moloch, the town is struggling to recover, and Will will have to rebuild the Moonlighter to assist.
With the help of the Endless Vault, a mysterious being sworn to assist Will if he could prove his prowess as a shopkeep, Rynoka may be taken back yet.
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Gameplay
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault expands on the original’s blend of dungeon-crawling and shopkeeping, now presented in full 3D. Players once again take on the role of Will, the proprietor of the newly rebuilt Moonlighter and a key supplier of artifacts and adventuring gear.
With Rynoka’s original dungeons taken along with the rest of the town, Will travels to distant regions and unexplored environments to gather inventory. The core loop remains split between daytime shop management — pricing goods, assisting customers, and upgrading the business — and nighttime excursions to restock supplies. The sequel introduces roguelite systems such as mid-run perks and temporary shop-day bonuses, adding more strategic depth and variability to each cycle.
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Release Date and Time
Released to Steam Early Access on November 19, 2025
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is set to be released on Steam Early Access on November 19, 2025, with an unconfirmed release date for the game's PSN and Xbox releases. An exact release date is yet to be determined, but we’ll update this article with the game’s release information as it's revealed. Stay tuned!
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Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Review [Early Access]
Endlessly Fun Already
Moonlighter, ah… that humble tale of a shopkeep with a hero’s heart, was among the dearest little treasures of my early gaming days. Many a realm has asked adventurers to sell their spoils since the age of old MMORPGs, aye, but Moonlighter — Moonlighter made the craft intimate. No faceless ledger, no passive coin trickling in. Instead, you toiled as both delver and merchant, prying riches from the depths below and laying them gently upon your shelves by dawn’s first light.
It was a clever enchantment, finely wrought and complete as it was. So when word of a sequel drifted into town, I confess my hands trembled like a novice counting their first day’s takings. The first story had ended well enough; did it truly need a successor? And though the good folk at 11 bit studios have never been known for mere coin-grabs, the specter of a disappointing sequel… well, it looms over many a fine series.
Yet fortune favors the bold, and bold I was to give this new chapter a fair chance. And thank the gods I did, for even in its early access state, Moonlighter 2 gleams with promise. Changed in shape, grander in scope, yet carrying the familiar warmth of the original, just as any worthy sequel ought.
But enough talking shop. The lantern is lit, the counter polished, and the day’s stories wait to be told. Why don’t we flip the sign, open the shop, and begin?
Farewell Rynoka
As any seasoned merchant or scholar will tell you, a sequel must broaden the original’s horizons. Moonlighter 2 understands this truth well. It tears us from the familiar mossy stone of Rynoka’s dungeons and casts us into lands far beyond. The Moonlighter itself has been swept away along with the rest of Rynoka by the enigmatic, interdimensional Moloch. Now Will and his fellow townsfolk live as refugees, piecing together a new life from the remnants of the old.
And thus the tale begins: Will, unceremoniously tossed into the desert sands by Scratch, a local companion who’s grown weary of their empty coffers and Will’s uselessness. Nostalgia returns in a strange guise, for your first expedition arms you not with a sword, but again with a humble broom.
Upon your return, the Endless Vault makes itself known. A grand, mysterious power, it promises to help rebuild the Moonlighter if you can prove your worth by amassing a tidy sum of gold. And just like that, the cycle begins anew… though the world is changed, and so are you.
As far as sequel beginnings go, this is a masterwork. It honors your deeds from the first game by making your reputation as a master shopkeep known even across a new locale. It widens the stage from a simple merchant’s ambition to the reclamation of an entire town. And it wields nostalgia with a skillful hand, echoing the rhythms of the original experience while weaving new threads of its own.
That’s enough prologue and portent about what stories await you in Moonlighter 2, though. Let’s talk about what dangers and coinage lie in your path as well.
The Moonlighter is Back in Business
Though the old Moonlighter remains lost in the stolen town of Rynoka, Scratch’s abandoned shop now stands as your new base of operations. Once the Endless Vault unveils itself, with a swish of a tarp and a sweep of your broom, the Moonlighter is reborn. Not unlike your first day in the first Moonlighter, this is when we first nail down the basics.
Your opening day will feel much like it did in the first game: bare pedestals, undecorated walls, uncertain prices, and only a handful of curious customers. Once more, you place relics and spoils before would-be buyers and divining the fairness of your prices from their faces. A scowl means your prices are too high; wide, gleaming eyes mean you’ve cheated yourself out of profit instead. Find the golden middle — or, should you dare, tempt the crowd with prices too favorable — and you’ll awaken one of the sequel’s clever additions: Shop Perks.
These boons, a nod to the game’s new roguelite spirit, reward your shrewd dealings with more than just a flat coin boost. Each satisfied customer fills a meter that grants powerful passives for the remainder of the day. Thus, you are encouraged to play the long game by winning your customers’ hearts early, then raising your margins once your perks are set.
The shop itself now offers more depth of personality as well. Thanks to K33P3R, Scratch’s automaton assistant, the simple upgrade path of the first game has blossomed into true customization. New decorations, layouts, and improvements give the shop a sense of craft and identity worthy of any merchant prince.
It’s a bounty of fresh ideas for the shopkeeping half of the adventure, and yet, remarkable as these are, they pale beside the changes awaiting you in battle. Let us turn, then, to Moonlighter 2’s other half.
Should’ve Been a Roguelite from the Start
If the expanded shopkeeping is the spit upon the whetstone, then Moonlighter 2’s combat is the gleam that follows. In truth, battle was the harshest teacher in the first Moonlighter — fair, skillful, but unforgiving, and limited to a handful of worlds with the same bosses waiting at each journey’s end. Good, certainly… but this sequel shows how good may yet be reforged into something greater with enough craft and vision.
Even in its Early Access state, the game offers three distinct worlds, each with its own artifacts, hazards, and creatures, and, for the first time, branching sub-worlds, each hosting unique bosses. Gone are the old isometric halls of Rynoka’s dungeons; in their stead stands a fully realized 3D approach that embraces the game’s new roguelite soul.
No longer do you simply push deeper through randomly generated chambers in true Zelda fashion. Now the path sprawls and forks, adorned with combat perks and dangerous routes that demand the careful judgment of a card-crawler as much as the reflexes of an adventurer. It is a shift from Diablo’s dungeon sense to something closer to Slay the Spire’s routecraft, and it suits the sequel well.
Your arsenal has been pared down from five weapons to four, yet each now carries a mechanical identity far sharper than simple trade-offs of speed or power. Without spoiling too much, know this: the spear is no longer just for poking enemies from afar. Think instead of the Draupnir Spear from God of War: Ragnarok.
The dungeon itself has grown livelier, too: room types with their own rules, elements and afflictions to manage, mid-run upgrades that reshape your weapon, and secrets tucked just outside the beaten path. But all of this, the dangers, the choices, the branching roads, bows before the true reason you venture into the wilds at all:
Loot, glorious loot.
Loot-crafting and Inventory Management Like Never Before
Of all Moonlighter’s charms, none shone brighter than its loot. Not the arms and armor you wielded — though those had their place — but the curious relics you hauled from the depths and laid upon your humble pedestals for profit. In the first game, these treasures came with simple curses that nudged you into clever bag-tetris: items that swapped places, crumbled neighbors, or refused to sit anywhere but a chosen corner. A delightful wrinkle, yes — but a small one.
In the sequel, that wrinkle becomes a full tapestry.
Moonlighter 2 transforms its loot into a true min-maxer’s craft. Every region offers its own flavor of cursed trickery: in the desert, sands grind and armor items; elsewhere, strange magicks balance charges or twist relics into new forms entirely.
Each item now carries both Value and Rarity, forming the backbone of the expanded curse system and giving every relic a layered identity beyond simple monetary worth. This results in a bag that feels less like storage and more like an ever-shifting ledger, where each decision becomes its own small victory.
I shall not drown you in the full arithmetic of it, but know this: Moonlighter 2 turns a modest mechanic from the first game into the most satisfying min-max dance you’ll find in any shopkeeping experience. The numbers rise, the profits swell, and the joy of perfecting your haul?
Never once does it grow old.
Visually Stunning, but Also Buggy in that Regard
The first thing any traveler notices upon stepping into Moonlighter 2 is its new shape. Gone is the charming pixel tapestry of old, replaced by a fully rendered 3D realm. I confess, I felt a pang of nostalgia at first when I realized the game was committed to this change. Eventually, I found the shift nothing short of an evolution. Much like Hyper Light Drifter’s own transformation, this change brings added depth without sacrificing the soul beneath.
And truth be told, the new style suits the sequel’s broader ambitions. The first Moonlighter, bound to its dungeons, felt right at home in pixel art. But this new world — with its branching paths, expanded lands, and stunning finisher strikes delivered upon stunned foes — benefits greatly from the added dimension. The leap to 3D feels earned, even necessary.
Of course, such craftsmanship has its cracks. Fully rendered models bring their own quirks: enemies sometimes slip into the scenery, animations may drift from their intended hosts, and visual hiccups flicker across the world. Whether all of these are accidents or intentional stylistic flourishes… well, only the artisans at 11 bit truly know.
But these are imperfections of early access, loose stones in the foundation, not flaws in the structure itself. Better discovered now than left to crumble on release.
Unfinished and Already Impressive
The day wanes, the lanterns dim, and it’s time to shutter the shop. Speaking of Moonlighter 2 has made the hours pass swiftly, friend, and I’m grateful for both the tale and your company. The sequel isn’t even finished, yet it already stands taller than the original — broader in scope, richer in craft, and still true to the charms that first won my heart.
I’ll confess, my first instinct was to fear a follow-up to something I once treasured. But seldom have I been so happy to be mistaken. This sequel proves itself worthy, and then some, when it’s fully realized, I imagine. Change isn’t always bad, as this early look at Moonlighter 2 would show. Sometimes, it’s just what something needs to become something greater.
And so, traveler, may your pack be light, your profits fair, and your path ever bright. Until our next meeting. Fare thee well.
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Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Product Information
 |
|
| Title | MOONLIGHTER 2: THE ENDLESS VAULT |
|---|---|
| Release Date | November 19, 2025 (PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S Early Access) |
| Developer | Digital Sun |
| Publisher | 11 bit Studios |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Roguelike, Action, Adventure, RPG, Strategy |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Website |
