Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault review – Fight, loot, sell, repeat

Running a shop by day, and adventuring by night; our poor hero Will never gets chance to rest. If you’ve played the first Moonlighter you’ll be very familiar with the premise, but Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is a very different beast altogether. For better or for worse, this feels like a complete reimagining of the concept rather than a sequel – so whether you loved Moonlighter or found it lacking in some way, Moonlighter 2 is well worth at least trying out.

After a stint in early access, Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is now out in the world in full, playable on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch 2 and PC. Both a roguelike action game and a shopkeeping simulator, it’s the type of game that grabs you by both hands and refuses to let go; gel with the game’s core systems, and you’ll be playing into the wee hours without even realising it got dark outside.

As I noted in my early access preview last year, Moonlighter 2 is very different from its predecessor. The idea is the same: Will must explore dangerous dungeons by night, gathering treasures that he can sell in his shop by day. But the roguelike adventuring feels very different, there’s a completely new art style, and the running of the shop has been fine-tuned too.

It makes sense in the context of the story. Will’s homeland, the base of the first Moonlighter, has been taken over by the evil Moloch, and in Moonlighter 2, he finds himself in the unfamiliar town of Tresna. If he wants to save his hometown and ultimately return there, he must earn enough coins to appease the Endless Vault, and that means gathering treasures to raise a considerable amount of money in his shop.

Ultimately, then, the gameplay loop of Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is very familiar: go out adventuring, bring treasures home, sell them. Rinse and repeat. And, for the most part, that’s what you’ll be doing. But with plenty of characters to meet in Tresna, many of them with quests to give you and activities to complete, you’re never going to be short of something to work towards.

Over time, you’ll be able to upgrade your shop, expanding it in size and adding trinkets and special display cases that increase the value of your items. But, of course, doing so costs money, and so most of your time will be spent exploring the interdimensional dungeons of Moonlighter 2.

If you’ve played a lot of the first Moonlighter, you’ll likely find the changes here the hardest to get used to. Gone are the Binding of Isaac-style maps for you to make your way through as you defeat enemies and gather treasures. Instead, your progress feels more familiar to something like Slay the Spire; moving along a timeline, you can choose a specific type of event, be it a miniboss, a fight that leads to a treasure chest, an upgrade to your abilities, or something completely random.

To begin with, your inventory is a lot smaller than what you’re used to, meaning that the number of items you can bring back with you to Tresna is limited. What’s more, you’ll have to spend a fair bit of time managing your inventory, with certain items affecting others. Along with having a rarity, each item also has a quality score. The rarer an item is, the more it will be worth. But that quality score can also add additional value, too.

There are multiple worlds to visit in Moonlighter 2, and each world has a unique item system for you to get your head around. In one, placing a particular item might burn another that it points to within your inventory. That sounds like a pain, but you might also pick up a particular item that gains quality for every item that’s burned. In another world, items might turn others into crystals or dolls, which in turn can be strategically used to improve other items.

My main complaint is that each system is quite different from the one that came before it, so learning the intricacies of each can take some time. You might have just figured out the nuances of burning up lesser valued items to improve your rarities, but before you know it you’ll have to deal with dolls, crystals, batteries and overcharging, and a whole lot more. While I like the idea of adding some strategy to item collection and placement, it’s perhaps a little too convoluted. If you simply choose not to engage with the systems as they’re intended, it’s not the end of the world, but you’ll miss out on getting the most out of your items before you sell them.

Of course, before you can pick up any items at all, you’ve got to fight your way through the enemies that Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault throws at you. In any given room, you’ve got to clear all enemies before an item chest appears. It at least means you can take as much time as you need to pore over your inventory, but you’ll need to make sure you’ve got your wits about you to survive long enough to see the chest in the first place.

On its standard difficulty, Moonlighter 2 is no walk in the park. Its combat is brutal, and you’ll need to make use of all the moves in your arsenal if you want to best your foes. You can perform a melee attack, a limited ranged attack, a special attack and a dodge, and everything will need to be combined to be at the top of your game. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed, especially when you’ve got multiple enemies firing projectiles at you, and so don’t be surprised if your run is over just as soon as it begins.

Thankfully, you have the option to return to Tresna at any point in time by simply holding down a button. Sometimes, it’s a wise choice to cut a run early, as it means you’ll go back to town with everything in your inventory intact. If you do lose all your HP you’ll keep your items but they’ll have lost a chunk of their quality, making them worth less. It’s a bit of a risk versus reward system then: if you’re in danger, do you keep fighting, trying to get more treasure, or do you cut your losses and go home with what you already have?

There’s an awful lot to like about Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault, and while there are some changes from the first game that some players might dislike – the inventory system does take a while to get used to, and while Moonlighter 2 looks beautiful, I did have a soft spot for the pixelated visuals of the first – it’s hard not to see it as a huge step up in most regards. This is a sizeable game that will keep you coming back again and again. Serving customers, earning money, expanding your shop, and exploring new worlds – it’s a gameplay loop I can’t get enough of.