Developer Digital Sun released a unique dungeon crawler called Moonlighter in 2018, a game where a skilled merchant explores various dungeons to loot riches and sell them in his own shop. It’s the classic “shopkeeper by day, adventurer by night” premise, which is a fun, distinct, and memorable for those who gave it a chance.
Now, in 2025, the sequel is here in early access. With a new 3D art style and a more roguelike gameplay loop, I tried it through PC Game Pass and answered two simple questions: Is it worth your subscription? And more importantly, is it worth $30?
The visual overhaul is the most striking change. The pixel-art aesthetic is gone in favor of a colorful 3D style that looks great in motion. You start to appreciate its environments as you explore the three biomes available in early access, each with its own distinct visual identity.
At first, I was slightly disappointed they didn’t stick with pixel art, but after over 10 hours with Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault, the new look grew on me thanks to the charming animations across enemies, characters, and bosses.
The Endless Vault Expects Riches
The story centers on rebuilding the Moonlighter shop once again and selling the relics you find to satisfy The Endless Vault. Hitting certain money thresholds unlocks new mechanics and pushes the main narrative forward. There are seven Vault rewards planned, but in early access, you can unlock only four, which took me roughly 13 hours to reach.
The good news is that this early access build doesn’t feel barebones. You get a proper sense of how the game opens up: weapon upgrades, run modifiers, Moonlighter shop improvements, and more. What’s locked behind early access mostly feels like additional branches in the upgrade tree rather than missing content.
When Going on a Roguelike Run
Combat works as you’d expect from a roguelike: clear a room, then choose your next path. Rooms offer options like double chests, miniboss encounters, perk upgrades, or recipes you can use once you return to town.
The unique twist comes from how the game handles loot. Opening chests turns into a light mini-game that determines the quality of the relics you take home. Relics interact with each other depending on placement in your bag.
Example: a relic might burn the item to its right, but pair it with a relic that improves the quality of adjacent items each time something burns, which adds to the overall value you are bringing home
It’s a clever “inventory Tetris” system that forces you to plan your bag layout. It initially killed the game’s pace for me as roguelikes are usually snappy, but once I unlocked more complex relics, the system started clicking.
This bag management also adds pressure: dying cuts all relic quality in half, which hurts. You can leave a run anytime, but I still had moments where I was overwhelmed and lost a chunk of profit. The penalty adds needed weight to mistakes, especially when you’ve done further planning on whats in your bag.
Relic themes also match the biomes: burning and armor, jolting and overloading, absorption and transformation. It’s cohesive and helps each biome feel distinct.
The Combat of Moonlighter 2
Combat became more enjoyable as I unlocked more systems. Early access includes four weapon types, each with unique attack patterns.
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Sword: a standard slashing weapon with a spin attack.
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Spear: leaves darts on the ground that return on command.
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Greatsword: deals more damage based on a sharpness gauge.
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Knuckles: boost attack speed through a berserk mode.
By themselves, they’re simple. The fun comes from perks you earn during runs. You can pick up the perk to dish out lightning bolts on charge, delayed explosions, wound stacks, and more. Some rooms house the blacksmith, who adds special weapon bonuses for that run, giving each attempt a different flavor.
Early access also offers weapon variations within each weapon type. They don’t add raw damage but instead come with unique perks. Armor pieces also offer useful traits, like negating the first two boss hits, for example.
Each run ends with a multi-phase boss battle. These bosses are fun to learn, especially when you’re low on potions. Biomes have day and night variants with their own bosses, and beating one unlocks a harder version the next time you return.
Moonlighter 2 Early Access – Is It Worth $30 Right Now?
In its current state (December 2025), the game offers about 13 hours of content: four weapon types, three biomes, and a broad range of upgrades. It feels like half of the planned features are implemented, but what’s here is solid enough for someone willing to buy in early, despite it costing $30.
Performance is also surprisingly stable. It doesn’t feel like a project that needs years to reach a playable state. The foundation is strong, and the game rarely suffers from the typical early-access jank.
The only consistent issue I encountered was random crashes during loading screens in the first hours. A PC restart fixed when it happened, but would appear randomly in certain days.
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault feels ready in a way most early access titles aren’t. What remains is filling in the missing content rather than fixing a shaky core. It’s a strong preview of what Digital Sun is building, and it feels like we’re a year or two away from the full picture. If $30 is a bit too steep, Game Pass is an option if you really want to see what they have been working on for years.
About the Author – Carlos Hernandez
Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.
