Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault | PC Early Access Review

I absolutely adored Moonlighter. In fact, it was my personal second-favorite game of 2018. It was such a unique spin on the dungeon-crawling roguelike that made it very difficult to put down. It should go without saying that I was very much anticipating the sequel. Although it’s still in Early Access, there is a ton of content available in Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Developer Digital Sun is constantly updating as well, despite the game feeling less like a work in progress than most Early Access titles. Instead of offering more of the same, the formula has been tweaked in multiple ways that offer a fresh experience for seasoned players of the original. This will most certainly make my personal favorite list of 2025.

Here We Go Again

If you’re not familiar with Moonlighter, let me break it down for you. The gameplay is split into two styles. First, you crawl through randomly-generated dungeons fighting enemies and collecting items to sell. When you return,  you sell the items in your shop to earn money for upgrades. Most of the shopkeeping mechanic revolves around setting prices based on demand to earn the most money possible. You do this by adjusting prices after seeing your customers’ reactions to your prices. If they get mad, you change the price so it’s a little lower. Conversely, if customers act like they got away with a hell of a deal, you can bump it up a little bit to gain more profit. It’s a fun way to earn your upgrades and offers a respite from dungeon crawling to keep gameplay from getting stale.

It would have been very easy to simply make a mirror-image of the original game with new dungeons and items. Instead, Digital Sun completely revamped the gameplay to force older players to relearn the formula. That way, no one is walking into this title with an advantage. I know it’s a weird analogy, but it reminds me of when Guitar Hero release a new title in the series with a guitar that had two rows of three buttons instead of the single row of five buttons. Guitar Hero experts knew the basics of how to play, but had to retrain their brain to become skilled in the new version.

So what’s different in Moonlighter 2? First off, the visual perspective is quite a change. The original felt a bit more overhead, and the sequel has a more exaggerated isometric view. On top of that, character movement is much more deliberate than before. Our hero, Will, had very snappy movements in the first game. Here he walks more like an actual person instead of an arcade video game character. I’ll admit, I hated it at first, but once I wrapped my head around it I fell right in line.

Merchandising!

Managing your shop feels much more like the original than the dungeon crawling. You’re mostly doing the same things here, but the quality-of-life upgrades make this experience so much better. You no longer have to go to your logbook to find your previous set price on items. They’re just available on the menu screen when you are placing items to sell. It makes setting up shop incredibly user-friendly, and I appreciated these updates immensely. I’m spending far less time in menus and instead focusing on upgrades.

The bridge between dungeon crawling and shopkeeping is also incredibly clever. As before, your inventory space is limited from the get-go. Granted, you can purchase more space as you go, but even then, you have finite room in your bag on each run. What makes Moonlighter 2 so much fun is the organization of items when finding them in the dungeons. You never simply drop them in your bag. Instead, you strategically place them in ways that affect their rarity. It’s a concept that takes several runs to really wrap your head around it, but it’s a fascinating way to get players to find more ways to “break” the game and find interesting ways to end up with more cash and, in turn, better upgrades.

Certain items have elemental features associated with them that can affect other items in your inventory. For example, one item might burn another item if placed adjacent to each other. That sounds bad to destroy items you could otherwise sell, but there are workarounds. For instance, you can protect certain items from destruction. If they’re burned, they lose their protection while still enhancing other features. The fun here lies with finding clever combinations of effects that cascade down through every piece in your bag. It’s incredibly rewarding, and each area you visit has its own unique spin on this mechanic.

It Just Gets Better and Better

It’s genuinely impressive how much of a new game Moonlighter 2 feels. The gameplay loop alone is structured in a different, albeit familiar way. Instead of merely jumping into a full dungeon that’s procedurally generated, you’re given a map akin to Slay the Spire to choose your path. Part of the strategy lies in what kind of run you’re planning to make. Am I going for loot this time around, or am I making a rush at the boss of this level? Your path determines what kind of rewards are available to you, giving the player more choice in each dungeon.

On top of that, your upgrades affect what’s available on each dungeon run. This makes your upgrades feel incredibly valuable and adds to the “one more run” mentality in positive ways. As an example, I’ve upgraded my map to include a node that restores my health, which is something sorely lacking in my early runs. Now it’s a genuine part of my strategy.

With all that said, my progression as I play feels more like I’m increasing my skill rather than merely padding stats. It feels awesome when you start to learn how to be a better player instead of just making the gameplay easier for yourself. It feels much more rewarding, even though its taken me over ten hours to beat the first boss. Like I said, there’s a ridiculous amount of content present here.

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault | Final Verdict

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is one of the hardest games to put down that I’ve played this year. It took a while for it to get its hooks into me, but it’s definitely cemented itself as a personal favorite of the year. My only complaint is that the ramp up could use some tweaking. I wasn’t joking when I said it took ten hours to surpass the first dungeon. That might be a case of taking too long to hone my personal skills and learn the tricks to increase rarity of my items. But I would like to see some of those dopamine hits comes more often in the 1.0 release.

Outside of that, I’m having the time of my life with a game that fits perfectly into my wheelhouse. I love it when a developer makes a sequel that feels familiar enough while offering an experience that makes even expert players start from scratch in unexpected ways. I’ll be playing this one for many months to come.

To hear me talk more about Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault, be sure to listen to our November 27th, 2025 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 58:03 time stamp.

This review is based on a purchased copy of Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault on Steam via Early Access. It is also available on Xbox (included in Game Pass as well) and PlayStation, both in early preview as of this writing.