Digital Sun just announced Moonlighter 2 – and I’m so excited!

Moonlighter is one of my all-time favourite games, and as such, I was positively surprised to see that we’re not only hearing back from Digital Sun after their work on the Moonlighter DLC, their venture into the League of Legends IP with The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story, and their newest release Cataclissmo… but that we’re hearing back about a sequel to the aforementioned Moonlighter.

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is not what I would have expected to hear about at all this year and this very much could be my most-anticipated game for 2025, alongside Monster Hunter Wilds.

Moonlighter 2 coming in 2025!

Step back into a vibrant world where daring escapades meet the art of commerce! Digital Sun and 11-bit studios are delighted to announce the return of Will, the beloved hero merchant from the 2018 indie hit, Moonlighter. This time, he’s hungrier than ever for adventure—and the treasures that come with it.

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault launches in 2025 for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. The sequel builds upon its predecessor’s winning formula of dungeon-crawling exploration, action RPG combat, and shopkeeping. Players will join Will and his companions, stranded in a mysterious dimension in the village of Tresna. With his sights set on restoring its former glory—and his shop to its former renown—Will also discovers a tantalizing opportunity to return home, thanks to a curious relic collector.

Armed with a diverse arsenal of melee and ranged weapons, Will is as skilled in battle as he is at striking a bargain. His adventures take him deep into the perilous vaults, where riches await the bold—but danger is ever-present. Back in the shop, it’s all about charm, strategy, and haggling to turn whatever he could find into gold. After all, in Will’s world, everything has its price!

“The original Moonlighter was a pivotal moment for us, marking the growth of Digital Sun as a team. Five years on, Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault showcases everything we’ve learned along the way. We’re channeling all our craftsmanship into creating a game that’s not just better, but brimming with even more charm in every detail”, said Javier Gimenez, Digital Sun CEO.

Features

Revive Tresna’s Splendor: Invest in the village’s development by supporting local businesses, upgrading gear, and unlocking new opportunities. As Tresna flourishes, so will your shop’s fortunes.
Loot Like a Legend: Prepare your gear, restrain your nerves, and delve into treacherous vaults filled with unimaginable treasures. But beware: the deeper you go, the higher the stakes—and the greater the risks.
Master the Art of Shopkeeping: Transform your hard-earned loot into profits by charming customers and haggling like a pro. Customize your shop with dazzling decorations to draw even more eager buyers.

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vaultis published by 11 bit studios and developed by Digital Sun, the Spanish team behind the original game, its DLC Between Dimensions, and other notable projects like Cataclismo. Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is set to launch in 2025 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.

I’ve got some extra deets, though! (Woooo!)

We don’t know much about the story of the game yet but I did receive a fact sheet… and in there, we learn a few crucial pieces of information:

So, after the events of the first game, Will loses his home dimension and ends up as a castaway in the blob-brimming land of Tresna, joined by new allies and familiar faces alike!

In the trailer, we got to see Eris and Vulcan, for instance, but there appear to be many more merchants and other possible new allies in there.

Hence, in Moonlighter 2, we travel across “interconnected worlds”, facing “interdimensional foes”, and we do more of the same as before, i.e. inventory management, fighting using various weapons, running your shop and haggling for the best deals, and reinvesting your profits into mighty “new gear” for future expeditions!

BUT – and this is very interesting in my opinion – we can also customize our playstyle by unlocking a vast array of upgrades every run. So, aside from the loot, procedural generation, difficulty, resource management, and “perma”-death, we also actually get other roguelike-elements here with per-run upgrades!

Now, the fact sheet states that you have to “strategically arrange relics in your backpack to turn their effects into profit” but I’m not sure what it means by “their effects” here. Does it just mean the same as in the first game that you need to place curses responsibly into various slots, manage your inventory and figure out the best way to earn money… or will there perhaps be all sorts of new mechanics where the inventory might even affect our runs, adding another layer to the management skills of each player…?

Besides that, though, Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault promises that the series will be elevated to “new heights with expanded scope and refined quality in every aspect” and I’m so fucking ready for this!!

Besides that, though, the soundtrack will be done by Christopher Larkin (who also made the Hollow Knight soundtrack) and while I absolutely love David Fenn and while I’m still hoping that he also has his fingers in there somewhere, I can’t wait to see what Christopher fucking Larkin is going to come up with for the soundtrack for Moonlighter 2, especially with the more modern-sounding tracks in the announcement trailer.

Below this section, I was speculating before I saw any of this info, so pardon this edit, I guess. I don’t want to change the rest of the post since those are my genuine first impressions and excited fanboy-ish thoughts, haha.

Just me being a fanboy (Speculation)

Now, the announcement trailer does only show us not even a full minute from the game but right away we can see some interesting changes!

Instead of the detailed and pretty pixel art style and the semi-top-down perspective, the game turned more isometric with a charming new art style that is definitely more modern. It’s a step-up in terms of production value, one could say, but it will take some time getting used to for me. I just like Pixel Art, sue me. That said, it doesn’t look bad at all, and I’m positively intrigued to see the world of Moonlighter with new eyes!

Aside from that, the titular shop, Moonlighter, seems to have grown and appears to be much bigger than before, even at the first store level where it still features only four pedestals. I can’t even begin to fathom what it will look like with all the decorations and upgrades later on.

Something even more interesting in terms of the shopkeeping aspect here, though, is that we appear to have a pet of sorts inside the shop now. This sort of pig-turtle-bird-looking thing is adorable, appears to feature feeding bowls and a cozy nook in the corner of the shop and I wonder if that’s just gonna be our partner or if we can switch out pets for inside the shop or something along those lines.

Despite that, there appear to be some more futuristic elements inside the shop as well. I mean, yes, the game did feature the tech dungeon with some more modern elements, not to mention the fifth/final dungeon and [redacted] but this is like a step up.

The pedestals look too futuristic compared to the rest of the shop, there is a toilet paper roll-looking thing near the cash register, there is a key icon above a similar contraption near the door, and aside from that, we see a chest robot with a holographic home icon and a cute face off to the side of the shop. I hope delivery robots and drones haven’t made it into this world, so I guess those items make it from the dungeon into the shop or something along those lines. The death of the small trade and all of that would be too much for my poor heart in a game like this.

Rather than diving into a dungeon, we appear to explore and dive into a more open area in the dungeon’s dimension. The introduction of different height levels and more ranged enemies sounds like a good challenge, especially given that the four-directional combat systems inside of Moonlighter 1 were a bit rough to deal with at times. I’d imagine that will no longer be around and instead, we’ll have a more fluid experience with much more agile enemies, and frequent damage zones that need to be avoided (like the one we’ve seen in the trailer when an enemy threw a grenade) or other dangers to take care of.

The press release mentioned an arsenal of melee and ranged weapons but in Moonlighter, we only had the bow, really, in terms of ranged weaponry, as well as the occasional staff inside the DLC, so I’d be incredibly interested in seeing how the game will handle introducing new ranged options. The trailer itself seemed to only feature Will fighting with a dagger or short sword of sorts, instead of the broom and sword & shield we’ve seen at the start of the first game.

That aside though, Will’s equipment seemed to also feature some of the more futuristic elements of some of the other areas in the world, so I wonder if that kind of dungeon-tech or whatever is going to be a big influence in this world.

I’d imagine that a sort of “gun”/crossbow could work for a more futuristic type of ranged weaponry as well as perhaps a whip or more magic weapons (like the trickster weaponry in the DLC) alongside the bow and arrow we’ve had in the first game.

The boss fights we saw seemed to be much more involved as well. Rather than dodging shockwaves and side-stepping projectiles, the trailer gave me Zelda vibes for the bosses, with almost puzzle-like clues strewn around.

I mean, yes, there was this pillar boss that seems more forward in there but if the developers learned from their experience working on The Mageseeker and Moonlighter: Between Dimensions, then I’m sure there will be a lot of intriguing concepts to explore.

I’m just so darn excited about this new release and I genuinely can’t wait to play it for myself. I hope the game will come out as a full release rather than an Early Access title. I hope that it’s a somewhat early release in 2025 and not something I’d have to wait for until Christmas either.

I’m so excited!

This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.

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