Moonlighter lore: How do casualties occur in the dungeon?

[Yukeh]

Throughout the lore i've stumbled across in the game (and believe me, i am searching fervently - so much that i hear every piece of dialogue NPCs have to say at least 30 times in between each progression stage.)

Despite all the notes and NPC monologue i've been reading, i still fail to make a connection here. The notes frequently mention adventurers being ejected from the dungeon, their wounds reduced to mere scratches.

So how, then, do deaths occur in the dungeon? I remember Will being ejected during the tutorial, and supposedly taking a while to recuperate - but he had no lasting injury, he got away with the nightmare fuel fresh in his memories.

Does the dungeon stop ejecting people after a set number of "deaths"? Does that mean it's possible to get a "bad end" in this game? I'm not willing to let myself get knocked out to find out what happens when your health drops to 0. I hate dying in games and can't bring myself to get knocked out when i've gotten this far without dying.

There are many notable examples of heroes and merchants falling for good in the dungeon, as evidenced by the littering of skeletons here and there, not to mention the - made personal - motivation for some of us to hunt down the forest guardian. This piece of backstory made the game experience a lot better in my opinion, which is why i now start asking questions about it.

How did this happen to all these adventurers in the first place? The backstory to the game paints an image of a much more immersive, lethal and realistic world than what appears through gameplay.

Like Stardew Valley's mentions of a distant war, these stories make me want more. So here i am.

Has anyone found out anything like this? Ideally a developer with connections to the people writing the story for the game could give a concise answer, but i doubt they'd take notice of this one thread, as it's just a drop of water in the sea of the forums.

[Sinsling]

Actually you'll note from when we find Pete that the amulets can be broken. The implication is that the people you come across presumably got struck by a blow that separated them from or destroyed their amulet - thereby preventing the amulet's emergency recall feature from saving them.

[Yukeh]

Originally posted by Sinsling:

Actually you'll note from when we find Pete that the amulets can be broken. The implication is that the people you come across presumably got struck by a blow that separated them from or destroyed their amulet - thereby preventing the amulet's emergency recall feature from saving them.

Oh, i hadn't picked up the fact the amulet was necessary in the first place. I thought the dungeon spit out everybody.

That explains everything, actually.

[Sedart]

Hi Yukisuna,

As the designer of the game and one of the creators of Moonlighter's story I hope I can answer your questions ^^

First of all, regarding how do deaths occur in the dungeon, the people we currently call merchants were the first ones who found Pendants inside of the dungeon (or the ones that inherited the pendants like Will), these pendants allow them to go out the dungeon if they deliberately use them and pay the requested price, but these pendants also take them out of the dungeons as soon as they faint inside of them. People without pendants do not have the same benefits, the dungeons system will expel them when the dungeons needs to reuse* that room again but entire days or weeks can pass before that... For that reason Heroes usually die in the dungeons, but they still think it is profitable to risk their life for the items, but Merchants can exploit dungeons constantly and make a living out of it.

*(do not confuse room reuse with the procedural game dungeon generation, room reuse is something that exists in the story behind the dungeons nature).

Nope, there is no possibility of obtaining a "bad ending" in Moonlighter, we want a linear story instead of a branching ending for several reasons, and one of them is not having to replay the entire game to obtain a different ending, even if in other games that is a great feature.

I'm really glad you liked the small story involving a pair of characters and the forest guardian, we thought it was an emotive story and wanted players to experience it but not much people seem to catch it due to how text progression works in Moonlighter.

Regarding how did all of this started... Well pretty much Rynoka was a town that build around the dungeons, at the beginning some people found the pendants and started to make a "safe" living out of it. As less pendants were found, other people without pendants tried to make it but gave up due to possibility of never coming back of the dungeon and other people like the robust heroes still can take that risk while making a living.

Hope all this answers your questions ^^ but do not hesitate to let us know if it does not, or if you have more questions. We try to find and answer this kind of posts as fast as possible but sometimes it just not possible...

Cheers!

[Yukeh]

Originally posted by Sedart:

Hi Yukisuna,

As the designer of the game and one of the creators of Moonlighter's story I hope I can answer your questions ^^

First of all, regarding how do deaths occur in the dungeon, the people we currently call merchants were the first ones who found Pendants inside of the dungeon (or the ones that inherited the pendants like Will), these pendants allow them to go out the dungeon if they deliberately use them and pay the requested price, but these pendants also take them out of the dungeons as soon as they faint inside of them. People without pendants do not have the same benefits, the dungeons system will expel them when the dungeons needs to reuse* that room again but entire days or weeks can pass before that... For that reason Heroes usually die in the dungeons, but they still think it is profitable to risk their life for the items, but Merchants can exploit dungeons constantly and make a living out of it.

*(do not confuse room reuse with the procedural game dungeon generation, room reuse is something that exists in the story behind the dungeons nature).

Nope, there is no possibility of obtaining a "bad ending" in Moonlighter, we want a linear story instead of a branching ending for several reasons, and one of them is not having to replay the entire game to obtain a different ending, even if in other games that is a great feature.

I'm really glad you liked the small story involving a pair of characters and the forest guardian, we thought it was an emotive story and wanted players to experience it but not much people seem to catch it due to how text progression works in Moonlighter.

Regarding how did all of this started... Well pretty much Rynoka was a town that build around the dungeons, at the beginning some people found the pendants and started to make a "safe" living out of it. As less pendants were found, other people without pendants tried to make it but gave up due to possibility of never coming back of the dungeon and other people like the robust heroes still can take that risk while making a living.

Hope all this answers your questions ^^ but do not hesitate to let us know if it does not, or if you have more questions. We try to find and answer this kind of posts as fast as possible but sometimes it just not possible...

Cheers!

Oh my god you actually responded, and so in debt. Thank you so much!

This answers all my questions, indeed! The little side story with the flora guardian was very emotional for me and i think it made the whole game much better. I just finished the forest dungeon and am excited about discovering the rest of the game!

If you ever make an expansion or a future game, i hope you will consider adding more NPC dialogue. The moonlighter world is very interesting (and im sad i didnt get to see it during the first "hero rush". It sounds like a real adventure).

Thank you again for answering so in depth, i am starstruck!