Moonlighter: Between Dimensions Review

By Kevin Mitchell  |  Posted: June 16, 2020

Two years ago, Moonlighter's unique blend of rogue-lite dungeon crawling at night and shopkeeping during the day stunned audiences. The allure of selling looted items seduces you to delve deeper into your adventure, even as the risk of death continually rises. With the launch of Between Dimensions, Moonlighter receives its first paid content. Although the core gameplay loop remains unchanged, there are new enemies, mini-bosses, equipment, an interdimensional dungeon, and more.

You'll need an end-game save from the base game to take advantage of the new content in Between Dimensions. While venturing through the original dungeons, you'll notice specific pits that offer a taste of what awaits in the new wanderer dungeon. After saving the village and clearing the fifth dungeon (unlocked by defeating the bosses from the previous four dungeons), our hero's journey continues. One day in the now peaceful and thriving village of Rynoka, a mysterious oozing, slimy green portal appears. Like the other dungeons, you'll enter, explore, and fight through multiple floors, battling mini-bosses on every other floor until you reach the main adversary. Shortcuts can be crafted to each even-numbered floor (two, four, six, and eight) provided you collect enough of the new slime chunk currency found inside the dungeon.

The wanderer dungeon isn't for the faint of heart, and even with a perfected build and upgraded gear, you'll need to take your time. The content would be worthless if you could plow through it effortlessly within a couple of hours. While skilled players may be able to progress through a few floors using maxed-out gear, those playing new game plus likely wield the insanely powerful and expensive pirate weapons, made from the same material as the dungeons themselves. I focused on crafting the newly added sword and shield, which easily outperform anything in my inventory. The new sets of weapons and armor can be upgraded multiple times, and the armor can be enchanted, further improving it and making each run slightly easier. New rings provide passive abilities, while trick weapons bring something fresh into the mix. These unique tools are found exclusively in the wanderer dungeon or through the original dungeons' specialized portals. Each comes with a unique ability but consumes health with every attack. For example, the bone sword vastly increases attack speed, whereas the gas spear can launch poisonous gas.

During the day, you are Will, a simple shopkeeper, and 11 Bit Studios hasn't forgotten about this half of the game with Between Dimensions (although the updates are somewhat marginal). A new shop upgrade becomes available after your first trip into the new dungeon (hopefully, you have plenty of gold saved). It expands your store with two additional sales tables, two more spots for decorations on the walls, and even adds a cleaning robot. New customers will enter your shop looking to trade rather than buy items with gold. A new vendor appears in town offering the same type of bartering system and seeking specific items (you'll need to return to previous dungeons to acquire the majority of them).

Simply Put

Moonlighter: Between Dimensions adds fresh content to an already enjoyable experience without changing the winning formula. The new enemies, customer types, and mini-bosses are the highlight, especially when returning to the latest dungeon each night. The DLC is priced right for the amount of content included, though be aware that accessing the majority of content requires completing the base game.