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 acting as a shopkeeper during the day stunned audiences. The allure of selling the items you loot seduces you to delve deeper into your adventure, even if the risk of death continually rises. With the launch of Between Dimensions, Moonlighter has its first paid content. Although the gameplay loop remains the same, there are new enemies, mini-bosses, equipment, an interdimensional dungeon, and more.

You'll want to have an end game save from the base game to take advantage of the new content in Between Dimensions. You'll notice specific pits that lead to a taste of what awaits in the new wanderer dungeon if you are still venturing through the original dungeons. After saving the village and clearing the fifth dungeon, unlocked by defeating the bosses from the previous four dungeons, our hero's journey isn't over. 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 against mini-bosses on every other floor until you reach the main adversary. Shortcuts can be crafted to take you to each of the even floors (two, four, six, and eight) granted you collect enough of the new slime chunk currency obtained from inside the new dungeon.

The wanderer dungeon isn't for the faint of heart, and even if you have perfected your build with upgraded gear, you'll need to take your time. The content would be worthless if you'd be able to plow through it within a couple of hours effortlessly. Sure, if you are good enough (I am not), you may be able to get through a few floors of the dungeon using your already maxed out gear. If you are playing the new game plus, you are probably using the insanely powerful and expensive pirate weapons, made from the same material as the dungeons themselves. Instead, I focused on crafting the newly added sword and shield, which easily overpowers anything I had 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, but trick weapons bring something new into the mix. These unique tools are only located in the wanderer dungeon, or through the original dungeons when stepping into the specialized portals. Each of them comes with a unique ability but consumes a set amount of your health with every attack. For example, the bone sword vastly increases your 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 a bit 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. There are new customers that'll come into your shop looking to trade, instead of buying items with gold. A new vendor appears in the town offering the same type of item bartering system and looking for specific things (you'll need to return to previous dungeons to acquire the majority of them).

Simply Put

Moonlighter: Between Dimensions adds new content to an already enjoyed experience without changing the 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; make sure you are aware the majority of the substance requires you to complete the base game.