Endings Guide: How Many & How to Reach Them
A clear guide to MONOMOON endings: how the layers stack, what gates the second and third, and how to track relics, emblems, and tome pages.
Why MONOMOON Endings Aren't a Simple Credits Roll
The first time you finish MONOMOON, it is easy to assume you have seen everything — and that assumption is the trap. MONOMOON endings aren't a single credits screen you reach and dust off; they sit behind the same knowledge gates that run the entire game, so a "finished" save can still be missing most of what the world has to say. If you have already closed the book once and felt the pull to go back in, this guide is for you: how the layers stack, what actually gates each one, and the habits that carry you toward the next MONOMOON endings without wasting hours.
The game itself is a compact metroidbrainia — a small open world built on nonlinear exploration where progress comes from understanding rather than keys or level-ups. You move a character and you move a moon, and puzzles respond to both. Instructions are minimal to nonexistent, which means every ending you reach is something you assembled yourself out of notes, symbols, and half-finished maps.
That design is exactly why endings feel different here. A conventional game tells you how far you are from the finale with a progress bar or a quest marker. MONOMOON tells you nothing, lets a locked door do the talking, and trusts you to figure out that the door is a sentence rather than a wall.
How Many MONOMOON Endings Are There?
The structure runs at least three layers deep, and each layer assumes you have internalized a system rather than collected a set number of trinkets. The opening completion — the stopping point many players reach in the first ten hours or so — is not the end of the game. It is the moment the world stops explaining itself and starts expecting fluency.
The second ending is a concrete, physical thing: a circular door that reads the star formation found on the back of the tome. The third sits later still, past late-game knowledge gates that only make sense once you have worked through the telescope puzzles and started reading the game's own symbols for what they are. What you should not do is chase a number. Chase the next unresolved lock and let the count take care of itself.
| Ending stage | What signals you're close | Systems you need working |
|---|---|---|
| First completion | The world opens in every direction and your map still has blank regions | Core movement, moon control, basic puzzle reading |
| Second ending | A circular door that responds to the tome's back-page star formation | Most tome pages, telescope puzzles in the forest and ocean areas |
| Third ending | Late-game locks that assume you can read the in-game language | Relic hunting (fruit, mirror, skull), the castle peak painting route, a working cipher |
Treat that table as a map of expectations rather than a required-item checklist. Progression here is deliberately non-linear, so the order you clear these layers in is genuinely yours to choose — and the MONOMOON endings don't punish you for arriving at the third door before the second.
What Actually Gates MONOMOON Endings
Almost every wall in this game is one of five things: a symbol system you haven't decoded, a page you haven't found, an emblem or relic you haven't located, a puzzle tied to a telescope or constellation, or a mechanic the game never bothered to explain. Naming the category saves you an hour of aimless wandering, because each category has a different search pattern attached to it.
| Gate | How it shows up in play | Practical first move |
|---|---|---|
| Number and symbol systems | Room numbers and map markers that don't match anything yet | Cross-reference the room number with your map before retrying the puzzle |
| Tome pages | Gaps in the middle of a collectible sequence | Write down which page numbers you have, then sweep regions that fit the gap |
| Relics | Items such as the mirror, the fruit, and the skull | Keep a written list — several sit on optional routes rather than the main path |
| Emblems | Inventory items you can place, misplace, or lose track of | Check the item-found screen after any inventory fiddling |
| Telescopes and constellations | Views you align, plus constellation interactions that wake you | Revisit solved telescopes whenever a door pattern looks like a star chart |
| Harp and tunes | Musical inputs that open specific fountains and doors | Note where you have played each tune; the beach fountain and the blue and magenta ones are reliable checkpoints |
The in-game language is the gate that separates players who finish from players who finish everything. It is a knowledge lock in its purest form: once the cipher clicks, rooms you walked past a dozen times turn readable, and the hardest MONOMOON endings stop being obstacles and start reading like plain instructions you somehow missed.
One honest limitation worth stating plainly: the game does not hand you an ending counter, and there is no in-menu list of which finale you have reached. You infer your position from which doors still refuse to open — which is why good notes beat good memory here.
A Practical Route From One Ending to the Next
Do not restart. A late-game save already holds the two things that matter most: a mostly filled map and a set of half-noticed details you are now equipped to recognize. Work from the save you have and rotate between a few activities instead of grinding one for hours.
- Update first. Hotfixes in the 1.0.11 through 1.0.13 range cleared softlocks involving the giant clam, a couple of rooms, and emblems that could be placed out of reach. Losing an evening to an already-fixed bug hurts more than any puzzle.
- Fill blank map regions before hunting specific items. Walking to an unexplored edge almost always produces something solvable right away, and it teaches you that region's symbol vocabulary for free.
- Log what you are missing by name and number. A missing middle page tells you more than a missing first one, and a named relic gives you something concrete to scan for.
- Revisit solved telescopes whenever a pattern doesn't match anything else. Star formations are used as literal keys later, including on the circular door that opens the second ending.
- Re-read rooms you dismissed. Knowledge-gated games hide their best material behind abilities you didn't have an hour ago — a slide, a roll, a jump you can now chain into a ledge.
- Test the moon on everything. You control the moon, not just the character, and a handful of locks respond only to it.
| Session type | Time | What you're actually doing |
|---|---|---|
| Map sweep | ~30 min | Fill unexplored edges and jot down new symbols |
| Collectible pass | ~30–45 min | Target one or two missing pages or relics with the map open |
| Knowledge review | ~15 min | Reread your notes on symbols, tunes, and star patterns |
Running that loop two or three times usually produces one breakthrough per session, which is a far better return than repeating a single stuck room until you resent the game.
Room-Level Sticking Points That Hide Progress
Some blocks are not knowledge at all — they are execution, or a missing interaction. Room 08–18 is a common wall: if slide-rolling and jumping are not carrying you through, look for an alternate route before assuming you need a new item. Inventory quirks and odd object interactions are worth testing deliberately, because this game treats props as physical things you can shove, place, and knock loose.
| Symptom | What it usually means | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| A ram won't reach the pot | The direct path is deliberately blocked | Stop leading it off-screen; look for a second route or a way to move the blockage |
| An emblem won't stay where you put it | Placement interaction got confused | Reseat it, then confirm it in the item-found screen |
| An interact prompt walks you somewhere strange | Stale input state after a cutscene or a death | Reload, then trigger the object once |
| A puzzle room feels unsolvable | Missing movement tech, not a missing item | Practice chained slide-roll jumps on open ground first |
| The game drops you in the wrong spot after loading | Placement bug from an older build | Update, then reload rather than continuing mid-transition |
FAQ
How many MONOMOON endings are there? At least three layers are accounted for: the first stopping point, a second ending behind the circular door that uses the tome's star formation, and a third that opens only after late-game knowledge gates. Treat that as a structure rather than a fixed count — the deeper you go, the more the game expects you to read rather than collect.
Do I need every relic to reach a MONOMOON ending? Not for the earlier layers. The relic set — fruit, mirror, skull, and the item sitting above the amulet — matters most for completion-level play and the deepest locks, so treat it as a parallel project rather than a prerequisite.
Can I get permanently locked out of progress? Patched builds removed several softlocks, including one involving the giant clam and one that allowed an unrecoverable emblem placement. Keep the game updated, and avoid quitting mid-interaction in rooms where you just triggered something unusual.
Does finishing the game once lock me out of anything? No. The world stays open, your map knowledge carries over, and continuing an existing save is almost always faster than a fresh run — especially once you have internalized the knowledge-gated progression that makes the later layers readable.
Related Guides
How Long to Beat: Core vs. Completionist
Plan your MONOMOON playthrough with a realistic 10-hour core estimate, completionist caveats, and tips for secrets, pacing, and post-credits play.
Short Roll Session Guide
Plan a focused MONOMOON short roll with observation tips, moonlight puzzle routes, secret-hunting habits, and a practical session checklist.
Walkthrough: Maps, Relics & Puzzles
Spoiler-light MONOMOON walkthrough covering map reading, telescope puzzles, movement rooms, emblems, relics, and late-game cleanup.