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 stageWhat signals you're closeSystems you need working
First completionThe world opens in every direction and your map still has blank regionsCore movement, moon control, basic puzzle reading
Second endingA circular door that responds to the tome's back-page star formationMost tome pages, telescope puzzles in the forest and ocean areas
Third endingLate-game locks that assume you can read the in-game languageRelic 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.

GateHow it shows up in playPractical first move
Number and symbol systemsRoom numbers and map markers that don't match anything yetCross-reference the room number with your map before retrying the puzzle
Tome pagesGaps in the middle of a collectible sequenceWrite down which page numbers you have, then sweep regions that fit the gap
RelicsItems such as the mirror, the fruit, and the skullKeep a written list — several sit on optional routes rather than the main path
EmblemsInventory items you can place, misplace, or lose track ofCheck the item-found screen after any inventory fiddling
Telescopes and constellationsViews you align, plus constellation interactions that wake youRevisit solved telescopes whenever a door pattern looks like a star chart
Harp and tunesMusical inputs that open specific fountains and doorsNote 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Test the moon on everything. You control the moon, not just the character, and a handful of locks respond only to it.
Session typeTimeWhat you're actually doing
Map sweep~30 minFill unexplored edges and jot down new symbols
Collectible pass~30–45 minTarget one or two missing pages or relics with the map open
Knowledge review~15 minReread 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.

SymptomWhat it usually meansWhat to try
A ram won't reach the potThe direct path is deliberately blockedStop leading it off-screen; look for a second route or a way to move the blockage
An emblem won't stay where you put itPlacement interaction got confusedReseat it, then confirm it in the item-found screen
An interact prompt walks you somewhere strangeStale input state after a cutscene or a deathReload, then trigger the object once
A puzzle room feels unsolvableMissing movement tech, not a missing itemPractice chained slide-roll jumps on open ground first
The game drops you in the wrong spot after loadingPlacement bug from an older buildUpdate, 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.