As always, when we love a game, we like making a guide to get you started. So here is our beginner’s guide to Moonlight Peaks. Some tips to make the most of being a vampire farmer and enjoy your supernatural farming life. And if you are undecided on whether or not to go for the game, my review is here.
Character Customisation
Always a fun part before you dig into any soil: making your little character. And Moonlight Peaks does a good job at it, which means you will probably spend quite some time in here.
You start out by choosing a name for yourself, for your farm and for your Hellkitten. The one that decided to accompany you when you ran away from home. After that, you can choose your skin tone, eyes (and funnily, you can make both eyes a different colour), hairstyle and colour, facial details and of course, your outfit. The game isn’t stingy: there is a wide variety of clothes to choose from, and when you progress, you can buy even more. Throughout all of this, Moonlight Peaks is not gender-locked.
This customisation is just for your own fun; it doesn’t influence anything in the progress of the game or in the romance options you have. And if you are not happy with how you look? You can change it using an Alter Ego Elixir that you can buy at Web of Wonders, Sabrina’s shop.
A Dilapidated Farm
Running away isn’t rife with worry for our little character. No amnesia for this farming sim, lol! My little vampire YvoCaro has had enough of her father, the infamous Dracula, and travels to the little farm that has been in the family for some time. YvoCaro brings her coffin with her to sleep in, and her Hellkitten Samantha (my chosen name) goes with her.
Sleeping is the first thing you are going to do, as it’s almost dawn and vampires can’t function during the day. At 18.00 hours, you awake in your coffin to enjoy a new night. Remember that Moonlight Peaks only saves when sleeping.
The first character you meet outside the door of your new abode is Orlock, a vampire who’s quite rude and asks you to make him some wine. To get started, he gives you seeds for blood grapes. That’s your first quest, the other is to register yourself at the Town Hall with Mayor Brook (not a very friendly character), and after that, you have to go out and meet all the people in this game.
These are the inhabitants:
- 5 vampires: Orlock, his children Mina, Evan, Elvira and his nephew Samael Ambrosia
- 4 witches: Sabrina, Noel, Fiona Webb and Luna
- 4 werewolves: Brook, his children Ludo and Saga and his brother Ridge Logan
- 3 seers: Dragan, Aras en Alina Khazan
Aside from these humanoids, you will meet many other characters, like the bat Viktor Dracula, ghosts Balthasar and Jarvis, snakes Snek and Jacques and toad Yabbis. And don’t forget Death himself, sporting a Hawaiian shirt!
Shovel, Watering Can, Axe, Pickaxe and Broken Wand
Orlock points you to a crypt on your land where Viktor lives, apparently an old uncle who turned into a bat. He points out that you have several tools for farming, and you can ask your questions to find your way around farming. You get all the tools at once, the shovel, watering canaxe, a pickaxe and a broken wand. You can access them on a quick-access wheel, accessible on the Switch by pressing and holding your right shoulder button.
Farming is along the same lines as usual farming sims at the start. Use the shovel (not a hoe this time) to dig a patch on which you can sow. You have to water the plants every night, and when they are ready to harvest a yellow pointer appears. The watering can can be replenished in the river as long as you don’t have a well yet.
It’ll be some time before you are introduced to magical crops, but when you are, take note that you need to water them using Aquaflux otherwise they won’t grow. Simple rain doesn’t work!
Also, be sure the can is full before you cast the spell, as the spell will end once it’s empty. And it isn’t a smart spell: it will start watering non-magical crops too, which is nice, but not very handy when you are short on mana to keep the spell going!
Fishing Rod
The fishing rod isn’t immediately available in Moonlight Peaks. You get this one in a contest with Noel, who makes a bet for 250 Gold with you that you can’t catch three different fish before he does. Of course you can! But see the bigger fish that looks like an exciting catch? Your rod can’t handle those yet.
Fishing is fairly easy. Just cast with Y and reel in when the fish bites with Y as well. And eventually, once you have been introduced to the card game Nokturna, you might even catch a new card!
Bugnet
The bugnet is the last entry to your tool wheel, and you get this one from Death. You can find Death when you have unlocked the area where the Ambrosia castle is, at the bottom of your screen. You unlock that bridge to get there by doing the quest A Bridge Too Far.
The area is called Misty Shores and has a gloomy graveyard where you make the acquaintance of Death. He ropes you in to catch Soul Blobs, little flying skulls, for which you need that net.
The Soul Blobs are a funny addition to the game: there are 100 to catch, and all of them give a short description of the cause of death of the poor soul. After a certain number of Soul Blobs have been captured, Death gives you a gift; the first one is an Antique Clock. And that’s not just a decorative piece: it will allow you to slow the passage of time, making the nights longer!
With that Antique Clock, you can change the length of the night in the settings menu. So go there using ‘+’, and at the bottom, you’ll see Night Duration. You can now set it to 25 minutes.
Another side quest is to bring all the Vampsters that you find to a cave near Orlock’s mansion. Little black creatures with a tiny hat that are good at hiding. Not an easy job, as you can only carry them in your vampire form, and they don’t go in your inventory. So it’s really a matter of holding it while walking to the cave and placing it.
Raising Animals
Before you can start having animals of your own, you have to buy a Barn from ridge giving him money and materials. When it’s done you can buy animals from Luna, only the ones that are waiting outside of her own house.
My first buy was a Cheeken, a funny looking creature that keeps running around with a couple of pink fluffy chicks in tow. The Cheeken likes to be petted and also loves it when you buy it a hat! I don’t exactly know how yet, but I think when you leave an egg in the barn for too long, another pink chick joins the party!
I have bought a Cowcula, which looks cute with fangs and all, and tries to fly all day. Not happening of course, with those tiny wings.
There are more animals to buy, like a Draculamb but I haven’t been able to afford them all yet.
Morphing and the Wand for Spells
Moonlight Peaks, being a magical farming sim, many of you are probably wondering early on when exactly the magic will happen.
Morphing ability
There are two event strings that are important from the beginning:
These event strings will enable you to morph into a Hellkitten by pressing the left shoulder button on the wheel and choosing your form on the magic wheel:
- A Bridge Too Far
- Tension in the Crest Garden
- A Croak and a Crest
- The dinner party
When you turn into a Hellkitten, you are so much faster, which is very welcome. And what’s also nice is that in cat form, you can make patches of dirt without using the shovel by pressing Y, at only a fraction of the required energy.
Doing Spells
You aren’t able to use your wand at first. But after the Dinner Party event, you will get a letter when you wake up in the evening from Luna to come see her. Walk towards her farm, and you’ll get an interaction.
She wants you to nurture magical seeds that she feels may turn into something beneficial for Vampires. Seeing your broken wand, she sends you to Sabrina to have it fixed. It’s Noel who patches it up at first, though, with duct tape by the looks of it. But for now, we’ll take it!
Your first spell is a wonderful one: a self-pouring watering can called Aquaflux that waters crops for you. Beware that below your energy bar, you’ll now see stars that show how much mana you have left to do such spells. So don’t think it will water all your seeds at first. Plus, you still have to put water into the can. Like the energy bar, it’s replenished by eating, but at first, it’s slow going. After each night, one star is replenished, and it takes a while for foods that replenish mana to appear in the game.
To cast a spell, you select the wand, and a quick menu comes up, a circle with dots on it. You can follow the dots in the circle of a spell with the D-Pad when you are playing in handheld, or with your joy-con/mouse when playing docked. Not sure anymore what the spell moves were? You can look them up in your book of magic under the ‘-‘ menu.
Cooking and Crafting
Your farmhouse comes with a stove and a crafting table installed, and both already have some recipes at the ready. And new recipes are added at a fast pace, sometimes when your game saves at night, or you can find new recipes when mining or digging. Also, Mina starts dabbling in making her own cookbooks, which you can buy at her tea shop.
Crafting is pretty easy; you only have to keep clicking A for every item you are making, even if you are making multiple.
Cooking is a bit different as, depending on how many stars the dish will be (which is based on the ingredients), you have to time your clicks on a circle that is spinning.
Maker Machines
Pretty soon, new machines are added which you need to progress. The first ones are the keg (which you need to make Orlock’s blood wine), a refiner and a furnace.
In the keg, you can make wine, beer, and all kinds of juices.
The refiner is used at first to make planks from wood, refined stone from rocks and turns fibre into fodder.
The furnace makes charcoal from wood and turns ores into bars or glass.
On a side note, Uncle Viktor alerts you to the need for a scarecrow to keep ravens from destroying your crops. Place it near your crops as it only protects a set area.
Luna is a good source for new makers. Pretty early on, you get the blueprint for making a beehive. Unlike in many games, the beehive spans a certain area, which it shows when you are placing one. Good idea to put it in the middle of your fields. And so sweet that you actually see the bees buzzing around!
Luna also introduces you to herb gardens through a letter. She gives you three blueprints, one for the actual herb garden, one for a drying rack and one for an enchanted mortar. Don’t make the same mistake I made in placing the herb gardens. I placed them neatly side by side, but if you do, you can’t reach all four spots to sow in.
Mina has a jam maker, but at first it’s not much use, as you need sugar for every recipe, and I haven’t found that yet.
The next machine you get the blueprint for is the Mana extractor. That will come in very handy to replenish my mana energy bar!
Make the Best Use of Every Night
As is customary in farming sims, you have to make use of your energy the best way you can. Clear the area you need for your first seeds. Sow the seeds but don’t sow too much, as at first you are watering by hand.
You can replenish your energy by eating dishes from the start, but these are not easy to make at first and buying them ready-made is costly. If your energy bar is empty, you can always go to sleep, but you’ll wake up the next night at 6 pm.
There are a lot of flowers to forage, which doesn’t cost a lot of energy, and though they will no doubt be used later on, they make for easy Gold at first. So do the shells on the beach, and trust me, you’ll need the money. So don’t worry too much about holding onto things for later use: you need the Gold now. Although wood and stone are maybe even more precious than Gold!
You can sell your goods by putting them in Chester, a special sort of chest you get at the start. He’s alive and loves to be petted, making the funniest noises!
The Map
From the start, there’s a big map in Moonlight Peaks to play on, and a lot of areas are immediately accessible. And even for the areas that you can’t get into now, the solution will eventually present itself. You can see the map by pressing ‘-‘ on your Switch, and go to the second icon with the right shoulder, as the first tab you see is the quest tab. Sadly, there is no easily accessible mini-map.
It’s cool that all the characters are presented by a little avatar on the overworld map, and the shop signs on it also show opening times. The opening days and times are limited, which can be annoying if you want to finish a certain quest and can’t that day.
When you seem stuck and nothing is happening, you’ll find that just entering certain areas on the map will trigger an event.
And if you’re not sure what to do next, you can always check on the bulletin board in town, showing the owl Albertus’ Jobs. I do feel the jobs posted are a bit few and far in between, but maybe that will change as the game progresses.
Romancing in Moonlight Peaks
As you get to know the residents of the town, you can build a romantic relationship, fall in love, and eventually settle down together. With around two dozen romanceable characters, there are plenty of potential partners to choose from.
Spending time talking to residents is the foundation of every relationship, and you can see how the friendship is growing in the menu under ‘-‘. You can also see whether you have spoken to them or given them a gift that day. It also keeps track of recent gifts and whether you’ve played Nokturna with them.
Gift-giving remains one of the quickest ways to strengthen relationships, and Moonlight Peaks puts a special emphasis on handmade presents. Players can craft items such as flower bouquets, vases and embroidered gifts, adding a personal touch. In the first spring there’s already a special event for love!
If you cannot decide on a favourite straight away, you can pursue several romantic interests at the same time. This also means that you will unlock more about their personal story and you get additional scenes called Heart Events. It also unlocks special blueprints and crafting materials. Ultimately, however, you can only choose one partner for marriage.
A fitting feature for a vampire-themed cozy sim is that you can turn your spouse into a vampire, which I haven’t been able to confirm for myself yet. But the info states that if you choose to marry a mortal, a witch, or a werewolf, you won’t have to worry about them growing old while your character remains immortal. You can’t have children like in some other farming sims.
That’s it for now for our Beginner’s Guide. But if I find something interesting as I play on, I’ll be sure to add it in here!
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