THE MOON

MISSION 2
GHOSTS
15 KINDS
THE FLAGBEARER

THE MOON is the second venue of the campaign, and it ends when its boss goes down — THE FLAGBEARER.

The run calls the things here GHOSTS: 15 kinds of them, from the rank and file up to whatever is guarding the far end.

Its pressure comes from spawn points rather than an endless stream, so the map can genuinely be cleared and walked rather than farmed from a standstill.

Its exit leads back to THE GARAGE rather than onward, which is what makes it a farm rather than a stop on the road.

The place

SIZE3600 by 2400 world units — about 9 phone screens across.
GRAVITY340 — a jump here comes back down about when you expect it to.
SUITThe hero arrives in the EVA suit, because outside it he would not last.
BREATHING ROOM1 pocket where nothing spawns and the wandering horde is pushed back out — a genuine rest, not just a quiet corner.
DEAD AREAS3 stretches the ambient horde never spawns into. Authored content still lives there, which is the reward for going off the line.
CHESTS2 hand-placed containers. Your weapon smashes one like a crate, but the haul is richer and guaranteed.

What it fields

The mob levels here are authored per rung rather than scaled off your own, so the place is exactly as hard as it was tuned to be. COMES AT is the hero level the rung expects you to arrive at; LEAVES AT is where a single clear is reckoned to put you. RELICS FROM is the level this venue's own named relics start dropping at — below it they never do, which is why they are farmed on a return trip rather than found on the way through.

JESUS is the one rung that scales to the hero rather than to an authored number, so it has no fixed figure to state and is left out.
DIFFICULTY	MOB LEVEL	COMES AT	LEAVES AT	RELICS FROM
EASY	8–14	13	—	34
MEDIUM	8–15	13	—	34
HARD	9–16	15	—	34
NIGHTMARE	42–47	44	—	54

Who is waiting

15 kinds of thing live here, and the run calls them GHOSTS. Every one has its own page with its health, its damage and its drops on each rung.

The boss

The fight the level ends on. You meet them waiting at a post.

THE FLAGBEARER

Named elites

The set-piece fights along the way, each with a name and a reason to be here. You meet them waiting at a post.

The rank and file

What the venue keeps throwing at you between the set pieces. You meet them waiting at a post, streaming out of spawn points, dragged in through a hellgate, on the once-a-run rare roll and on the once-a-run unique roll.

What the place itself does to you

METEORSEvery 5s to 8s a rock falls near you, telegraphed by a firming shadow, and detonates — vaporising minions at the core and flinging everything else, you included, to the sides.

What it pays

Weapons it introduces

The bases this venue brings into the campaign. Each starts dropping once the monster killing for you is at least its level — and each carries its exceptional and elite versions along with it, so the pool keeps paying out here long after you have out-levelled the plain form.

Gear it introduces

The armor, jewellery, trinkets and bags on this venue's own table, gated the same way.

Powers it hands out

The campaign introduces two new powers per venue and every venue keeps what came before, so the vocabulary grows the whole way down. These are the 9 this one can drop.

Relics locked to this place

Named items that belong to this venue and nowhere else: anything standing here can drop them, at odds that climb with what killed you for it. Which relics are on the table depends on the rung you are running.

DIFFICULTY	RELICS
EASY	THE PALE COVENANT, DEADSTAR, MARECREST, HUNTSMAN'S COWL, CRATERWARD
MEDIUM	THE PALE COVENANT, DEADSTAR, MARECREST, HUNTSMAN'S COWL, CRATERWARD
HARD	THE PALE COVENANT, DEADSTAR, MARECREST, HUNTSMAN'S COWL, CRATERWARD
NIGHTMARE	OMENSIGHT, VEILWALKERS, SLAGBREAKER
JESUS CHRIST!	WORLDSPLITTER, TITANSTRIDE, THE IMMOVABLE, EARTHFAST, THE WORLDSHELL, THE LONG MARCH

SCRIPTED OPENINGA MOON'S BLADE is handed over around 40–100 kills in, so no run starts empty-handed however the odds fall.
LEFT LYINGADA'S SNEAKER sits where the designer put it, not where the dice do.

The trader

A wandering merchant works this venue too: sell him what you will never wear, buy what you will. He dresses for the place.

HIDE WHAT HE SAYS

THE MERCHANT
YOU'RE SOLID. THAT'S NEW. I CAME UP WITH THE '76 SALVAGE RUN. MISSED THE RIDE HOME.

THE MERCHANT
THE GHOSTS DON'T CARRY COIN, SO YOU'RE MY WHOLE MARKET NOW. SELL ME SCRAP. BUY WHAT WORKS.

Who is not fighting you

3 people stand on this map with something other than a fight to offer, and between them 7 errands: THE COLUMN THAT WON'T CLOSE, THE MAN WHO SIGNED, TWO TANKS, THE LITTLE ONE, ROGER THAT, NOTHING BUT STATIC and THE HANDOVER. Nothing can hurt them, and every one of those errands is taken and finished on a single visit.

The place itself

The whole venue at once, covered — a map is a spoiler in the same way a plot is.

HIDE THE MAP

A top-down view of the whole of THE MOON, drawn in the game's own pixel art — The place as you actually see it, drawn from the game's own sprites at the game's own coordinates and shrunk to fit — the ground, the walls, the buildings and the landmarks. The scattered rocks and rubble are rolled fresh every run, so treat those as a likeness rather than a plan; everything built stays exactly where it is.

What he says

Spoilers for this mission, covered until you ask for them.

HIDE SPOILERS

On arriving

THE HERO
ADA'S TRACKER WENT QUIET SOMEWHERE NEAR THE OLD APOLLO FLAG. THAT'S WHERE I'M HEADED.

THE HERO
AND SOMETHING IS MOVING OUT THERE IN THE DUST. THIS PLACE IS SUPPOSED TO BE EMPTY.

THE HERO
I KNOW THIS LANDING SITE FROM THE OLD MISSION CHARTS. EVERY CRATER. THE FASTEST LINE RUNS TO THAT FLAG.

THE HERO
KEEP MOVING. I'M COMING, ADA.

What stops him mid-run

The run halts on its own, once each, when he first lays eyes on WISP, DUST PHARAOH and THE DROWNED OF SELENE, and when he first kills WISP and SUCCESSOR.

The whole of what happens here — the scenes on the way in, every arrival speech, the last words and the found lore — is this venue's chapter of the story, covered the same way.