A Guide To Friendship In Moonlight Peaks

Here's everything you need to know about friendship in the spooky town of Moonlight Peaks.

Moonlight Peaks is a new cosy supernatural life-sim from Little Chicken Game Company. In the game, you play as a young vampire who has recently moved to the magical town of Moonlight Peaks, bringing a unique spooky twist to the life-sim genre.

Moonlight Peaks features many elements that will be familiar to fans of games like Stardew Valley. The main gameplay centres on unravelling the town's mysteries, cultivating your farm, and developing your relationships with the other residents.

The game has options for both romantic and platonic relationships with the the local werewolves, witches, mermaids and more. In this guide, we'll break down how the friendship system works, and give you some tips on getting to know your new neighbours.

How does friendship work in Moonlight Peaks?

Making friends in a new town isn't always easy, especially when the townsfolk are paranormal creatures! Moonlight Peaks features a large cast of NPCs who you can build relationships with. One detail to note is that not every character is friendly at first, which adds some additional depth and challenge to your interactions with them.

Interacting and befriending your neighbours isn't just a way to pass time - once you reach a certain level of friendship with the NPCs, you'll be able to unlock things such as blueprints and crafting materials, alongside the character's personal storyline.

Players discussing the game on sites like Reddit have praised the game for its varied dialogue and unique NPC personalities. Repetitive conversations and a lack of tension or resistance from characters is an issue often noted in cosy games, so it's great to see Moonlight Peaks is changing things up.

Other discussions have highlighted that friendship is not always obtained easily. The relationship system (both romantic and platonic) centres around hearts, which signify the level of your relationship with a certain character. Quite a few players have voiced that these hearts take a bit of persistence to earn, and that daily interactions and specific gift choices are needed to win characters over.

It's possible to befriend every named resident, which can then be tracked in the game's relationship menu. You'll also get a handy summary of your relationship progress at the end of each in-game day.

So, what are the best ways to grow your friendships in Moonlight Peaks?

Social interactions

One of the main ways to become friends with the the other residents is through daily interactions. Speaking with the characters every day provides a consistent boost to your relationships, and you'll also get to know more about them as time goes on.

At first, these conversations will be quite basic, with the residents introducing themselves to you, but the more you speak with them and the higher your friendship level is, the more you'll learn about their personality and lore. As I mentioned earlier, not every NPC is friendly to begin with, so you might need to push a little harder with some characters than others!

Physical affection also offers a good boost to your friendships. This interaction is not available from the get-go - it's only unlocked once you reach 2 hearts. You'll have the option to hug them once a day, and this counts towards your the daily affection count.

Make sure to lending your neighbours a hand with the quests on the Town Quest Board, as this will also raise your heart level - these quests are also a great way to explore the town and uncover its mysteries.

Don't forget to play Nokturna with the townsfolk! Nokturna is a card game invented by Dragan - he'll give you an introduction to the game when you first meet him, after this you'll be able to challenge other character's to daily matches.

These matches have multiple benefits, as winning rewards you with new cards and also gives a relationship boost for that resident. Like all other social interactions, this can be tracked in the friendship menu.

Tips and tricks for giving gifts

As you progress further into Moonlight Peaks and begin to expand your farm, you’ll start to collect more items and produce, including different, minerals and building materials. These can primarily be used for crafting and selling, but they also have another use: as gifts.

The gifting mechanics here are very similar to Stardew Valley, so will be familiar to a lot of players. Almost every item in the game can be given as a gift, so you can use most surplus inventory items and these will count towards your relationship level with a character. After receiving a gift, each character will will respond based on their preferences, indicating whether they liked it or not.

No need to worry about keeping track of what gifts work best for each character - the game will do this for you! If you're a little stuck on how a character felt about a particular gift, check your relationship page in the in-game menu. You’ll be able to see the last eight gifts in the “Previously Gifted” slot, each marked with a handy note on how they felt about them.

Here's a quick break down on gift preferences:

Like the other interactions in the game, you can give each character one gift per day. So long as a character doesn't hate a gift, it will still count positively towards your friendship, but it's best to give 'liked' or 'loved' gifts.

Tip: you'll get an extra boost when you give a character a birthday gift, so make sure to give them something they 'love' to maximise this bonus. You can view birthdays in the calendar.

The Moonlight Peaks wiki has sections on each NPC's page detailing their likes and dislikes, as well as other useful pages covering loads more areas of the game. (Note: the wiki is still being updated for some characters as of writing this article, so some information may be missing).

Have you been playing Moonlight Peaks? Which character has been your favourite to befriend so far?

We'll be covering Moonlight Peaks more in the future, so keep an eye on our Life Simulation category to stay up to date!