Moonlight Peaks: How to Make Gold Bars

In Moonlight Peaks, the recipe for Gold Bars gets unlocked as soon as you get access to the Furnace, which happens a few in-game days into a new playthrough. However, you won’t be able to make Gold Bars until way later.

This is because Gold Ore, the main material required to craft Gold Bars, is only found in locations that you can only access after you unlock the Mermaid Form for your character and get the ability to swim. This doesn’t happen until you’re more than halfway through the first year.

Where to Find Gold Ore in Moonlight Peaks

Gold Ore Location

In Moonlight Peaks, Gold Ore can be found in the eastern and northern parts of the Cave of Echoes. The eastern section is only accessible via the Mermaid form, which unlocks the ability to swim across water, and the northern section is only accessible via Bat form, which unlocks the ability to fly over ledges.

Both the Mermaid form and the Bat form unlock through the main story progression. However, since Mermaid form unlocks first, you only need to acquire it to get access to Gold Ores.

The Cave of Echoes is located in the southwestern corner of the Misty Shores, the same place where you find Copper and Iron Ore deposits in the game. When you’re heading out for a mining run for Gold Ore, come prepared. Small Gold Ore nodes can be mined using an Iron Pickaxe, but for the larger nodes, you’ll need the Gold Pickaxe.

Gold Ore deposits respawn after a certain amount of in-game time has passed.

Unlocking Mermaid Form

You’ll unlock Aqua form and the ability to swim in water in Moonlight Peaks by completing “A Mermaid’s Wish” story quest. The exact date when this quest triggers depends on the speed of your progression, and it will differ from player to player. However, the sequence of quests leading up to this will be the same for everyone.

For reference, I managed to unlock Mermaid form in my playthrough on Night 10 of Autumn, Year 1, but your mileage may vary. For me, the sequence of events that played out was as follows:

• Night 25 of Summer, Year 1: Ludo greets you at the door and asks you to help him discover the truth behind the legend of mermaids in Moonlight Peaks (A Curious Passage quest).
• Night 28 of Summer, Year 1: Samuel reminisces about a lost love when you enter the town (The Mysterious Bay quest).
• Night 5 of Autumn, Year 1: Ludo and Ridge fix the bridge connecting Howling Marshes and Luna Bay after eating some Margherita Pizza (Ludo’s Plan quest).
• Night 10 of Autumn, Year 1: Samuel meets Kim in Luna Bay and immediately proposes. Kim says yes and requests you to convince Yabbis to brew a potion to give her and the other mermaids legs (A Mermaid’s Wish quest).
• Night 11 of Autumn, Year 1: Yabbis brews a potion for the mermaids, granting them legs to walk on land. He also forces you to drink it, which unlocks the Mermaid form that lets you swim in water.

Mermaid form also allows players to interact with the sparkly water ripples that sometimes appear on the surface of the rivers and lakes in the game.

How to Make Gold Bars in Moonlight Peaks

After you get Gold Ore, you’ll be able to smelt it at a Furnace by combining it with Charcoal. You make Charcoal by burning Wood at a Furnace, and the Furnace itself can be crafted at a Workbench using 15 Copper Ore and 5 Refined Stone.

All Gold Tools in Moonlight Peaks

There are five Gold Tools you can make in Moonlight Peaks. All of these Tools can be purchased from Ridge at the Howling Hammer shop.