Moonlight Peaks: Best Order To Upgrade Tools

As with all farming sims, your ability to profit off the earth is directly affected by the tools you have at your disposal. In Moonlight Peaks, these start off painfully basic, but as you progress and gather better materials, you'll have a chance to upgrade all your tools. 

However, these resources are finite, and you'll have to choose which tools get that upgrade before others, effectively leaning into a particular profession, whether that be mining, logging, farming, or fishing. 

So, to help you choose which tools to upgrade first, we will give you insight into the perks of each upgrade and what you'll need to make it happen. 

1st: Pickaxe 

• 1st Upgrade Cost: 1000 coins, Copper Bars (x3)
• 2nd Upgrade Cost: 4,000 Coins, Iron Bars (x3)
• 3rd Upgrade Cost: 16,000 Coins, Gold Bars (x3)
• Enchanted Upgrade Cost: 48,000 Gold, Mana Essence (5x)

First off, you should make an effort to upgrade your pickaxe as soon as possible, as this will grant you access to a new area of the map called Quartz Cave. An area blocked by a large rock in Moonlight Pines. 

This will allow you to mine Rose Quartz to make Glass, and will also give you access to Moon Crystals, which can be used to make Mana Essence. 

Plus, generally speaking, mining ore is one of the most important things when it comes to early game progression where your tools are concerned. 

2nd: Axe 

• 1st Upgrade Cost: 1000 coins, Copper Bars (x3)
• 2nd Upgrade Cost: 4,000 Coins, Iron Bars (x3)
• 3rd Upgrade Cost: 16,000 Coins, Gold Bars (x3)
• Enchanted Upgrade Cost: 48,000 Gold, Mana Essence (5x)

Second in terms of priority would be your axe. A tool that needs to be upgraded relatively quickly, as you will need to be able to chop large logs to craft Hardwood Logs. Something that can only be done with at least one Axe Upgrade. 

Plus, you'll need to chop wood pretty constantly to gather wood for Charcoal, planks, storage boxes, and much more. Not to mention getting through that extensive overgrowth of trees that you likely still haven't fully cleared from the start of the game. So having an upgraded axe means fewer swings per felled tree is a real boon. 

3rd: Watering Can

• 1st Upgrade Cost: 1000 coins, Copper Bars (x3)
• 2nd Upgrade Cost: 4,000 Coins, Iron Bars (x3)
• 3rd Upgrade Cost: 16,000 Coins, Gold Bars (x3)
• Enchanted Upgrade Cost: 48,000 Gold, Mana Essence (5x)

Our bronze medal for tool priority goes to the watering can. Mainly because as you scale up your farm production, this tool will make each morning spent watering crops much less tedious and free up time for other activities. 

The initial upgrades will allow the player to use less water per refill when watering crops. Meaning less running back and forth to a water source. 

Plus, when you upgrade this tool to gold status, you will also gain the ability to upgrade to a magic watering can, the best of the enchanted tool upgrades. As this gives the player a bottomless watering can, completely negating the need to ever fill it ever again.

4th: Scythe 

• 1st Upgrade Cost: 1000 coins, Copper Bars (x3)
• 2nd Upgrade Cost: 4,000 Coins, Iron Bars (x3)
• 3rd Upgrade Cost: 16,000 Coins, Gold Bars (x3)
• Enchanted Upgrade Cost: 48,000 Gold, Mana Essence (5x)

While it's not desperately necessary, we would place this one above the Fishing Rod, purely because you'll have a chance to upgrade this one relatively quickly just through cash and resources you have going spare. 

Don't get me wrong though, this is a good upgrade to make. It's just more of a luxury than a must-have. This will allow you to expend less energy cutting grass, make each swing more effective, and increase your swing's range.

It's a handy upgrade as grass grows so frequently in awkward places, and it will allow you to make Fodder for animals with ease. But I wouldn't be going out of your way to upgrade this early. 

5th: Fishing Rod 

• 1st Upgrade Cost: 1000 coins, Copper Bars (x3)
• 2nd Upgrade Cost: 4,000 Coins, Iron Bars (x3)
• 3rd Upgrade Cost: 16,000 Coins, Gold Bars (x3)
• Enchanted Upgrade Cost: 48,000 Gold, Mana Essence (5x)

Your standard fishing rod will only catch smaller fish silhouettes, and larger ones will simply break your line. However, if you take the time to upgrade to a Premium Fishing Rod, you'll be able to catch any fish that you come across. 

The downside is that, unlike all other tools, this one has only one upgrade, which requires gold bars to improve. This means it may take a while to switch to a better rod, since gold ore is harder to come by.

This is why you'll find this option so far down on our list of priorities, because in truth, while we would love to have access to this earlier to catch season- and weather-specific fish, the reality is that Gold Ore will be out of your reach for a little while. By which point, you'll have had ample opportunity to upgrade your other items. 

6th: Shovel

• 1st Upgrade Cost: 1000 coins, Copper Bars (x3)
• 2nd Upgrade Cost: 4,000 Coins, Iron Bars (x3)
• 3rd Upgrade Cost: 16,000 Coins, Gold Bars (x3)
• Enchanted Upgrade Cost: 48,000 Gold, Mana Essence (5x)

As far as I'm concerned, you could easily not upgrade the shovel at all, and save the gold and resources you would otherwise spend. 

This is because the difference these upgrades make to the use of this tool is so minor. Essentially, for the Shovel, you will expend less energy digging a hole. Something that already doesn't cost an awful lot to begin with. 

Planting crops is the only big case you can make for this upgrade, but considering that's usually a once or twice a season job, I would suggest players just use energy-refilling items, or use ethereal tools via spells rather than upgrading right away.