Lunarium Lithora Archive Region Guide: Cloak Schematics & Starfarer Lore

Lithora is the second main region in Lunarium and the place where the central mystery around Lune's "unknown mission" begins to feel less abstract. The developers built Lithora as a deliberately slow-paced temple crawl that trades the early Starfall Village's accessible mob fights for vertical platforming, hidden rooms full of Starfarer artifacts, and the first really challenging boss gauntlet in the campaign. Players who enjoy lore-heavy action-adventure games typically cite Lithora as their favourite region because of how dense the dialogue and environmental storytelling is here, while combat-focused players sometimes find it overstuffed with cutscenes.

The region's central thematic contrast is between the two kinds of knowledge you encounter: the formal, archivised memory preserved by the Lithora Archive order, and the older, more mysterious knowledge that Lune carries inside her own spells. Both kinds of knowledge are critical to the late-game ending branches, and missing either path locks you out of specific Cloak schematics and Memory Shard chains. Understanding the difference between the two early on is one of the highest-leverage decisions you can make during a first playthrough.

Lithora Geography and Layout

Lithora is significantly larger than Starfall Village. The region is laid out as a multi-tiered temple complex built into the side of a mountain, with a central courtyard at the lowest level, three side wings branching off the courtyard, and a high altar at the top that is reachable only by unlocking all three wings. Each wing has its own visual identity: the eastern wing focuses on Solar magic, the western wing on Lunar magic, and the central spire on Astral (combined) magic. Players who progress through the wings in any order will reach the high altar eventually, but the order in which you clear them influences which Cloak schematic you unlock first.

The geography breaks down into the following exploration zones. The table summarises the order in which most first-time players encounter each zone and what it teaches you about the broader game systems. Players who read the in-game map carefully will notice that the eastern and western wings both contain a hidden staircase that connects them, which the developers placed as an alternative to the long central route for replays and speedruns.

Central Courtyard and the Steward

The Central Courtyard is the most narratively important part of Lithora because it is where Steward Yora greets you. Yora is the head of the surviving Archive order and serves as the de facto quest-giver for the entire region. According to the official Steam description, the Lithora Archive is what remains of the original Starfarer research institution that founded Lunarium's scholarly tradition [Source: store.steampowered.com]. Yora is one of the few NPCs in the game who knows enough about the Starfarer legacy to ask Lune direct questions about her past, and the resulting dialogue branches vary based on whether Ave or Lune speaks first.

Yora's role in combat is minimal—she never picks up a weapon—but her role in routing you through the temple is essential. Most first-time players underestimate how much the courtyard dialogue affects the pacing of the rest of the region. Talking to Yora at length before clearing any of the wings unlocks a free Cloak repair token that you would otherwise have to purchase from the regional quartermaster. Skipping this step costs you a meaningful amount of Starlight over the course of the campaign.

Eastern Solar Wing and the Sun-Cantor

The Eastern Solar Wing is the simpler of the two main temple areas, with relatively short platforming sections and enemies that emphasise dodge timing. The Sun-Cantor Adel at the wing entrance teaches you how Solar magic interacts with the environment—specifically, that Solar spells ignite certain plant-based obstacles to open new paths. Players who rush the wing often overlook this because the lighting in this wing makes the ignitable plants hard to spot at first glance.

Completing the Eastern Solar Wing unlocks the Cloak of Forge schematic. According to community testing, this Cloak is the second-most popular endgame choice because it converts every successful parry into bonus healing, which compounds the survivability of a parry-focused playstyle. The schematic is technically also available later in the campaign from a different source, but the Lithora version is the earliest you can find it.

Western Lunar Wing and the Moon-Reader

The Western Lunar Wing is more puzzle-heavy than the eastern wing, with two large platforming rooms that require careful use of Lunar spells to slow the fall of magical platforms. The Moon-Reader Sael in this wing knows a different fragment of Starfarer history than Yora, which means that returning to her after completing the eastern wing unlocks additional dialogue options that were not available on your first visit. This design choice rewards thorough exploration in a way that feels organic rather than artificially gated.

Completing the Western Lunar Wing unlocks the Cloak of Mist schematic. The Cloak of Mist is the most defensive Cloak in the game, granting damage reduction during the parry window at the cost of slower offensive output. The Cloak of Mist pairs exceptionally well with the Iron embroidery for tanky playstyles, but it is also a strong choice for solo runs where you cannot rely on Lune's healing to bail you out of mistakes.

Upper Spire and the High Altar

The Upper Spire is where the eastern and western wings converge, and it is also where the developers placed the first major test of platforming skill combined with parry timing. The Spire contains a vertical climb interrupted by three mini-boss encounters, each of which emphasises a different defensive mechanic: dodge direction, parry timing, and staggers. Players who beat all three cleanly earn access to the High Altar.

The High Altar is the home of the Temple Guardian, the second of Lunarium's five main bosses. According to community testing, the Temple Guardian is the most demanding parry-driven boss in the entire game, because it chains three of the parry patterns from the First Trial into a single escalating sequence. Landing every parry in the sequence triggers a stagger that opens the boss to a massive damage window. Missing any parry in the chain resets the sequence, which means a single mistake can extend the fight by several minutes.

Lithora Archive NPCs and Their Roles

The Lithora Archive NPCs are the most dialogue-heavy cast in the game. Where Starfall Village has roughly half a dozen meaningful NPCs, Lithora has more than twenty, most of whom are accessible only if you explore every wing thoroughly. The following table covers the most important NPCs and what they offer.

Brother Iben and the Pilgrim's Path

Brother Iben is the most underrated NPC in the region. He runs a small alms station just outside the Central Courtyard and offers to trade you a Pilgrim's Path token if you bring him three Lunar incense items scattered through the Western Wing. Most first-time players skip this side chain because the trade feels minor, but the token unlocks a hidden staircase that bypasses roughly 20 minutes of platforming in the Upper Spire. On replays the staircase is the single most time-saving discovery in the entire region.

The chain also unlocks a Cloak cosmetic that is otherwise unavailable in the campaign. The cosmetic has no gameplay effect, but it is one of the few items in the game that is genuinely missable on a first playthrough, which is why speedrunners track it specifically. If you care about completionism, Brother Iben is the one NPC you should not skip.

The Wandering Starfarer Echo

The Wandering Starfarer Echo is the second of three Starfarer NPCs that appear across Lunarium's five regions, and the only one that is mandatory to interact with if you want to unlock the Lune's Starfarer understanding dialogue branch. The Echo does not give you a quest or even speak to you directly—it leaves behind a single Memory Shard that, when combined with the shards from Starfall Village and Fireleaves, triggers Lune's Act II flashback sequence.

Players who skip the Echo here will not lock themselves out of the late-game Ascension Ending, but they will lose access to two specific dialogue lines that explain why Lune specifically chose to partner with Ave rather than any other knight in Lunarium. For most players this is a minor loss, but for completionists it is a meaningful bit of character development that the developers intended you to find organically.

Combat Encounters in Lithora

Lithora introduces a wider variety of enemies than the starting region. Most of the new enemies focus on forcing you to make defensive choices under time pressure, which is why the region feels harder even when your level has not changed.

The Solar Sentinel Problem

The Solar Sentinel is one of the more frustrating enemies in the early game because it explicitly punishes the natural instinct to use magic against magical enemies. Hitting a Solar Sentinel with a Solar spell heals it rather than damages it, which is the developers' way of forcing you to use Ave's physical attacks instead of Lune's ranged magic. Players who insist on opening with magic will find these enemies almost unkillable until they adapt. Once you switch to Ave's sword, the Sentinels go down in roughly four to five hits.

This pattern is worth remembering for the rest of the game. Lunarium has a small handful of enemies that interact with magic in counter-intuitive ways, and the Solar Sentinel is the first place you learn that magic is not always the answer. Players who internalise this rule before the Fireleaves region will have a much smoother time when they reach the next set of puzzle bosses.

The Lunar Wraith's Teleport

The Lunar Wraith introduces the game's first true "two-phase" enemy. After taking one hit, the Wraith teleports to a random point within 15 meters of the player, which makes continuous melee combos ineffective. The Wraith also fires a tracking projectile roughly every four seconds, which you must parry to avoid taking damage. Players who try to chase the Wraith down typically eat the projectile, while players who learn to read the teleport animation can parry the projectile immediately on arrival.

The reward for defeating Lunar Wraiths is the Moonweave embroidery schematic, which is one of the strongest embroidery choices in the early game. According to community testing, Moonweave embroidery reduces incoming damage during a parry window by roughly 18 percent, which compounds multiplicatively with the Cloak of Mist's similar effect. Most players will use Moonweave on every Cloak they own for at least the first two regions.

Lithora Resources and the Cloak Economy

Lithora is where the Cloak system becomes truly strategic. The region features three schematic vendors—one for the Cloak of Forge, one for the Cloak of Mist, and one for a small handful of cosmetic Cloaks. Each vendor has a limited Starlight budget per playthrough, which means you cannot buy every Cloak available here without committing to specific farming routes. The Cloak economy is the developers' way of forcing you to choose between cosmetic variety and gameplay specialisation, which is a real choice for completionists and a trivial one for focused players.

The following table summarises the Cloak economy in Lithora and what each vendor offers.

Solar and Lunar Awakened Embroidery

The Solar Awakened and Lunar Awakened embroidery schematics are the most expensive single items in the entire Lithora economy. They are also the most powerful early-game embroidery options, which is why most players end up buying both on a first playthrough even though doing so leaves them short on Starlight for other items. If you are willing to commit to one Cloak philosophy (Solar or Lunar) and skip the cosmetic set entirely, you can save roughly 800 Starlight for a future region.

The Solar Awakened embroidery deals bonus damage after every successful parry, while the Lunar Awakened embroidery grants bonus healing after every successful parry. Both are roughly equivalent in raw power, but the Lunar Awakened embroidery is marginally better in solo play because it lets you top off between fights without consuming a healing item. Co-op players typically prefer Solar Awakened because the bonus damage compounds across the party.

Cloak Respec and Repair

Lithora is also where the Cloak respec fee first becomes non-trivial. Respec fees in Starfall Village are essentially free, but by Lithora they scale up to roughly 200 Starlight per slot, which is enough to make casual respeccing feel costly. Players who do not want to think about Cloak setups in advance typically waste Starlight they could have spent on other schematics. The most efficient approach is to commit to one Cloak configuration for the entire region and only respec once you have access to a Cloak schematic you actually want.

Cloak repairs are a separate mechanic that activates once your Cloak takes damage from environmental hazards. Lithora's Sun Wing has lava traps and the Lunar Wing has ice floors, both of which degrade Cloak durability over time. The Central Courtyard quartermaster offers a one-time repair per visit, and Brother Iben offers a free repair every three days of in-game time. Players who plan to spend a long time exploring the Upper Spire should stockpile repair tokens before crossing the threshold, because the Upper Spire's hazards degrade Cloaks roughly twice as fast as anywhere else in the region.

Exits and the Path Forward

The region ends at the High Altar, after which the standard path leads into Fireleaves and the optional path leads back into Starfall Village. Both paths are gated by Cloak schematic unlocks: the Fireleaves path requires the Cloak of Forge or Cloak of Mist to be equipped, and the Starfall Village return path requires at least one of the Awakened embroidery schematics. The optional path back to Starfall Village is mainly useful for players who want to revisit the village with their new Cloak setup, which is the only way to access the cosmetic reward there.

Preparing for Fireleaves

Players who approach Fireleaves without the Cloak of Forge equipped will find the region's fire-resistant enemies much harder than the developers intended. Spending five minutes in the Central Courtyard shop to pick up at least one Forge-schematic Cloak before leaving is genuinely worth the detour, because the Fireleaves region's first mini-boss is otherwise tuned to require a Cloak with at least level 4 fire resistance. Players who insist on running the Linen Cloak through Fireleaves typically find the mini-boss takes roughly three times longer to clear than for players who have properly equipped.

The transition into Fireleaves is also the moment when the developers introduce the Astral (combined Solar+Lunar) magic puzzles for the first time. These puzzles require the player to hold two magic types simultaneously, which is a control scheme that some players find fiddly at first. The developers added a small training dummy in the Lithora High Altar that teaches this combined-casting setup, but it is purely optional. Players who skip the dummy will still be able to clear Fireleaves, they will just take longer to internalise the control scheme.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Lithora worth exploring fully on a first run?

Yes. Lithora contains roughly a third of the optional Memory Shards in the entire game, and most of the Cloak schematics that speedrunners consider mandatory are found here. Players who rush through Lithora typically end up replaying the region later to mop up the cosmetic and schematic pickups they missed. A first run that takes two to three hours in Lithora will save you a replay that would otherwise take another hour.

Do I have to clear both the Eastern and Western Wings to reach the High Altar?

No, but you do need to clear at least two of the three wings to unlock the Upper Spire staircase. Players who clear only one wing and try to climb the Upper Spire through a hidden side path will reach the High Altar, but they will not earn the bonus reward at the top. The developers added the hidden side path as a quality-of-life feature for replays and accessibility-focused players, not as a substitute for thorough exploration.

What level should I be when I cross into Fireleaves?

The developers set Level 8 as the soft threshold for Fireleaves, but most combat-oriented players feel comfortable starting at Level 9. Magic-focused players running Lune-heavy setups can typically start at Level 8 because the region's puzzles reward magic mastery more than raw combat stats. Pure-parry players can sometimes cross at Level 7 if they have already purchased the Cloak of Forge schematic, because the Cloak's parry bonus scales independently of level.

Can I respec my Cloak embroidery choices after leaving Lithora?

Yes, but the respec fee increases significantly after you leave the region. The fee in Lithora is roughly 200 Starlight per slot, while the fee in Fireleaves is roughly 350 Starlight per slot, and the fee continues to scale upward in every subsequent region. Players who want to keep their Cloak setup flexible across multiple Cloak schematics should respec in Lithora whenever possible. The respec option is always available, so early-game mistakes remain very forgiving throughout the campaign.