Starsand Island may look like a cute farming-themed social sim, but there’s something a little different lurking beneath the surface – literally. Taking its cues from the mines in Stardew Valley (an obvious inspiration for the newer game), Starsand features a whole second map that gives you access to the Moonlit Forest, a subterranean world presumably located underneath the day-to-day surface normality of the island.
Exploring Moonlit Forest is a gradual process that will take several in-game days even if you do your best to focus on it above all else. You’ll need to progress through both the Explorer and Crafter jobs to ensure that you have all the tools you need to continue pushing north through the Moonlit Forest map, and you’ll also need to complete some minor feats like puzzles, mini-boss fights, and repairs to allow you to open up new areas and keep exploring.
One particular sticking point is the Bronze Gate – a literal barrier to progress that you’ll encounter between the Mural Valley and Harvest Yard areas of Moonlit Forest. You need two keys in order to open this gate, and naturally, there’s no point in having two of the things if they’re stored together. Here’s where to find both Ruins Keys to open the Bronze Gate in Starsand Island.
Where to find the Ruins Keys in Starsand Island
The Ruins Keys in Starsand Island are marked (L) and (R) – left and right, of course – and are obtained in very different ways.
Zephyria, your Exploration mentor (and potential future spouse), holds one of them, and he’ll give it to you when you accept the Become an Intermediate Explorer quest from him as part of your progression through that particular job.
NOTE: Although Zephyria canonically possesses Ruins Key (L) and will refer to it as such in dialogue, the first key you obtain will always be the left-half. So if you’ve already found the chest containing the other key before activating the quest, Zephyria will actually send Ruins Key (R) to your inventory instead – don’t worry, you won’t end up soft-locked with two left keys if you do things a bit out of sequence!
The second key is within the Moonlit Forest itself, in a treasure chest between the Azure Bay and Mural Valley areas of the map, not too far from the Bronze Gate itself.
Head north from the Mural Valley camp and you’ll see a wooden platform elevator to your right. The elevator can get you back up to the higher levels of the forest if you fall down into the river valley below – which is good news, because that’s exactly what you need to do. (Don’t worry, Starsand Island doesn’t deal in fall damage, you’ll be fine.)
The chest containing the key (plus a few other resources) is just past the elevator’s base on the western side of the river, near some glowing blue flowers and a short distance from several coal mining nodes.
Once you have both keys, you can take the elevator back to the higher level and use them to open the Bronze Gate, which is opposite a bubble bridge that crosses the waterfall ravine a short distance north of the elevator just travelled up. Just be aware that doing so throws you right into a boss fight, however – you’re advised to have crafted a bow and some explosive arrows before taking this challenge on!
New to Starsand Island? Be sure to take a look at our tips to get you started, as well as our guide on how to make money fast.