The Moon
As of 1.9, the moon phases have been implemented as a world event, not a retexture. The moon functions on a “days passed” system, where after a (currently unknown) condition is met, it will start to cycle through 8 phases. Each phase can be attributed to one of 7 in-game days passing.
Any event that resets the time, such as changing the time to night or day, will reset the day counter and subsequently the moon phase. The full cycle takes 7 in game days, but upon surviving the 7th night, the 8th day will return to the start of the cycle and it will keep repeating until the counter is reset.
In the 1.8 version of the mod, The Broken End was a common spawn during the 8th phase. However, as of 1.9, it is unconfirmed whether this behaviour is the same.
Moon phases
Phase 1- Day 0
The moon seems to have a spot of corruption on it, almost like something has latched on to it or is spreading from the inside.
Aside from visual changes, this phase has little effect on game mechanics. Players will be able to sleep as normal, and no significant increase in entity spawns has been observed.
Phase 2- Day 1
The moon appears to be glitching or partially broken, with the black corruption from the previous phase overtaking more area and starting to grow into small tendrils.
Aside from visual changes, this phase has little effect on game mechanics. Players will be able to sleep as normal, and no significant increase in entity spawns has been observed.
Phase 3- Day 2
The moon appears to be entirely broken, with the corrupted mass starting to spread further and grow larger. When zoomed in, it is possible to see a small, dim red speck near the centre of the mass.
While players can still sleep as normal, a slight increase in random events, structure spawns, and entity spawns has been observed.
Phase 4- Day 3
The moon is completely gone, replaced by a web of black tendrils in the sky.
While players can still sleep as normal, a slight increase in random events, structure spawns, and entity spawns has been observed. Some players have reported seeing Faraway more frequently- starting at this phase and continuing for the rest of the cycle.
Phase 5- Day 4
While mostly resembling the night before, the mass has expanded slightly- with a couple more thick tendrils and a larger centre, within which a bright red dot is present, accompanied by another dim speck on its left.
While players can still sleep as normal, a moderate increase in random events, structure spawns, and entity spawns has been observed.
Phase 6- Day 5
There is nothing in the sky except the stars.
While players can still sleep as normal, a moderate increase in random events, structure spawns, and entity spawns has been observed.
Phase 7- Day 6
The mass is back, with smaller gaps between the tendrils and now sporting a multitude of small red “eyes”, looking almost like something infested.
Players will no longer be able to sleep, with any attempts resulting in an err.themoon popup. err.soul is also common during this phase, as r2 has been observed to spawn frequently alongside Sub Anomaly 1 and Faraway.
Phase 8- Day 7
The tendrils seem to have agglomerated into one large mass with 4 distinct eyes, bearing a striking resemblance to the eyes of Integrity and The Broken End in their enraged states.
Players will no longer be able to sleep, with any attempts resulting in an err.themoon popup. err.soul is also common during this phase, as r2 has been observed to spawn frequently alongside Sub Anomaly 1 and Faraway. Rarer entities, such as Circuit’s deceiver form, have also been observed to spawn more consistently during this phase.
Gallery
The moon’s first phase.
The moon’s second phase.
The moon’s third phase.
The moon’s fourth phase.
The moon’s fifth phase.
The moon’s sixth phase.
The moon’s seventh phase.
The moon’s eighth phase.
All of 1.9’s moon phases.
Another set of moon phases, seemingly unused.
The old moon phase textures from 1.8.