If you’ve been playing COCOON, you may have wandered off the path a few times and found something called a Moon Ancestor. These guys are the only really hidden things in the entire game, with the rest of the puzzles and exploration contributing directly to progression. However, these guys can be hard to find, usually tucked away in corners.
These creatures are really satisfying to collect, but many are found in corners or paths obscured by walls, behind some puzzles, or take quite a bit of thinking to find out.
That’s what this guide is here for; I’ll be going through every single one, giving you the % to load back to if you want to find them after having finished the game, and helping you out with these lunar forefathers.
Bottom Line Up-Front
The Moon Ancestors can all be found near black goop that takes the form of floating orbs. If you see a path covered with little dots of black goo, then you should know you’re right on track to get one of the eleven Moon Ancestors that are spread throughout all of COCOON.
What do Moon Ancestors do?
To be frank, almost nothing. Moon Ancestors are pretty much just for bragging rights. Nothing changes if you get them, aside from getting the equivalent of a trophy room near the end of the game (but don’t panic when that trophy room isn’t complete by the first time you get there; you can’t get all of them before getting there for the first time).
The main reason to go for them is that they take up eleven of the game’s seventeen achievements, and the other six achievements are earned for defeating bosses and just playing through the game normally, so this is essentially an all-achievements guide unless you’re on Switch and don’t have achievements, in which case, consider your decisions.
Moon Ancestor Locations
All of the Moon Ancestors are pretty spread out through every world in COCOON, with some being close by and others being long stretches apart. For that reason, I’ll give you the % to choose when pressing load so that you can quickly go back and grab one that you missed or know when one’s coming up if you’re getting these as you play through the game.
Off the Beaten Path
- Load Percent: 14%
Either head up using the crane or head down from the boss arena; right after the crane section that got you up to this height, go left amidst the black spherical flowers atop giant stone pillars. Continue down this road until you find the first Moon Ancestor, which you can release by interacting with the big symbol on the ground near it.
Mariner’s Branch
- Load Percent: 24%
After you’ve acquired your little robot scout to help you through the bog, take a left on the invisible bridge you’ll cross when it lowers the barrier. Follow this route, and don’t bother with the rightmost staircase; there’s nothing there. Head all the way up the left staircase, then interact with the symbol once again to release another Moon Ancestor.
Mesh Network
- Load Percent: 27%
After having your scout in the swamp merge into the container and open the big door for you, turn the rotating piece of the invisible bridge so it connects the West and South, letting you go on the bridge and head down, which will take you all the way to the right.
After all that, it’s simply a short walk through the forest of trees (that looks kind of like a weird rubber dog toy) up to the pedestal where you can get your Moon Ancestor.
End of the Line
- Load Percent: 33%
After finishing the swamp, you’ll have to use your new orb to create platforms out of mystical thin air, swapping their state from solid to transparent.
Using your new ball, get to the top of a ledge where the background changes (or head directly to the left of where selecting 33% lands you), use the orb two more times and descend a staircase, then walk down and to the right for another Moon Ancestor.
Skin Deep
- Load Percent: 46%
When you’re in the purple orb, after getting off the dual-orb-powered hoverbike, walk over to the rightmost section that requires the orange ball and its ability to manifest invisible platforms.
Once you’ve gotten off those bridges, and you’re in a pretty large open area, head south across a precarious bridge that looks like it’s made of bones, covered in the black goo stuff as per usual.
This is the first one that requires a puzzle to actually unlock the Moon Ancestor.
All you need to do is head further in this part of the level until you get a robot that carries an orb for you, take it back to the Moon Ancestor puzzle, then get it to stand on one of the buttons and take the ball from it, then stand on the other button yourself to bring a bridge to the Moon Ancestor, where you can finally release it.
Different Destinations
- Load Percent: 54%
Once you’re at the massive section of interwoven pathways right before the boss fight with the hexagon alien, go all the way to the rightmost part of this structure, where you’ll find a path obscured by a big spherical archway with our favorite globs of black goop on it. After you’ve navigated your way there, this one is entirely free.
Conduit
- Load Percent: 63%
Once you’ve gotten all three orbs in a circle and are ready to take on all their challenges, take the orange one and head left, bounce across platforms, and go through the winding path of bridges; you don’t have to take any unique route just yet. Once you’re on the ground in the orange-tinted area, head down and into a pipe.
From here, head further down and to the left, where you’ll spot some of our favorite goopy black spherical stuff. You’ll have to find the platform to place your orb near the bottom-leftmost part of this map, then use that to ascend up some stairs and press the button to free yet another Moon Ancestor.
Cryptographer
- Load Percent: 81%
After going through two bosses and a ton of puzzles that somehow had no secrets attached to them, you’ll end up in a significant new location because of the shadow beast that led you here, with only the green and white orbs in tow. Set your green ball on the warp platform, and set the white one on the rightmost pedestal so it starts shooting at the green sphere.
Once you head inside the green orb, the shots will fly into it, activating a crystal that activates a platform, letting you cross a gap. Do the second puzzle as usual, then head up and to the right on the next island, where you’ll find the entrance to an area covered in the goop. Bring the white orb into the swamp and up there with you because it’s puzzle time.
Four crystals appear when you stand on the glowing spot, but shooting them normally doesn’t do anything. Listen to the pitch they give off whenever you hit them; each one gives off a consistent one each time, so if you shoot up, down, left, then right, it’ll go from lowest to highest, solving the puzzle and letting you free the Moon Ancestor.
The Space Between the Stars
- Load Percent: 84%
After returning your orange orb from the mysterious, dark, and imposing cryptid challenging you to laser tennis, progress through the orange ball using your white one. After going across a gap with a floating platform, swap the white for the green and use it to go directly above the warp platform, where you’ll easily find the next Moon Ancestor.
A Perspective on Things
- Load Percent: 86%
Now that you’ve got both of your orbs inside the orange one, and you’ve flown across a large gap using them, open the inter-dimensional gateway using them, but don’t go in just yet. Pick up the white orb and take it to the leftmost part of this area; here, you can put it on a moving platform and press the button to move it to the other side.
Now go through that gateway you just opened, head to the left, and find your way to one of those things on the ground that usually send you out of an orb. Hop through it, and you’ll end up at the white ball you just moved across a gap. Go directly up from here, across quite a few stony bridges, and wake up yet another Moon Ancestor.
Loophole Maneuvers
- Load Percent: 97%
It’s been a while. You’ve gotten two orbs back and beat a shadow monster to death with laser tennis, already seen the room with all the other ancestors, and now it’s time for that final Moon Ancestor. In the green orb, solve the musical shapes puzzle to get your little drone friend by your side, then go back across the moving ethereal platforms; we’ll need him.
Head up to the diamond that coats the little guy in amber, and let him get caught so you can place the green orb on the pedestal up above. Release him from the amber and head to the warp pad to get flung back to the ball, the little guy in tow.
After that, place the orb in the slightly concealed hopper and tube behind the wall on the platform you’ve found yourself on.
Once again, head back to the warp pad, making sure to retrieve your little drone from the amber yet again, pick your orb back up, and grab this final Moon Ancestor. From here, you can walk down the mountain using the slightly obscured path to your right and use the jump pad to get flung all the way back to the mainland.
Questions and Answers
Question: What do Moon Ancestors do in COCOON?
Answer: Moon Ancestors only serve to be collectibles to find throughout the worlds in the game; they’ll show up in a trophy room at the end and give you achievements but won’t do much else.
Question: Do I Need Moon Ancestors for the True Ending in COCOON?
Answer: Despite the game showing you your progress on collecting them right before the very end, the Moon Ancestors are not required at all, and the ending is the same no matter how many you’ve collected.
Question: How do I See which Moon Ancestors I’m Missing in COCOON?
Answer: Going to the room right before the end of the game will show you statues of all the Moon Ancestors; these are in order and show which ones you do or don’t have and in which part of the game. The boss statues tell you where they are.
Conclusion
Though I wish they served a greater purpose than just being achievements and some bragging rights, the Moon Ancestors in COCOON were an enjoyable challenge, despite some being much easier than others. If you’re hopping on the game now, I’d recommend trying to find all of them, even if it doesn’t give you much.
I will say, though, some of these were really not too easy to find. Namely, the 3rd and 8th ones are pretty obscured and take a bunch of exploration and brain power to find. At the end of the day, they are just living trophies, but I do think it’s cool that I’ve got another game under my belt with 100% achievement progress.
Continue reading:
Mineko’s Night Market Artifacts Guide – All Artifacts & Machine Parts
Mineko’s Night Market Guide – Liberate the Cats
- How to Unlock Every Character in Risk of Rain Returns - December 1, 2023
- Inscryption Developer Announces New Game Ahead of the Game Awards - December 1, 2023
- PS Plus December Adds Indie Open World Adventure Sable - December 1, 2023