Story moons are Power Moons that must be collected to progress the story of a kingdom. Most kingdoms that are accessible before the game is completed have story moons; the ones that do not are Cap Kingdom, Cloud Kingdom, Lost Kingdom, and Moon Kingdom. All Multi Moons in kingdoms accessible before the game is completed are also story moons.

Completing the story of a kingdom and achieving kingdom peace requires collecting the last story moon, which usually also requires collecting all previous story moons. However, completing a kingdom's story is not strictly required to leave, except in the case of Bowser's Kingdom. Thus, the storylines of most kingdoms are not completed in Any% speedruns, unlike in speedruns that require it such as World Peace.