Hello, you filthy little lambs. Are you looking for tips on how to satisfy the mangey little runts that have fled ritual sacrifice to live under your adorable and potentially vicious rule in Cult of the Lamb? Well, you’ve come to the right place.
Cult of the Lamb is out now, available to all those who wish to lead. If you haven’t had the chance to check it out yet, maybe give my review a little looksie. If you’re looking to go in completely blind (don’t worry, my review isn’t very spoiler-heavy), I’d recommend giving the demo a red hot go, and if you like it, buy the full game. If you’ve found that my tastes align with yours, this is a game you’ll enjoy.
As a big freakin’ fan of the game and someone that I personally believe has done a pretty good job managing a 20-creature cult, I believe that I have some helpful tips that might be of use to those wanting a cult that isn’t just a bit shit. Just my opinion!
So here you go, little lamb. Here’s some sage advice from a Ratau-like being on what to aim for when building your cult. Mind you, there is no wrong way to play the game. You can be whatever kind of cult leader you like. However, these are the things that I found that made it a most pleasant experience.
Must-have structures
You will have to build many structures through your time in Cult of the Lamb. They can all be unlocked through the Shrine’s upgrades via your flock worshiping at the shrine and accruing Devotion. These are a few tips for buildings in Cult of the Lamb that I found were very helpful.
Health Station
Whether you like it or not, there’s a good chance your followers are going to get sick. It may be from the horrible garbage you feed them, or the terrible state the Cult has been left in. Hey, it might even be at the hands of a baddie. While you can simply send them to bed to red, this just won’t do if you’ve got a schedule to adhere to. The health station allows you to cure sick followers using flowers that you find in the Darkwood, which can also be grown on the farm. Very helpful!
Lumberyards and Mines
When you begin your cult, there’s going to be a whole lot of trees and rocks to get through to start yourself off. Unfortunately, these take a while to come back so unless you’re regularly choosing the wood or stone options in dungeons, building a good few lumberyards and mines will help you keep the goods flowing. Upgrading these will also help to get even more wood and stone.
Outhouse and Janitor’s Station
The reality of life is that you shit, and sometimes you spew. Sad, but true. Your followers do it too, because it’s only natural, baby. While it is unfortunately legal for a bear to shit in the woods, it can be a bit of a pain running around the place and cleaning it all up. The outhouse is a solid addition to the cult, and helps keep the place tidy as well as focuses all the dookie into one area. Just remember to clean it out often or it’ll get full and stinky!
The Janitor’s Station is also a great addition to avoid uncleanliness and eventual sickness in your flock, as it gives them the tools to clean up after themselves so you don’t have to. A good cult is a tidy one!
Refineries
The further along you go in Cult of the Lamb, the more stuff you’re going to need. Eventually, the better structures won’t use wood and stone, but instead planks and bricks. And then, even more eventually, you’ll need a few gold bricks here and there. Having multiple refineries going means that you can go ahead and keep the planks, bricks, and gold bricks flowing. Upgrading these bad boys also means you’ll have more space to make more resources. Good stuff!
Compost Bin
This one’s entirely optional, but if you find that your flock is simply not shitting enough, a Compost Bin is a great structure to get your hands on. In your travels, you are going to get a LOT of grass. So much grass. While you can feed your followers grass (it will make them sick), the compost bin allows you to turn the grass into fertiliser, which will then result in a plentiful harvest for your farm crops. Fertilized crops result in more food and seeds, so make sure to fertilize!
Take advantage of rituals
One of the most important tips for success in Cult of the Lamb: Rituals are vital, and help a lot when keeping your cult happy and obsessed with you. More rituals can be obtained through performing sermons and upping your faith level, and are divvied up into 5 different categories relating to how they affect your flock. These are my top 3 rituals, and here’s why:
- Ascend Follower Ritual – Early on, The One Who Waits will give you the Sacrifice Follower Ritual. This allows you to kick a follower to the curb to make yourself stronger. While you can do this, sometimes it will make your flock dislike you and sometimes even make followers dissent. I’ve found that another ritual, the Ascend Follower Ritual, is a lighter version of the Sacrifice Follower Ritual, and instead sends your follower to the heavens. Sure, you don’t get any Follower Meat from it and the power bonus is a little smaller, but there’s no negative Faith and it’s a lot nicer.
- Funeral – Followers die. They might get sick and die, they might grow old and die, or you might murder them. That’s life! While you can simply harvest them for meat or throw them in an unmarked grave, the Funeral Ritual allows for your and your flock to mourn for a deceased follower, and adds flowers to their grave. As well as this, any follower that has had a funeral will enable their grave to be mourned by cult members, which results in extra devotion.
- Feasting Ritual – Sometimes you don’t have food, and your followers are starving. While there is the option for a ritual where your flock will fast for a few days and be fine, I quite like the feasting ritual as it only requires bones collected from dungeons to do, and results in a grand feast where everybody’s bellies are filled and faith is raised a significant amount.
Ritual Buffs
While upgrading your cult through the main shrine, you can unlock all sorts of structures. However, the only two upgrades that aren’t related to structures also happen to be the most useful upgrades you can get. I highly suggest getting Cheaper Rituals and Ritual Cool Downs as soon as possible, as the former slashes the resource price of rituals in half and the latter shortens the cooldown time of rituals, meaning you can do them more often. As mentioned prior, rituals are vital to running a healthy and happy cult, so making them easier to access is a good thing to do.
Talk to your flock
What’s more important than a cult full of stuff? The followers that live in it, of course!
One of my last tips for Cult of the Lamb: talking to your followers, blessing them, inspiring them, and completing their quests will help you get through the game swimmingly. Leveling followers up results in more Devotion and stronger level companions if you choose to take them with you in your crusades, and completing their quests will result in Devotion and Faith boosts. When the time comes for them to pass on, Sacrificing or Ascending a high-level follower will result in greater rewards.
Also, they’re there to devote their lives to you! Give them a gift every so often, they’ll thank you for it.
Those are my tips for gitting gud in Cult of the Lamb and having a big, juicy, and thriving cult. Feel free to drop your personal tips in the comments below!
Cult of the Lamb is out now on PlayStation and Xbox platforms, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PC. Find out more at its official site.