Cult of the Lamb delivers plenty of high-octane action across its various regions, throwing numerous baddies and bosses at you in order to thwart each run you make. But there’s a ton of different mechanics to keep track of during your run, let alone having an entire village of followers to keep alive, healthy and believing in your every word. So allow this cult leader to provide a few quick tips and tricks to get you passed the first few days of lamb life.
FIND THOSE RESOURCES EARLY
As with any kind of farming or life simulator, resources are invaluable in terms of creating new buildings, repairing damaged ones or just generally prettying things up around your village. This is where the first few runs (or crusades, as the game calls them) can become vitally important to give you a leg up early on.
You’ll get to choose your pathway across each crusade as you go, allowing you to either venture towards a new villager to rescue, resources to mine or upgrades to your weapons. The most obvious tip, then, is to choose a path that includes either rocks or trees, allowing a healthy dose to your totals to keep things running smoothly when you have only a small handful of followers back home.
Better still, you won’t have to rely on your villagers digging or chopping everything around town early on, which can dry up very quickly when you’re establishing your domain.
Be good to your town and it will be good to you
THE MORE FOLLOWERS PRAISING YOU, THE BETTER
With a couple of crusades under your belt, you should have a small handful of villagers waiting on your every command. If you put some of those runs into resource gathering first, it can leave a lot of said followers without a job. That’s not a bad thing, as you can direct them to praise you instead. Once you unlock the ability to build a large statue of your lamb leader at the heart of town, set as many followers as you can to praise it over time and you’ll quickly level up your village skill tree, allowing you to unlock important upgrades including farms and beds for your clan.
Over time, you’ll want to keep a healthy dose of followers camped around the statue, because the sooner you can make an Outhouse the better. Speaking of which…
UNLOCK THESE BUILDINGS ASAP
It’ll take a little time and plenty of praise to unlock some of the most important buildings that will help keep things ticking along, but you would do best to focus your efforts on a few key buildings first.
Besides the aforementioned Outhouse, which will lower the likelihood of finding poop out in the open, Lumberyards and Mines will provide a constant source of wood and rocks (though be wary, they will eventually empty and will have to be rebuilt). You’ll also want a Refinery in order to turn wood into planks and rocks into bricks, two key resources early on to build some of the best structures.
Farms will allow you to plant fruits and vegetables that grow slowly over time, but a Silo will allow you to store seeds that villagers can auto plant once the farm is ready to be harvested. Finally, a Janitor’s Station will empty out Outhouses and keep things neat and tidy around town, too, though you can spend an evening whilst your town rests to clean up yourself if you choose to save the resources.
Ultimately, anything that will make life around town easier is what you should focus on first, before going knee deep into turning followers into monsters, or worse.
USE YOUR FIRST HEART WISELY
If you manage to get through to the first prophet and clean them up, you’ll be rewarded with its heart. These can then be traded to unlock various highly powerful upgrades, but your first should be used to unlock a unique talent that allows you to teleport back to your village from anywhere during a crusade.
Once you defeat your first prophet, you can return to Darkwood and go further in to unlock greater rewards (as with all the other areas over time). Stay too long, however, and the village might fall into ruin or worse. So the ability to leave at any time is a handy bonus to ensure you’re not gone for too long without leaving anything behind.
Spend that first heart wisely
SERMONS AREN’T JUST FOR SHOW
Eventually you’ll get the opportunity to perform sermons just like a real cult leader would. These aren’t for fun either, as you can complete a sermon once a day to receive love from your gathered followers which in-turn unlocks unique upgrades for your little lamb. If you time it right, you’ll be able to perform a Sermon once before a Crusade, so take advantage of that and give your little lamb a greater chance at survival.
DON’T WORRY ABOUT DYING
The best kinds of roguelikes are the ones that don’t punish you for dying, and thankfully Cult of the Lamb does just that. With a village to support, you won’t lose everything you find if you get pushed past your limits, just a small amount will be left behind. That means you can comfortably get used to the mechanics and upgrade a few things over time without any pressure to perform. So don’t panic if you die a lot early on, you’re still making progress elsewhere that will help you improve things around home.
CHAT TO YOUR FOLLOWERS
The last tip is the easiest. Your villagers are just as important a resource as logs or food, but simply chatting to them each day can be just as valuable. They’ll provide you with extra quests that are largely easy to complete, can be praised which can help level them up faster which in turn increasing their devotion or dedication to the cause, and can be gifted items that can buff some of their stats.
Side note, whenever you do get a new follower within your clan, take a close look at their stats. Each one will have positive or negative effects attached to them, and it’s wise to be aware of their nature so you can either avoid upsetting them or provide enough praise or gits to negate certain effects.
