Cult of the Lamb Guide - Get Started Building Your Following

Our Cult of the Lamb guides will tell you what you need to know to succeed and win in this action roguelike dungeon crawler.

Quicklinks: Cult of the Lamb Guides | Cult of the Lamb Starter Guide | F.A.Q.

Cult of the Lamb Guides

• Map and Locations Guide
• General Guides
  • Cooking Guide
  • Crafting Guide
  • Crown and Fleeces Guide
  • Curses Guide
  • Decorations Guide
  • Divine Inspiration and Building Guide
  • Doctrine Guide
  • Farming Guide
  • Fishing Guide
  • Followers Guide
  • Knucklebones Guide
  • Money-Making Guide
  • Quest Guide
  • Rituals Guide
  • Tarot Card Guide
  • Weapons Guide
• Boss Guides
  • Darkwood Bosses Guide
  • Anura Bosses Guide
  • Anchordeep Bosses Guide
  • Silk Cradle Bosses Guide

Cult of the Lamb Starter Guide

Our Cult of the Lamb Starter Guide will help you grasp the basics of the dungeon crawler and colony sim aspects of this game. Let's dive in!

Getting Started

Your adventure begins in a rather unfortunate situation -- you're the very last lamb alive and you've been captured by the forces of the four evil Bishops of the realm. The executioner's axe swings down on your head... and you find that you are not quite dead just yet.

A fifth dark god known as The One Who Waits has been imprisoned by his brethren and he implores you to help him -- he'll give you the power to fight, and in exchange, you will establish a cult in his name.

Onwards to the Cult

The titular Cult of the Lamb is hidden away in a grove that effectively serves as your base of operations. At first, you'll only have a single Follower and a handful of Buildings, but you'll soon expand your operation with some serious infrastructure.

Once you're in the Cult, you'll notice that there are a lot of trees, rocks, and berry bushes around. You can, if you wish, take the time to break them all down now, but you don't have to -- you can simply assign your Followers to do it while you're out adventuring in the world.

Regardless of what you choose, you're going to have to head out into the wider world -- it's time to head to Darkwood.

Enter Darkwood

Your first true Quest is "Blood of the Covenant." This will be your very first mission for the Cult. Fortunately, you have only a handful of objectives:

• Return to the Lands of the Old Faith
• Return with more Gold Coins
• Return with more Followers

You can complete all three of these objectives in a single run if you're lucky -- as long as you know what you're looking out for.

After you've completed the initial portions of the tutorial and indoctrinated your new Follower, head north of the Cult into the darkness. You'll enter an area with five portals and a large stone statue in the middle. Interact with the statue and you'll open up the first portal to Darkwood.

We'll get to Darkwood in just a moment -- first, we need to talk about Hearts.

How Hearts Work in Cult of the Lamb

There are four types of Hearts in Cult of the Lamb as shown in the image above. Each type of Heart behaves differently, and knowing how they work is key to survival.

• Red Hearts - Red Hearts represent your natural health. You will always have these and you'll start a run with these. These can be healed by collecting Red Heart pickups while adventuring in the dungeons.
• Temporary Red Hearts - Red Hearts with a yellow border will only last for the current run. However, they are treated as if they were normal Red Hearts and can be restored with Red Heart pickups.
• Blue Hearts - Blue Hearts are temporary health. Once depleted, they're gone for good and don't come back. These only last for the duration of the run.
• Diseased Hearts / Black Hearts - Diseased Hearts are also temporary health, but with a twist: taking damage to a Diseased Heart will cause damage to all enemies on the screen.

Entering Darkwood

Your first major task will be to do one complete run in Darkwood, earning Coins and bringing back Followers.

Coins can be earned simply by clearing rooms -- you'll get a handful from each Chest you open. Followers can be found in certain locations on the map or by defeating Bosses.

Equipping Your Weapon

You'll be provided with a random weapon every time you start a new run. Unfortunately, you don't have a choice in the matter -- the weapon you get will be truly random, and you might find that it's something you don't like.

Feel free to experiment and see which weapons you like. You'll be able to return back to the Cult at will after you beat the first boss; for now, you'll have to tough it out with whatever weapon you're provided.

Fortunately, you're not entirely stuck with what you have -- you may be able to pick up a new weapon in one of the rooms as a random event. As you'll see in our Cult of the Lamb Guides, randomness is a huge factor in the game, so you better get used to it.

Exploring Darkwood

Your first run in Darkwood will be like an extension of the tutorial -- you'll move from room to room, clearing out enemies and gathering loot.

Take care to chop down every single piece of Grass in every room. Grass is a useful resource and you'll want to get as much as you can whenever you can.

Your First Tarot Card

One of the rooms you'll encounter features a bird cloaked in red. This is Clauneck, and he's going to be one of your very best friends.

Tarot Cards are temporary buffs that will last for an entire run. They may give you extra Hearts, new abilities, or other benefits that will make your runs easier. While you'll typically get them from Clauneck in one of the rooms, you can also find Tarot Cards in chests and other special rooms.

Clear out the entire first area and you'll get a Chest. Once that's done, you'll have to walk through a portal to continue.

Navigating the Map

With the first zone completed, you'll come upon a portal and a map.

This map shows the route that you will take to get to the boss. You can only travel along the lines and you can't go backward, so you're going to miss some of the areas on your way to the boss at the end of the dungeon.

Select whichever route makes the most sense and proceed toward the boss.

Fighting Your First Boss - Amdusias

Eventually, you'll reach your first boss - Amdusias. Thankfully, Amdusias has relatively simple attack patterns:

• Amdusias will charge at you.
• Amdusias will summon enemies to help him.
• Amdusias will shoot projectiles into the air like artillery.

Defeat Amdusias by doing damage when you can and dodging his attacks. Once defeated, you can Convert him and teleport him to your cult.

Next, you'll have the choice between three random rewards. Pick whichever is most appealing to you. Once you've made your selection, a large Chest will spawn and you'll gain a bunch of Coins.

Proceeding to the next room will reveal a locked door with a circle around it. One quarter of the circle will fill in -- you will have to complete two more runs before you'll be able to challenge Leshy, the Bishop of Darkwood.

Returning to the Cult

Use the pentagram circle to return to the Cult. You'll get a post-run summary showing all of the goodies you've earned.

The One Who Waits will give you a short pep talk. After that, he'll punt you back into the mortal realm and you'll end up back at the Cult.

Amdusias will appear in the small circle at the center right of the Cult. You can Indoctrinate him and put him to work. Then, Ratau will instruct you to build a Shrine

The Shrine and Devotion

The Shrine is... well, it's a shrine. Your Followers will pray here if instructed to do so, generating Devotion that can be used to unlock Buildings.

Interact with the Shrine and you'll be able to collect Devotion and use a Divine Inspiration to unlock your next Building: the Temple.

Don't Build the Temple Just Yet

The Temple is arguably the center of your Cult. It can be used for Sermons, Rituals, deciding Doctrine, improving the Red Crown and your Fleece,

Do not build the Temple just yet. Once it's built, it will activate the Faith mechanic. Instead, you can take the time to clear land, gain resources like Wood and Stone, and unlock a few Buildings.

Regardless of what you decide, you'll have to build the Temple eventually and hold your first Sermon.

Your First Sermon

With the Temple open, you can now hold your first Sermon. This accomplishes two things:

• Builds up Faith in your Followers
• Draw Power from your Followers to unlock new Weapons and Curses.

You will then be told that you'll have to get Commandment Stone Fragments -- it's time to head back into Darkwood.

Curses and Fervour

Return to Darkwood and begin your run as usual. A few rooms in, Ratau will visit you and give you the power of Curses.

Curses are your ranged ability and they have much more variety than melee weapons.

With the addition of Curses, your arsenal is now complete (more or less). Continue to battle onward.

Commandment Stone Fragments

As you progress through your second run, you'll eventually come across a mysterious creature and some busted rocks. These stones are Commandment Stone Fragments.

3 Commandment Stone Fragments are needed to declare a Doctrine, a powerful passive buff for your Cult. These buffs can be genuine game changers, so consider your choices carefully -- check out our Doctrine Guide to see which choices you should make when the time comes.

Continue moving onward and you'll face another boss. Win this battle if you can, then return home.

He's a Mind Reader

Upon killing your second boss, The One Who Waits will give you the "Read Mind" Follower Command.

Mind Reader allows you to see the status of individual Followers and allow you to address their needs. It's very useful and costs nothing to do it, so use it liberally.

Declaring Doctrine

Once you get back home, Ratau will advise you to go into the temple and declare a Doctrine. Your first Doctrine will automatically be chosen and grant you access to the Bonfire Ritual, a secondary way to boost Faith in your Cult.

Unfortunately, the Bonfire Ritual requires Bones, so you'll have to head back into Darkforest...

Your Adventure Continues

The game is fairly straightforward from here. You'll have to gain more Followers while keeping your current ones housed, fed, and faithful. Make sure that everyone has a Bed, you have enough Food, and you regularly perform Sermons and Rituals.

You still have a fair few Quests ahead -- check out our Quest Guide for more info on what to do there.

There's a world of difference between caring for a couple of Cult members and having 10, 15, or 20 Followers. You'll need to figure out Farming and you'll probably want to supplement your Food income with Fishing, too.

You still have a lot more to explore -- check out our other Cult of the Lamb Guides to learn more about this game. Good luck and have fun!

Length to Beat Cult of the Lamb

It will take approximately 25-30 hours to beat Cult of the Lamb on Normal Difficulty.

How Do You Heal in Cult of the Lamb?

You can heal in Cult of the Lamb by finding Hearts in treasure chests, using Demons with healing abilities, acquiring Tarot cards, or visiting special locations on the dungeon map.

Cult of the Lamb Death Result

You're "Martyred" and are returned to the Cult. You'll lose 25% of the items that you acquired on the run and your Cult will lose 10 Faith for your perceived weakness.

Cult of the Lamb Save Location

You'll find your save here: %USERPROFILE% \AppData\LocalLow\Massive Monster\Cult Of The Lamb\saves\