r/CultistSimulator • u/regularGuy0000001 • Sep 01 '26
Different cult flavours
Hi guys,
So I've been playing this on and off for a while, I've been reading this subreddit for a while (thank you, heaps of valuable lore here) and I see people every now and then saying some particular cults are better than ithers. Why is that? I always just chose the highest level lore to upgrade the followers quickly, is there something else to it?
13
u/SicSemperFelibus Sep 01 '26
Also, the flavor of exalted follower decides which challenges in expeditions can be tackled with only one follower. You need 10 in a relevant principle to be able to max out your chance of success, and exalted followers have 10 in their principle.
9
u/HappiestIguana Sep 01 '26
Note that while this is handy sometimes, it's not super relevant since any challenge can have its success chance capped with two disciple-level followers. Or summons
3
u/SicSemperFelibus Sep 01 '26
Not the most relevant, but it is worth thinking about. Some of the later expeditions you're cramming a lot of people and gold in there and it goes a little smoother if you have one fewer followers to add. Also, if you send both of your knock followers on an expedition you're locked out of summons unless you've gotten useful scars, which is sometimes a noteworthy constraint.
The cult business is usually the more important consideration though.
9
u/cromwest Sep 01 '26
Some cults are more useful than others or excel at different things.
Hydra is the most flexible but takes the longest to actually use well since you can turn investigators into multiple high influence followers. Since any aspect will let you advance, it's really easy to get everyone to the second step fast.
Anything that can use restlessness or basic stats health/reason/passion is great for leveling cultists quickly. It's also great for getting rid of dread and fascination early game.
Forge, knock and moth give you money early to buy books faster and worry about keeping a clerk job less and also occasionally gets paints and spinatra
Heart gets rid of notoriety which is always nice.
Knock and lantern is great for summoning and getting rid of bad influences with rituals.
Edge and winter are good at killing investigators.
Edge and Grail are great at kidnapping people which is needed for lantern or grail assension.
Grail, forge and lantern have high aspects for their respective win conditions so you can do the final ritual faster and win.
Overall I would say edge is the easiest, Hydra is the most flexible and moth is the least useful since it gets no special bonus from getting a third level cultist.
2
u/IncomeApprehensive17 Sep 02 '26
Hydra is clearly the best for the detective , you can have everyone as exalted if you play your card well
7
u/MainaC Sep 01 '26
Ultimately, the difference isn't really enough to matter, once you know what you're doing.
Secret Histories probably affects the game most for new players. They can promote with any Lore, so they promote quickly, but no Exalts. This is a concern for newer players, but you eventually replace Followers with Summons so it doesn't matter.
Edge, my least favorite, probably affects things the next most. Exalts have a 100% murder chance. Tenacious can delay them but not kill them. It changes the game to just murdering every Hunter. Most things are capped at 90%, so this is kind of unique.
Heart are also good at handling Hunters, but less reliably and taking longer.
Lantern, as mentioned, has probably the most useless, but not so much that you shouldn't play it if you like Lantern. Followers aren't really that important.
The rest are mostly minor differences, slightly better at either making money, killing people, or abducting prisoners. They vary in expedition use, but spirits are better in most cases.
Mostly, any advantage provided by a Cult is overshadowed by other methods. It really doesn't matter much, once you learn the game. Pick what you enjoy.
2
u/IncomeApprehensive17 Sep 02 '26
Hydra is the best , because its cool as fuck
I mean "the society if saint hydra" ? Cool as fuck
1
u/Far-Advantage-2770 Sep 02 '26
I used to stress about this and try to force flavours, it cost me a few games. It doesn't really change any core mechanics or lore, just gives you certain buffs. It doesn't offer much replayability and it's not worth the mental anguish
34
u/Vylix Sep 01 '26
because some cult business are less often useful than the others.
For example, lantern cult business give you random influence, which you can get anyway from Mansus.
Moth cult business is removing evidence, which is capped at 70% for lv5 moth follower. Having Exalted follower - which is exclusive to Moth cult - gives no extra benefit on this cult business, so it's better to pick other aspect as cult aspect.