Cultist Simulator guide - 9 tips that will bring your game to a new level

If you have no prior experience with the game, then let's start with the basics. The game offers no tutorials whatsoever, so it's important to know exactly how Cultist Simulator works if you want to have a good ol' relaxing playtime.

Firstly, know that each card has a specific action it can be played in. You start off with the Work action box and a work card named "Menial Employment" - double click the card and it will be automatically allocated into the available slot. Otherwise, if you have multiple cards, you can simply click on the empty box for each action, and the cards that can go in there will be highlighted.

After you add the card into its slot, you will have to press the Start button. Each card will take a specific time to complete, and that time will unfold in real-time - so if you see 10 seconds on the screen, that's exactly how long it will take.

The very first few things you need to focus on when starting the game is trying to increase the stats you have (which you can see at the bottom of the screen). These stats are Health, Reason and Passion, and then you also have Funds (your money/wealth). You can use the corresponding cards of these stats in one of the action slots, be it work or Study, to increase them.

In the Study option, you will also be able to combine multiple cards to receive a different upgraded one. For example, if you combine two specific cards, you will learn a Lesson from them, and if you combine two Lessons, you will obtain a Skill.

Notably, right from the start, you have a few action buttons where you can allocate your cards. These actions are:

• Work
• Time Passes
• Study
• Dream
• Explore
• Talk

There are a few more action buttons that might pop up, which will disappear after completing them. These can vary and can be anything from Starvation (when you have no money left and Time Passes), to Choose Founding Principles (which is the one you will get before starting a Cult) and random ones that can be triggered by various actions.

We recommend that you always check ahead and try to figure out what the best course of action is depending on what your goals are. In short, you should dream your "bad thoughts" away and always keep a rather positive approach, so that you never end up committing something bad. Oh, and trust me, there will be a bunch of these "bad" cards coming your way!

Take for example the Fascination card - it's a card that can be obtained by completing a large number of actions, such as painting with passion or reading certain books to name a few. Fascination is not a bad card in and of itself, but once you get a Fascination check, the game will automatically pull it (you can see the magnet next to the action button) and if it has pulled 3 of these cards, it will be Game Over. This is why each action has consequences...

You could try to remove such cards by either waiting for their timer to end (which is not always the safe choice), by using their countering cards to remove them, or by completing specific actions tailored for each of them.

Time Passes is the one action that will most likely result in the death of many, MANY new players (myself included). Time Passes will use 1 Gold per minute, and if you do not have the funds for this, it will instead deduct 1 point from your Health and give you 1 Hunger. That's why it is very important to have a well-paying job and to always be actually working (something).

Whenever you click on the Time Passes action, you will be able to see what card you will receive next and try to tailor your future actions based on that. Cultist Simulator involves a lot of strategising, so this is key to knowing what your next move should be.

Let's be honest - the game is not called Cultist Simulator for no reason. You can actually start your own cult in due time and with the right actions, but a cult is not something many people are fond of. There will be the occasional checking by the police, and you should obviously try to go undetected for as long as possible in order to avoid giving them Evidence - or even worse - Damning Evidence.

You should always try to hide all of your Mystique, Notoriety and anything else connecting to these. You can use these cards in the Painting action right before the detective starts snooping around, and usually, you'll be able to get them back right after they leave by collecting them before it's finished. Nice and simple!

The Pause button is located at the bottom right side of the screen and it could quite literally save your life in the game. Since everything unfolds in real-time, you will not be able to read through the lore of all the new cards that pop up if you don't pause, so you should do exactly that.

After some time playing the game, you will no longer have just a handful of cards to track. You will have an entire table full of them and many of them will also be timed - therefore, you need to make sure you pause, take a deep breath, and not rush any decisions you make.

You won't have to make decisions right away, but each decision you do make will influence the cult and end-game scenario you will end up with.

After you unlock several action buttons, you will need to start thinking about what the best cards to use in each slot will be. While you're taking your time to decide this, the clock will keep on ticking unless you pause. Of course, you also have the fast-forward button which could play an important role later on, but you shouldn't do that unless you absolutely 100% know what you're doing. It is a lot easier to lose the game by fast-forwarding for even a minute, so we strongly recommend not using it just yet.

Now that we're talking about the pause button, it would also be a good time to mention that some cards have a timer on them. You should always pay attention to these and either try to use them or discard them (as would be the case with the abovementioned Mystique or Notoriety) before they get you into trouble.

So, what to take from all this?

Long story short, you will not be able to manage everything in the long run without pausing. The Pause button will be your best friend, so use it wisely (or not wisely, use it carelessly), but use it a lot. You shouldn't let the game overwhelm you with all the decisions you have to make in real-time, so make them while the game's paused. Oh, and avoid using the fast-forward button until you're confident in your time management skills.

You can progress in the game and find out more interesting things by Studying the unique cards you get every now and then. You will receive new unique actions and cards by doing this, allowing you to further advance in the game. While we're at this, you should also try reading all the text that appears on these cards because it makes for a pretty fun and interesting read!

Whenever you read specific books, you'll also start receiving Lore Fragments, which correspond to each type of cult principle available out there. They are fun to read and will play an important role in the cult that you decide to have. These Lore Fragments can also be upgraded, and ultimately unlock some "dark and mysterious" features.

By now you can probably tell that there's no shortage of actions and interesting events happening in the game. Do you remember that we mentioned earlier how important your funds are? Well, you will need quite a lot after you unlock the Explore action because you will be able to Explore various shops along with some Funds, and by doing that, you can collect books - a lot of them!

These books that you collect can be studied and you will learn tons of new things from them: new languages, new skills, and overall a ton of new useful cards (depending on what book you're reading, of course).

Cultist Simulator tells you from the moment you start the game that you should expect a world of new things ahead of you, and that is exactly what you will get. While not all the cards fit into every action slot out there, you can try out specific ones to see what they do. The developers encourage that, since there are no two identical games unfolding, and everything is left to chance and then changed by every action you take. It's a unique experience based on the different actions you take.

You don't always see guides suggesting that you kill off your character, but our Cultist Simulator guide is slightly different. While you shouldn't off your character within the first 5 minutes of the game, you should try to go down a different route and go for something a little "crazy" - try to see what happens if you go without a job (or funds) for too long, get lots of negative thoughts and see how you can actually get them, and what the consequences are.

Trying out all of these different actions will not likely have a much-desired result, but will teach you exactly how far you can push your character before it's Game Over. It's better to get that out of the way early and to know what will happen than to be surprised that you went insane after reading too much "dark fiction".

Increasing your interpersonal relationships is another fun element in the game. In due time, you will be able to form bonds and even romantic relationships. You will then be able to slowly start building your cult and dropping all the knowledge bombs you've learned along your journey.

There will be a plethora of new options available once you set this in motion. Talking to your follower cult members will unlock new possibilities, and some rather odd ones at that too! You'll learn new languages, learn about new goals and jobs, and most importantly, each cult member will have an affinity towards a specific task.