Doctrine of the Service of the Lamb - Guide to Choosing the Best Doctrine (2023)

As the name suggests, the Afterlife Doctrine is all about what happens when your little animal friends pass on to the great afterlife. Here are your picks.

1A: Belief in sacrifice– Unlocks the Belief in Sacrifice trait. With this choice, each time you sacrifice a cultist, your cultists gain 20 faith.

1B: Belief in life after death –Unlocks the Belief in the Afterlife trait. With this trait, followers only lose 5 faith points when a cultist dies, instead of 20.

2A: Ritual of Resurrection –Allows you to perform a ritual where you bring a dead follower back to life.

2B: Funerals –Unlocks a ritual where you can perform funerals for the recently deceased and grants your followers 20 Faith.

3A: Respect your elders –All followers gain the Respect Your Elders trait and gain 5 Faith for each Elder in the cult.

3B: The good die young –All followers gain the Die Well Young trait and gain 10 Faith when an Elder is Sacrificed, Slain, or Consumed. But they lose faith when an elder dies of natural causes.

4A: Return to Earth –Unlocks the Natural Burial building. The corpses of the dead turn into feces that can be used as fertilizer.

4B: Mourning for the Fallen –Unlocks the Graves building. Gain 2 Faith when followers mourn in Graves.

Here are the best options for the afterlife doctrine:

1A:If you choose Sacrifice Faith, you can sacrifice followers without angering the rest of your cultists. Sacrificing high-level cultists is definitely the fastest way to gain power and unlock more powerful weapons and curses. While believing in an afterlife can be helpful, if you play it carefully and tend to their needs (and clean up feces and vomit, of course), your cultists shouldn't drop dead all the time.

2A:Resurrections are very useful late in the game because it's another way to quickly recruit a new follower, which you'll have to do for reasons I won't spoil. There are plenty of other ways to get Faith, so funerals are just an extra and don't offer a whole new mechanic to play with.

3B:The problem with old people is that they die. Of course, you can save them and get a lot of faith if you choose the Respect Your Elders trait, but you must sacrifice your cultists when they get old. They are of no use to you, so sacrifice them at the last moment and unlock better weapons with Only the Good Die Young.

4B:Look at your base. Look at it. There are feces everywhere. Do you really need more poop? The answer is no. Good Graves is a much better choice here because it makes Faith free with little effort and replenishes you lost Faith when someone inevitably dies.

This one is about your cultists' relationship with food. Let's dive into all the possibilities.

1A: Festival of Rituals –Unlocks the Feast ritual where you throw a big feast, restore Hunger and gain 25 Faith.

1B: Fixation Ritual –Perform a ritual in your temple to declare a fast. Followers will not eat or go hungry for three days.

2A: Kannibale -All followers gain the Cannibal trait and gain 5 Faith from eating the follower's flesh.

2B: Grassfresser -All pets gain the Grass Eater trait and no longer lose faith when eating a grass meal.

3A: Harvest Ritual –Perform a ritual in your temple that causes all planted seeds to be immediately ready for harvest.

3B: Ritual von Sea's Bounty -Perform a ritual that increases your chances of catching special fish. You also catch twice as many fish. It lasts two days.

4A: Encouraged Substances -All cult members gain the Encouraged Substances trait. Gain 20 Faith when performing the brainwashing ritual.

4B: Belief in Prohibitionism –Unlocks the Faith in Prohibitionism trait. Increases work speed and devotion by 10%, but followers have a 50% chance of getting sick after the brainwashing ritual.

Here are the best choices for your diet.

1A:While fasting may seem like a powerful tool, it also negatively affects your cultists' moods and can lead them to rebel. However, the feast increases faith and can still be used when people are starving.

2B:You will find much more grass than meat. Choosing Grass Eater gives you more options when food supplies are running low.

3B:Plants grow fast enough on their own, but fishing doctrine allows you to fish less for more. No hard nut.

4A:Encouraging Substances is the easy winner here. The brainwashing ritual, which you unlock by giving some mushrooms to a certain NPC, is a powerful tool that lets you do whatever you want while keeping your followers spellbound, with no consequences.

It's all about crime and punishment here - you know, the fun stuff. Let's dive.

1A: Punish sin –Unlocks the Follower Killer action. Other followers will be upset if they see you doing this, but you can always wait until everyone is asleep.

1B: Praise virtue –Perform a ritual in your temple that allows you to raise a devotee's spirit to a higher plane of existence. All followers gain loyalty.

2A: Ritualistic Battle Pit –Perform a ritual in your temple where two devotees fight to the death - unless you feel merciful...

2B: Weddings –Perform a ritual in your temple to be able to marry one of your followers. Gain 30 Faith.

3A: Belief in Original Sin –Everyone is born guilty. Reduced loss of faith when trapping a non-disagreeing follower.

3B: Absolution –Freedom above all. Every day that starts with no one in prison, you gain +10 faith.

4A: Executor Fiscal -Perform a ritual in your temple where you name a follower to be your overseer in charge of collecting gold from other cult members.

4B: Loyalty Executioner -Perform a ritual in your temple where you name a follower as your Loyalty Enforcer charged with patrolling the cult and increasing the loyalty of your followers.

Here are our favorites for the Law and Order tree.

1B:Killing a follower doesn't really give you anything but follower meat. If someone causes trouble, you can sacrifice them (which also gives you some meat), poison them, imprison them, or get rid of them in a variety of ways. Ascension, however, grants you a new way to earn loyalty. Easy choice.

2B:While it's fun to watch your followers fight, marrying them will make them fiercely loyal to you. You can also boost their faith with a little kiss every day, and you can marry any member of your cult you want. Marry them while they're brainwashed and your original spouse won't even be jealous.

3B:If you get into the later dungeons or are particularly good at the Knucklebones dice game, gold isn't hard to come by. However, you cannot buy Loyatly, so get a Loyalty Enforcer.

4B:Why would you want to arbitrarily throw someone in prison? If you keep an eye on your cultists, you'll rarely need to imprison anyone. Might as well take free Faith.

Work and worship are the two ways you can build your foundation. This is how this teaching unfolds.

1A: Remover –All cult members gain the loyalty trait. Generate devotion 15% faster.

1B: Diligent –All cult members gain the Industrious trait and increase their work speed by 15%.

2A: Inspire Followers –Inspire a follower to significantly increase their loyalty. Replaces the Bless action.

2B: Intimidate followers –Intimidate a follower to slightly increase their loyalty and make them work +10% harder for two days. Replaces the Bless action.

3A: The Glory of Building –Perform a ritual in your temple that will immediately erect all buildings currently under construction.

3B: Enlightenment Ritual –Perform a ritual in your temple that temporarily increases the devotion generation speed in your shrine by 20% for 3 days.

4A: Dia Santo –Perform a ritual in your temple and declare a day of rest. Your followers will not work that day and will receive +80 Faith.

4B: Fame through trouble -Perform a ritual in your temple that will allow your followers to work three days and three nights without getting tired.

Treat your employees the way they deserve - here are our favorites for work and worship.

1B:It's not often that you have multiple builds on the go and there's no time pressure to build things, making building glory a bit redundant. However, the Ritual of Enlightenment is useful because it allows you to generate devotion faster and unlock more buildings.

2A:A big increase in fidelity is much more convenient than a small increase and a little more work. Attention CEOs.

3A:As we said in the first pick, getting devotion quickly is more important than building these buildings quickly. Also, you must be kind to your workers when not ritually sacrificing them to a monster with tentacles.

4A:Give your cultists a day off and they'll reward you with more faith. This will help you get stronger faster and you'll have less problems to deal with at the base.

They say possessions are 9/10 of the law, so it makes sense that you understand that part of their doctrine correctly. Here are your picks.

1A: Extort tithes –Unlocks the next action "Tithe Extortion". Collect a gold from each follower once a day.

1B: Bribes -Unlocks the Bribe Followers action. Bribe a follower with 3x gold to increase their loyalty.

2A: Materialismo -All cult members gain the Materialistic trait. Gain confidence by building better dorms.

2B: False Idols –All cult members gain the Fake Idols trait. Gain more faith by placing a decoration building.

3A: Alms for the poor –In your temple, perform a ritual where you distribute it to all followers to increase their loyalty. You also gain +10 Faith.

3B: Enrichment -Perform a ritual in your temple where all followers will donate gold to you.

4A: Sacred Architecture –All cult members gain the Holy Architecture trait. Whenever a new building is constructed, you gain +5 Faith.

4B: Devoto –All cult members gain the devotee trait. Gain more faith by preaching a sermon.

Here are the best picks for the Doctrine of Possession inCult of the Innocents.

1B:Not only is one gold per follower a small amount, but having to talk to every follower every day and choosing that option is tedious. It's best to choose bribes so you can target cultists who need a sweetener every now and then.

2B:You must preach a sermon every day. You are not going to build something every day. Do the math.

3B:Decorations are easier to create than houses, and you only need a few houses. You can ham with decorations and get more out of this choice.

4B:Little money? Perform this ritual and you will quickly get hundreds of gold. Do it while they're brainwashed and they won't even flinch.

If you want to see everythingRituals of the Cult of the Lamb, check out our list at this link. We also have a list of all of them.Cult of the Lamb Weapons and Curses.

Written by Kirk McKeand on behalf ofGOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN.