Cultist Simulator is a game of doom and longing. Capture forbidden treasures. Summon the alien gods. Feed your students. Play as a seeker of unholy mysteries in a 1920s-themed setting of hidden gods and secret histories. You can find information on how to rise in this challenge in our Cultist Simulator Ascension guide.
Cultist Simulator Ascension Guide
Welcome to our Cultist Simulator Ascension Guide. This isn’t meant for complete beginners, just for people who have trouble ascending.
Brief Review of the Basics
You should know these things already, but here’s a reminder (without many details):
Talk: By talking about lore, you’ll get to 5 patrons and 29 acquaintances. Talk to patrons to receive or to complete commissions. When you first talk with an acquaintance, you’ll found your cult (just follow instructions). Talk cult; recruit with any level lore, promote to disciple with total aspect 7, exalt with total aspect 21; lore and aspect should be your cult’s except if you chose Secret Histories, in which case they should NOT be your cult’s. Give a follower a level X tool to give them X/4 of the tool’s aspect, rounded down. Romance a follower with their desire (after taking them to the appropriate place) to give them 1 of the desire’s aspect. Talk to followers about cult or about specific tasks to get them to do stuff.
Explore: Explore with health for three permanent locations, one timed location, and hirelings. Explore with secret histories lore to get expedition locations (randomly, one of them will be Hebe Stanton). Explore locations to get stuff.
Dream: Get wood door with passion and lantern/knock lore (enter with passion). Get white door with wood door and lantern/knock lore level 4+ (enter with health). Get stag riddle with white door and desire. Get stag door with stag riddle and the level 6 lore that answers the riddle (enter with reason). Get spider door with lantern/knock lore level 8+ (enter with prisoner or follower; they die). Get peacock door with lantern/knock lore level 10+ (enter with a mirror tool, which will break and need fixing by a forge follower, or with frangiclave). Dream of bad stuff + opposite to eliminate bad stuff. Dream of health/reason/passion for random outcome. Dream of funds to get contentment.
Study: Health -> Vitality. Vitality+Vitality (first time) -> [strength skill]. Vitality+Vitality (subsequent times) -> Vitality: A lesson learnt. Similarly with Passion, Glimmering, imagination skill, Glimmering: A lesson learnt. Similarly with Reason, Erudition, scholarship skill, Erudition: A lesson learnt. Follow instructions on skill card to upgrade it (when it asks for four lessons learnt, you’ll also need some lore). Study lores of the same level together to upgrade/subvert them into a higher-level lore (similarly with influences). Study books to get lores, rites and influences.
Work: For jobs, commissions, or rites.
How you ascend: Dream of desire with health/passion/reason to change it, or with grail/forge/lantern to turn it into a dedication. Work with dedication with stag door and level 6 of the appropriate lore to turn it into ascension (mark 3). Get it to mark 6 by having resources available for hook verb (funds for power, prisoners for enlightenment, prisoners/loons/corpses for sensation). Use ascension mark 6 in a rite with 36 of the appropriate aspect to ascend.
Ascension, Quick and Dirty
- Choose physician character; work at institute. Easiest ascension: Power (passion, forge); goes well with forge cult.
- Get around 40 funds and buy out Morland’s BEFORE going to Oriflammes and BEFORE founding cult.
- You don’t need Jannings, Bechet or Sulochana to teach you a language; you get those books from Morland’s. Use Dr Al Adim so you don’t have to go on an expedition for the book (Vanderschaaf collection, level 6). I probably wouldn’t bother sacrificing someone to Poppy (maybe gray pawn).
- Never use peculiar rumour.
- Any action that uses health/heart can produce vitality. Same for passion/grail and glimmering, same for reason/lantern and erudition. Use “talking publicly about esoteric matters” to help you quickly gather glimmerings, eruditions and vitalities.
- Stop a card’s timer by using it as inspiration for painting or by talking to Sulochana about it.
- The last two tips should help you max your skills without using collections of essays or of poetry. You should have three of each. Sell them at Oriflammes, along with the “something something” book.
- Health skill: Matchless physique (forge or edge). Passion skill: An open soul (grail). Reason skill: A silent intensity (edge).
- Immediately after founding cult, move into Morland’s to eliminate notoriety. Never move out. With library + open soul + silent intensity you’ll only have to worry about having glimmerings available; you have all else needed to upgrade/subvert lore.
- Get rid of an unwanted influence by using it as trappings when recruiting or promoting followers.
- There are only three items you have to get from Oriflammes: 1) STUMM. 2) A true and complete accounting of the Asclepian mysteries at the roots of the house. 3) De bellis murorum.
- Upgrade/subvert lore until you can get your desire to mark 3 and your followers to disciple level (I wouldn’t bother with gray pawn though). Then try to have a level 6+ of every lore available so you are ready to do commissions.
- Keep going for the stag door; combine forbidden epics and aim for level 10 locations. You’ll get Hebe early, learn three languages and acquire a mirror. Specifically, you want hunter’s pits for deep mandaic and mausoleum of wolves for phrygian; snow’s keeper gives you vak but you’ll get that from the peacock door; eye of Ikirmawi gives you broken Watchman’s glass, but it’s better to do Keglin’s scratch (level 4) for broken wildering mirror because it’s easier to fix. For, you’ll need Strathcoyne’s residence (level 2) or key-hunter’s garret (level 6).
- When you have around 100 funds, stop working and start doing commissions. You want to gather a lot of silver spintriae (also bronze if you have wildering mirror).
- You should be able to exalt followers now (unless you chose St Hydra).
- With Hebe out of the way and most or all languages learned, start entering peacock door. To save time: If the mirror is fixed, enter door with mirror and talk to your forge follower immediately afterwards. If the mirror is broken, talk to your forge follower about mirror and dream of door after 30+ seconds (where “+” is enough to give you time to pause the game as soon as the mirror is fixed).
- Go for level 14 locations. You get rite intercalate from all except Raven Isle, along with high level stuff; wreck of the Christabel also gives you frangiclave, which makes it easier to access peacock door. With rite intercalate, an exalted follower (if your cult’s aspect is the same as your desire’s aspect), and enough high level stuff, you can ascend.
