Cult Of The Lamb Temple Guide – Sermons, Upgrades & More

Rituals to Doctrines to Sermons

Table of Contents Table of Contents

The Temple is the most important building by far in Cult of the Lamb.

It’s used to amass your followers’ devotion and level up.

But it has many more useful features besides, and you definitely don’t want to miss a chance to use them.

From Rituals to Doctrines to Sermons, your temple allows you to control your followers and grow your flock to new heights in Cult of the Lamb.

We’ll walk you through how it all works with our Cult of the Lamb guide.

READ MORE: Cult Of The Lamb Review

Cult of the Lamb Temple Guide: Sermons 

Sermons are the Temple’s most basic function in Cult of the Lamb, but arguably its most important. They are unlocked as soon as you gain access to the Temple in Cult of the Lamb. Use them wherever possible.

Sermons are the method by which you level up in Cult of the Lamb. When you deliver a sermon, you gain one point of energy for each follower in attendance. Then, once enough energy has been amassed, your lamb increases their skills in battle. You can choose from a number of upgrades on the tree, from starting with better weapons to increasing your health and the variety of curses you can cast.  

Unless followers are occupied on a mission, they all automatically attend your sermons. Additionally, the energy that you gain per sermon increases by one for every loyalty rank your followers gain. A handful of extremely loyal followers can generate much more energy than a whole crowd at rank one. Grow your flock’s loyalty as much as possible and you’ll soon be reaping the rewards in battle. 

Sermons also give you a small Faith boost whenever they are completed in Cult of the Lamb. While it might not initially seem like much, having a reliable way of gaining Faith every day can spell the difference between a peaceful flock and a horde of dissenters. 

After every sermon, a small amount of gold is left as a donation. Be sure to pick this up regularly, a once-per-day gold boost can be incredibly helpful. 

Cult of the Lamb Temple Guide: Rituals 

Rituals are powerful ceremonies held in the Temple in Cult of the Lamb. Their effects vary hugely, providing a huge boost in Faith, filling your flock’s hunger meter, gaining XP by sacrificing followers, and much more.  

New Rituals are unlocked through story progress and Doctrines, allowing you great control over your followers’ status and needs. 

Each Ritual has a long cooldown in Cult of the Lamb, requiring several days to pass to reset. They also consume a great deal of resources – mostly bones – requiring you to slay as many enemies as possible to use them regularly. Thankfully, there are ways of reducing both these costs.

Spend your Devotion on the Cheaper Rituals and Ritual Cooldown Upgrades as soon as possible. They cut down on both the time Rituals take to reload and halve their material costs.

Crown upgrades 

Crown Upgrades are purchased to increase your lamb’s strength in combat, as well as the hold they have over their flock and the specifics of what they can command their followers to do. These upgrades come in three categories: 

Commandment Stones 

Commandment Stones are used at the Temple to unlock new doctrines for your cult to follow. They can be found in a variety of ways in Cult of the Lamb. However, Commandment Stones are not found whole, but in fragments. Three pieces of a Stone make a whole. 

Commandment Stone pieces are found during runs when defeating a boss, as well as in certain rare shops. The most reliable way of acquiring Stone pieces is to raise your followers’ loyalty. With each loyalty rank, your followers give you a single tablet piece. Spend enough time with your cult, and you’ll soon have Commandment Stones to spare.

Bishop Hearts 

Bishop Hearts unlock new Crowns, which confer powerful new abilities onto your lamb. A heart is gained the first time you defeat each of the Bishops at the end of each zone.  

When you spend a Bishop Heart, you have the choice between gaining one diseased heart per run, gaining a spirit heart by eating a meal once per day, sacrificing a follower for a free life the first time you die on each run, and returning to camp at any point on a run. 

While all these options are extremely useful, it’s highly recommended that you unlock the ability to return to camp first. This grants extra flexibility in looking after your flock, and can mitigate the faith loss that occurs if you are about to die and the run is nowhere near over. 

Holy Talisman Pieces 

Holy Talisman Pieces unlock new Fleeces. The Talismans are assembled by collecting their shards from side quests and NPCs like The Fisherman.  

By purchasing Fleeces with Talisman Pieces at the Temple, you can equip your lamb with powerful buffs, each coming with a drawback in Cult of the Lamb. Stacking damage buffs come with taking double damage, immediately drawing four tarot cards prevents you from gaining any for the rest of the run and so on. 

Choose between risk and reward and use Fleeces to bring some excitement to your runs.

Doctrines 

Doctrines can unlock new rituals or passive effects in Cult of the Lamb. Every time you use Crown Upgrades and spend a Commandment Stone, you can pass a new commandment. A Doctrine for your followers to obey. Then, after a short cooldown, you can choose another Doctrine, provided you have the Stone to pay for it. 

• Doctrines come in five categories in Cult of the Lamb, with each category containing 4 Doctrines to unlock.  
• Afterlife deals with your followers’ reactions to death, gaining bonuses from sacrifice and mitigating penalties when followers pass on.  
• Work & Worship governs the cult’s practical functions. It’s up to you whether to focus on their resource gathering, devotion generation, or a mix of the two. 
• Possessions revolves around your flock’s reaction to material things, often granting bonuses to faith when certain types of buildings are constructed. 
• Law & Order allows you to control how your followers respond to punishment, setting new laws and unlocking ceremonies like marriage and ritualistic fight pits. 
• Sustenance deals with your followers’ nutrition and starvation, granting bonuses when cooking certain types of food and removing penalties on dangerous foodstuffs. 

When you unlock a new Doctrine in Cult of the Lamb, you can choose from two available options. Often these will be opposing commandments related by theme.

For example, you can choose between unlocking a Ritual that extorts gold from your followers to add to your supply, or another ritual that has you pay alms to your followers – 25 gold in this case – and boost all of their loyalty levels. 

With the right Doctrines in place, you’ll be able to shape your Cult exactly as you see fit.