Faith and devotion are wonderful, but love doesn't buy building materials or food, and every cult needs money. In Cult of the Lamb, one of the challenges of building a successful church of devotees means keeping the coffers full. There are times when the Lamb has to choose between money and devotion, with options for giving money away along with taking it.
There are plenty of options when it comes to making gold, including the option of making it from nuggets or bars. The Lamb can even build a guild of capitalists and materialism if they so desire, but even a cult based on the nobility of poverty needs a few coins now and then.
Choose Certain Doctrines
As the cult leader, one part of how the player decides what kind of cult they're going to build is through the power of Doctrines. Some of these reject the concepts of personal possession. Others value work, and other means of generating revenue, as more important than spiritual development. The following Doctrines are the best for a Lamb that wants to make money:
- Inspire: This generates more revenue later in the game when the Inspiration tables are maxed out and Loyalty translates to coin instead.
- Tax Enforcer: Choose between money and Loyalty generation at Tier 4 of Law & Order. On the money side is Tax Enforcer, where one follower is appointed to gather the annual tithe from the others.
- Extort Tithes: Every option in the Possession category is useful for making money or increasing the materialistic aspects of the cult. This is one of the best and most dependable ways of making regular gold, generating two gold coins per follower every day.
- Ritual Of Enrichment. At Tier 3 of Possession, the Lamb can either take it or give it away. The obvious choice for those looking to optimize their gold is the Ritual of Enrichment, in which all followers shower money on their savior.
Sell Resources Using The Ritual Chest
The One Who Waits will speak directly to the Lamb when they reach an important milestone, which often means defeating one of the Bishops. After the defeat of the first Bishop, he'll port the Lamb to his lair in the nether and announce a new feature for the cult, the Ritual Chest.
The Lamb can trade anything in their inventory for gold using the Ritual Chest, and some items are more valuable than others. Raw resources are the cheapest, followed by seeds, and then by plants. Gold bars trade for ten gold each, which is far from the most expensive item on the list. The fish are some of the most valuable items that the Lamb can sell, with Octopus going for 50 gold each.
Max Out Divine Inspiration
The Lamb uses Divine Inspiration collected from shrines and followers to upgrade their blueprints and plans for the ideal cult compound. This only goes up to a certain point, however, and then the Inspiration is rewarded to the Lamb in coin instead.
This means that every shrine throughout the region, not just in the Lamb's compound, has become a coin generator. By the time the Divine Inspiration tables are full, the Lamb will have devotees in every place they can visit. Examples include the Mushroomos, with a small shrine now in Sozo's chamber; the Light Pilgrims that worship in the Lighthouse; and the shed near Ratau's Lonely Shack.
Visit Midas's Cave
As the Lamb continues on their Crusade, they'll find a creepy statue somewhere in Silk Cradle along with an old sign, and Midas's Cave opens up on the map. The Lamb has to spend money before they can make it here, but the long-term investment is worth it, especially if the player has reached the point in the game where Inspiration and Loyalty translates directly into gold coin.
Buy new blueprints, follower forms, tarot cards, and even Divine Inspiration from the stalls in Midas' cave. Once there's enough coin in the Lamb's pocket, they can use the shrine in the center of the room to make an offering. The God Golds will wait for three days before rewarding the Lamb by increasing the original offering. It's also possible that their gesture will be rejected, and the only return will be a handful of poop.
Win At Knucklebones
The stakes are highest the more players are in the Lonely Shack, and it's most profitable to play Shrumy as opposed to Ratau, Flinky, or Klunko and Bop. Shrumy is the most difficult opponent, but he also allows the highest bet at 50 gold per game.
The downside here is that Knucklebones is a game of chance. Unlike every other way of making money in the game, it's the only venture that has the potential to lose gold at a higher rate of making it. The other possible strategy here is to play the easier opponents more often to get more consistent wins.