Cult of the Lamb is a 2022 roguelike video game created by the Australian company Massive Monster and published by Devolver Digital. It was released on August 11, 2022, for macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game became available on iOS, macOS, and visionOS through Apple Arcade on December 4, 2025.

In the game, a lamb is saved from being executed by a trapped god named The One Who Waits. The lamb must pay back a debt to the god by building a loyal cult and seeking revenge against four bishops who imprisoned him. The game includes two main parts: action scenes where players fight through dungeons to confront the bishops, and quieter moments where players manage the cult. Eventually, the lamb must face The One Who Waits directly.

Cult of the Lamb received mostly positive reviews from critics when it was released, with praise for its gameplay and ability to be played many times. It was nominated for three awards at the 19th British Academy Games Awards, including Best Game. The game has been expanded with many free updates. In January 2026, the Woolhaven expansion added a new story after the main game and introduced new features. The game has been called a "cult classic" in a humorous way.

Gameplay

Cult of the Lamb is a game where the player controls a lamb who must build a cult to honor a god called "The One Who Waits." At the start of the game, this god saves the lamb's life and sends them on adventure missions in one of four regions. In these areas, the player fights enemies called "heretics" and rescues other animals. These animals can be taught to believe in the player's cult. Each animal has unique looks and traits that influence how they behave and react to the player's choices.

At the cult's base, the player can assign tasks to their followers. These tasks include gathering supplies, building structures, performing worship, helping in battles, or being sacrificed, which can change the player's abilities and the team's strength. To keep followers loyal, the player must meet their needs by holding religious services, cooking food, providing shelter, and keeping the village clean. If followers are neglected, they may rebel, leave the cult, or take coins with them. To stop this, the player can care for them, give gifts, retrain them, remove them from the cult, or use a public punishment called a pillory until they stop causing problems.

The game includes a feature called "Companion of the Lamb," which connects to Twitch. Viewers can join a "Follower Raffle" to earn a custom follower, whose name appears above their character. Other Twitch features include the "Twitch Totem Bar," where viewers can use channel points to give the player random rewards, and a "Help or Hinder" event where viewers vote to either help or slow down the player's progress.

Plot

In a land where many false religious leaders exist, the Lamb, believed to be the last of its kind, is taken before The Four Bishops of the Old Faith. The Lamb is killed in a ritual before them. After dying, the Lamb is brought before "The One Who Waits," a mysterious god trapped in chains. The One Who Waits tells the Lamb to start a cult in its name, gives the Lamb a crown with dark powers, and brings it back to life.

With the help of Ratau, the Lamb's predecessor, the Lamb settles in the ruins of an old temple and begins the cult to honor The One Who Waits. The goal is to defeat the Four Bishops—Leshy, Heket, Kallamar, and Shamura—and free The One Who Waits. As the cult grows, the Lamb goes on journeys to fight each Bishop, gaining more followers and power. Each time a Bishop is defeated, one of the chains holding The One Who Waits breaks, eventually freeing the god. During these journeys, the Lamb meets The One Who Waits and the Four Bishops in different encounters.

As the Lamb gets closer to freeing The One Who Waits, the god reveals that the Four Bishops had locked him away and plans to take control of the cult and the world. During a battle with Shamura, the Lamb learns that The One Who Waits is actually Narinder, the Fifth Bishop of the Old Faith and Shamura's equal. Narinder once ruled the realm of Death but became greedy and was imprisoned by the other Bishops. Shamura tried to help Narinder but failed, leading to his betrayal. Shamura warns the Lamb that Narinder will attack once all the Bishops are defeated.

After defeating Shamura, The One Who Waits tells the Lamb to return to its realm to give back the demonic crown and be sacrificed in its name. The Lamb enters the final gateway and meets The One Who Waits, who demands the Lamb kneel and be killed so the god can reclaim its power. The player can choose to sacrifice the Lamb, freeing The One Who Waits and ending the story, or refuse. If the player refuses, the Lamb fights The One Who Waits's followers, Baal and Aym. After defeating them, The One Who Waits attacks the Lamb again, transforming into a monstrous form and dragging the Lamb to a dark place. If the Lamb defeats The One Who Waits a second time, it loses its powers and becomes a creature named Narinder. Narinder admits defeat and resents the Lamb. The player can choose to kill Narinder or let it live. If Narinder is killed, it claims the Lamb is no different from before. If spared, Narinder joins the cult as an immortal follower and mocks the Lamb. Either choice ends the game with the Lamb's followers rescued and the cult restored.

After the game ends, the Lamb meets a being called the Merchant of Eternity and the Meter of Gods. The being asks the Lamb to face the bosses again, free the Bishops, and give it items called God Tears. For each Bishop freed, the being reveals the past of the gods. Once all Bishops are released, the being gives the Lamb a statue or a follower.

The Lamb returns to Ewefall, the mountain home of the lambs. Their former god, Yngya, has returned, causing winter to return to the island and spreading a disease called the Rot, which harms the mountain. The Lamb must find and bury the remains of their people, restore the village of Woolhaven, and face Marchosius, a wolf who opposes gods. The Lamb must also confront the executioner who killed them and decide whether to accept or destroy the Rot, which originated with Yngya.

Development

Cult of the Lamb was created by Massive Monster, an independent game studio from Australia. The studio previously made games such as The Adventure Pals, Never Give Up, and Unicycle Giraffe. Many of these earlier games did not succeed commercially.

Because of the cute and colorful art style in these games, people thought the studio made games for children. For their next project, the team decided to try a different direction, exploring themes of horror and the supernatural. They planned to create a roguelite dungeon crawler with base-building elements, but the game’s concept changed during development. At first, the game centered on a lamb god who was cast out of a group of gods for being unpopular and had to rebuild his following on Earth. Later, the idea shifted to the Lamb running hell, but the team avoided making torture a major theme. Instead, they focused on the Lamb leading a cult, which helped them secure a publishing deal with Devolver Digital.

Additional funding for the game came from VicScreen’s Victorian Production Fund. Cult of the Lamb was announced at Gamescom in August 2021 and released on August 11, 2022.

After its release, the game received several major free updates. These updates were sometimes called DLCs or expansions in marketing materials.

• Blood Moon Festival (October 24, 2022): Added the blood moon ritual and cosmetic items.
• Relics of the Old Faith (April 24, 2023): Introduced a post-game storyline with a crusade campaign, a photo mode, and improvements to combat and cult management.
• Don’t Starve Together (August 21, 2023): Added penitence mode and crossover content from Klei Entertainment’s Don’t Starve Together.
• Sins of the Flesh (January 16, 2024): Introduced a sin mechanic, new doctrines, a blunderbuss weapon, more cosmetics, and a breeding system.
• Unholy Alliance (August 12, 2024): Added two-player cooperative play, with the second player controlling a Goat. The update also expanded weapons, powers, and buildable items.

Several paid downloadable content packs were released. These packs typically included cosmetic items like follower forms, outfits, and decorations.

• Cultist Pack (August 11, 2022)
• Heretic Pack (April 24, 2023)
• Sinful Pack (January 12, 2024)
• Pilgrim Pack (August 12, 2024): Added cosmetics and a digital version of the Pilgrim comic.

Woolhaven is a paid DLC expansion announced at Gamescom 2025. It added new story content, two new dungeons, weather effects, animal breeding, and other features. The expansion was released on January 22, 2026.

Soundtrack

The game's original soundtrack was created by Narayana Johnson, who is professionally known as River Boy. River Boy also provided the voices for all followers in the game. The music was sold on the Steam website when the game first launched. It is also available for purchase on River Boy's Bandcamp page. River Boy performed the soundtrack live multiple times. This included a concert with Orchestra Victoria in October 2023, which had 6,000 people in attendance. He also performed a special version of the music at Pax Australia 2024. On 21 October 2024, Massive Monster announced the release of an extended play called Hymns of the Unholy. This EP contains metal remixes of songs from the game's soundtrack, created by Pick Up Goliath. The group includes current and former members of Light the Torch, Trivium, While She Sleeps, Polyphia, and others.

On 3 April 2025, Massive Monster announced that River Boy had passed away due to an unknown cause. His death occurred during the development of the Woolhaven expansion. Some music tracks were already completed at the time, while others were finished by Ray Vavasis, who is also known as Arrowbird. Arrowbird completed the remaining audio work, including cutscenes, Yngya's themes, and Yngya's voice. Some audio for a minigame was also created with Kalyani Ellis, who had previously worked with River Boy. Arrowbird used unused music and samples from River Boy's earlier projects to complete the game. A blog post by Massive Monster described the Woolhaven soundtrack as "a mixtape of his life." As a tribute, a new follower named River Boy was added to the game. This character is located on a remote island and tells the Lamb, "It's good to spend time in nature. We all go back there, in the end."

Graphic novels

On March 12, 2024, a graphic novel adaptation of the game called The First Verse was started on Kickstarter. Alex Paknadel wrote it, and Troy Little illustrated it. Oni Press published the book. The fundraising goal was met in six minutes. This was followed by other comics and graphic novels.

• The First Verse (December 2024)
• Pilgrim (February 2025)
• Schism Special #1 (October 2025)
• Last Sacrament Special #1 (March 2026)

Marketing

The marketing team for the game is known for creating social media posts that are unusual and widely shared online. One example occurred during the promotion for the Sins of the Flesh update. Before the update was released, the game's Twitter account posted, "We will add sex to the game if we hit 300,000 followers by the end of the year." This post inspired other independent game developers to use similar methods in their marketing.

At the 2024 PAX Aus gaming convention, the creators of Cult of the Lamb built a replica of the game's temple. At the end of the event, the development team held official weddings for two couples in front of a large audience dressed in costumes. After the event, the developers shared that they had received "hundreds of applications" from couples who wanted to get married at their temple. Additionally, the game's composer, River Boy, organized a dance party at the temple.

Reception

Cult of the Lamb received mostly positive reviews, according to the review website Metacritic. GameSpot praised the game's combat, calling it "quick, smooth, and enjoyable," and noted the many ways players can customize their experience, which makes the game "fun to play again." Nintendo Life highlighted the variety in the dungeon challenges, writing that "new layouts and equipment choices make each playthrough different, and the exciting, busy battles require full focus." Destructoid said the game taught players its rules clearly, stating, "Even though there are many elements to learn, Cult of the Lamb explains them in an easy-to-understand way." PC Gamer compared the game to the Animal Crossing series, saying it is "like if Tom Nook wanted power instead of money," and noted that managing the cult could be complex but never too confusing. IGN appreciated how the game mixed dark themes with "cute, cartoon-like visuals."

Game Informer enjoyed the game's idea but said it was hard to find time to customize the cult, writing, "With so many decorative items to choose from, I was disappointed by how little time I had to focus on them." The Washington Post disliked the combat, saying it often felt "messy and confusing," with the game's 2.5D view making it hard to tell where players were, especially during fast movements. Polygon praised the characters found in dungeons, calling them "truly interesting," with their stories kept mostly secret and their designs looking like "charming picture book illustrations." Eurogamer complimented the game's art style, noting it looked like "the best drawing from The New Yorker magazine."

Cult of the Lamb sold 1 million copies in its first week. As of October 2024, it has sold 4.5 million copies.