Don your cloak, break out your ceremonial knife and get ready to sacrifice a heretic to an elder god because Cult of the Lamb is here. Developed by Massive Monster, this game is a mix of the base builder and rogue-lite genres. Players assume the role of a lamb who was rescued by a mysterious entity and instructed to build a following in its name. You will spend a lot of time skulking through colorful dungeons which will slowly increase in difficulty and introduce new threats. To combat this, you will need to master healing in this game, as being able to fight a boss with more than two hearts is critical. Here’s a breakdown of how to increase your hearts, heal yourself, and what the different heart types are:
Heart Types
There are three different types of hearts in Cult of the Lamb. The first is red hearts, which are the standard hearts you’ll enter a dungeon with. These can be fully healed and you can temporarily increase the amount of hearts you have via different tarot cards. Hearts can also drop by destroying objects in the environment, but this is pretty rare. Any temporary hearts you’ll get in a dungeon will be lost when you die or leave. Tarot card hearts are indicated by a gold outline around them.
The second type of heart is Blue Hearts. Unlike normal hearts, these cannot be healed and once you lose them they are gone forever. Meaning that if you get a single Blue Heart, take damage and lose it, that heart cannot be healed back to full. You can get these hearts from either tarot cards, found when destroying the environment, or as a reward from chests after clearing out a room.
Finally, there are Diseased Hearts which are similar to Blue Hearts but will actually damage enemies around you when hit. These can also be earned via tarot cards or as a reward from chests. Additionally, these can sometimes appear after destroying objects in the environment. Diseased Hearts are quite good in rooms filled with enemies, as they can usually damage or outright kill any foe around you.
How to Heal
In a dungeon, the main way you will heal in Cult of the Lamb is by getting hearts from a chest after clearing a room. Every chest has a chance to drop either half a heart or a full heart. I’ve noticed that highest rarity chests have a better chance to drop hearts. Vampiric weapons are another way to heal, as you will have a chance to earn half a heart back whenever you kill an enemy. This can be quite useful in the tougher dungeons when you’ll be fighting through a ton of challenging enemies. Finally, when you are picking a path to follow in the dungeon look for an icon with a heart. This indicates a healing pool that will restore all of your standard hearts to full.
How to Increase Your Hearts
While you cannot raise the base amount of hearts to have, you can get temporary ones while in dungeons. These are tied to the tarot cards you’ll pick from Clauneck in dungeons. The cards that do this are The Hearts I (half a heart), The Hearts II (one heart), and the Hearts III (two hearts). Obviously, the best of the group is The Hearts III, which can be purchased at the healing pool for 100 gold coins. Once you buy this tarot card, it will be added to your collection and can be acquired from Clauneck during your adventures. There is also a Crown Upgrade that will give you a blue heart whenever you successfully eat a meal. You will also permanently gain a full heart via upgrading your character by giving constant sermons to your followers.
Mastering the different types of hearts and how to heal is going to be critical in beating the Cult of the Lamb and growing your devoted following.
