These can currently only appear if a previous Cult has appeared on the station/ship/colony and been defeated. The initial Cult roles are chosen from Ghosts with the Cultist antagonist role set to Always or Yes.
“An eldritch cult? On my space station?” It's more likely than you think (see this page). Because Nanotrasen didn't already have enough to deal with, the Geometer of Blood, Nar-Sie, is sending his minions on Space Stations to satisfy his hobbyist desires of mind control, sacrifices, and playing with blood. The cult is one of the few antagonist factions that spawns on the station with already a few members (4 by default). The cult's objectives are more or less up to their members, but generally involve setting up secret temples, tormenting their enemies (mainly Security or the Chaplain), making offerings to Nar-Sie and in general being hard to get completely rid of.
Quick tips As a cultist Don't write runes in plain sight unless you know what you're doing. You DO NOT want the crew to know that there is a cult aboard before you are ready to deal with the potential fallout. Be mindful of cameras, avoid writing runes in their line of sight. Confusion runes and talismans will disable them. Although your can convert crew members to your join your group, you are limited by a cap depending on the total living player population, so consult with your peers to decide which crew members would make the best fit, and take care of your fellow cultists. The Seer and Astral Journey runes are designed to let you easily survey potential new disciples. Breathing holy incense or drinking holy water will disable your cult powers, prevent you from shading out or using cult chat, and make you visibly shiver and stutter, try wearing internals or some get a face mask at Cargo's Merch computer. You are only as strong as your allies are coordinated and knowledgeable. Be sure to teach new cultists about the ins and outs of the role, and as a newbie don't hesitate to ask a Mentor to teach you By picking up the Acolyte role, you will get automatically associated with a Mentor who will provide you with knowledge and direction, well if there's a mentor around anyway. By picking up the Mentor role, your cult chat messages appear larger, allowing you to more easily have your messages picked up by the rest of the cult. Want to converse with crew members as a cultist without outing your identity or putting yourself in danger? Use the Summon Robes rune to get a robe and hood that let you conceal your identity (provided you also pocket your ID card), then use the Astral Journey rune to send a projection of yourself able of speech to your target. As a crew member If you find runes somewhere, notify your superior or security via PDA or another secure channel. The later the cult is aware that it's been discovered, the easier it will be to deal with. Cameras that have been disabled by a Confusion rune or talisman will display a pitch black screen when looked at through a Security Camera Console and no longer reveal the area to an AI. You can repair them with a multi-tool by pinging their focus and power wires off and on again. Your best defense against getting abducted is being in a room with more than one other spessman, and also politely declining invitations to join any book clubs. Alternatively being a Cyborg will protect you from getting soulstone'd, but be mindful that Stun talismans can still disable you, although they won't silence you. You suspect runes to be concealed in a room? Have your local Chaplain bring their null rod and tap the floor with it. It reveals runes and structures in a 3×3 area around the hit surface. Runes that haven't been activated yet (without the black marks) can be removed like blood using a mop or soap for example. Others will require either a null rod, or a salt pile (by dropping 10u of salt on the ground, which takes a few minutes, or a few seconds if you mix the salt with holy water first. If you capture a cultist, you can completely nullify their powers, access to cult chat, and ability to be just teleported out by their peers by using a holy implant on them, a few of which are available at the brig, and more of which can be ordered at cargo. Keeping a cultist alive around means you can use their blood to check the cult's current strength. You can also deconvert them by using a bible on them after giving them a sip of holy water, but they can resist it, and in either case a pair of hostile red shades will spawn. More detailed guides will now follow.
The Guide has been updated up to this point, the parts below are still being rewritten, although the information specific to runes is still mostly accurate. Thank you for waiting.
Cult Guide: The Ins-n-Outs of Getting Shit Done Unlike a Wizard or a Vampire, cultists cast most of their powers not from spells but from runes, and rune-imbued talismans.
A rune that can be cast will glow every few seconds Writing Runes Cultists have a small interface panel on their screen that lets them write runes on the floor and erase them, so long as their hands are free.
Runes are composed of 3 words. You can use the top button to write words directly, or the bottom one to first choose a full rune so the necessary words get highlighted.
The left button erases the last word written, spam it to quickly erase runes. The right button can be held down to move the interface around.
You can examine a completed rune to see if it corresponds to a particular spell. You can then touch it to trigger it. Some runes have particular requirements, such as having you (or someone else) standing on top, or paying the rune some of your blood. All runes can be imbued or attuned to talismans, the effect varies a lot.
Note: Whenever you need to use blood, whether to draw a rune or perform some rituals, the game will check for some around you, such as on a splatter, in a container on your hands or at your feet, in a grabbed body, or if all else fails, from your own body. As each word drawn takes 1u of blood from your vessels you may want to ingest some nutriment or even some iron to keep your blood levels safe (or you could just grab a monkey to use its blood instead until it dies, with the added bonus of not leaving your DNA as evidence everywhere)
Runes Keep in mind that whenever casting a rune, you'll speak up the rune's invocation, be careful not to stand near an intercom or broadcasting radio.
Constructs can use runes without having to pay any blood cost.
Shades can use runes, but only those with no blood cost.
Should you play a species or mob that doesn't have blood vessel, the easiest way to use runes that cost blood anyway is to bring a container full of someone else's blood.
Rune # Name Words Description I (1) Rune 1.png Raise Structure Talisman 1.png Blood Technology Join ego jatkaa nahlizet This rune lets you raise either an Altar, a Forge, or a Spire. All take the same channeling time which is 1 minute by default, but you can reduce it to a few seconds by wearing cult clothing, or having other cultists touch the rune to participate. You spend 1u of Blood per second during the channeling, so reducing the duration will also reduce the total amount of blood you'll have to pay. Also note that those structures must be spaced apart by at least 1 tile. Altar.png Altars are a multi-purpose cult structure that let cultists and Artificers: Check the cult roster, which informs you of who's in the cult, their roles, and the current cap on conversions. Produce Soul Gems. You don't have to remain near the Altar as it makes one, but you can't use its other features during it. Commune with Nar-Sie (This sends admins a message as if you had sent a message to Centcomm with a comms console, which they can then reply to) Check a holomap of the station featuring all runes and cult structures. Useful to locate other cult bases. You can also plant Cult Blades and Soul Blades on top, nailing down humans on them. Soul Blades will replenish their blood gauge while in one.
Forge.png Forges require a cultist or an Artificer to remain near them while producing items. You can craft: Cult Blades Construct Shells Cult Armors Cult Helmets Forges also heat up a lot the body temperature of nearby people, but wearing cult robes mitigates the effect. Spire1.png Spires provide all cultists on the Z-Level with cult chat abilities (by typing :x .x or #x before your message). The Spire has to remain un-concealed to work. Known Bug: AI can see Spires peak above walls. Try not placing a spire right below a wall that's in sight of a camera. This issue unfortunately cannot be resolved without a complete rework of the way AIs watch through cameras.
Cast from an imbued talisman, you will start raising a structure on the tile that you're currently standing on. Other cultists can click the whirlpool to help you channel it.
This rune disappears upon use, as the structure will take its place
II (2) Rune 2.png Communication Talisman 2.png Self Other Technology mgar karazet jatkaa This rune requires you to stand on top of it before casting it. The spell will remain active until you move away from the rune. Anything you say or whisper while standing on the active rune will be projected to the mind of every single member of the cult (and every observers), whether they're conscious or not. If you click the rune twice while standing on it, it will set a reminder for every cultist, including new ones. The reminders can be found in your Notes in the IC tab.
Known Bug: AI can see the rune's effects peak above walls. Try not placing that rune right below a wall that's in sight of a camera. This issue unfortunately cannot be resolved without a complete rework of the way AIs watch through cameras.
Cast from an imbued talisman, you will instead write a letter that will appear in every cultist's mind. It has 5 uses. Note that you'll still whisper the invocation so it's not quite as discrete as the cult chat tattoo.
This rune persists upon use, allowing repeated usage.
III (3) Rune 3.png Summon Tome Talisman 3.png See Blood Hell balaq ego certum This rune simply spawns a single Arcane Tome Arcane Tome smol.png and disappears. This is generally the first rune you'll want to cast after the first Altar has been raised, since holding a tome greatly eases rune writing. You must pay 4u of blood to cast this rune. Cast from an imbued talisman, the tome will appear in the hand that held the talisman.
This rune disappears upon use
IV (4) Rune 4.png Conjure Talisman Talisman.png Hell Technology Join certum jatkaa nahlizet This rune spawns blank talismans Talisman smol.png for a cost of 2u of blood each. Touching another rune with a blank talisman will imbue or attune it to the talisman. Once you've imbued said talismans, you can then place them back on this rune to “fax” them to the Arcane Tome of a fellow cultist for 5u of blood. Because of the faxing mechanic, this rune cannot be imbued into a talisman.
This rune persists upon use, allowing repeated usage.
V (5) Rune 5.png Conversion Talisman 5.png Join Blood Self nahlizet ego mgar This is how cultists are made. By activating this rune with a crew member standing on top of it, you will entrap them in a ritual that will either convert them, or restrain them. The ritual occurs in two phases: The first phase takes 10 seconds during which you must remain adjacent to your target. This duration will be twice as long if you are converting a member of security, the IAA or the HoP, or four times as long when trying to convert the Captain, or the Chaplain. On the other hand, the duration will be drastically reduced if you are wearing cult clothing.
The second phase takes a set duration, and you don't have to remain adjacent to the target anymore. Pay attention to the messages that appear during the ritual as they will hint to its conclusion:
If the target has their cult preferences set to Yes or Always, they will be converted after 5 seconds. If the target has their preferences set to No or Never, they will have 10 seconds to make their choice. If they do not make their choice in time, they will be automatically restrained. If the target is Loyalty Implanted or is the Chaplain, they will be restrained after 10 seconds. If the target is cult-banned, they will be devoured by Nar-Sie and their belongings will be neatly stacked inside a cult coffer, along with their skull and a glass of their blood. Successful conversions will instantly purge the target of remaining stuns or status effects, while ghastly bindings Cult Cuffs InHand.gif will restrain the others. Those handcuffs will inflict pain upon those who wear them, drastically slowing down their movement speed and periodically making them fall down. The pain gradually fades away however. Read more about it below. If you see that your target will resist conversion it is generally a good idea to pre-emptively strip away their radio and disable their suit sensors.
Warning: Converting too many crewmembers before bloodstones have risen might cause the occult energies to be detected by Nanotrasen early, causing the Cult to be publicly revealed by an announcement. Any conversions when 40% of the living crew is already part of the Cult will risk it happening.
This rune can be attuned to a talisman to be triggered remotely.
This rune persists upon use, allowing repeated usage.
VI (6) Rune 6.png Stun Talisman 6.png Join Hide Technology nahlizet geeri jatkaa When imbued into a talisman, this rune becomes the cult's signature weapon: slap anyone with it and they will be immediately stunned, paralyzed and muted for 20 seconds. The stun works on silicons, but not the muting. This makes cultists particularly deadly to unsuspecting crew members, but most importantly gives them a way to reliably use Conversion rune. The Stun rune can also be used as is, which will flash and stun everyone visible in a 7 tile radius after a 1 second delay. The stun lasts 6 seconds but cultists get back up after only 5. This stun may also be used by activating the talisman version, though it only affects in a 5 tile radius and the stun lasts two less seconds. This rune disappears upon use
VII (7) Rune 7.png Confusion Talisman 7.png Destroy See Other veri balaq karazet This terrifying rune permanently disables every camera in sight (until its wires get pulse) and blinds every non-cultist, their sight will come back to them gradually, but everyone will look to them like cult monsters for 30 seconds. This spell is great at disturbing the enemy, but if you attack them right afterwards, they will immediately know that you're a cultist, so it should instead be used to retreat, and potentially take advantage of the chaos to stun and kidnap someone in the process. Cast from an imbued talisman, the effect will only last 20 seconds.
This rune disappears upon use
VIII (8) Rune 8.png Deaf-Mute Talisman 8.png Hide Other See geeri karazet balaq This rune affects everyone in a 7 tile range (even through walls), and deafens them for 50 seconds and mute them for 30. Cast from an imbued talisman, people will be deaf for 30 seconds and muted for 15.
This rune disappears upon use
IX (9) Rune 9.png Conceal Talisman 9.png Hide See Blood geeri balaq ego This rune allows you to hide every rune and structures in a circular 7 tile range around it. You cannot hide a rune or structure that got revealed less than 10 seconds ago. Affects through walls. Cast from an imbued talisman, the spell has only a 5 tile radius.
This rune disappears upon use
X (10) Rune 10.png Reveal Talisman 10.png Blood See Hide ego balaq geeri This rune (whose words are the same as the Conceal rune in reverse) lets you reveal every rune and structures in a circular 7 tile range around it. Each revealed rune will stun non-cultists in a 3 tile range around them, stunning and muting them for 2 seconds, up to a total of 10 seconds. Affects through walls. The stun ends if the victims are moved away from where they stand, unless they get knockdown first, so you might want to follow up with a Stun talisman. If this rune is concealed, a non-cultist stepping on it will have his position revealed for a short duration. Cast from an imbued talisman, the stun will be slightly less long.
This rune disappears upon use
XI (11) Rune 11.png Seer Talisman 11.png See Hell Join balaq certum nahlizet This rune grants you the ability to see the invisible, including observers and concealed runes and structures. More importantly, while the effect is active you get insight into the crew's minds, learning which ones are more likely to accept joining the cult, and who is loyalty implanted. This materializes as some glyphs floating above people:
Convertible.png Those who will automatically accept conversion. Maybeconvertible.png Those who may either accept or refuse conversion. Unconvertible.png Those who are loyalty implanted and will automatically reject conversion. Unconvertible2.png Those who vehemently reject Nar-Sie and are likely to refuse conversion. Cast from an imbued talisman, you will have the Seer ability for the next 8 seconds. It has 5 uses. Remember that concealed runes seen using this ability can still be activated!
This rune persists upon use, allowing repeated usage.
XII (12) Rune 12.png Summon Robes Talisman 12.png Hell Destroy Other certum veri karazet This rune, which you have to stand above to use, equips your character with cult gear. Namely, Cult Hood, Cult Robes, Cult Shoes, and a Cult Backpack. Wearing cult gear improves your efficiency with a few rituals (see Tools section below) on top of granting you very decent armor values. After using the rune, a Blood Tesseract appears in your hand, containing clothes that had to be swapped out because you were already wearing them in your head/suit slots. You can use it to get your clothing back instantly. The inventory of your backpack gets always gets transferred upon use. Cast from an imbued talisman, you will get the talisman back in your hand after using the Blood Tesseract, allowing the same talisman to be cast 3 times total.
This rune persists upon use, allowing repeated usage.
Can be cast on someone else, either via talisman or rune. Surprise cult robes on sec for that validhunter getting valided.
XIII (13) Rune 13.png Door Talisman 13.png Destroy Travel Self veri ire mgar This rune spawns a Cult Door immediately upon use, for a cost of 10u of blood. This rune cannot be activated if there's another cult door currently adjacent to it. Cult doors can be broken down relatively quickly with weapons, but let cultist move through them with barely any slowdown, making them great to retreat. Spawning them in maintenance will exasperate the crew. Lastly, they can be remotely activated using a talisman. This rune can be attuned to a talisman to be triggered remotely. Potentially useful if the rune has been concealed
This rune disappears upon use
XIV (14) Rune 14.png Fervor Talisman 14.png Travel Technology Other ire jatkaa karazet For a 20u blood cost, this rune immediately buffs all cultists in a 7 tile range by immediately removing any stuns, oxygen loss damage, holy water, and various other bad conditions. Additionally, it injects them with 1u of hyperzine, negating slowdown from low health or clothing. This makes it a very potent rune in a fight, especially as a follow up to a flash bang, or prior to a fight. Cast from an imbued talisman, the effect is the same. Therefore you may want to always prefer using that rune from a talisman.
This rune disappears upon use
XV (15) Rune 15.png Blood Magnetism Talisman 15.png Join Other Self nahlizet karazet mgar This rune actually has two different rituals, which you can choose between upon casting, both rituals have a 10 seconds base cast time. The first one, Summon Cultist, lets you summon a cultist from anywhere in the world whether they're alive or dead, for a cost of 50u of blood, which can be split by having other cultists participate in the ritual. The second ritual, Rejoin Cultist, lets you summon yourself next to the target cultist instead for a cost of 15u of blood. Other cultists can participate in the second ritual to accompany you, but the cost will remain 15u for every participating cultist. Cast from an imbued talisman, you will start channeling the spell from where you stand. Other cultists can click the whirlpool to join you.
This rune persists upon use, allowing repeated usage.
XVI (16) Rune 16.png Path Entrance Talisman 16.png Rune Entrance.png Travel Self Other ire mgar karazet This rune lets you set free teleports between any two tiles in the worlds, when used in combination with the Path Exit rune. Upon its first use, the rune asks you to set a path for it to attune to. There are 10 possible paths, each corresponding to a cult word. Upon subsequent uses the rune will, after a 1 second delay, teleport everything not anchored above it to the Path Exit attuned to the same word (if there aren't any, no teleportation will occur). Talismans will remotely activate this rune. You can deactivate a Path Entrance by simply using the Erase Word spell on it, and rewriting it afterwards. This rune can be attuned to a talisman to be triggered remotely. Potentially useful if the rune has been concealed, but useless if no path has been set.
This rune persists upon use, allowing repeated usage.
XVII (17) Rune 17.png Path Exit Talisman 17.png Rune Exit.png Travel Other Self ire karazet mgar This rune lets you set free teleports between any two tiles in the worlds, when used in combination with the Path Entrance rune. Upon its first use, the rune asks you to set a path for it to attune to. There are 10 possible paths, each corresponding to a cult word. Unlike for entrances, there may only exist 1 exit for each path. You can deactivate a Path Exit by simply using the Erase Word spell on it, and rewriting it afterwards. This rune can be imbued into a talisman if no path had been set. Casting it this way will let you remotely attune your talisman to an already existing Path Exit, which incidentally allows you to see which path networks currently exist. Upon use of an attuned talisman you will immediately perform a blood jaunt toward that rune.
If a path had been set, touching this rune with a talisman will instead attune it to the rune.
This rune persists upon use, allowing repeated usage.
XVIII (18) Rune 18.png Pulse Talisman 18.png Destroy See Technology geeri balaq jatkaa This rune triggers a short-range EMP that messes with electronic machinery, devices, and silicons. Affects things up to 3 tiles away, but only adjacent targets will take the full force of the EMP. Cast from an imbued talisman, the effect is the same. Therefore you may want to always prefer using that rune from a talisman.
This rune disappears upon use
XIX (19) Rune 19.png Astral Journey Talisman 19.png Hell Travel Self balaq ire mgar Upon use, you will fall asleep, and your soul will float above your body, allowing you to freely move around the Z-Level like a ghost would. However, you cannot talk with other ghosts, or listen to them, or use any of the usual ghost verbs beside re-entering your body. Re-entering your body, or it being moved away from the rune will end the ritual, and you'll wake up after a second or so. You might have to use the rest verb to get back up. As it can be used for any period of time, it's a great, though limited, spying tool. Should your body be destroyed while you were using the rune, attempting to re-enter it will grant you the rest of the ghost verbs and abilities back. Cast from an imbued talisman, you will immedately fall asleep and begin an astral projection as if there was a rune underneath you.
This rune persists upon use, allowing repeated usage.
XX (20) Rune 20.png Resurrect Talisman 20.png Blood Join Hell ego nahlizet certum This final rune lets you bring back any dead player into the cult, by creating them a new body. Unlike other runes, this one requires a few ingredients: a Skull (obtainable from failed Conversions and Soul Stone victims) some Ashes (obtainable by burning some paper or talisman, which you can do by using them on a cult blade) any piece of Meat (obtainable in many ways) a Ghost made visible (which can be done by hitting one with your Arcane Tome, after using the Seer rune) It is recommended that multiple cultists participate in this ritual, or that a stockpile of blood be used, since each participating cultists will pay 5u of blood per second, until 300u of blood is paid in total. The resurrected's cultist body has the properties of the Manifested Ghost tattoo by default.
Cast from an imbued talisman, you will immediately begin channeling as if there was a rune underneath you.
This rune persists upon use, allowing repeated usage.
Structures Cult Structures can be hidden by the Conceal rune, however they do not stun non-cultists when revealed.
All cult structures can be damaged and destroyed by hitting them, either bare handed on Harm intent, with melee weapons, or using projectiles.
Altar.png Altar This first structure shares a few properties with tables, namely you can place items on top of it, projectiles will fly over it, and you can also drag people on top of it, however, its main utility comes from touching it barehanded. By itself, an Altar has three uses: To check the Cult Roster, which gives you the list of every member of the cult, along with whether they're unconscious or dead. To look through the Veil, which displays a holomap featuring every rune and cult structure on the station. To commune with Nar-Sie, which gives some tips related to the current objective (or lets you re-roll the sacrifice target during Act 3 under some circumstances) To spawn a Soul Gem, which takes about 30 seconds. Cult Blades and Soul Blades can also be planted on top of the Altar, nailing down any mob lying on top of it, which is a prerequisite for the Sacrifice (see ACT II)
Forge.png Forge The Forge constantly emits some heat and raises the body temperature of nearby mobs, potentially charring mobs that remain adjacent for too long. Wearing cult gear protects from those effects to some extent. A cultist or artificer may operate the forge to produce the following items: Cult Blade: A powerful weapon, and a requirement for the Sacrifice. Cult Armor: A space-worthy piece of armor with high defense values, but also gives a substantial slowdown, to use in conjunction with Fervor. Cult Helmet: A space-worthy helmet, which thus offers some protection from the noise of flashbangs. Construct Shell: A structure that lets you turn Shades into Constructs when combined with a Soul Gem or a Soul Stone Shard. Spire1.pngSpire2.pngSpire3.png Spire The Spire allows cultists to imbue their soul and flesh using Arcane Tattoos. You may pick one out of three for each tier. A new tier becomes available at each subsequent ACT, and the Spire's appearance will change to indicate that new tattoos are available. Cult Door.png Cult Door Cult Doors open and close nigh instantly, and automatically close when a cultist move away from its tile, slowing down anyone chasing them. While they will give you some time to prepare in case of assault on your base, they will break down after losing their 100hp, therefore you should either place many of them, or have some concealed trap runes ready below it. They can be damaged with any damage dealing item, or projectile. Blood Stone.pngBlood Stone Partial.pngBlood Stone Full.png Blood Stone Boasting 600hp, those structures broadcast the presence of the cult to the crew all aboard the station. Their appearance allows everyone to keep track of the blood that has been spilled (the more blood spilled, the more full the stone appears). The crew's objective is to destroy all bloodstones before they get completely filled up. However, at each third of their remaining hp, they will summon monsters from the realm of Nar-Sie to back themselves up (1 monster at the first threshold, 2 monsters at the second threshold). The more monsters get summoned as more blood stones get damaged, the stronger the next monsters are likely to be. The cult immediately loses if all the bloodstones are broken.
Obsidian Pillar.png Obsidian Pillar Obstacles surrounding the Blood stones, with 200hp. Sigil.png Sigil Placed on walls by cultists with the Shortcut Tracer tattoo, Sigils last for about a minute. Touching them pulls cultists through the wall to the opposite tile. Works in diagonals too. Tattoos Tattoos can be acquired at a Spire, created with the Raise Structure rune. Only one tattoo of each tier can be selected, and they currently cannot be replaced. A new tier becomes available each time an objective is completed, up to Bloodstones rising.
Tier 1 Unlocked immediately after raising the first Altar.
Tattoo Silent Casting.png Silent Casting By choosing this tattoo, you will no longer shout nor whisper invocations when casting runes, talismans, tracing runes, or performing various other rituals. Additionally, this allows you to cast runes while mute/wearing a gag. Tattoo Blood Communion.png Blood Communion All blood costs are reduced for you by 20% (rituals will still consider that you paid the full price, so you won't take longer to complete them). Additionally, the costs will be split with other cultists that have taken this tattoo. Therefore, the more cultists take this tattoo, the more negligible blood costs become. Tattoo Blood Dagger.png Blood Dagger This tattoo grants cultists a 3rd spell that lets them instantly spawn a Blood Dagger in their hand, for a 5u blood cost. The dagger's color will vary depending on the blood used, you can spawn an ultra rare green dagger by spawning one over a xenomorph blood splatter. See below for details on the dagger's usage. Tier 2 Unlocked after performing 4 conversion rituals.
Tattoo Arcane Knowledge.png Arcane Dimension By picking up this tattoo, you obtain yet another spell that lets you discretly store an Arcane Tome in an invisible pocket dimension, along with any talisman that might be stored inside, and pull it out whenever you need. Tattoo Dark Communication.png Dark Communication By choosing this tattoo, you will no longer need to use Communication runes, instead just use :x like constructs do, which will let you talk to the minds of every members of the cult. You won't actually speak up the words, so don't worry about non-cultists hearing you. Tattoo Unholy Protection.png Unholy Protection This tattoo will block all the nasty effects of holy water, save for a blurry vision. Tier 3 Unlocked after performing the Sacrifice.
Tattoo Rapid Tracing.png Rapid Tracing This tattoo reduces the time it takes to write runes by 66%, letting you write words in 0.5 seconds and whole runes in 1.5 seconds, down from 1.5 seconds and 4.5 seconds respectively. Tattoo Shortcut Tracer.png Shortcut Tracer With this tattoo, you can touch walls to write a Sigil on it after 3 seconds. This Sigil lets you freely move through walls. Tattoo Pale Body.png Pale Body This tattoo will permanently change your species to that of a Manifested Ghost. Your skin and hair will become grey, your eyes will become red, all your wounds will heal, you will no longer feel pain and won't be stun-able anymore. Also your blood is now obsidian-black which is pretty classy. Tools Arcane Tome.pngOpen Tome.png Arcane Tome While not strictly necessary to knowledgeable cultists, the tome allows you to check the various runes at your disposals, but its main draw is that it lets you write full runes relatively quickly when you use the Write Rune spell while holding an open tome. If a non-cultist tries to open a tome, or touches an open tome, the tome will close and they will get shocked for 10 burn damage, and stun for 5 seconds. Tomes can also be used as a melee weapon that deals 10 burn damage to non-cultists, with the advantage of being easy to conceal, as tomes can fit in your pocket. Talisman.pngTalisman Stun.pngTalisman Confusion.png Talisman Talismans are always blank when initially spawned. A blank talisman may be used on a ghost seen with the Seer rune to let them write a message on it, but its main use is to touch a rune with it, absorbing the rune into the talisman. All runes can interact with talismans in some way, there exists a few exceptions however that instead of getting absorbed into the talisman get attuned to it, allowing you to remotely activate the rune using the talisman. Those exceptions are the following: Conversion rune gets remotely activated. With no cultist nearby the ritual will be interrupted, but any non-cultist on top will still get knockdown and muted. Door rune gets remotely activated, which is great to trap people in. Path Entrance rune gets remotely activated. If a Path was set, the rune will teleport whatever is standing on top of it, otherwise you will get a prompt to set the Path. Path Exit is a bit particular: if no Path was set the rune will be absorbed and using the talisman will let you choose a path, otherwise you will immediately teleport toward that rune. Also note that runes can be remotely activated even when concealed. It will however reveal them.
Soul Gem.pngSoulstone.png Soul Gem & Soul Stone Shard Soul Gems can be used on a player in critical condition or dead (even if they were decapitated) to dust their body and steal their soul. You may click their remains to obtain a skull. Their soul takes the form of a Shade, trapped inside the gem, and they are now bound to your will. You may release the shade from the gem, but it's usually a better idea to hold onto it until you can forge them a Construct Shell or Cult Blade, as constructs are much more reliable allies than shades. If the gem is thrown it will break into a shard, which cannot be mounted on a Cult Blade and creates much weaker constructs, so don't do that. Coffer.pngCup.png Coffer & Cup When the Conversion ritual ends with the target getting devoured, their body will disappear and they will leave this Coffer behind. The coffer contains their belongings (uniform, ID, backpack, etc…) along with a Cup containing 60 units of their blood (or slime jelly if they were a slime, or radium if they were a xenomorph) along with a skull if they were human. The skull may be held onto as an ingredient for the Resurrect rune, while the cup, if it contains blood, may be held while crafting talismans (or anything else that requires blood) so you don't use your own blood. Blood Dagger.png Blood Dagger Blood Daggers take 5u blood upon creation, but may be used to be immediately sheathed. By hitting mobs with it, up to 4 additional “charges” may be stacked into the dagger, stealing 5u of their blood each time. Sheathing the dagger gives all the stolen blood back on top of the blood used to summon it. It can be thrown, turning it into a projectile that deals more damage the more charges have been stacked. More importantly, thrown daggers lock people onto their tile for 10 seconds, forcing them to click the dagger to remove it after one second, allowing you to either run away or tap them with a talisman in the meantime. Dropping the dagger any other way will dissolve it into a blood splatter. If a cultist is hit by a thrown dagger, they will get the blood and take no damage. Cult Hood.pngCult Robes.pngCult Shoes.pngCult Backpack.png Cult Robes etc. On top of offering very decent armor values, Cult Hoods, Robes and Boots have a property of being infused with dark energy which improve the efficiency of a few rituals, namely: Conversions are performed much faster, a necessity when attempting to convert someone with an implant Raise Structure require less blood overall to summon the chosen structure, allowing a lone cultist to summon them alone. Cult Forges won't heat you as much, allowing you to remain adjacent to them for much longer. The cult power values of those clothes are 20 (hood), 50 (robes) and 10 (boots), giving you 70 cult power when wearing all of them. Lastly you can stick skull on your trophy rack backpack, however this is only cosmetic.
Blood Tesseract.png Blood Tesseract This box contains the swapped-out clothing of cultists that used the Summon Robes rune. Any cultist can use them to instantly wear the clothes that are inside, de-spawning any cult robes/hood/boots that they might be wearing, and dropping other conflicting clothing on the floor. Non-cultist can access the tesseract's content by throwing them, breaking them. Cult Helmet.pngCult Armor.png Cult Armor & Helmet This armor grants very high protection against a variety of damage types, but significantly slows down its user. For use in combination with Fervor runes/talismans. Additionally as for cult robes, these clothing have cult power values of 30 (Helmet) and 60 (Armor), offering 100 cult power when worn along with cult boots. Helmets offer some mild protection from the sound of flash bangs. Cult Blade.pngCult Blade Broken.png Cult Blade & Broken Cult Blade Cult Blades are the cult's signature melee weapon, dealing a whooping 30 brute damage. They are very high profile and hard to conceal, but can cut off limbs in a few hits. Non-cultists that attempt to swing this blade will stun themselves and take damage. Can be upgraded into Soul Blades, which can then be broken into Broken Cult Blades. Those broken blades only deal 15 damage, but can be used by anyone. Broken Cult Blades may also be unearthed by Xenoarchaeologists on the Asteroid. Soul Blade.pngSoul Blade Shade.gifSoul Blade Perforate.gif Soul Blade By lodging a Soul Gem inside a Cult Blade, the weapon becomes a Soul Blade which offers quite a few buffs: The blade now deals an additional 5 burn damage on hit When thrown, the blade will perforate everything on its path until it hits a wall (only 20 damage if no shade inside) The blade now shares a Soul Gem's properties of stealing souls, should the gem be empty. The blade may be planted on top of an altar to channel an observer in its gem. Same risk as with the Conversion rune to reveal the Cult early. When a shade inhabits the blade, it has a few abilities available, which it can cast using its 100u of available blood: Moving, which takes 1u blood per tile Spin Attack, which costs 5u blood, hits mobs and objects on the blade's tile, as well as in front of it, can be cast by clicking anywhere. Perforate Attack, which costs 20u blood, hits mobs in a line, can be cast as a dual attack by mouse-dragging from a turf to another one. Mend, which costs 10u blood and heals some brute damage of the person holding the blade, and clamping bleeding. Blood Boil, which costs 10u blood and deals 25 brute, 25 burn, and steals 50u blood from a non-cultist holding the blade Additionally, cultists may use the blade to: Remove the gem Donate 10u of their blood, which immediately gives the blade 20 blood back, and heals 20% of its hp. Lastly the blade may be swung in the air to send blood projectiles that only hurt (non-cultist) mobs and create blood splatters, using 5u of its blood. The blade gets 1u of blood back per second if it has less than 8 blood, and 2u if it is being held by a cultist. It may also be planted on an altar to regenerate 5u per second. The blade has 50hp, and can be hit by projectiles and thrown items.
Construct Shell Alt.png Construct Shell Those shells allow cultists to turn shades into powerful constructs (see below). Depending on whether a Soul Gem or a Soul Stone Shard is used, the construct will have a few extra abilities. Creatures Constructs created using a Soul Gem will be referred below as “Perfect”-type.
Shade.png Shade Shades are basically ghosts given more tangibility by the dark energies of the Cult's magic. They can ventcrawl and move through doors without having to wait for them to fully open, however, they are VERY fragile, with only 40hp (death in two laser hits) and only attack for 8 damage, their specialty is running away and attacking unarmed crew members. Cultists that die after the first Altar has been raised can choose to turn into a Shade, they may actually turn into one at any point by simply using the “Ghost” verb. You might want to do it before that security officer blows your brain out. Artificer Perfect.pngArtificer.png Artificer Artificers are the cult's builders. They have 100hp and deal a measly 5 damage, making them ill-suited for direct combat. They are however able to conjure walls and floors at will, pylons that work as light sources, along with extra construct shells and soul stone shards. Artificers can also see health bars above all constructs, and heal them by touching them. Perfect Artificers can also build cult altars, forges and spires, along with Cult Doors. They can summon up to 3 Hex, to defend an area, and heal other constructs at a slight range using a beam. Lastly, they may also use cult altars and forges (without the risk of overheating).
Wraith Perfect.pngWraith.png Wraith With 75hp, an average 15 damage, but with also the highest movement speed of all constructus, Wraiths specialize in escaping danger and offering the cult support by placing Path Runes. Their bladed arms are sharp, increasing the chance of causing bleeding or severing limbs at each attack. They have a Phase Shift spell that lets them disappear for 5 seconds during which they can move through any obstacle or walls but can't attack, as well as a Wraith Tear spell that lets them warp to a nearby target tile, leaving behind a portal that connects the two tiles, but briefly confuses any non-cultist that goes through them. Their bladed arms can also force firelocks and powered-off airlocks open. They are a good choice to send to destroy the AI due to their Phase Shift spell, which allows them to teleport directly on top of the AI. Juggernaut Perfect.pngJuggernaut.png Juggernaut Boasting 250hp, 30 damage, and being immune to any attack of force 10 or less, Juggernauts are one of the most dangerous constructs. They can even reflect energy and laser projectiles. They are however incredibly slow, they will generally try to trap their target between them and the force wall they can spawn every 25 seconds (for 20 seconds) with their only spell. They can punch machinery and computers to break them. Perfect Juggernauts have a better force wall that spreads other 3 tiles on both sides, and a second spell that lets them dash forward at a very high speed, knocking down mobs on their path, which they can use every 15 seconds.
Hex.png Hex Those monsters spawned by Perfect Artificers will generally not wander far on their own, making them great to defend an area. You can pull them to relocate them. They have 50 hp and move at very high speed when they detect an enemy. They have a ranged attack that deals 15 burn damage and splatters blood. Space Bats.png Space Bats With 20hp and dealing 8 damage, bats are the less threatening monsters that may appear from the Blood stones' defense mechanism. They are likely to appear when the first blood stones get cracked, and stop appearing when few are left. Faithless.gif Faithless With 80hp and dealing 15 damage, faithless are a threat to unarmed crew members. Creature.gif Creature Those otherthings have 80hp, but their attacks deal 30 damage, making them very dangerous to unarmored crew, though they die fairly quickly from a laser gun. Tips Since not every cultist might have a job providing a safe place where to write runes, it's a good idea for the first cultist to use the Communicate rune to call for a meetup. The Bar or the Library can be good places where to organize. Where you raise the first Altar doesn't have to be where your first cult base will be. Once the altar is built, you may use a Conceal rune to hide it. Always start by checking whether there's an AI, and the size of the Security force. Remember that cameras are your enemies. If you really must write runes where there are cameras, try to hide it under an open locker or something similar. The first thing you want to do is spawn your own Arcane Tome (See Blood Hell) and then Conceal the Altar, unless you're completely sure it won't be discovered in this place. You can now start producing stun talismans, and locate areas in which you could perform Conversions. There are various ways to go about it, including: Having a Conversion rune ready, hidden in a closet or a bedroom, away from cameras. Stun a lone passerby with a talisman, drag him over to the Conversion rune, convert. Stunning someone in a room that doesn't have much traffic like the library, dragging them to the back, and writing the Conversion rune quickly using your tome before they can talk again. Having a Conversion rune concealed, and a Reveal talisman ready, stun them with a talisman, drag them to the Conversion rune, reveal it, convert. Either way, Stun talismans will be your bread and butter. If you don't want to get caught with tomes and talismans converting people, keep it minimal and only use the conversion rune words from the wiki, then do the following: Stun talismans can be replaced with handcuffs and stun batons, or cable cuffs, stunprods and slipping if access doesn't allow it. Do NOT slip with soap, they don't stay downed long enough to do it with. Clown PDAs are great and last seemingly forever. Water slipping also lasts sufficiently long. Once downed, to save time, it's important to have their strip menu open already, then cuff them and remove their earpiece, in that order, being quick enough so that they don't shout “HELP (LOCATION)” over comms. Disabling suit sensors may be advisable too. Stun prods only give you time to do both at once with one charge, sequentially with two. Make a hand crank for your stunprod cell (remove with screwdriver) if rechargers are hard to come by. Once your target is FULLY helpless, (make sure to also disable nearby intercoms or radio sources) write that conversion rune and drag em over it, preferably away from cameras. This is the part where Security is the most likely to find you, and where it'll be the most dangerous since you still only have access to half your runes. Therefore if the cult gets busted, your priority is to keep trying to convert lone crew members to make it to the next Act. If the Conversion ends up with the target being devoured, quickly hide the Coffer in your backpack. You may check the coffer's content from your backpack by drag-n-drop-ing the coffer on your character. If the sacrifice is an Security Officer or somebody else with an SPS the pulse talisman is your best friend. The EMP will knock out their SPS, headset and suit sensors so they cannot be located. Using the pulse talisman on a Detective is usually a bad idea, since they're usually carrying camera bugs that explode when EMP'd. You can find out the sacrifice's location by communing with Nar'sie at an altar. You can also use the Astral Journey rune to find the sacrifice. You can already start spreading blood to have an easier time in Act III. Blood packs are great to spread a lot of blood. You can either poke them once on help intent with something sharp like a screwdriver or pen to let them slowly drip out or violently stab them on harm intent to make them explode and spread their contents over multiple tiles. Blood grenades also work great to cover a lot of tiles with blood Now it's usually a good time to start going loud with cult robes and swords. The Confusion talisman can be very robust, since the person who it gets used on sees everyone as monsters and cannot distinguish friend from foe
Bow to the Geometer of Blood Crew/Security Guide: Brought to you by the Anti-Cult Gang General tips Securing the silicons is crucial. Remember, cultists are still humans, and the stunpapers aren't obvious signs of harm, so an Asimov AI will still be bound to protect the human cultists. When the cult is confirmed, ask someone with access (HoP, Captain, someone holding the spare…) to rush to the upload and change the AI to Robocop. Not only should it now actively help you, any cyborgs you make will also be that much useful. Cameras are useful to spot and track cultists if you suspect an activity. The common hotspots for cult (and antagonist activity in general) are Xeniobiology, the outpost, and Virology. Be aware that you should only act on confirmed cult activity or very serious evidence. Changing the alert level will make searching that much easier and will also communicate to the non-cultist crew to be on their guard. It is, however, a dead giveaway that you know something. You should know how to play the information game. If you know there is a cult on-board, but the cultists are unaware that you know, you have the initiative. Work in groups and have a buddy. The most common way to patrol with a buddy is to drag them in a closed body bag. This way, they can pop up ready to fight, but do not otherwise impede your movement when walking in maintenance. Buddybags are dead. Bloodstones spawn in a square pattern across the station. Keep that in mind when trying to locate the other bloodstones. They shouldn't spawn in space either. For every 1/3 of their maximum health they take, bloodstones will spawn stronger and stronger cult mobs. They don't respawn. Pack ranged weapons, a lot of them, if you're alone. Apart from the anchor bloodstone (1200 HP), all other bloodstones will only have 600 HP. If you break the anchor bloodstone, you've pretty much knocked the cult out of commission, but make sure to break each bloodstone. It's a good idea to wear riot armor when destroying blood stones, since you'll face monsters that can easily kill you with their high brute damage When cultists die (or decide to do so in their living) and aren't decapitated/have their head gibbed, they can turn into a ventcrawling shade that can make its way back to the cult. Shades die in just two shots with a laser gun, so it's recommended to keep an energy gun on you to easily dispose of shaded cultists. Never, EVER, pick up an opened arcane tome as a non-cultists. You'll get stunned. Never, EVER, pick up a soul sword as a non-cultist. You're liable to get your blood drained and boiled at the same time. How to deal with potential cultists Check if they have a loyalty implant first. If you haven't heard any of security die recently and the HoS shows up with no implants, it's time to ask him some very pointed questions. In the interrogation room. While cuffed. Splashing a cultist with any amount of holy water will make him dizzy, jittery and blur his vision, depending on the act. During the prologue, splashing cultists won't do anything. Forcedrinking a cultist with holy water will debuff them, but even on Act 1, they'll still stutter and get dizzy. If you don't have a chaplain around to produce more holy water, you can inject holy water into food for more economic usage of holy water. Another way is to strap a can/beaker of holy water to an IV, then momentarily hooking the IV to a cultist. To save on splashing holy water, get a condiment bottle or a dropper and set the transfer rate to 1u. Yes, 1u of holy water still does the job. Since cultists lose their loyalty implants when they get converted, that also means that they can't be implanted again if Act 2 has been reached. You'll get a big red message saying the implanting failed if you've got a cultist. Keep in mind, this will destroy the implant upon usage. Cultists will often try to shade upon death. Keep a weapon handy and don't open any doorway to let them out. If you see them stand still next to a vent/scrubber, bump into them to cancel the ventcrawling. Then bash them into ectoplasm. While mostly a joke, Holy Hand Grenades are a thing. Make a normal chemical smoke grenade, but add in 5u Sulphuric Acid and at least 25u of Holy Water, then chuck it into a room of cultists. The acid will barely deal any damage, but it will melt their internals off and knock them on the floor, flashbang resistance be damned. How to fight cult constructs Every construct has an upgraded version with a different sprite compared to the original. Learn to spot the difference.
Artificers: They're mildly more beefy than shades, but aren't really an actual danger. If you're at the leasure of doing so, kill them first because they'll be healing up any other constructs. Or generating more construct shells. Make electrified grilles and wire the engines to the grid, then laugh as they ash themselves in one hit. They can also spawn Hexes, which are small construct AIs, to defend themselves. Wraiths: About as tanky as an artificer, but can hit in melee for much harder. If upgraded, they can jaunt around to go on an AI-slaying quest or fire a bullet that will pin the victim to the floor, leaving them open for melee whacking. Juggernauts: Melee powerhouses. Get a laser gun or something, because any attack that doesn't deal at least 11 damage will bounce off their armor. They can smash walls into pieces quite easily. OH YEAH! If upgraded, they can also perform a Marauder-style dash, knocking down anybody that was in their path. In addition, they can deploy a 3-tile long wall with themselves at the middle to create a makeshift barrier. Soul Swords: Never hold one in your hands if you find one on the floor. If they're out of a cultist's hands, you'll often see them floating about. If floating around, they can attack in an AOE in front of themselves at a cost of blood. They can also send themselves flying in a straight line, dealing heavy damage to anyone in the way. Try to bait out the line-dash attack to exhaust their blood reserves, then go in for the kill. If you've got balls of steel and quick timing, you can quickly pick up the sword and yank the soul gem out of it, making it inert.