Followers are the backbone of Cult of the Lamb; without followers, you wouldn’t be able to manage your cult! Followers are indisputably important in Cult of the Lamb, but not all followers are necessarily made equal in this game. All followers come with their own set of traits, usually with one good trait and one bad trait (occasionally you’ll get a follower with two bad traits or two good traits, however).
A follower’s usefulness relies on which traits they have; if a follower has a decent good trait but a really terrible bad trait, it could mean trouble for your cult. Declaring doctrines and introducing Cult Traits can make certain followers a little better, but Cult Traits can only do so much. This is a complete list of possible follower traits in Cult of the Lamb to look out for during your playthrough.
All Follower Traits in Cult of the Lamb
Most follower traits in Cult of the Lamb can be gained naturally, by converting followers into your cult. There are, however, a few good traits that can be gained through rituals or by declaring new doctrines; traits gained through this method are called “Cult Traits” because they apply to every follower in your cult. The Grass Eater trait, for example, can only be gained through declaring the Grass Eater doctrine at your temple, and applies to all of your cult’s followers. Here are all of the available follower traits in Cult of the Lamb:
- Sloth – Work and devotion generation speed are reduced by 10%.
- Strong Constitution – Will heal 15% faster when sick and when on bed rest.
- Cynical – 15% harder to level up.
- Devotee – Gain additional Faith when delivering a daily Sermon.
- Belief in Original Sin – Reduced loss of Faith when putting a follower in jail who is not dissenting against the cult.
- Natural Skeptic – Immediately lose 10 Faith when recruiting a new follower.
- Respect Your Elders – Gain 5 Faith when a follower reaches old age in your cult.
- Gullible – 15% easier to level up.
- Zealous – Ignores Dissenters when they preach.
- Coprophiliac – Gain 10 Faith when falling ill.
- False Idols – Gain additional Faith when placing a decoration building.
- Terrified of Death – Lose 5 Faith when another follower dies.
- Sickly – Heals 15% slower when sick and on bed rest.
- Materialistic – Gain Faith when building better sleeping quarters.
- Prohibitionism – Increase work speed and devotion generation by 10% after the Brainwashing Ritual, but 50% chance of followers becoming sick after the ritual is performed.
- Naturally Obedient – Immediately gain 10 Faith upon recruiting this follower.
- Faithful – Generates devotion 15% faster.
- Belief in Sacrifice – Gain 20 Faith whenever a follower is sacrificed.
- Faithless – Generates devotion 15% slower.
- Germaphobe – Lose 10 Faith when falling ill.
- Belief in Absolution – Gain 10 Faith for every day that begins without a follower in prison.
- Sacral Architecture – Gain 5 Faith whenever a new building is constructed.
- Grass Eater – No Faith is lost when a follower eats a grass meal.
- Against Sacrifice – Lose 5 Faith whenever a follower is sacrificed.
- Good Die Young – Gain 10 Faith whenever an elder follower is murdered, sacrificed, or consumed, but lose 20 Faith if an elder follower dies naturally.
- Immortal – Will never reach old age.
- This trait is exclusive to The One Who Waits.
- Industrious – Increases work speed by 15%.
- Cannibal – Gain 5 Faith when a follower eats a meal made of follower meat.
- Substances Encouraged – Gain 20 Faith when the Brainwashing Ritual is performed.
- Belief in Afterlife – Lose 5 Faith instead of 20 when a follower dies (by any means).
Top 5 Best Follower Traits
- Belief in Sacrifice – This trait is one of the best follower traits in Cult of the Lamb. There comes a time in everyone’s playthrough where they must sacrifice a follower for the greater good; you don’t want your followers to start dissenting every time you do what needs to be done. Unfortunately, this trait is one of the Cult Traits that can only be gained by declaring new doctrines. Still, this trait is more than worth the effort of gaining for your cult!
- Grass Eater – Grass Eater certainly is one of the most popular traits in the game, and for good reason. You can unintentionally build up massive amounts of grass when going on crusades, and you can’t do much with it until much later in the game (when it can be used as fuel or fertilizer). Grass Eater is one of the best traits to get early in the game, because it provides a convenient food source for your followers, and because it finally gets rid of all that grass clogging up your inventory!
- Gullible – Everyone wants strong followers, but no one wants to have to put in the work to make them strong. The Gullible trait, thankfully, takes a lot of the work out of toughening up your followers; followers with the Gullible trait can get stronger much faster than other followers!
- Zealous – Zealous is an indisputably amazing trait for a follower to have. Once dissenters start preaching, they have the potential to bring the whole cult down with them! Murdering, re-educating, or imprisoning dissenters can be a hassle, so the fewer dissented followers there are, the better. Followers with the Zealous trait are valuable because they will refuse to listen to dissenters, and will remain loyal to you no matter what.
- Faithful – Everybody loves having more devotion in Cult of the Lamb; more devotion means more growth for the cult and more goodies you can unlock! If you get your hands on a lot of followers with the Faithful trait, you could be generating massive amounts of devotion every day!
Top 5 Worst Follower Traits
- Terrified of Death – Death just usually happens in a demonic cult, especially when your cult is run by an indebted vessel in the name of a banished god. So when a follower has the Terrified of Death trait, not only does it not make much sense, but it can also mean trouble for the Faith of your cult. With all of the natural deaths, murders, sacrifices, and ascensions going on, the Terrified of Death trait can severely lower your cult’s Faith level, which can lead to dissenting followers.
- Against Sacrifice – Sacrifices also just usually happen in demonic cults, it really just comes with the territory. This trait doesn’t make much more sense than the Terrified of Death trait, and it can also mean serious trouble for your cult’s Faith level. At certain points in your playthrough, sacrifices just become necessary; you don’t want your cultists to dissent every time you have to sacrifice a follower.
- Natural Skeptic – This trait is just more inconvenient than anything. If you’re planning on recruiting a follower with the Natural Skeptic trait, be ready to lose 10 Faith immediately. It’s not a huge amount of Faith to lose only once, but it’s still not the most positive way to start off a follower’s indoctrination into your weird little family. At least this trait doesn’t make you lose 10 Faith every time you recruit other followers into the cult!
- Sloth – This trait isn’t the worst, but it can still be very inconvenient if you’re trying to be efficient. Followers with the Sloth trait will work and generate devotion 10% slower than other followers, so if you convert a follower with the Sloth trait, be sure to not assign them any tasks you want to be done quickly.
- Good Die Young – The Good Die Young trait is one of the most inconvenient follower traits in Cult of the Lamb. This trait makes it so, essentially, you can only sacrifice elderly followers. There’s nothing really wrong with that, and if you didn’t lose 20 Faith every time an elderly follower died of natural causes, this trait wouldn’t be all the bad. 20 Faith is a lot to lose all at once, and elderly followers don’t stick to a very strict schedule when they’re close to death. If one happens to kick the bucket while you’re away on a crusade, you can expect to come back to a camp full of vomit, sickness, a dead body, dissenters (from low Faith levels), and a lot less Faith than you started out with. This trait is one of the Cult Traits, though it’s not clear why anyone would choose to be stuck with this trait for the rest of their playthrough.
Related: How to Move, Destroy, Edit, and Manage Buildings in Cult of the Lamb
Follower traits are much more important than you might think in Cult of the Lamb, especially the traits that followers come naturally with (because they can’t be changed). Cult Traits are very valuable because they can mitigate the uselessness of a follower with bad traits, though they can really only go so far, especially if the follower has a really bad trait combination. Gamer Journalist has numerous guides on Cult of the Lamb just like this one; stick with Gamer Journalist if you ever get stuck or have questions about this game!
