Slash though enemies, bring down old gods, meet silly NPCs, and most importantly: Grow your flock. Even if it means facing the bitter cold.
Welcome to Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven.
*Minor spoilers ahead for the story of the DLC
This is a world where you run though different corners of the land and face down beings that have been imbued with the blessing of a god, then face the god itself. While frustrating at times, the Woolhaven expansion summons even more life into the adorable yet dark world of Cult of the Lamb–and I adored it.
Now, before the update I had 44 out of the 48 achievements, three being defeat bosses hitless, and one being the achievement for all achievements. I have a love for the base game, the characters, the story, the cult. It has been very fun, and while I have not gotten the achievements yet, I did beat the final boss of Woolhaven on Jan. 23, just one day after its release.
The base game sits at $24.99. Woolhaven is a $16.99 add-on that is more than double the size of the original base game. With that said it is a very ambitious project and was well worth the wait and price considering how small the original game was.
The DLC (downloadable content) of Woolhaven was teased back in August of 2024 with the end of the “Hook, Line and Sinker” short showing the ocean freezing over after the credits. At the time, the community had no idea what was about to happen. A year later the team, Massive Monster, would drop the announcement trailer for the Woolhaven DLC.
I was very excited to see that the team was expanding the game even more with their first ever paid DLC. The last three, Relics of the Old Faith, Sins of the Flesh, and Unholy Alliance were all added for free to the base game, each adding to the story, but not adding more than relics, heavy attacks, boss rush, something akin to a second phase of the main 4 boss fights from the Old Faith update.
Sins of the Flesh gave us mating, sin, guns and outfits. Unholy Alliance added couch co-op, new traits, and more lore. Each of the updates comes with new tarot cards, relics, follower forms, decorations and cult upgrades.
With the steam chart there is a clear uptick in players around the release of Woolhaven. Around this same time, I saw many more clips from newer players, more art being made, and the MassiveMonster team posting more often, giving small details about the new addition to the game.
It’s important to acknowledge what all the team has been doing in the past two years. Aside from their very jokey online posts to keep followers up to date on the DLC’s progress, they legally married two different couples, filmed the weddings, and both videos can be found on their YouTube page.
Gameplay
The cult: While half of the fun comes from being able to beat up gods and heretics, the other half of the gameplay loop comes from the need to take care of the cult. The new DLC gave me the ability to expand the land of the cult. It is expensive but worth the ability to have more space for everything the updates have added.
When I started Woolhaven, I was using my main save, meaning I had already maxed out all my stats (hearts, tarot cards, relics and weapons) and fully automated my cult as much as possible. This let me get to the end credits of the DLC in two days.
My followers can cook food, clean up the cult grounds and farm food, leaving me to only deal with the seeds and crops once fully grown. If anyone died, they would be put into a morgue.
With the addition of winter, things slowly got more difficult as I brought more lost souls back to Yngya. It was a struggle to gather the new needed resources as the DLC has a set path to follow, meaning I’d have to hope I got what I needed.
When I was actually able to build up the needed resources, it was a little more manageable. There were times I’d leave the cult to continue the DLC’s story, and come back to my furnace out of fuel and followers on the verge of freezing.
Weapons: The newest base weapon added to the game is the flail and it is my new favorite to play with. It has a longer reach than the non-gun-based weapons. For me it feels the best as with its reach, I don’t need to get close to anything, letting me safely deal damage and run from leaping enemies.
Its heavy attack, once unlocked, makes many enemies much easier to take care of, hitting them twice with large amounts of damage killing some low HP enemies in one heavy hit.
There are new legendary weapons as well. Each weapon type has a legendary counterpart that can be found while on a run. If used in capable hands they are the most powerful weapons in the game, they have unique properties that make them more powerful than a regular weapon, even the “Godly” ones, but they do not always compare in base damage.
Ranching: With the coming of winter crops don’t grow, so you learn to ranch from a ghost. The different animals you can ranch produce different things; most give wool. Wool is used as a currency with the residents of Woolhaven.
You can also ranch seeds, silk, crystal shards, milk, and rotburn (used to fuel the furnace). You can ride most of the animals once they reach level three. As you level animals they can produce more resources.
They do not live very long; when any animal reaches a certain age they will be labeled as “prime” and show a halo. A prime animal will give more meat when killed. Once an animal passes their prime, they die. Followers can be made to shear animals, much like they can be used to farm crops.
They can not deal with the dead animal so when I come back and see the sickness meter lower, I know an animal is dirty and will need to be cleaned by the lamb or has died in the ranch. A dead animal is no longer prime and will not give as much meat.
As a way to keep more animals in the ranch, you can use a sin to have two animals breed, much like followers.
While the models of the animals are adorable, the main reason for needing them is to get wool. The amount of wool needed to complete side quests and obtain new relics, weapons, animals, and cloaks is well over 500, maybe even 700. As someone who wants to 100 percent the full game, this is very annoying.
Story
In the DLC you learn of a new god, one that was once kind and loving to her flock, Yngya. She was once the god of winter. In the lore of the main game you are the last living lamb, meant to free the god of death. You instead become him.
Woolhaven is not just the name of the DLC; it is also the name of the last home of the lambs. You learn what became of the other lambs and where your lamb came from. You find they just wanted to live, as did their god. This is not what happened.
You also learn the story of the one that was made to kill the lambs and what became of the mountain they once called home.
While not important to the main story line, there are many moments that draw the player in and are very upsetting or just sad to realize, all of this coming though as you do quests for the souls of the lambs.
Easter Eggs
The Massive Monster team has a few silly Easter eggs: one of the tarot cards that can be found is a reference to another indie game, Balatro, made by one man.
While exploring the overworld, I found the ocean frozen over. Also, when I started to explore on the ice, I found a small island. There, I found an NPC named River Boy waiting for me. River Boy is the screen name of the artist behind the music for COTL.
He sadly passed before the DLC’s release, in 2025. When I looked at his follower traits, I learned that he is immortal. The Massive Monster team made their lead music artist immortal within the world that he helped build but never got to see.
The other is not found on a crusade but in Woolhaven. You can find one last grave, the grave of the Knight. This is a reference to the game Hollow Knight; once found its “wool” will appear, and when burying it you will receive the cloak of the Knight.
With the two other game indie Easter eggs, I find it very cool that it has become a developer-supporting-developer culture. It might be small, but it opens the door for more crossovers later on.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed this add-on. I plan to continue trying to get all the achievements and uncover more of the sad tale of Yngya and her flock.
Cult of the Lamb can be played on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo switch. It can also be played on Apple Arcade, but the DLC is not available there yet.
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