## Introduction ## **Evil Cult** is a strategy board game of global conquest. You play as the leader of one of four cults whose goal is to summon the Elder God you worship or, barring that, to eliminate the other three cults' influence on the world. To do so, you must both recruit _priests_ and abduct _virgins_. You can try to summon your Elder God when you have 3 priests and 9 virgins. The success of this endeavor is greatly dependent on society's _awareness_ of your actions. While you work on your goals, the other three cults are doing the same, gathering priests and virgins for their own nefarious goals. ## Cults ## ### Basics ### At the start of the game you have one follower, a _neophyte_. As this neophyte is the _Origin_ of your cult, each turn he generates a point of one of the three _core resources_: **Intimidation**, **Persuasion**, or **Bribery**. Which resource the neophyte generates is determined randomly at the start of the game. You will need these resources to gain more followers or to convert the followers of other cults. You can convert between these three resources at a 2-to-1 ratio. _Virgins_ are another resource that you collect, and they can be converted to any other resource at a 1-to-1 ratio. ### Nodes ### The squares with letters on the map screen represent individual people, and therefore your potential followers. The letter represents the resource you need to sway that follower to your cause. If a follower already belongs to another cult, the letter is replaced by a number showing the _level_ of that follower. The higher the level, the harder the conversion process becomes. Pick a node that needs a resource which you have and click on it. That action will trigger an attempt to gain the follower represented by that node. The chance of success, along with other information about the node, is displayed in a tooltip that appears if you hover your mouse pointer over the node. If you do not have the resources which are necessary to gain any adjacent nodes, don't worry; you can convert the resources you have to the ones you need. Note that trying to convert a follower from another cult will start a war with that cult. Wars only end with the complete destruction of one of the sides involved, so think hard before converting followers of another cult! ### Generators ### Nodes with wider borders are _generator_ nodes; when you gain the follower they represent, they will generate a point of the resource shown in the tooltip each turn. A generator node is harder to gain than a standard node, but the additional resources are worth the challenge. Keep in mind that if society's awareness of your cult is high, you can fail to get some of the new resources on the next turn. Small numbers (such as "+0-1") under the current resource amount in the _status panel_ show how much of that resource you will get on the next turn. Generators are a valued possession for any cult so they are in need of _protection_. If a generator node is connected to 3 or more nodes it becomes protected; no cult can try to convert this node without first converting nodes around it so that the number of connections drops below 3. Protected nodes have their border colored white. ### Origin ### Every cult starts from one node; that node is the _Origin_ of the cult, and is the most important member of the cult. It is marked with a double border on the map for ease of recognition. Only by converting another cult's Origin can you stop the Final Ritual that the cult will inevitably try and perform to take over the world. When a cult's Origin is lost, one of the cult's priests is immediately transformed into its new Origin. If no priests are available, the cult is paralyzed and cannot expand its army of followers until a new priest is initiated and transformed into the Origin. If after 3 turns no priests are found, one of the cult nodes will become an Origin and a temporary resource generator (it will stop generating resources if taken over). ### Followers ### Your followers can be one of three levels: _neophytes_, _adepts_ and _priests_. To upgrade a follower you will need a number of virgins equal to the new level and 3 followers of the convertee's current level. Neophytes gather virgins each turn, hence the importance of converting people to your cause. In addition, adepts can lower society's awareness of your cult, and priests are needed for the Final Ritual. ### Awareness ### Society's awareness is a very important statistic. The higher it is the harder it is to do anything: gaining a follower, performing a ritual, or receiving a resource. You will notice the effects of high awareness when you start failing to gain new followers. In that case you will need to lower it using your adepts. Of course, you need to have some adepts first. Adepts can lower awareness by 2% using any of the available resources except virgins. Despite their power in influencing society, adepts are not superhuman; each adept can only use one resource point per turn to reduce awareness. ### Winning the Game ### There are a few ways to win: you can convert all the nodes of the opposing cults, destroying their ability to operate, or you can complete the Final Ritual and bring about the unholy desires of the horror your cult worships. Keep in mind that if all cults except yours are paralyzed, you win the game! There is also a chance that an investigator will destroy last node of a last opposing cult leaving your cult alone. That also qualifies as a victory. ### Rituals ### #### Ritual of Unveiling #### Ritual of Unveiling is a cheaper mid-game ritual requiring only 5 virgins, 1 priest and 3 ritual points to complete. Upon completion, all origins of other cults will be revealed on the map. This one is very useful in a blitzkrieg game. This ritual cannot fail on completion. #### The Final Ritual #### Three priests are required to complete the Final Ritual. While performing the Ritual, each priest generates one ritual point per turn, which goes into a pool of points needed for finishing the Ritual. The Final Ritual needs 9 ritual points to be performed (6 on easy difficulty), so you can slow down another cult's completion of the ritual by converting its priests, or speed yours up by making new priests of your own. This ritual can fail on completion if the society awareness is high enough. In that case one of the cult's priests goes insane and is replaced by a fresh neophyte. Note that upon starting the Final Ritual, all other cults automatically declare war on your cult. In addition, successful conversion of the _Origin_ of any cult working on their Final Ritual brings the ritual to a halt and empties the pool of ritual points, forcing the cult to start over. ### Opposing Cults ### Don't forget that all of these rules also apply to the other three cults in play; you may find as you work to complete your goals another cult beats you to their goal. Make sure that doesn't happen! ## Investigators ## ### What are They? ### After a cult gains its first adept, there is a small chance each turn that an _investigator_ will become aware of its existence. Each cultist contributes to this number, with adepts modifier being higher than neophytes' and each priest contributing heavily. Once an investigator is aware of a particular cult, he focuses on that one to the exclusion of all others. His goal is simple: the destruction of the cult. When an investigator first becomes aware of a cult, his _willpower_ is low; he has not gained enough knowledge about the cult to be completely resolved in his mission. Every turn afterwards the investigator is likely to gain a point of willpower, and with every 3 points he gains a new _level_. If he reaches 3rd level, with 9 willpower points, he becomes unstoppable. The cult cannot destroy him, only repair the damage he wreaks. ### The Investigator's Blight ### Every turn an investigator unravels the dark secrets of random followers. They must be the same level or lower than he, and he can only discover a number equal to his level as well. Those followers are killed or forced to commit suicide, replaced with new members of normal society. In addition, the society awareness level of this cult is boosted due to the rash of deaths and murders. If the investigator unravels the Origin of a cult, the cult is of course paralyzed but the investigator will disappear thinking he destroyed the cult. Once a Final Ritual begins, any investigator of that cult will focus on the highest-level followers available to him rather than random cultists. He also has a chance of gaining two willpower points each turn due to the desperate situation caused by the Final Ritual. ### Destroying an Investigator ### Once an investigator becomes active, a cult must first find out just who he is. This takes time depending on the difficulty level of the game. You can decrease this time significantly using sects (on hard difficulty you are basically required to do so as the investigator will forever stay hidden and active destroying your cult over time). Once his identity is uncovered, adepts can spend two core resource points per turn to try and lower his willpower by a single point. If an investigator's willpower is lowered to zero, they succumb to the overwhelming darkness and futility of their situation and are destroyed. The elimination of an investigator gives a cult some breathing room, as it takes time before another picks up the scent of the cult. ### Hiding from an Investigator ### If the society awareness level of a cult is below 5%, investigators have a difficult time finding information about the cult, and do not gain willpower. Once an investigator has reached level 3, they can no longer be destroyed. However, with a low society awareness level, the investigator may be fooled into thinking the cult is already almost destroyed and not work with the diligence they may otherwise bring to bear. ## Sects ## ### General information ### Once a cult reaches some amount of nodes, it will start to create sects. The main purpose of a sect is to fulfill various small tasks for its parent cult. These tasks range from collecting information about a different cult or a specific node to confusing the investigator who tries to destroy the cult. Sect members have no idea about the cult they serve. As far as they know, their leader is the supreme enlightened, etc. By default, sect management is automatic - the sect advisor will set tasks for all sects by itself. You can turn the advisor off in options. Also, changing the sect task manually will remove it from advisor's control. AI will not create or use sects, and that is an advantage for player. Only neophytes and adepts can create sects for themselves. Priests are too busy doing priest stuff to be bothered with such mundane tasks. However, if a follower becomes a priest while being a leader of a sect, nothing bad will happen. Clicking the button `SECTS` on top of the game window will display a list of your sects. Starting size of sect depends on the level of its leader. A sect grows some amount of members each turn. Once reaching sufficient amount of members a sect raises its level. There are three levels of sects and each one will open up additional tasks for the sect. If the leader of the sect is taken over by enemy cult or killed by an investigator, the sect is destroyed. The sect information window also displays how many people will join this sect on the next turn. ### Tasks ### Each turn a sect with a task generates the amount of task points equal to its size. Those go towards completing the task. There are two kinds of tasks. One requires X amount of points to complete, then is finished. Upon completion the information about this task is added to the log. The other one is worked on each turn, the sect does something specific with the amount of task points generated. Keep in mind that on easy difficulty some tasks are useless because the information is already known at start of the game. Also some tasks are optional while others are required to progress further into the game. * **Cult information** (level 1, 30 points) - Gather general information about target cult. Displays the description of the cult in the cult information window and makes it significantly easier to conquer nodes of this cult. * **Node information** (level 1) - Each turn this sect gathers information about visible nodes of target cult. The bigger the sect the greater amount of nodes will the information be gathered about. If information about specific node is not known, you don't know what level the node is (represented by "?" symbol) and don't know what resources you need to take it over. The chance to gain it is also reduced (you can still click it to try to conquer it). * **Cult resources** (level 1, 50 points) - Gather information about the resources at target cult's disposal. The information goes into log. * **Search for investigator** (level 1, 50 points) - Upon completion, the investigator is revealed and can be attacked using adepts. Keep in mind, that on normal difficulty the investigator will be revealed only 10 turns after he appears and on hard difficulty this won't happen at all! * **Confuse investigator** (level 1) - With each sect on this task the chance of investigator to kill any of your followers is decreased depending on sect level. * **Sabotage ritual** (level 2) - Try to sabotage the ritual performed by target cult. The sect requires 150 task points per each ritual point removed. Also, the chance of that happening is lower than 100%. When successful, the ritual pool of target cult is decreased by the number of successes. * **Sacrifice sect** (level 2, 100 points) - Sacrifices this sect to significantly reduce investigator willpower based on sect level. The sect is destroyed in the process. * **Harvest sect** (level 2, 100 points) - Harvest this sect for a chunk of resources based on sect level. The sect will also be destroyed. * **Search for artifacts** (level 2, Artifacts expansion) - When enabled, will make this sect focus on searching for the artifacts. Found artifacts will appear on game map for a limited time for all player cults. ## Expansions and Game Flags ## ### Artifacts of the Arcane ### This expansion brings the occult artifacts into the mix. Powerful mystic items, they must be found and activated to obtain their power. Upgrading adept into a priest will require having an artifact in your cult's storage. Artifacts have a level, from 1 to 3. This level will be used when calculating ritual points each turn when the ritual is active. To obtain an artifact, you need to find it first. Artifacts are searched for by sects when they gain level 2. When the task is active, each turn there is a chance of finding a random artifact. When the artifact is found, it appears on the map with a number showing how much turns it will stay there. If the artifact is not collected by clicking on its node (with the usual rules on needing an adjacent follower node), it disappears again. Upgrading the adept to a priest is done with the usual upgrade button. This action binds the artifact to the priest and activates it. Losing the priest will also remove this artifact from gameplay. There are four unique artifacts that may appear on the map. Each of them has a special effect which is enabled only when the artifact is active. The individual effects are not described in this manual. ### Game Flags ### At the start new game menu you can select various game flags that change the behavior of the game. Some of the flags are tied to the expansions and will be activated automatically when the expansion is selected. Vice versa, deselecting the flag that is needed for an expansion will also remove the selection from the expansion. Currently, the game has the following flags implemented. #### No military blitz victory #### When this flag is on, you cannot win the game by simultaneously paralyzing all enemy cults. #### Devoted sects #### This flag enables the ability to pour resources into individual sects, setting the devoted status while there are resources available. When the flag is set, each sect will have a primary resource type chosen during the creation. In the sects information window you will see the button marked with this resource near the sect name. Clicking on the button will transfer a unit of this resource from the cult storage to the sect. If there are enough resources to make the sect devoted for at least one turn, the effect will be applied when this turn ends. The amount needed depends on the sect level. You cannot transfer the resources back into the cult storage. Having the devoted status effect will: * Increase the sect's growth speed * Increase the amount of task points generated by this sect * Raise the minimal awareness of your cult #### Long rituals #### Significantly increases the amount of turns needed to perform all rituals. ## Miscellaneous information ## ### Difficulty Settings ### Before the start of each new game you can select a difficulty level. Changing this level alters the following aspects of gameplay: * Chance of gaining core resources from generators each turn * Chance of successfully upgrading your followers * Chance of successfully performing the Final Ritual * Chance of gaining new followers * Chance of an investigator appearing * Chance of an investigator revealing a follower * Chance of success in lowering an investigator's willpower using adepts * Chance of investigator gaining willpower * Number of turns needed to uncover an investigator In addition, on the Hard difficulty all generator nodes around the Origin of the player's cult are removed. The AI cults play with the opposite difficulty of the player. So, for example, if you choose the Hard difficulty level, the three AI cults operate under the rules of the Easy difficulty level. Be forewarned! ### Keyboard shortcuts ### The game allows using keyboard shortcuts to do most often used actions. Here is the complete list: In any menu: * 1-5 - the appropriate menu item * Esc/Enter/Space - closes any menu (and also any window) During the game while being on map: * A - advanced map mode * C - cults information * E - end turn * F - toggle fullscreen * L - log * M - manual * S - sects management dialog * Esc - main menu * 1-3 - upgrade neophytes/adepts/start summoning ritual