Cultist Simulator: Ghoul Guide

The first thing you need to do is unlock the Ghoul Legacy – also known as Medium. Assuming you have the DLC, you can do this by losing a game to dread, or by editing the save file when a game is not in progress (i.e. after a victory/defeat, but before a new game) – to do this go into options, click the lantern icon, select the save file (titled save) and replace one of the legacy instances [e.x “priest”:”priest”] with “ghoul”:”ghoul”. Note that editing the save file is risky, and if mistakes are made you may be unable to start a game or even play cultist sim until the damaged save file is replaced with a readable one. You can make a backup save file by copying the original file, naming it something like save2 or savebackup, and then if the original file becomes unusable, you can delete the original, rename the backup to save, and everything should work again.

Now that that’s out of the way, the first few steps are simple – you start with a new job as a Medium, and several memories. Work on the job, and add one of the memories. It doesn’t really matter which memory you do add, and you could even not use any, but I wouldn’t recommend it as you would make less money. Doing this will give you the new Temptation: Temptation Remembrance. Working a second time as a medium will result in the job card changing, and you will unlock a new location soon thereafter. Visiting that location will unlock the talk verb and a new … person? to talk to. Talking to her about any memory will unlock the study verb, and the Elixir Zeboim Notes. Be warned – you might not want to talk to her about fleeting memories, as doing so will turn them into restlessness. You probably don’t want to talk to her about dread or fascination either.

At this point you should have unlocked all of the standard verbs (work, dream, talk, explore, study), and should have notes on the elixir. You might notice that creating this elixir requires a “remnant”, as well as your temptation: remembrance, and one funds. More specifically, the elixir requires a corpse.

There are several ways to obtain a corpse, and few are without risk.

The first, and perhaps most obvious way is killing a hunter. Note that doing this to the initial hunter will result in other, named, more dangerous hunters showing up eventually, and that you might fail to kill the hunter.

Another way is winter cult business. There is a chance of the cultist getting injured and notoriety, but at disciple level a winter cultist should be able to provide you a corpse (and whatever it had on it) more often then not

A third way is prisoners – they “decay” into corpses (that is, when the timer runs out they die). Your grail and edge cultists can provide prisoners much in the same way winter ones provide corpses, and imprisoning a cultist (preferably a pawn, or a cultist you don’t like much) turns them into a prisoner. This takes a while.

Last (for now), getting a cultist killed via methods other then failed hunter murder attempts. 3 scars of the same type, or one untreated scar and the season of sickness killing them (expeditions/cult business), or trying the end is beautiful rite with a cultist assisting will result in a corpse.

Now that you have a corpse, study the elixir, add passion, and enjoy the meal!

So, you ate a corpse, and now you have Dedication: Remembrance. What now?

The first change is that you now have the full formula. The second change is that the season of ambitions no longer gives you restlessness – instead it adds 1 graveyard mouth to your Dedication. Graveyard mouth does two things – firstly, when you have graveyard mouth you can go exploring with the ambition, which results in you finding a graveyard you or your cultists can go to in order to dig up corpses for you to eat. Eating corpses (like you did the first time) reduces Graveyard mouth, and produces memories. You can use these memories with the Medium job (for extra money) or talk about them with your new friend (for a variety of benefits, depending on memory and RNG), or even paint them (for level 4 lore)

A few warning notes – firstly any corpses on the table when the detective is investigating might be found by the detective as if they were notoriety. This will result in you losing the corpse, and probably gaining evidence. Secondly, don’t let graveyard mouth get to 7. Eat corpses on occasion.

Normal corpses aren’t the only thing you can eat now that you have the full formula however – there are other items out in the world that you can chow down on, and doing so is the next step of the Ghoul ascension.

There are a number of remnants the number is 9 and you need to eat them all and then add all the unique memories to the painting to get the ghoul ascension.

Remnants give you unique memories when consumed. You can talk about these with your new friend, or use them in seances – neither will consume the unique memory, but doing so isn’t very helpful either. To progress, try painting with them.

Minor spoilers for where to find the remnants
for one, look at the painting once you have it – play close attention to the text 
for most you’re looking for dead people – where would you find dead people?
one of these dead people had another item you can consume. What is an similar item that you could consume? 
try to learn all the languages

More obvious spoilers
try to do most of the low level expeditions
the high level expeditions with corpses make sense 
yes, you need to do top level expeditions (SH 14)
you don’t need to do mid level (SH 6 or SH 8) expeditions
one of the remnants does not come from the physical world

A list of remnant locations
Congregation of St Felix of Schüren – a secret history 2 location 
Crowkiss Hill – a secret history 4 location 
Keglin’s Scratch – also a secret history 4 location 
Tombs of the Shadowless Kings – the last, and repeating secret history 10 location. 
Lagun’s Tomb – a secret history 12 location 
Holiest Hemolymph – contained in Lagun’s Tomb 
True Blood of St Januarius – in Fort Geryk, a secret history 14 location 
Decrepitude – what you get when you don’t treat one of your injuries 
The Remains Of King Crucible – yes, seriously. Summon King Crucible (rite with at least 10 forge, 2 lantern, 5 knock), wait for him to time out, and then eat what he leaves behind. This will make it impossible to ever summon him again.

Once you have all the remnants memories stored forever on canvass this should be all 9 memories you can talk to your new friend about your work of art!

This will result in it becoming finished. To win, simply dream about the finished work of art, and give it the last things it needs.

One warning, although a spoiler: Give the painting Reason and Passion first, and then sacrifice health, otherwise you risk dying from the season of sickness. Coming all this way to die to the wrong thing would be a real shame 

There is a second ending unique to ghoul, and with its own achievement

Hint: The game spells out how you get this, and you can do so fairly quickly

How to get it Simply eat the first corpse, then don’t eat any others. When graveyard mouth gets up to 7 and the next season of ambition comes, this will result in you getting the new ending.

Can I win this without murder: Kind of, but someone needs to die – it can be “accidental” or on your order.

Can I win this without expeditions: No

Can I win this without reading any books: In theory, but it would take a very long time and you would need to paint some lore into being or get lucky with the bookstore lore.

Can I win this without a cult: Yes. As far as challenge runs go, this is fairly achievable.

Can I render it impossible to get the Ghoul Victory: Yes. Two ways to do this, and one of them you might not even notice right away – so be warned
Hint: don’t sell any items that are remnants, and be very careful about rivals
Full explanation Don’t sell the saints blood or the moth 12 drink – this would almost have to be intentional, so you shouldn’t worry too much about this happening. Also, don’t let any rivals complete any of the non-repeating expeditions with remnants, or you won’t be able to win the Ghoul Victory 

Can I eat the same remnant multiple times: Yes, with one of them, but you need to eat all the unique ones, so doing so doesn’t help you unless you really need to reduce grave mouth and have no other options

Does cult choice matter: Winter is slightly more useful then normal, as it can produce many corpses, but even this is minor. Cult has little impact on Ghoul difficulty or length