| Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven | |||
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| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven is a DLC expansion to Massive Monster and Devolver’s 2022 roguelite cult management simulator. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn’t do well, and whether it’s worth your money.
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Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven Review Overview
What is Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven?
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven is a DLC expansion of Massive Monster and Devolver Digital’s 2022 hit indie roguelite. Woolhaven expands the game’s cult lore to the base of Ewefall, the ancestral grounds of the Lambs and their slain god, Yngya.
Forced to face the past of their people, the Lamb bearing the Red Crown must retrace their steps, brave the rot ravaging Yngya’s mountain, and bring peace to the restless souls of their fallen people.
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven features:
⚫︎ New biomes, tech tree expansions, decorations, and more
⚫︎ New winter and blizzard mechanic for the cult base
⚫︎ Rot followers and rot-based decorations and tech
⚫︎ New Flockade mini-game, ranching mechanics, and cosmetics
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
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 Steam |
 PSN |
 Xbox |
 eShop |
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| $16.99 | |||||||
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 A Sizeable Addition, Indeed Outdoing Its Own Visuals and Music Surprisingly Deep New Mechanics |
Way Too Late Game to be Fun |
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven Story - 8/10
Cult of the Lamb’s dark fantasy has always been a mesmerizing narrative experience from start to finish, but Woolhaven kicks it up a couple of notches by blowing the door wide open on the Lamb’s backstory. The world-building is insanely vivid, and the pacing is just right, if you can ignore the fact that it’s unlocked at the last 5% of the game’s entire runtime.
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven Gameplay - 8/10
Woolhaven injects a very healthy amount of content to Cult of the Lamb’s admittedly lackluster endgame by creating entirely new mechanics to challenge you both on and off your crusades. It gets repetitive with how short each trek to Ewefall is, but apart from that, it rounds out the base game experience nicely.
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven Visuals - 9/10
Cult of the Lamb’s exotic, cutesy cult look is iconic, unmistakable, and hard to imagine being usurped by something using it as a base, but Woolhaven sure did manage to do the latter. The juxtaposition of Ewefall’ ethereal white and the Rot’s visceral crimson really sells the whole look and breaks the base game’s eventual visual monotony.
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven Audio - 10/10
River Boy made headlines when he wrote Cult of the Lamb’s OST. If they didn’t pass last 2025, I’d wager they’d have done so again with Woolhaven’s amazing orchestration and composition. It’s different yet familiar, like a new chapter to a well-loved suite that evokes new emotions and memories within its listeners. No need for improvement, this soundtrack slaps.
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven Value for Money - 9/10
Woolhaven is an absolute must-buy for any Cult of the Lamb fan, with just how much content it comes with for the low price of $16.99. Nevermind the decorations and Rot followers, the Woolhaven mechanics and biomes are enough to satisfy the hungriest of lambs, and then some. If only it could be bought by itself instead of as an extra to a base game.
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven Overall Score - 88/100
Cult of the Lamb’s latest expansion feels like a long-awaited second coming. It delivers a generous spread of new mechanics and biomes, along with hours of meaningful playtime that make the world feel fuller than ever. The soundtrack enchants, the visuals shine, and the added lore neatly completes the story of the Lamb’s ascension.
Even if it takes its time to get going, the sheer quality and care on display make it easy to forgive. This is a rich, rewarding addition that devotees and newcomers alike can appreciate.
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven DLC Review: Holy Flock, That’s a Lot of Content!
I really thought Cult of the Lamb reached its peak when it released the Sins of the Flesh update back in 2025 (or what the internet lovingly refers to as the S*x Update). In my defense, mating tents, drum circles, naked dancing, and absolution of sin seemed like peak cult shenanigans in my book. Boy, was I wrong.
Woolhaven positioned itself as a great DLC by virtue of being about the Lamb’s past and what became of their people, but no amount of prayer, benediction, or blessings could have prepared me for just how much content Massive Monster managed to pack into a DLC.
There are entirely new biomes, swathes of new mechanics like ranching and mini-games, and of course, mountains of new decor to fill your cult grounds with. But I’m getting ahead of myself. There’s no Genesis to begin with in this story of Lambs, so we’ll just begin with where the DLC starts.
Meeting the Lost God of the Lambs
Oddly enough, despite starting at the beginning of the DLC, we actually begin our journey in the final 5% of the base Cult of the Lamb experience. Woolhaven can only be unlocked once the Four Bishops of the Old Faith are fertilizer for your beets (that is to say, incredibly dead), so it’s actually a fair bit of gameplay you need to get through before the very first vestiges of this DLC expansion actually come to light.
Not to worry, though, once it gets going, boy does it get going. It starts with the Totem of Yngya at the top right corner of your cult base, right next to the exit where you go through your crusades. Though initially not intractable, once you give it the items it asks for and put Shamura in the ground, the god of the Lambs, Yngya herself, will speak to you and open a path to Woolhaven.
Next to the teleportation pad, a path will pop up into the main Woolhaven hub at the foot of the Lambs’ holy mountain, Ewefall, where the idol of Yngya and the graves of her last fallen reside. After a few exchanges, you’re tasked with braving what’s left of Ewefall to bring back the wool of her followers. And with that, you’re off.
Let me just begin by saying that this was a genius move on Massive Monster’s part, specifically because adding more story to an otherwise complete tale is a tricky endeavor. Having a new member of the setting’s pantheon does wonders for its world-building, and the fact that they’re the long-dead god of the long-dead Lambs makes it a seamless addition to the base game’s established lore.
Yngya is such an enigmatic and deep figure who doesn’t play all their cards outright, such that you doubt their motives, even if it’s clearly benevolent. Whether or not I mean anything by that, you’ll have to find out yourself. Just know that they really cooked with this one’s story as well as their new mechanics. Speaking of, let’s get to those.
Expanding Operations to Woolhaven
Now, managing a cult is plenty hectic as it is, but what if we threw a few more layers of micromanagement your way just for fun? That’s basically how Woolhaven adds to the gameplay of base CoTL, because everything this game unlocks is complementary to what you already have in-game, and perfect in the narrative and mechanical context of Woolhaven.
What do I mean by that? Well, since Woolhaven is an endgame expansion meant to challenge a player who managed to defeat all four of the Bishops, it, too, must pose as much challenge and variety as the base game’s late game content. There must be something it can throw at a Lamb with 20+ followers, fully upgraded housing, a fully upgraded icon, farms out the wazoo, and every building unlocked under their belt.
Well, we’ll get to what the challenge is in a bit, but I will talk about what tools the game gives you to deal with it now. We begin with the Lamb unlocks, as I like to call them. Once you manage to retrieve Wool from Ewefall and call forth one of Yngya’s last fallen, you get to rebuild and make use of their specialty. I won’t go through all of them, so you won’t get spoiled, but the first one is always Barq the Rancher.
To nobody’s surprise, he unlocks the ranch, which lets you fulfill the pastoral lifestyle the game’s themes always evoked but never committed to. Once you’ve got a ranch set up and going, there’s no need to send followers out on missions for food, and now you’ve also got a steady supply of Wool, Woolhaven’s new currency.
Unlocking the Scribe unlocks Flockade, Woolhaven’s version of Knucklebones, and the most addicting tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors game you’ve ever played. You get to play for money and resources too, like in Ratau’s hut, so get this out early if you’re a champ at that kind of thing.
There are over ten Lamb unlocks for you to get, each expanding the functionality of the Woolhaven area to some capacity, so there’s much to do and much to see in this expansion through that alone. Of course, that’s not everything, though.
What need have you of ranching when your farms can feed a nation? What need have you of Flockade when Ratau has your dice warmed up for you in his hut? Two words: Rot and Ice.
Spreading Rot and Devouring Frost
Woolhaven brings with it perhaps the biggest game changer in all of Cult of the Lamb since the Sin system back in Sins of the Flesh. Every so often, and whenever you ferry enough lost souls from Eweffalls back to Yngya, Winter will tighten its frigid grasp on your hapless cult base. Snow shall begin to fall, frost will form, and your followers will slowly start to freeze as Yngya’s influence grows stronger with each crusade to the mountain.
This is a legitimate threat that the game throws at you the moment Woolhaven is activated, threatening to freeze your followers where they stand and grinding your entire base to a halt. Frozen followers can’t do anything, even worship or attend sermons, so if you’re not careful, you’ll end up a cultsicle.
What’s worse is that the winter doesn’t just freeze your people; it freezes your assets too, making your farms unworkable until it passes. No planted seeds will grow unless a ritual is performed, and no new seeds can be planted after the fact. Suddenly, your ranch full of adorable meat bags looks like a major asset.
And if you thought you were safe from Yngya’s influence while out and about, you’re dead wrong, as the rot of their dead body spreads across the holy mountain. Rot-based biomes and enemies bar your passage as you try to find your next unlock, relying on swarm tactics and the new Burn condition to shear off your defenses before you meet with the new big bad.
Since we’re talking about the holy mountain of the Lambs here, it’s only natural that the Wolves be the new residents taking over in their absence. A heretic wolf experimenter fellow has set up shop on the mountain’s peak, and his abominable creations serve as the minor bosses of each crusader. There’s more to Yngya’s story than first revealed, and these wolves are the key to figuring that out. I won’t share more than that, but trust me, the reveal is worth it.
Lastly, we have got to talk about the Rotten Followers, because these things are out of control in the best way. Of course, new biomes give way to new Follower Forms to collect (I’m partial to the naked mole rat form), but no new biome in the base game ever introduced a whole new archetype of follower.
Introducing the Rotten Follower, or the meatballs, as I like to call them. As rotten, soulless bags of flesh born from Yngya’s rot, these followers can be indoctrinated and placed into indentured servitude as much as any other follower, but come with two unique characteristics. First, they’re immune to illness, freezing, injury, and any other negative side-effect. To balance that out, though, they automatically die in 10 in-game days.
These tireless powerhouses make producing for the winter days a cinch if you can use them well. They can even unlock new Tarots for you if you gather enough of them to pray to Yngya at once. It’s all about speed and utilization with these guys, so prepare to think a bit harder for your next playthrough if you’ve got this DLC enabled.
New Arsenal and Expanded Tech Trees
If blizzards and rotten disciples aren't a reason to give this DLC a try, then the new weapons curses, and expanded tech trees certainly are. Cult of the Lamb already had a decent selection of weapon types and efffects available, but all pale in comparison to the flail.
Whatever you're picturing in your head for that weapon is incorrect, because the only correct description for this new weapon is a God of War meme. These weighted chains are lung about the arena like the Blades of Chaos themselves, except this time, there isn't a raging Spartan on the other end, just an equally white fluffball.
What about the new techs? Well, surviving a blizzard isn't possible if your walls are all wicker and wood, so Yngya blesses you with a furnace to warm your followers' hearts and bodies through the rigid toirrent. It's upgradeable, like the cult icon in the middle, and runs on a new resource I'll let you discover yourself.
Some rituals have also gotten the Woolhaven treatment, letting you tide blizzards and deal with famines as they arrive. Every mechanic got a just a tiny bit more complex and varied come Woolhaven, which makes me question why most of it is unlocked when the game's almost over.
Unlocked Way Too Late
Unfortunately, praises and hymns can only be sung about this game for so long before we hit a speed bump. Fun and content-rich as Woolhaven is, it’s got one serious problem weighing it down: its unlock conditions.
This game is unlocked way too late, no ifs or buts about it. Four Bishops need to be unalived before you can even think about setting foot on Woolhaven, and that’s not even counting the DLC’s own unlocks. Think of the grind and rush you have to face just to "start" on something completely new, an inch away from the final boss.
I get that the base game’s story didn’t make it easy to find an earlier time in the player’s progression to slot this all in, but after four-fifths of the game’s entire lineup of big bads is a tad absurd. This brings the problem of difficulty, since a late-game player is bound to have enough upgrades to pile-drive anything the DLC can throw at them (and that’s pretty much what I ended up doing).
Being available after the second base game biome is ideal, I think. That way, the player has some upgrades under their belt, but can’t snowball on Woolhaven too hard. As it is, it takes too much to experience the bare minimum of what the DLC has to offer, which will definitely turn away some newcomers.
Blessed With Content
All in all, Woolhaven is a DLC bordering on a sequel. It’s not quite the second coming of the Lamb yet, as it’s just shy of the content needed to justify a whole new game. It’s very close, though, and much more than a simple DLC would usually include, so I can consider it a very blessed DLC expansion.
It may have a few hiccups along the way, particularly with how late the DLC comes into play and how the difficulty balance may suffer as a result, but it is otherwise a really solid addition to a really solid game. I’d go as far as to say that it’s a must-buy for anyone looking to get the whole Cult of the Lamb experience, because the game is objectively worse without it as the late game slogs on through. I didn’t go in expecting too be impressed any more than how much the base game already did or me, but holy flock that’s a lot of content!
Is Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven Worth It?
Pay the Tithe — It’s Worth It
$16.99 isn’t a lot of money, but it isn’t a small chunk of change either. It’s enough to buy a few AA titles and a not-so-negligible number of small-time indies that can rival Cult of the Lamb in their legendary status. This isn’t even considering that this is a DLC, so buying the base game isn’t optional, and WILL be part of the final cost.
That said, though, the tithe is 100% worth it. Cult of the Lamb is a great game by itself, and an even better one with Woolhaven in the wings. It fills out the boring late game quite nicely despite being much better for the midgame, and the amount of new mechanics fitting in naturally with the base features is too numerous to ignore. Cult of the Lamb is plainly worse without this DLC, so just buy it.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
PSN |
Xbox |
eShop |
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| $16.99 | |||||||
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven FAQ
How Do I Access the Woolhaven DLC in Cult of the Lamb?
Once purchased, the DLC spawns a Totem of Yngya at the top of the player’s cult base, right of the area’s main exit. This Totem must be fed specific items from each of the game’s four main areas: Darkwood, Anura, Anchordeep, and Silk Cradle.
Players must then defeat each of the game’s four main bosses: Leshy, Hekket, Kallamar, and Shamura, before the Totem unlocks a path next to the teleportation pad and into the Woolhaven DLC area.
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Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven Product Information
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| Title | CULT OF THE LAMB: WOOLHAVEN |
|---|---|
| Release Date | January 22, 2025 (PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch) |
| Developer | Massive Monster |
| Publisher | Devolver Digital |
| Supported Platforms | Steam PlayStation 5 PlayStation 4 Xbox Series X|S Xbox One Nintendo Switch |
| Genre | Action, Adventure, Indie, Strategy, Roguelite |
| Number of Players | 1-2 |
| ESRB Rating | ESRB T |
| Official Website | Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven Official Website |
