Cult of the Lamb’s upcoming free expansion, Relics of the Old Faith, was playable for the first time at PAX East 2023 and I got to check it out. The expansion features new endgame progression, new challenge runs, new combat mechanics, quality of life updates, more accessibility options, new cult management tools, and more. But I can’t lie. I rarely dip back into games for content updates. I checked out Cult of the Lamb: Relics of the Old Faith for one thing: a way to further cheese the platinum that has eluded me for months. 

Platinum Problems: Killing the Boss Without Taking Damage

Most trophies in Cult of the Lamb are just a matter of time and low-level grind. Sure you have to play the game for a bit to do things like unlock all the tarot cards and follower skins but it’s not inherently hard. It’s just more of the game. 

The hardest skill-based trophies are, by far, the four trophies that involve beating the four main bosses without taking damage. There are a few key methods to cheesing these trophies.

The most obvious strategy is to lower the difficulty to easy. An easier game is an easier game; simple as that. The other key strategy is to wear the Golden Fleece, an item that increases the damage you deal with each enemy you kill. The trade-off is that you take double the damage but that doesn’t matter since getting hit once by the boss means you failed the trophy. If you get hit it resets to your normal amount of damage. Unfortunately, this fleece was nerfed in August 2022. The damage is now capped at 200% but that’s still better than nothing. To lean into this buff I usually used a high-damage weapon.

Using this strategy I was able to three of the four bosses. 

Then there was Kallamar. 

My struggle here is twofold. The first is that I can’t get my damage high enough. Since it resets when you get hit I've never entered this boss fight with a maxed damage buff because the dungeon is challenging for me. Achordeep, the dungeon in question, has a lot of tight spaces so I struggle to dodge enemies. Another challenge is the boss itself. While I only need to fight Kallamar for a short time he can get a few attacks in before I kill him and, unfortunately, those attacks hit me. Particularly, it’s the projectiles he fires with his Cruciger. It basically turns the fight into a baby bullet hell and I’m awful at dodging bullet patterns. 

Relics of the Old Faith Might Have the Solution

Relics of the Old Faith doesn’t directly make the game easier from what I’ve seen (outside of the option to pause what’s going on at your cult while you duke it out in dungeons). However, it has a few tools and design tweaks that may give me what I need to get my platinum. 

New room designs are introduced in the Relics of the Old Faith update. These rooms may be easier to maneuver, especially the layout that’s shaped like a bone since it functions a bit like two conjoined rooms. There’s also a room that has a river running through it, which could offer an advantage in terms of slipping and zipping around. All of this could help me deal with enemies before reaching the boss, maxing out my damage with the Golden Fleece. 

The previously revealed heavy attack functions differently for each weapon. The axe, which often does high damage, is thrown like a boomerang. This distance can come in handy against low-level enemies and the boss alike.

And the most promising tool yet is the new Relics. Relics function similarly to Curses, which are magic attacks that do high damage. Relics are obtained randomly similar to how you get tarot cards and weapons. Some Relics can only be used once, others can be used multiple times based on a cooldown. One of the Relics I had could during my preview freezes all the enemies on a screen, including the boss. 

Using all the above to try to reach the boss with 200% damage and then immediately freezing him (which lasts several seconds) may be enough for me to finally get this platinum. There’s no alternative. I have to keep the faith. 

And if you already have the platinum look forward to new trophies alongside this update.