Cult of the Lamb is honestly not a game I expected to still be going for as long as and as strongly as it has. It came out in 2022! That was practically a decade ago, at least in games industry years, and yet here is developer Massive Monster showing off the roguelike’s next big expansion, Woolhaven. There’s no release date other than an early 2026 release window, but a new trailer did at least show off all of that farming you’ll get to do. Or, I guess get your cult to do.
The big theme for this expansion, as you may have gathered from the name already, is winter, that pesky incoming season those of us in England will inevitably complain about after having complained about the heat all summer. This particular trailer hones in on the new ranch and the steps you can take to deal with cold, harsh weather that stops your crops from growing as well.
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Namely, you can raise animals, which includes things that look like goats, cows, crabs, snails, turtles. You can raise them from birth, breed them, even name them, and after all that you can shear them for some resources, or carve them up for Sunday dinner. Makes naming them just a little bit more difficult, but this is a game where you run a cult, if you take issue with slaughtering an animal for sustenance and not that, I would have questions.
You do also need to make sure they get fed, cleaned, protected from predators too, and there’s the option to take them on a walk or ride on them. Over time and levels you can get your followers to attend to these duties, or even get a best animal friend of their own. This part I find quite interesting.
Like many sim games of its ilk, the ultimate goal is automation. Take Stardew Valley, a game where given enough time, you’ll get to a point where you don’t even need to tend to your own crops anymore, freeing up your time for more leisurely activities or even bits of story.
Woolhaven comes with a couple of new dungeons, so I imagine this loop of building up your ranch as you go on more adventures works similarly to the rest of the game. But I am curious to see if there’s any kind of direct commentary on the ever popular, and ever growing, farming sim genre, seeing as you have a whole cult to dictate.
In any case, there’s apparently more reveals to come for Woolhaven, but in the meantime you can look forward to playing it early 2026.
