Before the Scars system was introduced, probabilities for most tests were 30%/70%/100% at the 1/5/10 threshold. After scars were added, it became 30%/70%/90% at the same threshold. This modification changed Cultist Simulator from a game of secret knowledge and skill, to a game of chance.

It most importantly affected grinds and expedition and weakened the cult choice. It affected grinds because you could no longer have a cultist be your income long-term. Craftwork? Your Shapers (exalted Forge cultist) will eventually become corpses if you keep crafting. Previously, that’s just how you’d make money as the Unflinching Order. Now, the transition to writing is mandatory (since painting was nerfed to oblivion as well). If you’re unlucky, you can scar so fast that your Shapers don’t even earn you a nest egg before being too scarred to risk (3 of the same scar is instant death).

And then expeditions. The lategame used to be expedition rushes with your prepared cult always winning. Now, it’s another coin toss. First, you find yourself just summoning up a bunch of demons and hirelings because it’s too dangerous to risk scarring a cultist (and except curses, screw success rate. Just keep throwing stuff at it till you get through)… And then there’s curses… unless you enter each mission situated to pull An Imminence on demand (not trivial especially considering how short-lived influences are), you are risking that chance of pulling a curse and losing a permanent attribute. The current “best practice” is to build up heart influence and “talk loop” it before entering any expedition that carries a curse.

Taking a step back… I wrote the original cult guide on reddit. One thing I loved about Cultist Simulator was how much your cult choice influenced your gameplay despite how little it technically did. The reason? The 100% success rate on ONE action, that nobody else could have. Go Forge? Safe money. Go Edge? Safe from anyone that breathes (literally, Assassins meant you could disregard notoriety entirely as long as you took the time to murder every investigator). Go Heart? Perfect shield from notoriety. Grail? Safe (imperfect, you could fail but not die) handling of people and kidnapping, etc.

Scars made “let’s try it” more viable for off-cult, while reducing the 100% success rate made cult-specific builds disappear. The former sounds good (and might have been), but combined with the latter, it basically doesn’t matter what cult you pick anymore.

…as for the dlcs. The stories they add are phenomenal. I really enjoyed playing all of them except Exile (which I watched on youtube because it went all-in on the chance related changes). The game is basically unplayable without Dancer because Sulochana is so important to every strategy. Why? Because you can talk to her about anything. When you use a card in a verb, its timer stops… and that kinda reiterates all the above stuff (and that heart influence) about what I didn’t like about the changes.

…and the work change.

Painting was nerfed so bad it’s barely worth doing. You have to play it very carefully if you want to make any money off it. Shocker, it’s partly RNG-driven. You only make money if you paint with reputation (notoriety). But painting debuffs you and you only remove them by painting with passion and rolling well.

With cult work also nerfed, that leaves Glover & Glover. Since anti-notoriety strategies are nerfed, that leaves “second highest position at Glover & Glover”.

Ultimately, by midgame, nothing makes “worth it” money except the various lore treatises that your acquaintances give out.

Ultimately, here’s what changed:

• There’s really only one or two ways to do most things now
• This is 5x true with work, where all the creative ways to make money are gone and the only decent money is Clerk early and writing treatises on lore late.
• And you really should save scum a lot now because a few low-rolls in a row will suck the fun out of the game.