Hello! This guide is meant to be a compilation of some non-god specific strategies (strats) that I have found both fun and effective. The intention of this guide is to hopefully help newer players get an idea of what kinds of things might be possible with certain strategies and also provide more experienced players with different options for strategic approaches to gameplay. It might also give tips for optimising strategies that you have already tried!

For each strat I intend to point out which gods are most likely to benefit from this strat or are more easily capable of making a strat come to fruition. Spoiler alert; She Who Will Feast (SWWF) will likely show up in quite a few as her abilities are quite versatile (which perhaps should be expected as the beginner god). However, any of the gods should be able to play one of these strats. I will also be including little tags for each strat outlining what general benefits they provide prior to going into more depth for their description. This way you can hopefully rifle through these ideas easily to find strats that fit what you are hoping to do and are optimised for your god!

Some of these strategies represent older metas as the game has been developed, but I think many of them still hold up as useful considerations for dealing with certain kinds of threats and map types. Others have become more useful with the addition of the new modding options available as people begin to develop amazing additions to the game.

I will be using some jargon like Macro/Micro style play to describe things at times. It might be helpful to check out my first guide which discusses some of these terms beforehand, but I don't think it is entirely necessary to understand the content here. https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2812358702
For transparency I want to also mention that I typically play with the corruptible alliance. This means that some strats might be more or less effective based on what configurations you use. Holy orders may also be a factor, which I will discuss a bit as an addendum at the bottom.

Also; I did not make or own any of the lovely artwork that I've used here (screenshots not included). Let me know if you are the artist and would like it taken down.

Recommended Gods--Vinerva (DE), Ophanim (Theos)

Tags--Victory points, Military, Refuge, Civil war

Description
I wanted to get DEs and Theos out of the way a bit as they are a classic but I don't really want to get into too much detail about them here. I go into depth on how to build great DEs and Theos a lot in my Beginner's Guide to the Gods which I have linked in the introduction above. I would have copy-pasted things but I felt like too much of that info was entangled with god specific stuff and would have been redundant. But I will mention a couple basics here.

The DE is created using the Monarch Agent one a capital that has 100% shadow. Once the monarch begins the DE, all cities with rulers at 90+ shadow will join immediately, any city rulers with less shadow will rebel. That's the basic mechanic for the DE. The Theo is created by infiltration and the spreading of Oph's faith (he is the only one with this mechanic). Once faith reaches a certain level he is able to declare a nation a Theo. Just like with the DE, if cities in the declared Theo do not have high enough faith then they will rebel. The guide I mentioned above does a good job of explaining how Vin and Oph can create strong DEs and Theos at the jump.

These corrupted nations are useful for a couple purposes; they provide locations that are ideally a bit safer for agents as heroes in these regions are going to become corrupted or enslaved. If you are working to make an agent lose profile/menace then putting them deep in your empire is going to ideally keep them off the radar. These nations can also become quite challenging military threats to smaller nations or even the alliance at certain stages of the game. This can lead to great confrontations and devastation you can make use of. At the very least, a DE or Theo can provide a bunch of VP and give you the win by default--or get you very close.

One thing to point out about the origin of the DE; the civil war might actually BE THE GOAL and a decent one too. Perhaps it's time to embrace the eldritch horror within and embrace goals which are a bit further beyond mortal comprehension than simply building a great empire to your name. Lets explore the possibilities here.

If you start on a map that has one really big nation you might be tempted to make that a DE. Now, that might be difficult to do considering the proportion of heroes that will be there, the likelihood of the CO being born there or lingering about, and the simple scale of the kingdom itself make it prohibitive to corrupt the entire country sufficiently to take it in one piece. If you don't have alternatives for a DE and have your heart set on playing with this mechanic you might want to try making a DE with a rough start here. It can also be a good way to make sure this big nation doesn't just become the alliance (a very real danger).

Remember that you only need 100% shadow in the capital to get the Monarch and begin creating the DE. Creating the DE in this massive kingdom will cause a schism that might break that nation into several parts. This will cause the armies of this once-whole nation to turn on each other and cause heroes to become more likely to attack each other as well (possibly leading to their deaths). This devastation can lead to significant problems for the region for the rest of the game and provide fertile ground for fomenting resentment and hostility between heroes and houses. If you are interested in causing a vendetta storm (more on this strat later) then this could be a decent catalyst for such an event.

Your DE might not survive this civil war, but the scars that this will leave on the formerly united country will deny the CO a dangerous ally and provide you with new opportunities for corrupting this mortal world. The DE civil war is particularly useful for SWWF, Iastur, and Oph (particularly if Oph is waiting for some Theos to be brought online).

Recommended Gods--Iastur, Ophanim

Tags--Civil war, Distraction, Heroes

Description
The Vendetta Storm is one of my favourite tactics when it becomes possible to produce. It also involves one of my favourite agents, the Courtier, who imo is an almost essential agent in any game with his unique skills, high intrigue, and decent lore stats. The Courtier (C) is the only character that can cause a vendetta to occur (although it is possible through rng for them to happen naturally, but it usually is quite niche). Causing a vendetta only takes one turn to perform and will give 20 menace to the C (it can also make him develop a rival/nemesis of his own if he is within sight range of a hero).

What is a vendetta? It's basically a blood feud between two or more houses. If one house declares a vendetta then their entire family will develop hatred for another entire family. This can cause mass disruptions and sabotage between these two groups, distracting them from other things happening in the world.

But how do you make the conditions for a vendetta possible? Another great question! A ruler or hero needs to have a 'mourning' tag and when you bring your cursor over that tag it should say they are mourning someone who died at the hands of someone else. Now, sometimes you can get lucky and there's a civil/regular war happening that leads heroes and rulers to kill each other and make this possible. But these are usually small regional conflicts with small families (if you look at a ruler or hero you can see their full family to gauge how significant their family is). Starting wars and civil wars yourself might lead to opportunities as well. But sometimes a more direct approach is possible/desirable.

Quick tips for agents: the C and the Trickster (T) are the only agents who have the potential for 'families' of their own. For the C I recommend creating him in a remote city in a small kingdom (as small as possible) to try and prevent him from having a family (or at least a large one). He and the T are able to get annoying nemeses from their families as they commit more evil acts. So, the C will ideally not have a family of his own, but the T can be quite useful for having a family with this strat.

Now, start your prep by finding big families in large kingdoms. Once you have, place the T in that large kingdom and hope rng makes her a member of a larger family (it's fine if it turns out to be smaller). I often go for the adorable monkey trait. The T can then be used to assassinate rulers and kill heroes (ideally after getting some gear) to give people a mourning trait. The C can then be brought in to turn those mourners into vendettas against the T's (ideally large) family. This will likely lead to the death of the T by one of the angry heroes or groups associated with the bereaved families. If you're lucky, the T's family members will mourn her death in turn and can be made to declare a vendetta against her killers. Soon, everyone will be causing problems for each other.

Just like vendettas in history, the hatred fomented between families can take on a momentum of its own by this point and descend into mass sabotage between larger houses or even civil wars. As other houses, large and small, become implicated in these crises and conflicts they might also find themselves taking sides and developing new rivalries and vendettas of their own. Unlike simple hatred between individuals, I don't believe there is any mechanic in the game to nullify a vendetta so this cycle of violence will continue so long as the houses involved exist. This creates huge problems for kingdoms, even in the alliance, as the constant disruptions prevent sometimes whole swathes of the map from effectively managing their territories or otherwise resisting your influence.

Iastur and Ophanim are both great at this tactic in different ways. Iastur can manipulate heroes and rulers so that they are more likely to attack each other as resentment grows between groups. Be careful this does not make them too much more dangerous to any local agents as well though! Also, making rulers or heroes insane can also make it easier to create conditions for a vendetta or make the effects of a vendetta escalate faster. For Ophanim, the T can be given the infamous trait after levelling enough or killing a hero and be a good candidate for declare heretic (which reduces awareness). This means he can make the most of the T's death this way. Also Oph can use swift of foot to make the C arrive at a ruler or hero before they have a chance to stop mourning, or it can be used to get the C out of dodge as starting the vendettas can draw a lot of heat onto him.

As the world's governments descend into petty disputes and rivalries, a new power will have the way made clear for it to spread it's dread influence. All it took was a young noble from a lesser house with great ambitions, a silver tongue, and a heart has black as night.

Recommended Gods--SWWF, Iastur, VInerva, Mammon

Tags--Madness, Shadow, Civil war, Distraction (minor), Military, Refuge

Description
The mad coast strat is near and dear to my heart. It can cause serious issues for the nation(s) involved if done well. It also plays nicely as an early goal for spreading shadow and madness in the world. Much of this strat involves basically doing the same kind of stuff you would be doing regularly, but is most effective when you consider the terrain of the map (especially since recent updates of certain mechanics). This means you're not necessarily using resources for a plan that deviates significantly form your overall strat. It can be more of a slow burn since changes to the malign catch, but I think it still can play a significant role in many playthroughs.

The mad coast strat, as the name implies, relies on lots of coastal cities with docks. Particularly maps where there are 3-4 such cities in relatively close proximity. The key to making this work is infiltrating the docks of these cities and setting up the malign catch. The MC will slowly increase madness and shadow in that territory permanently once formed (1 madness and around .2 shadow respectively). Side note that madness cannot be destroyed by the uncorruptible alliance so the malign catch can cause them issues long term if you get it setup in a likely alliance territory prior to it's formation.

The MC will slowly raise madness and shadow in all these areas, creating a situation that can end up corrupting or bogging down heroes in the area that end up dealing with the madness/shadow issues that keep popping up. If there are holy sites nearby this can be a bonus as heroes LOVE consecrating holy sites against the approach of shadow.

It's important that there are multiple coastal cities in close proximity to make the mad coast possible. Having several places generating the madness at once will ensure that local heroes can't keep the madness below 100% everywhere--the spread of madness is vital to some of the better aspects of this strat. Having heroes play whack-a-mole trying to prevent a bit of madness is good, but making sure that the madness can start driving rulers insane is better. A mass buildup of madness is what you really hope for.

Mad rulers will cause their parent kingdom(s) all kinds of problems that heroes will have to deal with, ruin the security and defences of their cities, and can lead to civil wars or international conflicts. As insanity grips the populace, your agents can get a lot of work done in alternate theatres. If you had a DE or Theo strat in mind, the mad coast can be an effective way to undermine likely enemies later in the game. It's also very satisfying visually to see darkness spread from this dingy little corner of the map.

To make this work quickly often relies on having a dedicated intrigue specialist like the C in addition to a lore specialist for making the MCs. The C and Harvester are some of the best for this strat because of how their abilities synergize with the challenges you need to perform. With the nerf to bribing guards it is also important to infiltrate the nearby settlements to reduce security and spread shadow once the MCs are up and running. Now, all of this will lead to rapid profile and menace increases on your infiltrator(s). Fully infiltrating and enshadowing your first city will be a good way to get the best possible reduction to profile and menace so your agent gets to work asap (also creating a nice hideaway to return to as needed later). There are ways to make this process faster though; you could have two infiltration specialists working together in the area, or rely on god powers that can support this work.

SWWF and Iastur have abilities that can cause instant infiltration of a single point of interest in a region. This can make you infiltrate local settlements much faster for that reduction in security in a city. Vin also has her temptations and influence that can make a ruler enshadowed. A ruler's shadow value can vastly reduce security, help spread shadow to the settlement faster, and thereby make your agent's work all the easier. This is what gives these gods an advantage for this strat.

For Mammon, the potential for mad rulers and conflict provides the opportunity to devour sin and grow great from doing so. He is therefore not so much helpful in creating the mad coast as he is capable of benefiting greatly from the fallout of it--although his ability to give money to agents can give the equipment or bribes to speed their work. Greed is simply another kind of madness, so there is no reason why the mountain should not be willing to take advantage.

Iastur also has a bunch of abilities that can either increase or spread madness in a variety of locations, not just coastlines. One ability in particular allows you to raise madness in a location by 50% for 3 power. This is great for 'topping up' the madness in a region if heroes keep reducing it. Iastur's madness spreading can also draw heroes away from curing the madness in these coastal cities, giving them more time to drive rulers insane. It's also just thematic as hell for Iastur.

This strat is also very good in conjunction with deep ones as you nurture your influence at the edges of civilisation. This approach will make many a port-of-call a dangerous and treacherous place where the first of the many fruits of your great work will ripen. These regions will serve as a grim warning to the free world of what is to come, although it will be a warning delivered too late.

Recommended Gods--SWWF, Iastur, Vinerva, Ophanim,

Tags-Madness, Refuge, Distraction, Population, Victory Points

Description
A natural progression from the mad coast is the deep one cults. If you have it turned on it will always spawn two such cults inside coastal settlements on the map. These cults will develop their own menace and profile as they grow however so if you want to use them it is valuable to infiltrate and enshadow the areas around them as much as possible (it reduces their passive menace/profile gain). Otherwise heroes will purge them, killing half the cult every time they do so.

Working with the deep ones is very similar to trying to do the mad coast, so I won't go into much detail about how each god can help make the situation better (it's basically the same stuff). I will add that the deep ones will begin to spread madness at a certain point by 1% (I think this is when they reach 100%) and then by 1.5% (when they reach 150% charge). This can be useful on it's own for driving rulers insane, but the deep ones have some slightly hidden mechanics that are much more interesting.

First is the call of the deep. When deep one cult is at 100% charge and the settlement's ruler is 50% enshadowed or higher you have the ability to perform this lore challenge. Once completed, it will give the ruler's ENTIRE family a curse that slowly makes them want to become deep ones. This includes rulers, heroes, and family members that are currently neither. The urge to 'descend into the sea' will slowly build over time and they will need to 'maintain humanity' to reduce the urge. Personality factors, shadow, and madness will also affect the temptation. This will distract rulers and heroes, but if they do become deep ones it will cause them to begin spreading and encouraging deep one cults to grow all over the map. In the mid and late game this can lead to a dozen or more cults growing across the map spreading madness and drawing the attention of heroes. This challenge can also be repeated as a ruler changes to a new family, or you create new cults. All will join beneath the waves.

And what better way to do so than to bring your cities and towns with you! If a cult reaches 300% charge the leader--even if they don't have the curse mentioned above--will become a deep one and the location will be turned into a deep one sanctum. The population will then be moved into nearby ocean tiles as an Abyssal City. This is a settlement under the sea which is created as the town/city becomes submerged under the waves. This is the second great aspect of deep one cults.

The Abyssal city and deep one sanctum have a few valuable components. They are always 100% enshadowed so they can spread shadow very effectively. You can also use the sanctum to propagate and draw population from local settlements to the abyssal city. This will raise the pop in the city, which contributes to your VP. If the city reaches a certain pop threshold (50 I believe) it will actually spawn a new abyssal city next to it in the ocean. This can lead to more shadow spread, and help with the last significant feature of these sites. An abyssal city is a decent site to lay low--just as effective as a coven actually. But, if your agent(s) have attracted too much attention and are at risk of death by angry heroes you can 'flee beneath' which will reduce profile/menace more slowly but make the agent impossible to attack. You can only have one agent fleeing beneath at one abyssal city at any given time, so having more of them is quite useful. And making a couple in different areas of the map potentially even better.

But cults only grow 1% at a time! How do you make a bunch of them develop into full abyssal cities within the time limit?! Great question, there are ways to make the process faster. You can either spend 100gold by funding deep ones or 1 power to 'empower' them. This will cause the cult to grow by 4% each turn for 20 turns (effects can stack for longer durations but not additional extra growth). If you have infiltrated around the cults and added some shadow then even as the cults grows it shouldn't draw much attention. You also have challenges to reduce the menace or profile of deep ones to help keep them safe from purges by heroes.

As with the mad coast, the abyssal cities can also be visually satisfying. After finishing an Oph game I decided to make this ocean almost entirely abyssal cities lol.



A small tip for SWWF; their shadow agent (if you're like me and enjoy making them a more permanent part of your roster) will slowly die if in areas with less than 50 shadow. This can impede their movement across the map--especially to different continents. Abyssal cities can become a chain of 100% shadow that they cross safely to new areas--or at least provide closer points for them to reach easily.

For Mammon there is potential in this strat because of his ability to give money and therefore fund deep ones easily if desired. However, if the city is part of a trade route then turning it into an abyssal city could affect the route and cut off his influence elsewhere. This can actually lead to a net negative for the mountain as it loses power elsewhere in return for the abyssal city.

I would also be remiss not to mention that a wonderful mod that expands the deep ones in a fantastic way is now available in the workshop! Within it there a bunch of incredible mechanics that make the spread of deep ones even more satisfying.

Between the new vectors for shadow and madness that these cults and cities produce, the family curses that can spread like wildfire across the continents, and the impregnable fortresses that are created for your agents to hide in there is much to be desired by pursuing this strategy, even if only as part of your grander schemes.

Recommended Gods--SWWF, Iastur, Mammon

Tags-Magic, Military, Lore

Description
Some of this is directly copied from my other guide where I talk about this: For spell-casting builds I would argue that SWWF and Iastur are the easiest gods to work with. Each of them has an early game power that allows for instant infiltration of a single point of interest within a settlement (always the one that shows on the lowest level). The safest way to grab arcane secrets, which allow you to upgrade your knowledge of different magic, is by learning them at an infiltrated library. Using god powers to infiltrate libraries all over the world means that your warlocks--or other mages--can access secrets more easily than those of Vinerva, Ophanim, or Mammon. There are other ways to get arcane secrets, but these methods do raise profile and menace typically so they might force your spellcaster to lay low at times just to continue their studies in peace. Note also that the infiltration ability for Iastur does raise in cost over time as seals break, so make use of it early while it is cost-efficient.

For Mammon the benefit is of course his money. By giving it to mage agents you can ensure that they are able to buy arcane secrets. It's a bit blunt as a way to break into magic, but unless I'm incorrect you can always buy arcane secrets at a library so long as you have the funds. Other arcane secrets have to be generated over time or created by taking advantage of a human soul at a location. This means you will spend a lot to get your mage, but they might be very time efficient gathering secrets as you might not need to leave a single location to build up your knowledge.

This is not a path I typically go on, but there is a lot of cool abilities you can use such as: raising armies of the dead, cursing family bloodlines, causing volcanic eruptions, army support, etc. There have also been a string of updates to magic systems that have changed things around a bit so I'm leery of writing things which are possibly obsolete already or will be soon. I'm also not experienced enough to give tips on the most optimised ways to use magic in the game--although death and geomancy have generally been regarded as the most straightforward and effective magic paths.

SimplyFunGaming has some videos that discuss magic in more detail and could be a great resource on this. You can find his most recent video on magic--specifically death magic--here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6iTKWy2g-E&t=25s

He also has some older ones that deal with early and late game magic.

Recommended Gods--SWWF, Iastur

Tags-Military, lore, Population, Distraction

Description
To start I want to point out that this is a decent strat for any god (much like many of these strats can be useful for most gods). The reason why I pick up SWWF and Iastur though is because of the instant infiltration they have. Vast sewers can often be found at the bottom of a city's checkpoints. The ability to instantly infiltrate that sewer, no matter how little infiltration has otherwise happened, means that these gods can start a plague almost anywhere as long as they have an agent with decent lore close by to light the match and get started. This flexibility makes the plague strat extra useful for them as they can deploy it super quickly. Oph with sleepless labour is a bit competitive for this, but it's a lot more time and energy still by contrast if it's a completely non-infiltrated area.

Plagues are pretty straightforward in terms of what their good for: spreading around and killing people. After reaching a certain level it will begin increasing death and spreading into nearby settlements. This can lead to unrest and other issues, especially if you continue to foment the plague once it is started. The strat is quite effective then at weakening large kingdoms and the alliance. Plagues are great for causing multiple problems in enemy territories simultaneously while not necessarily drawing as much attention to your agent(s) as something like raiding will.

Some of the problems it can cause with the death and unrest is to weaken nations' defences prior to an attack. Unrest, devastation, and death can cause prosperity issues and reduce the size of armies in the region. It can also lead to simply the death of settlements if the entire population is wiped out. This can lead to famine in nearby towns and cities.

Plagues are great for developing ripple effects, and it is ideal to try and have it started in the mid-game if possible so that those ripple effects can be given time to come to fruition. You might not want to start in the early game with it though as it can die down over time without consistent encouragement--plus it might involve too much effort from limited numbers of agents in the early game to be a good cost/benefit ratio at that point. You likely want to wait until just before you expect to have a third or forth agent slot available for a very special character who can give your nascent epidemic the care it deserves.

If you are taking this strat you are probably leaning into it and grabbing the plague doctor agent who becomes available once there is plague in any location. The doctor is just too good at spreading the plague and other effects to be left on the sidelines. As a lore focused agent who can perform autopsies to gain arcane secrets they are also a decent spellcaster later in the game if you want to transition them into that role. This makes the good doctor an excellent addition to your roster as they can be more adaptable than you would initially think. These considerations make a plague strat a potentially strong pair to a mage strat. But if you are planning to just use this plague as a distraction and disruption for a later military conflict then that road is also available to you.

Whatever reasons have brought you to this strategy, remember; Rejoice, Nurgle loves you!

If you decide to have holy orders active in your game (I have not tried the lesser deity mechanic yet so can't speak to it) then it can influence your strats significantly in positive and negative ways. Some of these strats are likely to be more heavily affected than others though because of the nature of the strats themselves.

Influence on holy orders depends on how much of their territories you have infiltrated and enshadowed. So, some of the strats which involve larger amounts of infiltration and spreading of shadow are more likely to have opportunities to make use of what holy orders offer as you gain influence of them faster. Covens also have specific holy orders and abilities that can be helpful here.

For example, the mad coast relies on the spread of madness at multiple locations simultaneously. Holy orders and covens near the ideal coast might be influenced to spread madness as an abyssal faith or through the music of the spheres. This can help ensure that there's a bunch of madness passively located in many settlements--potentially boosting the madness in your coastal cities too or diverting hero actions away from them.

Some orders can be made to start/destroy plagues, destroy arcane secrets, or spread shadow. Overall, I think, outside the mad coast strat, the holy orders will generally make it harder for these tactics to come to fruition--or the benefits they provide will take a great deal of time to be useful if you are trying to win within a certain period. However, it can of course be quite rewarding to make it work out despite this added challenge!

I think I need to play holy orders a bit more before I can really flesh out the ways they can be made useful. But I felt like they did need to be mentioned as a potential opportunity to expand upon the ideas I have already mentioned.

Hopefully this has been an enjoyable and informative read! As I noted before, all these mechanics can be useful for different gods depending on the playstyle you choose--some just synergize more easily with a certain strat than others. As the game develops I will see about updating things hopefully to sections relevant and maybe add some new stuff. In the meantime, feel free to lmk if I have accidentally made an error about something or if you have other constructive feedback or suggestions!

Also, if you are looking for a guide which is more about the flavour of a specific god and what they are capable of then I would recommend my guide on the Forbidden Gods which is linked in the intro. It isn't an encyclopedia of all their abilities and powers, but should give new players a general idea of how they handle.

Now go forth and conquer, the world is literally your oyster! Eat it well