Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven Review — Winter, Rot & Ranching
Woolhaven expands Cult of the Lamb with frostbitten survival, new dungeons, ranching and a creeping Rot. Fun, frantic and occasionally brittle — a must-play for cultists, but watch out for bugs.
Woolhaven is the wintery expansion Cult of the Lamb fans have been waiting for — and it arrives like a blizzard with a bite. It leans into survival-sim elements while keeping the cult-management and hack-and-slash exploration that made the base game so addictive. You’re asked to reclaim a frozen mountain, tend to new animals and stave off a creeping Rot that makes every choice feel morally gray. If you loved leading a flock of weird followers and decorating your sacrificial spa, Woolhaven gives you more of that, with weather that actually wants you to suffer a little.
Shepherding Through the Snow
Woolhaven pushes you out of your cozy cult camp and onto a frozen mountain where management and survival collide. The day-to-day loop still includes sermonizing, constructing buildings and sending followers on errands, but now you juggle warmth, wool production and food shortages when the blizzards roll in. Expedition runs into the mountain introduce new combat arenas and two sprawling dungeons where Rot-corrupted enemies change how you approach fights — stealth and kiting feel more useful alongside your usual axe-and-ritual tactics. Ranching mechanics add a new rhythm: breed yaks and other beasts for wool and warmth, assign followers to tend pens, and sometimes decide whether a creature lives or becomes emergency rations. The expansion requires near-completion of the base game before you can access it, which makes the progression feel earned rather than tacked-on. On a practical level, you’ll find yourself planning for seasons now: stocking fleeces, building communal fires and balancing long-term upgrades with the immediate needs of freezing cultists.
Rot, Ranching and Rituals
What sets Woolhaven apart is how its systems talk to each other: the Rot is a narrative-mechanical engine that corrupts reclaimed souls and morphs areas as you redeem them, creating moral tension when your good deeds defile the land. Ranching is more than a cosmetic feature — it’s gameplay currency: wool keeps followers warm, rare animals unlock crafting resources and mounts let you traverse drifts faster. New relics, tarot cards and curses twist familiar builds into cold-weather variants; cannonball-style bosses up top test whether your winterized loadout holds up. There's also a satisfying layer of base-building expansion with 17 new buildings and dozens of decorations that reward creativity; turning a ruined outpost into a warm shrine is oddly soothing. The interplay of resource stress, follower moods and exploration choices makes Woolhaven feel like a miniature survival strategy game tucked inside an action-adventure.
Wool, Wind and Pixel Snow
Visually, Woolhaven keeps the original’s cartoonish charm but drenches it in a blue-white palette that actually sells the cold — frosted breath on followers, snowdrifts piling up against buildings and the way light reflects off ice are all nicely done. Sound design leans into the season: wind whistles, brittle twigs snap and the score swaps jaunty cult-hymns for hollow, colder tones when you climb higher. Performance on my test system was smooth for the most part, but community reports mention a handful of graphical and HUD issues for some players; your experience may vary depending on platform and drivers. Accessibility-wise, the UI keeps to the base game's readable menus, and the new mechanics are introduced steadily rather than dumped on you all at once. The result is a presentation that feels cohesive — Woolhaven looks and sounds like a Cult of the Lamb winter special, not a disconnected add-on.
Woolhaven is a dense, chilly expansion that gives Cult of the Lamb meaningful new systems — survival pressure, ranching and memorable dungeons — while preserving the base game's personality. I had moments of real glee rebuilding a ruined shrine and nervous excitement before boss fights, but the reported technical issues are a real caveat. If you loved the original and can tolerate a few rough edges (or wait for fixes), Woolhaven is worth the climb; otherwise hold off until patches land.
Pros
- Rich new content: dungeons, buildings, decorations and animals
- Smart interplay between survival, cult management and exploration
- Strong atmosphere — cold visuals and a haunting soundtrack
- Ranching adds a satisfying, tangible progression loop
Cons
- Some players report serious graphical/HUD bugs
- New survival pressure can feel punishing on first runs
- Requires near-completion of base game before access
Player Opinion
Players who enjoyed the base game’s mix of management and combat largely praise Woolhaven for packing lots of meaningful additions into the Cult of the Lamb loop. Several playtesters highlight the winter mechanics as a welcome layer of challenge — food shortages, blizzards and the need to keep followers warm make expedition planning feel tense and rewarding. Others love the cosmetic and base-building expansion: 68 decorations and 17 buildings let you personalize a frostbitten cult like never before. But there is a vocal minority with serious complaints: a number of reviews report game-breaking graphical issues (black followers or HUD-only displays) and crashes after installing the DLC, which understandably sour the experience. Community chatter ranges from giddy memes about frozen cheese to frustrated bug reports, so your mileage may vary — if you’re patient and up for a challenge, most players come away delighted; if you need a flawless launch, wait for patches.