Godhood: Newfound Shores Strategy Guide

The most important things to look after are:

1) New Acolytes Upgrade

This is the thing you need to focus above all else. Having stronger new acolytes is your number one priority. You should buy that first acolyte upgrade (100 materials) even before getting your first acolyte. As soon as you have 400 materials ready (which should be around when you go to the second island) grab the second acolyte upgrade. Also, religion developments that buff new acolytes (like the ones that grants you a chance of a new passive) should also be your priority.

2) Resource Buildings

The Materials collector (200 materials) should be your third buy, just after the first acolyte upgrade and the first miracle building. There is no such rush to build the Offerings collector, since you need more god actions to use it well, but it should be bought at most during the second island, since the passive +10 offering income is really handy. There is no need to upgrade the resource buildings at all.

3) Upgraded Study

Having the Study (50 materials) with the “Study Sacraments (250 materials)” upgrade is quite important, since the passive +2 XP will quickly ramp up and make you stronger faster. The other upgrade (100 XP) is not a priority, but can help in the lategame when you have god actions to spare.

4) God Actions

You don’t need God actions in the early game. I’d refrain myself from grabbing an extra god action at least until I have about 5 acolytes, and I don’t think the third god action upgrade is worth it.

5) Sun Shrine

This building is the lynchpin of the mid-late game. This is where you’ll dump all your offerings, to unlock ability points. There’s no need to rush it, however – you’ll only build it after you have your first level 3 acolytes and enough God Actions to spare. Using this on your weaker acolytes will feel like a waste.

6) Upgraded Miracle Buildings

You don’t need more than 4 miracle buildings in the entire game – more on that on the Miracles section. So upgrade the hell out of them! After the other priorities are taken care of, your materials should be spent to make each of your chosen miracle buildings as upgraded as possible.

This island’s strategy is quite set on stone, since there’s no randomization to it. So lets dive down on how to do it:

1) First steps

Fight the opening sacrament, then keep doing normal missions until you have the +10 materials (2nd mission) and +10 offerings (3rd mission) per mission buffs. DO NOT do repeatables before you have these buffs. Your initial team will be strong enough to carry you through these missions. If you are afraid of something, throw a dream or 2 to help and you’ll easily win these Sacraments.

2) First buys

Your first buy (just after the first mission) should be the new Acolytes buff (100 materials) and one Miracle Building (more on the Miracles section). Then you should hoard materials until you have 200, to buy the material buildings, then go for +1 God action so you can use the materials building every mission.

3) Finishing the island

After those 3 missions, I usually do the Relic mission (for a quick relic buff), then one repeatable (that puts me at 2 points behind a new Development), then the 2 development points mission (the one with 2 zealots). This Zealot mission should be the hardest on this island (much harder than the final fight) due to RNG (since they can chain-crit and whack you). If you fail, don’t worry, just retry it and keep making your adepts stronger with dreams if needed. Finish the island with the Elders sacrament and move to the next island. Choose which island to go based on your strategy – it is much more important to choose a good bonus than to choose the island based on the expected enemies.

1) General Miracle strategy

Before putting down your first Miracle building, I advise you to choose an strategy. There are two general ideas to go – either go full Physical or full Morale, as mixed strategies tend to be weaker (but not always). Some commandments are more suited to a full physical strategy, some to a full morale, so take your time to see which one suits best your starting classes and 100-materials unlockable classes (unlocking the 300-materials classes should only be done if you really need).

2) Going Physical

When going physical, you’ll usually pick classes like the Rage Prophet, the Guardian, the Beast Walker, the Smitesword and the Harbinger. You should build the Herder’s Hut, Farmlands and Hunter’s Lodge miracle buildings, along with your commandment’s Temple. Your general strategy is to break the enemy disciples by doing lots of physical damage. Farmlands is your top priority miracle – it should be maxed out first and every disciple should get it as its first miracle.

3) Going Morale

When going morale, you’ll usually pick classes like the Chieftain, the Songsmith, the Druid, the Zealot and the Weaver. You should build the Storytelling Circle, Meditation Site and Prayer Site miracle buildings, along with your commandment’s Temple. Your general strategy is to convert the enemy followers by doing lots of morale damage. Storytelling Circle is your top priority miracle – it should be maxed out first and every disciple should get it as its first miracle.

4) Mixed Strategies

Some classes have cross-type synergy, like the Harbinger (a physical class) having a Morale Defense lowering passive, and the Chieftain (a morale class) having a physical attack passive. If you want to mix and match morale and physical attacks, be wary that you still should limit yourself to building 4 miracle buildings ( you may want to build 4 basic miracle buildings instead of 3 basic + 1 temple) and that you usually do not want both the Farmlands AND the Storytelling Circle built at the same time. Lastly, use disciples with great ratings on stats you won’t build a miracle building for – for example, you can use a disciple with great Might to become a fantastic Chieftain even without building Farmlands.

You should pick Developments prioritizing the following:

1) Buffs to new Acolytes

Having Developments that provides passives and overall buffs to new acolytes ASAP is a must. The first development of each religion should grant you a new acolyte type with generally a better totem than the usual strong-bodied and strong-minded. Then you move on to pick other buffs that increase your new acolytes’ habilities

2) Buffs to existing acolytes

Relics, Passives and Miracle boosting is your second priorities. It is generally not worth it to pick the “+1 stat for 3 miracle buildings” buff that each commandment has, but picking your unique temple, the marriage buffs, and general relics/passives that boost your performance in battle are usually worth it.

3) Other main commandment effects

Other effects include things like + XP for full life acolytes and chance to gain offerings by RNG. These effects should not be prioritized, but you may pick them if you have the spare development opportunities.

4) Secondary commandment effects

Right now Animism is the stronger option for Physical-based runs, for the free materials and the “+3 stat for physical miracles” – exalt cats, dogs or animals. For Morale-based runs, picking Human Sacrifice can give you free attacks, but the tree is generally weak and should not be invested. Funeral Rites is the weakest of the three and should not be picked unless you want to challenge yourself. Regardless of the option, these trees are generally weaker than the primary commandments and should not be your priority (except the exalt pick from animism which is really good)

About stolen commandments: Picking a stolen development at the end of an island is generally stronger than the +4 development points option. Once you have enough developments, each new development costs you 10 points, so picking a stolen development is equal to picking a new option for 40% de cost. Only pick the +4 development option if the two stolen options are really bad for your strategy (like giving +morale damage on a physical-based run).

By following this guide, you should be getting max level acolytes as soon as island 2. These acolytes, when groomed to their max power (3 miracles for normal acolytes, 4 miracles for destined acolytes, which should be your top priority) should have stats in the 30-45 range (since each fully upgraded miracle building gives +11 to its primary stat and lots of bonuses to 2 other stats, plus the base growth from the acolyte’s totem), which will make the sacraments a breeze.

Use the ability points from the Sun Shrine to pick the best attacks (ideally you should spend them after the last miracle to choose the exact loadout of abilities) and be mindful of your passives and relics and you’ll be winning Godhood in every run.