99 nights in the forest The cultist

Cultists are the backbone of most fights in 99 Nights in the Forest. They serve The Deer above ground and The Bat down in the Caverns, and you'll run into them everywhere from open-world camps to the raids that hit your base every few days.

Not every Cultist plays the same. Some rush you with an axe, others hang back with a crossbow, and a handful of variants only show up in specific spots like the Jungle Biome or the Volcanic Biome. Knowing the difference matters if you want to survive a raid or clear a Stronghold without losing half your gear.

In this article, we'll explore every Cultist type, where they spawn, how Night Raids work, and what you get from killing them.

Cultist Types and Stats

Three base types roam the open world. Melee Cultists carry an Old Axe, Spear, or Morningstar; Crossbow Cultists fire from range, and Juggernaut Cultists are twice the normal size with an antlered helmet, only appearing in Level 3-4 Cultist Strongholds or Hard Mode raids.

Health scales with the Cultist Stronghold's level rather than staying fixed, climbing from 120 at level 1 up to a reported 300 at level 4 with a full squad. The Juggernaut variant was added alongside the Stronghold itself on July 4, 2025.

Down in the Caverns, three more types answer to The Bat instead. The Shadow and Brute Cultists were both added on November 22, 2025, the same update that introduced The Bat.

Around 10 to 12 Brute Cultists spawn in the Final Cave, and their slow attack cooldown is the easiest way to beat them in melee.

The Jungle Cultist rounds out the roster, added February 28, 2026, with Jungle Biome Part 1. It has 120 HP, walks at speed 16, and deals 30 damage with a Poison Spear or 45 with a Blowpipe, with poison armor that punishes anyone who melees it. You'll only find it in Jungle Temples and the Mother Temple.

Cultist King and Mega Cultist

The Cultist King is a boss-tier enemy added September 20, 2025, with Volcanic Biome Part 2. You summon him at the Cultist King Palace by placing four Cultist Gems on its pedestals, once per day, and he's twice the size of a normal Cultist with the highest HP of any non-admin-spawned enemy in the game.

He wields the Cultist King Mace, though that weapon can't actually drop for players. His corpse counts as five sacrifice charges at the Volcano instead of the usual one. Killing him drops Mossy Coins, a Cultist King Antler for the Infernal Helmet recipe, a Volcanic Bear Trap Tablet, and either an Infernal Sack, Infernal Sword, or Infernal Crossbow.

The Mega Cultist sits above him but isn't fightable through normal play. It's admin-spawned only during Update Parties, roughly the size of a Large Tree with red skin, and deals over 100 damage per hit. It's grown tougher with each party, now taking multiple Laser Cannon shots to kill. A Trick or Treat Cultist also existed briefly as a passive Halloween reskin.

Where to Find Cultists

Outside of raids, Cultists are scattered across most of the map. The Cultist Base, also called the Military Base, holds four Melee and two Crossbow Cultists, and you'll find more at the Cultist Laboratory, Cultist Church, Cultist Hunter Camp, Cultist Ritual Circle, Cultist Tree, and the Dilapidated Building.

Frozen Cultists appear inside the Ice Temple, and the Volcanic Biome has its own cluster around the Cultist King Palace, Watchtower, Church, and Furnace.

The main raidable structure is the Cultist Stronghold, a four-level building that resets every 20 minutes. A full clear can drop one to two Cultist Experiments, one to two Cultist Prototypes, two Cultist Gems, a Gem of the Forest fragment, a Ruby Chest, and a Diamond Chest, which makes it worth running whenever it's up.

Night Raids, Drops, and Cultist Gems

The first Night Raid hits on day 4, about 20 real-world minutes in, and isn't affected by day multipliers. It starts with Melee Cultists on Old Axes, then later raids add Crossbow Cultists and upgrade weapons to Spears and Morningstars, capping at eight Cultists per raid.

Raids repeat roughly every 20 real-time minutes. The Deer watches but doesn't attack and can still be stunned with a flashlight. Past day 99, the last Cultist in a raid drops a Cultist Gem and a Gem of the Forest fragment, and Hard Mode adds Juggernaut, Darkstring, and Shadow Cultists to the fight.

A regular kill gives zero to one Revolver Ammo, zero to one Rifle Ammo, and one Mossy Coin, while the last Cultist killed anywhere drops a Cultist Gem. Gems have eight sources total, three of them infinite: the Stronghold, Night Raids, and fishing at the Algal or Bone Pond, and they're needed for the tier-4 Crafting Bench, tier-5 structures, the Chainsaw, and summoning the Cultist King.

Final Words

Cultists tie together most of what makes 99 Nights in the Forest dangerous, from the raids that hit your camp every few days to the loot locked behind Strongholds and the Cultist King fight. Learning which type you're up against, and what it actually drops, makes it a lot easier to decide when a fight is worth it and when it's better to just run.