Do you want to play some sort of combination between a mage and a thief? Do you want to destroy foes with ruthless efficiency? Do you prefer to plan before taking action? Then the cultist is for you.

The cultist is the third unlockable class, and the final regular class, unlocked after beating the catacombs. The catatombs is huge difficulty spike, but beating it rewards the player with a powerful class. The cultist power derives from the demon that possess her, and her power is indeed very strong. She can turn invisible and blind foes, which combined with her dagger, makes for a nasty combination. Even without her special powers, she can still fight at long range using her power attack, which is a knife throw that has infinite range. All of this makes her into a powerful stealth class that can fight at both short and long distance, with huge amounts of DPS, something no other class
can boast

Svala, an Alvari, a group of snow elves, was a former member of the Ashen Cult, a cult that deals with demons in exchange for power. The Alvari forsakes magic, and such she was presumably exiled due to her dealings with magic. She craves for power, not for the sake of power, but rather for vengeance, vengeance against those who have dealt pain to he. Sooner or later, she wants to leave behind the cult, but one does not simply leave out of the cult. Desperate to be free, she binds a demon called Verazal to her through crude methods and enters through the passage deep in the mountain, since it's not as well guarded as the front gates of the cult's location. As such, she ends up on the mines by complete accident, and soon she encounters a threat far worse than the cult, all while resisting temptations from the demon to give in control.

-Possess the highest DPS in the game, out-damaging even the rogue due to higher backstab damage and higher crit chance.
-Daggers attacks very fast, allowing for rapid hitstun
-Starts with a stealth ability, which allows her to scout and then plan her next moves.
-Have an AoE blind, which allows her to setup for backstabbing spree
-Have a ranged attack in form of her power attack, which is a knife throw that possess infinite range.
-Powerful consumables that do things such as summon two shadows and poison cloud
-Decent health, already starting with 37 HP, although she has no upgrades that boost hP

-Daggers have low attack range, as such using the normal dagger attack can be dangerous
-Default power attack only hits one enemy, making dealing with crowds harder
-Backstabs can be hard to get without use of abilities, since she has no dashes
-Her upgrades must be picked carefully, since many of them removes the invisibility + blind combo
-Can easily run out ammo, which is terrible because she relies on her powerful abilities to destroy enemies.

The cultist wields a dagger a weapon with short range and fast attack speed, with bonus backstab damage. Due to her ammo-reliant abilities, the cultist must eventually get creative if she wants to backstab without usage of powers. Exploit the enemy behavior, for example the thieves always run back after attempt to hitting you, as such hit them when they are running away to 1-shot them, if you have upgrades. However, if getting close is too dangerous, the cultist can simply toss her dagger, and she can toss 2 daggers before running out of energy. The dagger toss can be used to bait enemies out of the room, due to infinite range, and also as a quick way to interrupt magic casters. To put it simply, use your dagger to backstab and for close combat, and use her dagger toss to deal with ranged enemies or to bait out enemies out of the room..

Her real strength ihowever comes from her abilities granted by the demon. She can turn invisible, and while invisible, she can pass through enemies and gets free backstab, as well as to scout out rooms. She also starts with an AoE blind, and here's the deal, you can use your invisibility to setup the blind, so you can blind entire rooms, and then sweep them out with backstabs! The blind also destroys nearby magic when used, as such it can be used as a clutch to block projectiles. Her abilities are very powerful, as such be sure to not waste them, because they can run out quickly, and a cultist without her abilities is a very sad cultist. Remember that although the cultist is very powerful, she is not invincible, as such don't think that playing her turns the game into easy mode.

The cultist's demonic abilities are so powerful and combos perfectly well, that unlike the other classes, she might be strong enough to delve the deeper floors without help of the forges, and many of her upgrades removes her signature combo, as such outside of few powerful upgrades, she doesn't feel stronger after using the emberforge. That said, her combo might be very effective, but it doesn't work on certain rooms, and besides that, variety is nice, so you should try her emberforge upgrades, especially since all of her abilities are pretty powerful on their own.

Gord's Jagged Tooth

Grants 3%/5% crit chance, depending on level, and reduces energy cost depending on level, but drastically shortens her dagger throw range. The crit bonus is nice, especially since the cultist has the highest base critical chance, but the reduced throw range hurts very much. Only use it if you don't often use power attack.
Brisance Knife

Thrown daggers cause small explosions. Your daggers can deal with large amounts of weak enemies with the explosions, which is handy because it means you no longer rely on your abilities to deal with crowds.
The Twins

Throws 2 daggers at once, but costs way more energy. It allows for more efficient plays, since you no longer need to wait for a little energy regen before tossing the second dagger, but some situations only need to be dealt with a single dagger toss, which is irritating with this upgrade since it waste the extra dagger and costs more energy. Level 2 reduces energy cost, so you can throw 2 daggers more often.
Soulshiv

Grants 4%/7% crit chance against casters, and dagger now stuns and deals minor damage. Crit chance against mages is handy, The idea is to throw the dagger to stun and then attack the enemy for free backstab damage, which is a nice combo, but the dagger deals low damage on it's own and it's stun isn't reliable against tough enemies as such expect for more close dagger combat.
Athame of Coiled Fire

Power attack now conjures a fiery greatsword swing that reflects projectiles. No ranged attack can hurt, but the swing is powerful, with huge range for a melee swing and a huge arc, which helps with dealing crowds, while through careful timing, you can reflect projectiles and give mages their own taste of medicine. Level 2 increase the damage of the greatsword, allowing it to one shot 20 HP enemies, which is amazing.
Kaax's Pincers

Normal dagger attack deals 10 damage, and you no longer throws daggers, instead opting for a poison attack that cost huge amount of energy. You don't have access to longer range attacks, but your normal attacks are now as powerful as a sword, while still can benefit from backstab damage bonus. Allows her to decimate high HP mobs with sheer DPS, as long as you are confident at close range, which can be very dangerous, especially since the cultist doesn't have access to the spammable dash.

Blood Ribbon

Grants 3%/5% crit chance, depending on level. The only crit item in cultist that doesn't suffer from any drawbacks, this item can be helpful if you want to stack crit, especially since cultist starts with 15% chance to crit with upgrade. This also disrupt your combo at all, as such it can be good if you just want improved vanilla cultist
Startouched Sash

Stealth now grants speed boost, but lasts only in short duration. The drawback isn't noticeable, as long as you don't take too long staying in stealth mode, and the speed boost can help zooming between levels faster and can be activated to help dodge attacks.
Belt of the Trickster

When stealth breaks, causes an explosion that launch enemies away. The explosion, in conjunction with backstab, can deal very huge amount of damage, sometimes one-shotting entire rooms! However, the explosion can wake up blinded and stunned enemies without extra backstab damage, as such be sure to use this ability before you blind or stun foes, unless you plan to backstab the blinded foe, in which case feel free to deal insane amount of damage in a short time.
Deathguard

Stealth lasts for 1 second, but grants you invincibility during the duration. By being quick, 1 second is all you need to do the blind combo, although short duration means it's very easy to mess up your combo and you can't scout rooms any more. In exchange for the drawback, activating deathguard grants you invincibility until stealth is broke, allowing it to be used to block attacks. With a bit of timing, you can easily tank barrage of attacks, as unlike the shield, the deathguards grants i-frames on demand, which allows it to soak more hits than a single shield charge can. Level 2 deathguard last up to 2 seconds, making it easier to use.
Chaos Girdle

Replace stealth with a short dash that leaves an explosion that stuns, disrupts magic. and strongly damage foes. While the stealth has more utility, dash itself has their own use. The cultist dash can hold up to 6 charges, so cultist can't dash all day long like the Rogue or Spellsword, and even the Adventurer can dash more due to having more charges, but in exchange the Cultist dash leaves an explosion that deals huge damage and disrupt magic, encouraging Cultist to dash head on into enemies to deal huge damage and set up for backstab, that's if the cultist choose the Chaos Girdle upgrade.
Viscious Vice

Creates up to three slime clones that attacks enemies, for 3 charges each. Without stealth or dash, getting backstabs can be hard. That being said, the clones are really powerful, able to destroy enemies on their own, similar to the clones that can be summoned through ebonshards. Clones can allow you to focus on dodging and taking care of other enemies, as the clones are invincible, and in some situation, you can summon up to three clones, which is devastating. That being said, the clones use 3 charges, as such they should be used sparingly, not in every room. Level 2 lowers the use of charges into 2, which allows you to summon slime clones more often.

Shining Orange

Blind has larger AoE and lasts longer. Being a direct upgrade to your normal blind, this is the best upgrade to use if you want to still able to the combo. Having larger AoE also means it can remove projectiles at longer distance, and longer lasting blind allows for more backstabbing spree, as such this upgrade makes the combo really powerful.
Ominous Black

Spew a vile word that deals heavy damage to a single target and stuns enemies nearby the target. Vile word deals really huge damage, able to one shot 20 hp enemies, while stunning others, as such vile word is a powerful crowd-control tool, removing a single enemy while stunning the rest.
Wintry Blue

Throws an ice bomb that slows and disrupts magic, with a chance to stun. The ice bomb deals damage to all targets it hits, not just one person, as such it deals good damage to crowds while slowing as well as removing any projectiles the blast hits. Sometimes you can get stuns from the ice bomb, but it's RNG so don't rely on ice bombs to stun.
Brilliant Purple

Throws a projectile that stuns and damages up to two enemies. Unlike the other tattoos, brilliant purple can hold up to 9 charges, allowing it to be used far more frequently. It also has a pretty long range, as such it can snipe enemies from a long distance, and it deals 10 damage, which can be enough to deal certain enemies, and stun can be followed with a backstab for massive damage. Choose this upgrade if you hate running out of tattoo charges. Level 2 can stun up to three enemies, and more stuns equals more backstabs.
Nebulous Green

Creates a field that slows, burns, and disrupt magic. Can only have one at a time on the battlefield. The green field main purpose is to create safe-zones, where the Cultist is protected from projectiles as well as damaging any enemy that enters the field. Choose the location wisely though, as while a green field is active, Nebolous Green can't be activated and the cultist needs to wait for the current field to expire, which can take for a while, especially with the Level 2 version, where the duration is longer.
Wicked Yellow

Creates a void that explodes for strong damage and stuns surviving enemies after 2 seconds. Touching the void before it explodes will dissolve the void. Using it directly on enemies requires tricky plays, but the void can be used while you're invisible, and since the void deals huge damage, you can clear certain rooms without breaking stealth, which means it can save your rope charges in a long run. If anyone survives the explosion, it also stuns them for a while, and the explosion might leave them weak enough to be killed with a single backstab.

Vitae Tonic

A simple healing potion, this item is also the rarest consumable to drop in this game. While it might save your life, the Cultist has access to other consumables that are powerful as hell, as such it's recommended to save only 2 potion at best.
Time Dust

Provides haste, increasing movement speed and energy regen. The speed might conflict with the cultist usually methodical approach, but speed allows you to chain backstabs better, and energy regen allows you to throw knife more often, making the Cultist more deadly at range as well.
Aged Hourglass

The hourglass creates a circle around the Cultist that removes hostile magic and slows nearby enemies. The cultist might have powerful tools to clear rooms, but outside of using certain upgrades, she only has the blind to protect herself against projectiles, and the blind needs be timed perfectly to cancel projectiles, which can be very difficult in certain rooms. Luckily, the hourglass turns mages into sitting ducks, allowing her to backstab them leisurely.
Blade Venom

Coats your dagger with a powerful poison that can stun. The poison doesn't apply to dagger throws, which means that dagger throws can be used to save your poison for a really powerful enemy.
Fireball

Flings fireball to target location, dealing 20 damage and stuns. Fireball is amazing against clustered enemies, as long as you make sure your fireball isn't blocked by any walls.
Shadow Bomb

Teleport that leaves explosions at both the starting location and and the target location. Useful tool for gaining backstabs, both for the stun as well as the teleport.
Acid Cloud

Creates an acid cloud that poisons enemies. Acid Cloud itself is powerful enough to eliminate crowds on it's own, as such it can be used for cast-and-run tactics.
Shadowtwist Elixir

10 seconds of stealth that can't be broken. The cultist most devastating item, as 10 seconds of free backstabs is enough to kill nearly everything in the game, including even bosses, due to cultist extra backstab damage and high crit chance. Save it if you can, as it can turn even the hardest rooms into a massacre of monsters.
Ebonshards

Summon two shadow clones that attacks enemies. Two clones are really powerful, as they deal massive DPS while being invincible, without the player input.

Throatcutter
Increase critical chance by 15%, the highest in the game.
Eye For Weakness
5 extra backstab damage. 3 extra damage is a massive game-changer, as 3 damage is enough to bump backstab damage into 20, which is enough to one shot many enemies.
Alvari Intuition
20% more item drops from enemies
Soul Feeder
Increase energy regeneration by 20%
Demonic Pact
Using tattoo charge refunds 30% energy. Note that it only affects tattoo abilities, as such rope abilities such as stealth doesn't refund energy
Fearsome Visage
Defeating tough enemies slows nearby projectiles and negate projectiles for 1.5 seconds. Essentially a free short burst of hourglass that activates whenever a tough enemy dies.
Diablolic Flesh
Recovers 5 more health from fountain.
Gift of the Vengeful
Increase the crit chance of other class by 3%. Raise the DPS of other classes.

The cultist is a flexible class that can fight at close range and long range, as well as having powerful ability combinations, all while dealing extreme amount of damage that no other class can match. Due to players unlocking her after beating the catacombs as well as having incredible DPS, many players dub her as the strongest class in the game, only outclassed by the paladin, who has a very severe drawback. That said, despite being considered "overpowered", don't let that discourage you into thinking the cultist is easy mode, as despite all of her strengths, she still has her own weaknesses, and if you run out of your ability charges, you're going to have a bad time.

That being said, the cultist is still a powerful character, and her stealth allows you to be more methodical. While others must face enemies head-on, the cultist stealth allows her to blind and backstab group, or even skipping certain enemies. Or set up a deadly explosion from the shadows. Or just overwhelm enemies with your clones. Either way, the cultist offers her own unique playstyle, which rewards careful positioning and resource management, in exchange for powerful damage, which is why investing time and gold to cultist is very worth it, a class that's essentially a "reward" for beating the catacombs, a very difficult place to clear.

Since the Paladin is a special case, this is probably the final guide of the class guide series. To fully experience the game, you need to play all the class, for both their stories, as well as for their unique playstyles and gifts. Hopefully my class guides will help you figure out how to excel with all classes, as well as motivate you to play your least played class, and also decide which class is your overall favorite.