Sermons

A sermon is the weekly service you hold at the lectern in the church. It turns happiness into Faith and money, and a successful sermon can add a buff or an item on top. You can hold one sermon per week, on Wrath day (the 6th day of the week).

Unlocking the church

The church opens during the quest line of Agatha, the Nun. After Holy Moly! you get the Church Cleaning technology for free and are asked to bring the church up to 10 church quality. When you report back, the Nun gives you your first sermon, a Basic Prayer, and lets you hold the first service the same day, whatever day of the week it is. After that, sermons follow the Wrath-day schedule.

The church starts out full of rubble and broken pots. Each one counts −2 toward church quality, so a fresh church sits well below zero. Clear them first (the rubble is a small craft that needs a Bronze part and a board; the pots break with one hit), then place furniture such as Interior Bench I (+3 each).

Holding a sermon

1. Walk up to the lectern on Wrath day and choose Pray. On any other day your character only says the ceremony is available on Wrath day.
2. Pick a sermon from your backpack. Sermons stored in a chest do not show up in the list.
3. The window shows three numbers: your church quality, your current happiness, and the parishioners who will attend. The parishioner count is always the lower of the other two.
4. Press Start the sermon. This uses up your one sermon for the week, and it takes happiness equal to the number of parishioners. The success roll happens right now, not during the cutscene that follows.
5. After the cutscene, the Faith lands on the floor in front of the lectern and has to be picked up. The money goes into the donation box in the church; interact with the box to take it.

Success and rewards

Each sermon has two thresholds, both shown in its tooltip:

• Need to start: the minimum number of parishioners.
• Guaranteed success: the number of parishioners at which success is certain. Below that, the chance is parishioners ÷ guaranteed success, so 5 parishioners on a sermon that needs 10 have a 50% chance.

Every sermon pays a base reward per parishioner, in Faith and in money, even when it fails. A successful sermon adds a bonus on top:

• Faith bonus: an extra amount per parishioner.
• Money bonus: an amount per point of graveyard quality. This is the only way graveyard quality affects a sermon.
• Reward: the sermon’s buff or item, if it has one.

Exact formula

With P = parishioners, G = graveyard quality:

• Faith = round(P × base Faith) + round(P × success Faith) if successful
• Money = P × base money + G × success money if successful

Rounding is to the nearest whole number, with halves rounded up. All values are calculated at the moment you press Start, so buffs that run out during the cutscene do not change the result.

Example: a Basic Prayer with 10 parishioners and 20 graveyard quality succeeds for certain (it needs 8). It gives round(2.5) + round(3.0) = 6 Faith and 10 × 5 + 20 × 10 = 250 copper. If it had failed, it would still give 3 Faith and 50 copper.

Happiness

Happiness is spent on every sermon, so you have to keep earning it (see Happiness and Town Quality). Your happiness can never go above town quality, and anything gained above that cap is lost. Until the port opens, town quality stays at 10, which limits every sermon to at most 10 parishioners however good your church is.

Ways to get happiness:

• Town Gratitude: +5 when used. Many quests reward it.
• Selling burial certificates to Januarius: the first five of each kind every week give happiness, up to his weekly limit.
• Selling fish fillets and vegetables to Herm.

Weekly limits reset on Pride day.