How to Get What You Want From The Mansus

The Mansus is the the spirit realm of Cultist Simulator, and where you get the all-important Secret Histories. For the higher levels of the mansus, you have to pay quite a price. It may seem like getting what you want from the Mansus is pure luck, but it's actually more complex than that, and you can determine what cards are coming up next. But more importantly, without knowing this information you'll get worse cards than seems probable if you're going for the same card over and over.

The Workings of the Mansus

Every time you visit the mansus, the game draws three cards from three decks, representing the choices you have. For example, when one visits the Peacock Door[cultistsimulator.gamepedia.com], a card is drawn from mansus_peacockdoor1, mansus_peacockdoor2 and mansus_peacockdoor3. Each of these can be imagined as a deck of cards, containing all of the specified cards:

1. The Peacock's Door
   1. Scholar: Vak
      
   2. Fascination
      
   3. Unresolved Ambiguity (Secret Histories 10)
      
   4. A Splendour (Lantern 15)
2. The Red Church
   1. Fascination
      
   2. A Favour from Authority
      
   3. Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12)
      
   4. An Incarnadescence (Grail 15)
      
   5. Amaranthine Nectar (Grail 8)
3. The Worm Museum
   1. Dread
      
   2. Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12)
      
   3. Perfect Frost (Winter 15)

When you bring a card back with you, the game will reveal the 2 other cards. This seems useless at first, but is very important, because each card is a draw from these decks of 3 cards. Once all 3 cards are drawn from the deck, the deck is reset and shuffled.

By Example

Let's say we want to make a Port Noon Anecdote (Secret Histories 14) by combining the best Secret Histories lore we can get. The first time we visit the Mansus, we're presented with Unresolved Ambiguity (Secret Histories 10) from the revealed The Peacock's Door deck, and we take that. This reveals 2 other cards: An Incarnadescence (Grail 15) from the The Red Church deck, and Dread from The Worm Museum deck. This all but guarantees that we will not get these cards again from the draw decks, which now look like this:

1. The Peacock's Door
   1. Scholar: Vak
      
   2. Fascination
      
   3. Unresolved Ambiguity (Secret Histories 10)
      
   4. A Splendour (Lantern 15)
2. The Red Church
   1. Fascination
      
   2. A Favour from Authority
      
   3. Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12)
      
   4. An Incarnadescence (Grail 15)
      
   5. Amaranthine Nectar (Grail 8)
3. The Worm Museum
   1. Dread
      
   2. Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12)
      
   3. Perfect Frost (Winter 15)

If we want to get another secret histories we should not draw from The Peacock's Door again, as doing so will only get us either Fascination or Scholar: Vak. If we draw from The Worm Museum, we have a 1 of 2 chance of getting Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12) or a Perfect Frost (Winter 15). If we draw from The Red Church we have only a 1 in 4 chance of getting Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12), so our best choice is The Worm Museum.

Let's say we draw the Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12) from The Worm Museum and Fascination is revealed from The Peacock's Door, and A Favour from Authority is revealed from The Red Church, now the decks will look like this:

1. The Peacock's Door
   1. Scholar: Vak
      
   2. Fascination
      
   3. Unresolved Ambiguity (Secret Histories 10)
      
   4. A Splendour (Lantern 15)
2. The Red Church
   1. Fascination
      
   2. A Favour from Authority
      
   3. Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12)
      
   4. An Incarnadescence (Grail 15)
      
   5. Amaranthine Nectar (Grail 8)
3. The Worm Museum
   1. Dread
      
   2. Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12)
      
   3. Perfect Frost (Winter 15)

Now, paradoxically, our only good choice is The Red Church, with a 1 in 3 chance of getting Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12), since no Secret Histories lore is available from any other deck. But alas, we get Amaranthine Nectar (Grail 8), and the guaranteed Perfect Frost (Winter 15) and Scholar: Vak is revealed from the other decks.

Now the decks of 3 cards -- The Peacock's Door and The Worm Museum are cleared, they will be reset, so next time we draw, we will be drawing from these decks:

1. The Peacock's Door
   1. Scholar: Vak
      
   2. ]Fascination
      
   3. Unresolved Ambiguity (Secret Histories 10)
      
   4. A Splendour (Lantern 15)
2. The Red Church
   1. Fascination
      
   2. A Favour from Authority
      
   3. Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12)
      
   4. An Incarnadescence (Grail 15)
      
   5. Amaranthine Nectar (Grail 8)
3. The Worm Museum
   1. Dread
      
   2. Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12)
      
   3. Perfect Frost (Winter 15)

Now, again paradoxically our best choice is The Red Church with a 1 in 2 chance of getting Vagabond's Map (Secret Histories 12). This process continues indefinitely.

References, Further Reading

The draws from the mansus are defined in

cultistsimulator_date\StreamingAssets\content\core\decks\mansus.json

. I've added a section to the end to read. I used the guide Truly Forbidden Lore (Debug Console / Modding) to understand some of this, particularly how restonexhaustion worked.

							{id: "mansus_peacockdoor",
	spec:
		["scholarvak",
		"fragmentsecrethistoriese",
		"influencelanterng",
		"fascination"],
				drawmessages:{scholarvak:"Last night I opened the Peacock Door, and afterwards it spoke to me. 'I am Vak,' it boasted, 'both the tongue and the Goddess. I am the only entrance into secret light. I was worshipped before you upright apes, and I will be still when all of you are ugly ash. Listen, and I will prove it.' I woke with my mouth full of words. ",
		fragmentsecrethistoriese:"Last night I opened the Peacock Door, and beyond it in the bright spaces of the House I met a pilgrim-adept. 'I am almost ready,' they said, 'to pass to the summit of the House, to prepare for the final ascent. Perhaps you'll join me. I will need allies, to fight for my place. Here is a story to help you rise.'",
		influencelanterng:"Last night I satisfied the Peacock Door, and my action drew the attention of a certain Hour. In the golden spaces of the Mansus beyond I heard the Flowermaker's promise, and his promise is this: he cannot harm me, and he cannot find me, but if I will only come to him he will satisfy my desire as I satisfied the Peacock Door's. In earnest of this promise, my eyes have been opened, and this morning I see glory."},
		defaultdrawmessages:{},
resetonexhaustion:true
	},
				{id: "mansus_peacockdoor1",
	spec:
	["influencegrailg",
	"ingredientgraild",
	"fragmentsecrethistoriesf",
	"favour",
	"fascination"],
			drawmessages:{influencegrailg:"When one dreams of the Red Church, one hears the voices of the Grail's Names, the Thirstlies and the Ivories and the Lovelies and the rest. 'Not all the empousai are women,' they might be heard to say. 'The hungers of women run no deeper than the hungers of men. But a mother is never far from her child at its birth, and that is not always true of a father. Come closer, and we will show you what we mean.'",
	ingredientgraild:"When I visited the Red Church last night, they told me, between their clawings and their caresses, that the Flowermaker had visited but lately, with his Nectar and his promise. I woke twined in sodden sheets, with the Amaranthine Nectar brimming in my hand. I captured what I could of it - only a few drops, but it will be enough.",
	fragmentsecrethistoriesf:"I saw the Red Church again last night, with its pews of bone, the stained glass in shades of ruby, the golden altar that beats like a heart. That night the Names of the Grail gathered to speak of those Long who've sworn off the pleasures of the bedchamber - save between man and man, or woman and woman. 'They still pay the tribute of delight,' an Ivory said. 'They do not bear fruit,' a Lovely said. 'If Forge and Sun had only joined -' a Thirstly lamented. Then they fell to gossiping of the Long of the House of Lethe, and their deeds in the desert. I remember it still.",
	favour:"Each of the stained glass windows of the Red Church is devoted to a distinct appetite, and the scenes they show are from life. Last night, in one of the uglier windows, I saw the appetites a certain public figure satisfied in private. I know he won't want this information made public. Perhaps he'll show me some consideration.",
	fascination:"Last night I visited the Red Church, where the Grail conducts its feasts. The light through the stained glass windows was all the spectra of red and the Names of the Grail laboured to birth a new desire which had until today no name at all. I am sticky with the memory of it, and this morning everything I see is tinted ruby."},
		defaultdrawmessages:{},
resetonexhaustion:true
	},
{id: "mansus_peacockdoor2",
	spec:
		["influencewinterg",
		"fragmentsecrethistoriesf",
		"dread",
		],
				drawmessages:{influencewinterg:"Last night I visited the Worm Museum, which is both within the Mansus (for security) and without (for safety). The Hours have charged the Colonel with its defence, and even the Lionsmith does not challenge him here. Winter is the chiefest aspect of this place. The Worms thrive where things end, but they can also be ended, and they must, if the Mansus is to endure. This morning, the chilly certainty of the Colonel's hand still lies on my shoulder.",
		fragmentsecrethistoriesf:"Size in the Mansus is negotiable, and so last night in the Worm Museum I saw one of the Worms who took Vienna, caged next to a Worm taken from the soul of a child. In dreams they are more visible than waking, smooth and dark as jewels. The walls bear stories of the First and Second Worm Wars. The Third is too recent to have passed into the Histories.",
		dread:"I dreamt last night of the Worm Museum. The Hours have set wards about it and warnings before it, but they have left it open to mortal adepts who can prove themselves by reaching it. Perhaps they hope to inspire revulsion against the things that bred in the corpse of the Sun. Those things are here still, always dying, never dead. They came from Nowhere, the warnings say, and if they complete their work, the Mansus will be Nowhere, one day."},
		defaultdrawmessages:{},
resetonexhaustion:true
	},

[phospatase]

does this still apply? in my experience, unless it's the one i chose, the face down cards are never revealed, so i can't keep track of the cards. :/

[zemnmez]

thank you :)

[deathstroke1975]

Excellent post! And someday, I will be inspired enough to actually keep track of the decks from the different areas.