When raids start
Cultists show up around day 4. After that they return on a repeating cycle, with more fighters and more crossbows each time. One guide puts the repeat at about every four nights, described as roughly 20 minutes of play. Use that as a planning hint, not a timer you can set a watch by.
They drop Cultist Gems. Those gems are the bench 4 upgrade and several tier 4 recipes. Kill the raid, then decide whether the gems go into the bench or into anvil gear.
Crossbow cultists are the ones that down players who only watch the axe fighters. Shoot or focus them first.
A camp they have to walk through
Bench level 2 unlocks Bear Traps (3 Scrap, up to 8) and unlimited Log Walls (12 Wood each). Walls alone are a wood sink if you are solo.
A layout that shows up in several survival notes:
- Replant saplings in a tight ring around camp. Grown trees stall cultists, and you can chop them later for Wood.
- Put Bear Traps, and Base Defender spikes or barbed wire if you have those blueprints, in the one gap you leave.
- Stand where the raiders must cross that gap. Kite them back through the traps and reset the traps.
- Near day 99, add Log Walls inside the tree ring if you still have wood to spare.
Rain shelters placed close together are an early cover. Shelves are not. Cultists jump shelves.
The Base Defender class starts with defense blueprints, so a team can skip the bench wait for the first spikes. Anyone else should get bench 2 before day 4 if the fire is already stable.
Stronghold
The cultist stronghold is a larger building, marked when you are close enough for it to appear, full of cultists and better chests. On PC you can aim ranged weapons from behind cover as long as the target is in view, which is the safe way to thin a stronghold. The Deer is reported to stay out while you are inside, unless the campfire goes out. If it does get in, upper floors reached by stairs are the reported refuge because it does not climb them.
Bring bullets, a bandage, and a melee weapon before you commit. A stronghold reset was reported at about 20 minutes after a clear.