With patch 0.15, BSG introduced the Cultist Circle in Escape From Tarkov, allowing players to "sacrifice" in-game items to the Cultists and receive other items in return. What you receive is mostly random, but there are some items that, if sacrificed, always yield a specific result.
The patch notes inform us that:
The new Cultist Circle is located outside the main Hideout.
You can sacrifice up to 5 items to the Cultist Circle;
The value of each sacrificed item is added up;
This total determines the value of items received as a Gift from the cultists;
The cultists cannot deliver items while you are in the Hideout.
The value of the sacrificed items is further increased by the bonuses from:
Sacred Amulet
Hideout Management skill
Also note that players who have purchased The Unheard Edition will have the Cultist Circle built instantly.
What is the Cultist Circle?
The exact lore behind the Cultist Circle is unclear and may be explained further upon the final release of EFT. However, it's a convenient feature for disposing of unwanted items or useless junk cluttering our stashes in a more entertaining way.
Instead of selling these items to traders or discarding them, we can sacrifice them at the Cultist Circle and see what we get in return.
The mechanism is similar to the Scav Case, with the difference that in the latter, the payments given to scavs for searching random items are fixed, whereas with the Cultist Circle, we can sacrifice any items we want.
Many players have also started searching for combinations of items that consistently yield the same results the first time they are sacrificed. You can see which ones on the Hideout page of the Escape From Tarkov Wiki.
Additionally, the patch notes for patch 0.15 state that:
"If the value of a single sacrifice is above a certain threshold, there is a 25% chance to receive items needed for active tasks and unfinished Hideout zones."
This feature offers a great opportunity to obtain those incredibly rare or extremely expensive items that we struggle to find while raiding in Tarkov.
The Threshold(s)
There are 2 thresholds: 350,001 RUB and 400,000
When the total value of the sacrifice (the sum of the base value of each sacrificed item) reaches the 350,001 RUB threshold, the sacrifice will take 14 hours, and there is an increased chance to receive rare and high-value items.
When the total value is 400,000 RUB or more, there is a 25% chance of receiving items needed for active quests and Hideout upgrades. If this chance is triggered, the sacrifice will last 6 hours. If the chance is not triggered, the sacrifice will last 14 hours, and it will behave as the lower threshold case.
But what are the base values of items? To calculate them, we have to take the trader buy-back price and divide it by the multiplier of that trader. Different traders have different multipliers. It's a bit complicated, so for this reason we have been gifted with a great tool: the Cultist Calculator.
TIP: After writing this article, I recently found out that one of the cheapest choices to reach the 400k threshold in the Cultist Circle is to use 2 MP5SDs bought from Pacekeeper and 1 Diary or a similar value item (an SSD seems to work too). While it's not clear why this works, since the total value should not be enough, this combination is cheaper than most possible other combinations, and another plus is you won't be subject to market fluctuation.
Cultist Calculator
Wilsman77, using Tarkov Market data and collaborating with streamer VeryBadSCAV—who conducted the research—has created the 'Cultist Calculator', available to everyone. This tool helps you choose the 5 items needed to reach the selected threshold without having to calculate their base value yourself.
The Cultist Calculator is very useful for having a greater selection of items we can sacrifice (if an item is very expensive on the Flea Market, you can choose another) and for avoiding the sacrifice of items that, when combined, exceed the necessary threshold by too much—thereby wasting high-value items unnecessarily.
You can select PVP or PVE mode.
You can select the threshold to reach, so you don't waste money with item that have a higher value than needed.
It has the Auto Select feature that generates a random set of 5 items precisely meeting the selected threshold, providing a more 'slot-machine' experience.
You can exclude items that you don't want to use (e.g. because their price is very high on the Flea Market at that moment).
You can select which categories of items to include or exclude in the Settings.
It also lists Recipes, known combinations that give known results.
Don't forget to click the Help button in the top left of the calculator to read the instructions.
Cultist Circle Visions?
If you haven't seen it yet, below is a video from the ingenious and visionary YouTuber and programmer Tarkin that depicts the Cultist Circle in a different yet very fitting way.
Also don't forget to check out Tarkin YouTube Channel for more visionary and fun videos.
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