The Cult’s Recipe is technically an optional side-quest in Gothic 1 Remake, as you can advance your goal to enter the Old Camp mage’s quarters without it. However, it’s quite crucial for multiple reasons. It helps you explore the south-eastern quadrant of the map siginificantly, and gives you almost one entire free level with relatively easy XP.
However, the path to the Swamp Camp might turn out to be more treacherous and maze-like than you’d initially imagine. In this quest guide, we’ll go over the easiest way to reach the location, nab the recipe, and find your way out to complete the Cult’s Recipe quest.
Gothic 1 Remake The Cult’s Recipe quest walkthrough
Before you begin The Cult’s Recipe, it’s best to ensure you’ve picked up the overworld (colony) map in Gothic 1 Remake.
Having done that, after you’ve talked to Dexter to pick up the quest, don’t immediately head out to the wilds following his directions. The thoroughfare leading to the Swamp Camp is not straightforward, and also laden with all sorts of enemies you’ll have a hard time dealing with.
Instead, look for Baal Parvez, an itinerant brotherhood preacher who sits nearby. If not directly at the spitoon where you may have found Dexter, look for him in one of the huts towards your north.
Once you find him, talk to him and he’ll directly offer to escort you to the Swamp Camp. Accept this offer, and start following him.
Before you get out of the camp completely, try to procure or cook at least a few meat dishes (the two unlocked by default). Or, you can do the Snaf’s Recipe quest beforehand to have some Meatbug ragouts on hand.
Now comes the part that makes The Cult’s Recipe one of the best early quests in Gothic 1 Remake: on the path, there will be many wildlife creature encounters.
En route, you’ll face one or two wolves, three bloatflies, three lizards, two adult scavengers, some molerats, and then even more lizards and bloatflies as you close in on the Swamp Camp to the south-east. Instead of charging in, let Baal Parvez deal with them.
He is a skilled fighter who two-taps almost anything that comes his way, and also regenerates health between fights. On Hard difficulty, you may need to pull agrro from a few creatures to keep them occupied to make his job easier.
Unlike most cases where an NPC kills a creature, you get full XP for every creature Baal Parvez kills here, and you’ll get nearly 600-700 free XP this way. Make sure to quicksave after each encounter, just in case.
After he’s lade you into a marsh enclave where the Brotherhood’s camp is located, Baal Parvez will run off towards Old Camp again. Here on out, look out for the signposts and follow the alchemy icon, which will lead you to a twining stairway woven around a giant tree.
Circle this tree to climb the stairway for two floors, and on your right, you’ll find Cor Kalom’s workstation.
Talking to Cor Kalom here doesn’t prove immediately useful, because he’s too busy to direct you to the swamp-lean alchemic formula you need. Thankfully, he’s also too busy to take notice if you loot it from his chest.
Lockpick the chest towards the left of the alchemic workbench (not the one past a ladder, though). Gothic 1 Remake seems to take an exception in giving you impunity from guard hostility for this specific lock.
Like we’ve said in our lockpicking guide for Gothic 1 Remake, the key is simply to avoid the fail condition, which is to say: avoid bumping the pin into the edge of any plate.
Push the upper plate to the left, and then the lower plate to the right, and then the one above it. Keep going back to upper plate to nudge it back to the left. Work your way from the bottom up until all the pins are in the middle position (fourth hole).
This chest has the recipe you’re looking for, and picking it up won’t count as theft. Exit the shack, and then backtrack the path you’ve come through. If you run into any bloatflies at this point, it’s best to just keep running past them.
After you return to Old Camp, simply hand over the notes to Dexter, and you’ll have completed The Cult’s Recipe quest in Gothic 1 Remake.
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Edited by Sambit Pal