Worship finally has a release date for the 1.0: November 4th 2026!
For those that were waiting for the perfect time to serve the Old Gods, this is when you should answer the call! With the 1.0 launch, Worship becomes a complete and replayable cultist journey. From your first rituals to the end of the world as you know it. If you want to know more about what to expect in the 1.0 version go check our last update.
We are now entering the final stretch before launching Worship 1.0 in a few weeks. While we want to keep the new content under wrap for that occasion, we wanted to do one last update for the early access. For the faithful who want to serve right away, a new update: The End is Nigh, is out today on Steam!
Why an update before 1.0?
Our main goal for this update is to introduce our latest gameplay improvements while squashing as many bugs as we can. The aim of this update isn’t to introduce new content, we are keeping all of that good stuff for the 1.0 launch. We are basically setting up the table before the main meal arrives, which in this case is the full release of Worship! We mostly wanted to improve the Early Access version of the game for new and returning players that want to get a few runs in before the release. If you prefer to play the final and more complete experience, we suggest you wait for the 1.0 launch. Otherwise, check out the following section for what’s new!
What's in it?
New features
Follower cap - Start small, grow big
The amount of followers you can command at once is now capped.
Follower cap grows as your cult progresses in a run.
It progresses at a certain devotion threshold in each area.
It can be increased through some upgrades.
When 1.0 launches, the cap can additionally be permanently increased through eldritch prophecies
Excess followers are stowed in the cult base.
They can be summoned at any time to replace lost followers.
Each god and aspect now has its own follower cap.
Conversion ritual now additionally summons followers from your reserve if your cap isn’t met.
Updated conversion ritual description to reflect its new utility to summon followers from reserve.
New building in the cult base, the follower chapel.
This is where your excess followers are stowed.
You can interact with it to get followers from your reserves (same as using conversion ritual)
New upgrades that increase your follower cap have been added:
Gospel of the Devout
Gospel of the Prophet
Gospel of the Old Ones
Cult base portals - Travel faster
Finishing major encounters creates a portal to your cult base.
Interacting with a portal teleports you and your followers with anything they are carrying to the cult base.
When 1.0 releases, a Town portal ritual will be unlockable through prophecy rewards.
Gameplay changes
A big balancing pass has been done on almost all aspects of the game. Another pass will be coming with the 1.0.
Notable mentions include balancing on gods’ starting kits, enemy quantity, the procedural generation data and more.
Each god now has its own follower cap as part of its kit.
Major encounters are now revealed by default on the map.
Your cultist now reveals fog in a wider radius on the map.
The pathways leading to the battle arenas in the test of faith are made inaccessible once the fight begins.
Major encounters now have a visual delimitation on the map. This should make it less confusing for players to know where to look to solve a major encounter.
3 gods are now unlocked right out of the gate, until the 1.0 drops, after which you’ll have to unlock them through a specific set of eldritch prophecies.
Once the full game launches, you will be able to unlock these gods and their alternative aspects though their own eldritch prophecies.
We didn’t want the new player to have to go through a temporary unlock process and then have to do it again “the right way” with prophecies when 1.0 drops. That is why we decided to make them available by default for The End Is Nigh update.
An-Ansgaidh, Weeping Calamity is the recommended God for new players.
After commanding a follower to go to a position, if they find nothing there they go back to you instead of waiting there until recalled.
Symbol recognition has been improved across the board.
The system should be better at identifying drawn shapes.
The shape indicator (bubble above the cultist) should be faster and more reliable.
Some shapes have been changed in some encounters:
Uhr sigil “Kessessa Hand” was replaced by the new “bloom” shape
This shape was harder to draw than the other 2. The new shape matches the others’ “difficulty”.
“Blood pattern ruins” encounters now require the cultist to activate the shape for completion.
The follower transmuter encounter has been removed and will come back in a better shape for the 1.0.
Added a fifth relic in the last section of the tutorial to improve player understanding.
Made animals unaccessible in the Shattered Plateau to improve player understanding.
Devotion amounts required have been rebalanced.
A handful of other changes since the last update.
Teased features
Eldritch Prophecies & lore entries
In preparation for the 1.0 launch, you will see a new button on the main menu to access the Eldritch Prophecies.
You’ll have to wait for the full launch for the awakening of Jyanbrha, the Many-Armed Omen. Until then, prophecies won’t be available for you to see and complete.
From the eldritch prophecy menu, you can access the lore entries menu.
A single lore entry will be available in this update. We hope you look forward to unlocking all of them when 1.0 launches.
God Variants - New unique ways to play
In the god selection menu, you’ll see 3 locked God Aspects. They won’t be unlockable until the 1.0 launches.
We hope you look forward to seeing what kind of powers they bestow to cults that worship them.
Skins for cultist, followers and blood
In the god selection menu, you’ll notice a new “Customize” section in the top left corner. In the 1.0 update, you’ll be able to unlock some skins for your cultist, followers and blood.
Bugfixing and other changes
Worship now runs on Unity 6. This shouldn’t cause any noticeable changes.
Over 100+ bugs were fixed between the last update and this one. We still have some to tackle before 1.0, but the game should be more stable than it ever was. Here are some of the more noticeable bugs that were fixed
Issues with enemy engaging combat and health bar not displaying.
Issues when throwing followers.
Issues with liftable objects.
Music was sometimes breaking/not playing what it was supposed to play.
Fixed issues with the symbol recognition indicator (bubble above the cultist).
Fixed various issues causing softlocks/being unable to use certain actions.
The cursed troupe encounter was sometimes not completed properly.
Fixed players being able to save and quit during cultist death animation.
Fixed camera issues with some enemies.
Fixed completion problem with painter’s chapel encounter if you attacked the guards after drawing the shape but before interacting with the painter.
Some environments weren’t properly handled by the procedural generation.
Fixed some issues with Uhr.
Many many more.
Known issues and stuff we are actively working on
Considering the 1.0 version of Worship includes many changes, we had to make some changes in the save system. Considering this, if you had an ongoing run, it will be erased. As mentioned previously, we’re also changing the way Gods (and future variants) will be unlocked, considering this, you will have access to the three Gods currently in the game until the 1.0 releases. After that, you will have to unlock them the way the Gods intended.
You might notice a few localization issues, especially words getting out of dialogue boxes.
We’ve encountered rendering issues on some enemies the more you play linked to the tribute feedback. You might encounter some blacked out enemies in your runs after tributing multiple times the same enemy.
One of the testers had their map not rendering at all. We believe this is a hardware related issue. If this bug occurs to you, we’d be grateful to have more information regarding the hardware you are playing to troubleshoot this issue.
Tokyo Game Show
The release date and PlayStation announcement comes alongside our participation at the Tokyo Gameshow! Worship has been officially selected as part of the Indie 80, a curated section of the event. Anyone attending the event this week will be able to meet with the founders and try out our latest build! If you are coming to TGS, come see us at booth E-69!
Consoles
Today we’re announcing the full release of Worship on Steam, but also the PlayStation 5 ports of the title, both coming out on November 4th. We initially intended to announce an additional console today, but unfortunately we are still in discussions with another partner on that matter. Expect news in the near future about an additional console release for Worship targeted for 2027.
Summary
Worship is coming out of early access on Steam and PlayStation 5 on November 4th 2026
The End is Nigh - a pre-launch update launches today to introduce gameplay changes, game balancing and bug fixing for the current live game
Chasing Rats Games is visiting Tokyo for the Tokyo Gameshow as part of the official Indie 80 selection
An additional console for Worship is soon to be announced
A couple of reminders of frequently discussed subjects:
A more detailed overview of what to expect for Worship 1.0 has been shared in our previous update. We hope you look forward to it!
The multiplayer support for Worship has been cut from 1.0 development. All marketing material and storefronts have been updated to reflect that. You’ll be the first to know if we get to develop it as post-launch content.
That is all for today. As always, thank you for everything and enjoy the prelaunch update coming out today!