A Core Follower is a Cultivator from outside the Player Sect who has been persuaded by a Shendao cultivator to enter their Divine Realm. Their purpose is to be turned into Guards for the Shendao cultivator to increase their power. Core Followers cannot be promoted from Mortals.
Obtaining a Core Follower[]
Before deciding to promote a Cultivator into a Core Follower, the Shendao cultivator should talk to as many people as possible. During a conversation, the Predestiny value will be displayed. The Shendao cultivator should only choose characters with more than 70% Predestiny, as lower values may mean that the Core Follower cannot be turned into a Guard.
Main article: Persuade
In order to promote the Cultivator into a Core Follower, the Persuade minigame must be completed. To do so, they must first be invited to the Player Sect, as core follower promotion can only be done at the Player Sect. The Relationship Favor should be maxed out at 100, in order to have the best chances of success. All Shendao cultivators start with 6 Core Follower slots, this can be increased to a maximum of 11 by constructing the 5 "Residence of <element>" buildings in the Divine Realm, which are unlocked after reaching Cultivation Level 9 (Divine State)[1].
Promotion to Guard[]
Once the Cultivator has been promoted into a Core Follower, their Extent of Belief needs to be increased to 100%. This can be done by promoting them with a more difficult Topic during the Persuade minigame, as well as by granting their wishes during the Listen minigame. Each wish granted to a Core Follower increases their Extent of Belief by 3.75%-6.25% (average 5%)[2], for a maximum of 5 times. This means that Core Followers with less than 70% Predestiny may fail to be turned into Guards, permanently wasting a Core Follower slot for no gain. Since the number of Core Followers is limited to a maximum of 11, this should be avoided at all costs.
Once Extent of Belief has reached 100%, the Core Follower can be promoted to any type of Guard that is currently unlocked by the Shendao cultivator. This is the only way to obtain multiple Guards of a single type, meaning Guard promotions should be only done after reaching Attainment Phase (Cultivation Level 12) and all necessary guards for the Shendao cultivator's desired build have been unlocked through the Deity's Body.