Shendao Cultivation

Shendao Shendao Cultivation (Chinese: 神道) is a Cultivation Method. Shendao Cultivators are also known as "Divine" Cultivators because of the way they amass Belief in the pursuit of immortality, much like a deity.

Summary

Shendao Cultivation is focused on gathering Belief and using it to replenish Qi, convert it into Cultivation, construct Buildings in the Cultivator's Divine Realm or grant wishes to Followers. Belief is gathered from a Shendao Cultivator's Followers through various sources, notably Agencies.

Divine Realm

Main article: Divine Realm

Upon breakthrough to the Divine State, Cultivators will establish their own Divine Realm. The Divine Realm is comprised of States where various Buildings can be be built for various purposes. One important purpose is to appoint Guards which will provide bonuses and Miracles to the Shendao Cultivator.

Sacred Relic

Shendao Cultivators can only craft one Artifact in their lifetime called a Sacred Relic, which, unlike other Artifacts, will increase in power along with the Cultivator and help its Belief generation.

Divinity

Divinity is a measure of how much a Cultivator has become more Divine than Human. Shendaos cultivators will ascend at 100% Divinity, so managing this number is required.

Overall Mechanics

Shendao Cultivation leans heavily on socialisation: talking to and helping people -> getting Followers.

• Moodlets, both positive and negative, collectively cause Distress, a problem for Shendao Cultivators.
• To make Cultivation progress, Belief is consumed with usage of  Celestial Meditation
• Different from Xiandao and Body cultivators in that they have Mental State Breakthroughs
• Can build their own Divine Realm with Divine Residents which is their "skill tree" mechanic.
• Useful for clearing locked-in Obsessions with the  Clean Mind Miracle, learnable from their Divine Realm.
• Can recruit Core Followers through the Persuade mechanic that can be converted into Guards.

Comparison to Xiandao

• Does not have access Miracles and stat bonuses until Divine State and their Divine Realm.
• While they can be part of Formations, they do not have an Element, cannot increase their Formation Skill, and are thus unsuited for being a Pillar in the Formation.
• Unable to use Alchemy.

Breakthrough

After Divine State, Breakthroughs give access to more Buildings and Guards.

Divine State Breakthrough

See: Detailed page: Divine Realm Breakthrough

Similar in importance and mechanics to the Xiandao Golden Core Breakthrough.

Mental State Breakthrough

A second kind of breakthrough for Shendao Cultivators which can be independently done from other breakthroughs. Increases of Mental State through Mental State Breakthroughs will increase controllable Divine Resident count.

• See Shendao Cultivation#Mental State Tiers below.

Shendao Cultivation Laws

There are three Laws Shendao Cultivators can practice, which differ only in the Guards they provide:

•  Celestial Thunder Salvation Sutra
  • Obtained by establishing an Agency at Mt. South and upgrading it to level 2 (alt: Third Golden Casket).
  • Focused on Guards who provide large increases to Artifact Mastery and Artifact Power.
•  Eight Heavens Sadhana
  • Obtained either through Ancient Scrolls or the Third Golden Casket opening Secret.
  • Focused on Guards which provide Battle Spells.
•  Nether Salvation Sutra
  • Obtained either through  Ancient Caskets or the Third Golden Casket opening Secret.
  • Focused on Guards who provide large increases to Protect and Barrier Power.
  • Provides a Resurrection Miracle through one of its Guards.

Recommended Candidates

There are no stat requirements to being a Shendao Cultivator; however:

• 14+ Social skill is required to break the Emotional Guard on the Social Minigame, which is highly recommended to be able to recruit Core Followers, which can then be promoted to Guards.
  • For more information: Persuade#Divine Realm Persuade
  • It is possible not to play with Core Followers at all but this deprives the Shendao cultivator of most of its power
• Charisma is used (along with social skill) to recruit Core Followers as well. While there's no strict requirement, these breakpoints (assuming 14+ social skill and a broken Emotional Guard) will help you in most common situations
  • 6 Charisma (after using standard means to raise Five Attributes) for 100% recruitment of Mortals as Divine State and Qi Shapers as Attainment State using Favorites or Disliked Items
  • 7.25 for 30% recruitment of Mortals as Divine/Qi Shapers as Attainment using Secret Knowledge
• Traits and Backgrounds which decrease Mood Multiplier can help reduce Distress.
• Luck makes one Mental State Breakthrough finish faster, 5 or so (after bonuses) is enough however as going from 5 to 10 luck only reduces the breakthrough time from 20 to 10 days.
• As with other cultivation methods, Battle has a beneficial effect.
• Intelligence at 8 can rarely be useful in order to passively gain Mental State at the Wise stage (400-500).
  • 8 Intelligence is only required if you intend on using inclination to raise your mental state, which is not recommended as it takes a long time to do so.
  • Using boosts to get to 500 mental state will bypass this requirement.
• Extremely minor benefits from Qi Sense and Magic (which will randomly add Skill Levels in Artifact Mastery, Spell and Protect).

Traits and Backgrounds which add Moodlets or increase Mood Multiplier should be avoided, as they add Distress.

Buildings in the Divine Realm

•  Temple of Miracles is recommended as one of the first Buildings to have in one's Divine Realm. An Agency can be assigned to worship the Divine Cultivator, significantly increasing Belief gain.
• A  Guard's Temple with the  Cardinal Messenger Guard will grant access to the Miracle  Meditation of Unification, which is faster than  Celestial Meditation.
• The  Sacred Pavilion series of Divine Realm Buildings can be used to empower the Shendao Cultivator's Sacred Relic.

Mental State Tiers

There are 7 Tiers of Mental State, requiring 6 Breakthroughs to reach the highest tier. Each tier has a different set of requirements to achieve a breakthrough, as well as a different speed at which Mental State increases/decreases. By adding and removing buffs/debuffs to Base Mental State such as Talisman of Divinity Mind or Branches, it is possible to increase the rate a Shendao cultivator's Mental State increases by staying in an optimal Mental State Tier.

• The base speed is multiplied by 0 in Indulgence, 1 in Balanced, and 1.5 in Restrained if the Mental State is increasing.
• The base speed is multiplied by 1.5 in Indulgence, 1 in Balanced, and 0 in Restrained if the Mental State is decreasing.

Mental State Tier		Mental State Increase		Breakthrough		Advice
Name	Max	Estim.	Speed (/day)	Duration (days)	Requirements
Move	100	Quick	Standard	3	100 Mental State Indulgence Aim	No special actions needed to prepare.
Calm	200	Slow	0.6	$3 + \frac{INT^2}{10}$	200 Mental State  Mind Fasting Distress < 50	Boost through this stage using 100+ Mental State bonuses and then remove them after generating enough Mental State on the next stage. High Intelligence increases Breakthrough time requirement. It takes 0.3 days at 0 INT and 10.3 days at 10 INT.
Still	300	Quick	$0.3 * (100 - Distress)$	$\frac{50}{15 - CHA}$	300 Mental State Divine State Restrained Aim Divinity > 20	Still is a good stage to remove all Mental State "boosters" used in the Calm stage, as well as to build up Obsessions which can be removed later with Detachment Tribulations to increase Mental State. Similarly, Mental State stress debuffs from being the Branch Leader of a very large branch or Mental State debuffs from cultivating next to a cursed Spirit Root are also ways to reduce Mental State to reach this state. These methods effectively reserve Mental State generated at this stage to allow boosting through a later stage when these negative debuffs are removed. High Intelligence Charisma increases Breakthrough time requirement. Despite the incorrect in-game description, the breakthrough time is increased by high CHA, not INT. It takes 3.3 days at 0 CHA and 10 days at 10 CHA.
Sagely	400	Slow	$0.06 * (Divinity - 50)$	$INT\geq1:\frac{400}{INT^2}$ $INT<1:400$	400 Mental State	Sagely has a much better progress rate (+1-2/Day) than the next two stages. Unless the amount of Mental State boosts is high (300+) and the mechanics of breakthroughs are well understood, it is not recommended to boost past this stage. High Intelligence decreases Breakthrough time requirement. It takes 400 days at 0 INT and 4 days at 10 INT.
Wise	500	Very Slow	$0.06 * (INT - 8)$	10	500 Mental State Attainment State  Mind Fasting Distress < 10	Wise is a stage where progress is incredibly slow, but somewhat consistent. It is recommended to boost through, however if boosts are limited, it is a better choice to save boosts for the next stage than this one due to the complexity of the next stage. Mind Fasting should be performed for the number of days required for the Breakthrough + 1. At a 100 stacks of the Mind Fasting bonus, distress should be below 10. So for example, 11 days of Mind Fasting. followed by just being on a normal mode like balanced will successfully complete the Breakthrough.
Empty	600	Slow	$0.03 * (50 - Distress)$	$LUK>=1:\frac{100}{LUK}$$LUK<1:100$	600 Mental State Indulgence Aim Divinity < 40	Progressing through this stage without boosting requires constantly flipping back and forth between Restrained and other states as well as Mind Fasting. Read more: Empty to Spirit If a Branch area is used to boost Mental State, the Shendao cultivator must stay in the Branch area at all times. Building a bedroom with entertainment, a dining table, and assigning the cultivator to that room while sealing it shut (build a wall in front of the door) will prevent them from leaving the area and ending the breakthrough attempt early. High Luck decreases Breakthrough time requirement. It takes 100 days at 0 LUK and 10 days at 10 LUK.
Spirit	700	Slow	0.6			Final Tier, no requirements to progress.

Ascension

Like Xiandao cultivators, a Shendao cultivator will need to go through a Tribulation to Ascend. One notable difference is that a Shendao cultivator will immediately Ascend upon passing their Belief Tribulation, with no option to repeat it at a later date. Upon Ascending, they will leave behind a Ascended Demigod Statue, which can be worshipped with Food and Obsession Gems in order to obtain Shendao Guards.

Tips

• Do not sit on Restrained any more than is necessary for Breakthroughs.
• Keep in mind that Divinity and Mental State gain while using Camp and Enter are temporary and the time does not pass. This is a good way to gain some Obsessions without advancing the game time.
• Both negative and positive Moodlets are taken as absolute values and then summed for Distress, so you can't net them against each other to avoid it.

Guides

• Shendao Quick Guide by trannon1
  • Guide covering all of the stages of Shendao cultivation
• Shendao Cultivation Guide by Glitchy
  • Detailed guide focused on early stage Shendao cultivation
• Shendao Cultivation Resource by Glitchy
  • Detailed listing of Guards and Shendao buildings