Welcome to Elderfield Old Gods and Sunday Alignment

Religion in Welcome to Elderfield is not a passive buff icon. Every Sunday you walk to the church in the northwest of town, stand with the congregation, and align with one of the Old Gods. That choice rewrites your percentages for the week, unlocks God Forge recipes, and opens the matching alignment doors scattered through malls, sewers, woods, and mines. You can switch next Sunday. You cannot dual-wield patrons. The Steam demo, playable since October 2024, already shows shrines and a taste of the pantheon; the full religion system, calendar events, and extra doors are part of the 1.0 plan dated September 10, 2026.

Pete the laundry ghost is the early tutor. He will not teach rituals until you inspect two God shrines. Easy first stops: the food-court shrine in the mall dungeon and a sewer shrine behind a locked gate off the park. After that, Sunday at church is the real commitment. Bring a bath plan from sleep and curses so you are not kneeling with a stack of Doom. The game is single-player, so your alignment is yours alone.

The Sunday roster

Each living patron trades a pair of bonuses for a pair of penalties. Read the minus column before you fall in love with the plus.

• Gatis, Moon. +10% Luck and Agility, −10% Defense. Forge and loot lean toward Opal Ring, Moonlight Shoes, and Cat’s Eyes Necklace. Take Gatis when you are rolling mysteries or fishing and can accept a thinner physical shell.
• Delvek, Mystery. +10% Luck and Max MP, −10% Agility. Lucky Die, Cursed Die, Magnifying Glass, and a Whip. This is the investigator kit. You will win more hidden 7s and lose foot speed in combat.
• Kaal, Dead. +10% Defense and Magic Defense, −10% Max MP. Ring of Immortality, Bone Shield, Bone Staff. A tank week for Mall Administrator or catacomb bones, paid for with a smaller mana pool.
• Daeus, Deep. +10% Max MP and Defense, −10% Magic Defense and Luck. Holy Waters, Trident, Earring. Water and ward week. Poor luck means fewer mystery jackpots, so do not pair Daeus with a treasure-hunt day.
• Hagroth, Harvest. +10% Luck and Max HP, −10% Attack and Magic Attack. Growth rune, Enchanted Pitchfork, Straw Hat. Farm week. Your crops and hit points fatten while your weapons sulk. Clear tentacles and plant; do not start Hall Monitor on a Hagroth Sunday.
• Valtris, Knowledge. +10% Max MP and Magic Attack, −10% Max HP. Skeleton key, Mine Key, Forbidden Lorebook, Starmap. Caster and dungeon-key week. The HP penalty is real in the mall; eat first.
• Nezroth, Flesh. +10% Max HP and Defense, −10% Agility and Magic Defense. Blood of the Gods, Bloated Chestplate, Finger Necklace. Slow, meaty, hard to chew. Good for long mine floors, bad for anything that checks dodge.

Xxarteck is not a Sunday buff sheet. They are the end of all things. You weaken them by building your farm beside their shrine, not by kneeling for a percentage. Treat that plot as a long project next to farming, not as a weekly swap.

Expanding Welcome to Elderfield

God Forge and locked doors

The church holds a primary storage chest and the God Forge. Recipes on the forge change with your current patron. That is why Opal Ring, Bone Staff, Holy Waters, and Forbidden Lorebook are not one crafting list — they are seven lists wearing one anvil. Craft what the week allows, store the rest, and come back next Sunday if you need the other key. Valtris weeks are when Skeleton keys and Mine Keys appear, which matters for Mall Mines doors and later locked shafts. Daeus weeks are when Holy Waters stock up for MP-heavy crawls.

Alignment doors sit in the world with a god’s mark. If the door wants Gatis, a Hagroth week will not open it. Note the mark, swap on Sunday, and return. Do not smash every locked door on Monday and assume the game is broken. Some shrine rooms also sell or drop patron-tagged forage: Holy Water in mines during a Daeus lean, Blood of the Gods pieces on a Nezroth week. The cooking and crafting stations still process generic crops; the forge is for the sacred hardware.

Picking a week that matches the calendar

A useful rotation for the demo slice looks like this:

1. Hagroth on a planting and watering stretch, especially if you just unlocked a Growth rune.
2. Gatis or Delvek on a mystery-and-news day, when hidden 0/7 faces pay rent.
3. Valtris or Kaal before Mall Administrator, Gem Golem, or any fight on the combat tier list that punishes a thin bar.
4. Daeus before a sewer and lakefront loop if you want MP and a Trident more than luck.
5. Nezroth before a three-floor mine because HP and Defense keep a bad shuffle from ending the run.

Do not chase Xxarteck until the farm around their shrine is actually built. A neglected plot does not count as piety.

Library tomes, weekly shelf shuffles, and sewer altars all talk in the same religious grammar. A high roll at the Parks & Recreation flickering altar can hand a Bloody Cleaver and blessings; a low roll dumps curses. That is still a mystery roll, not a Sunday alignment, but Delvek’s luck bonus helps. See the mysteries page for the die math.

Combat, food, and the rest of the week

Alignment does not replace food. Cook before church, then again before the dungeon that the new percentages were meant to enable. Fishing and mining still supply ore and bait; gods do not smelt copper for Molly. Romance gifts such as Blood of the Gods or Harvest Stew become easier to source if your week already points at Nezroth or Hagroth, which is a decent reason to date your calendar to your crush.

If you are new, finish Getting Started and the demo walkthrough before you specialize. Cozy mode still trivializes fights if you only want the lore doors. Normal keeps 100 percent enemy stats. Nightmare plus a −10% Defense Gatis week is a choice you should make on purpose. Controls questions belong on controls. Patch drift belongs on demo notes. The Guides Hub and wiki index the rest.

Sunday is the one appointment Elderfield keeps even when the mall layout lies. Pick a face in the stained glass, craft what the forge permits, open the door that matches, and write the next swap on your calendar before you sleep. The 1.0 final climb is the Stone Tower, not a Sunday shrine: developer notes put that boss behind the full-release build dated September 10, 2026, so do not hunt it in the public demo.