How To Beat Shamura In Cult Of The Lamb

This article is part of a directory: Cult Of The Lamb: Complete Guide

Table of contents

Quick Links

Who Is Shamura?

Shamura's Attacks

Tips For The Battle Against Shamura

Shamura is likely the last of the Old Faith Bishops that you end up facing in Cult of the Lamb, as they're the surrogate "leader" of sorts. Massive Monster, the game's developer, really did an amazing job of making all four Bishops feel unique and also terrifying. Leshy is a chaotic tree monstrosity, Heket is a gigantic eldritch frog, Kallamar has his multitude of weapons, and Shamura is a terrifying mystery.

So, let's take a look at who exactly Shamura is in this setting, what they represent in the Old Faith, what their importance is to the story, what their attacks are, and finally, the easiest methods to beat them.

Who Is Shamura?

Shamura, in the "lore" of Cult of the Lamb, is a spiderlike entity described as a "god" who is one of the four Bishops of the Old Faith. In the battle that sealed away The One Who Waits, Shamura had their skull split open and now suffers from fragmented memories as well as sometimes repeating themselves. And, as seen when the bandage comes off during their boss fight, Shamura's godly brain is bulging out of their skull at all times.

Now, as a boss fight, Shamura is actually a bit easier on average than Kallamar, the Bishop directly before them, but that doesn't mean they're easy, as Shamura has a lot of different attacks - many of which have deceptive hitboxes.

Shamura's Attacks

Cult Of The Lamb - Shamura Using Jumping Projectile Attack

Compared to other Bishops like Kallamar or Heket, Shamura actually has a bit less going on in their attacks. That said, that doesn't mean this Boss should be taken lightly, as that's an easy way to get killed and sent back to the Cult with nothing to show for your efforts. So, let's look at all the attacks this Old Faith god can use:

Attack Name	Description	Visual Tell
Mob Summons	Periodically, the web sacs near the roof of the arena will pop open, dropping spider mobs into the fight. The spiders that spawn from these can be any of the spider monsters seen throughout Silk Cradle, and only one sac seems to pop open at a time.	The web sacs start shaking subtly before breaking open.
Pedipalp Slash	Shamura rears up before using their four front legs to "slash" in front of them in a horizontal arc.	Shamura "rearing up" as well as their eyes narrowing to look angry and opening their mouth to "roar" before the slash.
Spider Bombs	The boss leans forward before expelling a series of bombs from its abdomen. The pattern of the bombs is seemingly random and there are telegraphs on the ground to mark where they'll land.	Instead of rearing up for their slash, Shamura leans forward, puts their two front appendages in front of their chest, and closes their eyes while sticking their abdomen up.
Web Up & Slash Down	This is an attack where Shamura expels a web from their abdomen before pulling themselves off-screen. Then, a second later, they come back down from the other direction, slashing at the location where they land.	Similar visual tell to the Spider Bombs, but as soon as the string of web comes out, it should be obvious that this attack is coming.
Barrage Of Poison	Very similar to Spider Bombs, but instead of Bombs, it's the globs of Poison instead seen in other Boss Fights such as Vephar and Hauras. Also has telegraphs on the ground marking where the globs will land.	Identical to the Spider Bombs visual tell.
Jumping Attack	There are two variations of this attack, the default one and the one with projectiles: The default version has Shamura jumping toward the Lamb and stepping downward with their Pedipalps on landing. They will jump between two and four in a row. The projectile version only occurs after Shamura's head bandage comes off. The only difference between the two is that, on landing, Shamura unleashes a single wave of projectiles in all directions.	Shamura outstretches their two forefront appendages outward almost in a sort of "asking for a hug" pose. Then, Shamura immediately bends down before leaping toward the Lamb.

Tips For The Battle Against Shamura

Cult Of The Lamb - Shamura Dead After The Battle

Shamura, unlike some of their siblings such as Heket or Kallamar, is actually a boss the Lamb can play pretty aggressively against. If the player positions themselves well, a good portion of Shamura's attacks can just whiff while the Lamb wails away on their abdomen. That said, there are some general tips to keep in mind:

The Pedipalp Slash hits mostly in front of Shamura, but it's a bit bigger of a hitbox than it seems. Position around the back of their abdomen and players should be able to swing away during this attack in safety.
The Web Up and Slash Down attack is one of the only off-screen attacks in the game that doesn't have a telegraph on the ground that lets players know when it'll land. But, if the Lamb just makes sure to roll as soon as they see any movement from the top-right of the screen, this move is easily avoidable.
The Mob Summons in this boss fight are a bit more intrusive than the mobs in most other battles thanks to their movement abilities and projectiles, so you probably shouldn't ignore them for long less they build up, and you might even want to focus on taking them out first and then shifting back to attacking Shamura.
Once the bandage is off their head at around half health, every Jumping Attack becomes the Jumping Attack with Projectiles, so keep that in mind.

Honestly, Cult of the Lamb's difficulty, even on the hardest difficulty, seems to be pretty forgiving compared to a lot of other roguelites, so this battle shouldn't be too difficult for anyone familiar with the genre. Additionally, as long as players follow the basic tenants of the game's combat, such as: