Caves of Qud

About

Caves of Qud is a science fantasy roguelike epic steeped in retrofuturism, deep simulation, and swathes of sentient plants.
- Caves of Qud's Steam page.

Caves of Qud is a bit like Dwarf Fortress, in that there is a lot of mechanical detail and great stories made by the game's generative system. For example, if you heat a body of water with your physic powers, enemies will take steam damage.

a player character encountering a legendary giant gorilla
A female gorilla who is hated for questioning where the moon comes from

As you explore, you will uncover lore about villages, history and Qud's sultans. As well as ancient ruins, talking cats, wine producing fungi and strange books.You will find farms, cat herders, cults, temples and an epic story (that is still being worked on, but the game is playable and constantly being updated.)

a cat herder speaking to the player
A man who herds glowing cats for a living

The game uses some very nice pixel art graphics, which are pleasing to look at but also allow you to use your imagination when exploring Qud. The game also has colourblind freindly settings.

a player exploring a ruin
A player exploring a ruin.

There are various biomes to explore and side quests to complete for diffrent factions, some genrated and some written by the creators. Solve mysteries, collect artifacts for sapient plants, find artifacts for a grumpy old man.

Tips

Some tips to play Caves of Qud.

  • Use roleplay mode if the permadeath of rougelikes is offputting to you.
  • Water is your money and needed for survival - but keep in mind it has a carry weight!
  • Truekin may be more powerful at first, but mutants can more easily increase their power.

Summary

Overall this is a great game. It can be quite hard and you may die a lot, but I find myself coming back to it again and again. My only negative thought is that I wish the modern UI for inventory and trading would get worked on again - as well as modern UI menus for the other parts of the game like skills and character sheet.

Recommended Mods

Here are some mods I recommends.

  • QUD UX - Features various quailty of life features and allows you to pick your player character sprite.
  • Gender and Pronoun Sets - Choose your character's gender and pronouns!

Link

You can download the game here on Steam.

The game has an offical wiki - and it's not an ad infested fandom wiki!