Caves of Qud - Reference Guide

[kilmarath]

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Controls
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Menus
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Main Menu: Esc
Bind powers/skills: m or a *DO THIS AS SOON AS YOU START A GAME* - Allows you to bind skills/powers to temporary hotkeys.
Access inventory: tab
Scroll though character sheet: 7 & 9 on numpad
Expand/Collapse Categories: +/- while viewing skills/inventory
Item Menus: Use 'Space' to access the menu for particular items, and purchase skills/mutations/attributes
Message Log: shift + m

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Movement
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Move/Attack: Num-pad
Move up/zoom to worldmap: -
Move down/zoom to zone: +
Extended Move: w + Num-pad
Extended Wait: w + 5
Wait until healed (will not work with nearby hostiles): `

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Interaction
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Smart action (get, open door, chat, etc): Spacebar
Get (Override smart action and get from current square): g
Search: s

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HUD
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Overlay (Filters stairs, monsters, items): Hold alt
Minimize HUD: / on Numpad
HUD variants: * on Numpad
Look: l (works nice when bound to 0)
Targeting: (l)ook at a creature, hit space to set as target
Unlock Targetting (while in targeting mode): u

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Combat
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Attack adjacent tile: CTRL + direction
Fire: f to select target, space to fire
Throw: t to select target, space to throw
Reload: r

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Development
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Wish: CTRL-w
Level-up: CTRL-x
No-clip up: Not bound by default
No-clip down: Not bound by default
Exploration Mode: F9
Regenerate Limb: F7

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Tips
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Skills & Powers:
Make sure to bind your activated skills and powers by hitting 'm'!

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Mental Mutations:
If you have mental mutations, consider your investment in Ego and Willpower. Your ego modifier is added or subtracted from the effective level of your mental mutations. Similarly, each point of willpower modifier adds or subtracts 6% from the cooldown duration.

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Alt-Overlay:
Hold the 'alt' key to get a color-coded overlay on your map.
Magenta - Stairs
Green - Creatures
White - Items
Yellow - Chests

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Trading:
Hit tab while chatting with a merchant to initiate trading and + / - to add/remove items, or spacebar to add/remove an entire item stack. Some vendors may also have the ability to repair or identify your gear. Fresh water is the currency in Qud, so be sure to watch those waterskins!

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Leveling up:
Attributes and mutations can be increased from your Status tab in your character sheet. Skills can be purchased from the skills tab. Mutations max out at level 10 each, though mental mutations can increment beyond this due with any ego modifier.

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Tinkering:
All characters can attempt to identify an artifact using the 'examine' option from the item's menu in the inventory. The tinkering skill allows a character to disassemble scraps of tech into "bits" which can then be used to repair artifacts or build them from scratch, if they have the recipe.

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Exploration:
It is possible to become lost while traversing the worldmap. You must explore new zones to get your bearings before you will be allowed to zoom-out to the worldmap again.

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Hunger/Thirst:
Characters will automatically eat and drink by default, but make sure to keep an eye on your provisions.

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Fire:
If you should find yourself in the unfortunate state of being on-fire, you can lower your temperature by either passing turns to beat out the flames (5 on num-pad), walking through water tiles, or pouring water on yourself (select the "pour" option from a water container in your inventory).

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Disease:
Diseases are transmitted via attacks of certain monsters, as well as some environment hazards. Seek for the cure among those wisest of Qud's inhabitants.

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Drugs and Medication:
The first dosage of any drug or medication will always be successful, though mixing multiple drugs may result in undesirable effects!

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Light:
Always have a light source equipped while underground.

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Equipment:
If you can't think of what to do with an item, make sure to check the menu for the item within your inventory.

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Combat animations:
An empty circle means a swing and a miss, a full circle means that all damage was blocked by armor, and the heart means that damage was done.

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Speed and energy:
The game's basic innards run in "segments". Each segment, every active creature in the game gets its "Speed" added to its "Energy". Then if that creature's energy is at or above 1000, it gets to take an action until its energy goes below 1000. (Most actions cost 1000 energy).

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Timing:
10 Segments is a "Round". A "turn", however, is whenever the player acts (which can be variable).

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Combat Sequence:
First, a to-hit roll is made against the target's DV. This roll is always modified by the attacker's agility. Then, penetration rolls are made: each weapon has 3d6 penetration dice. To each of those penetration rolls, the creature's strength modifier is added (capped based on the weapon tier). If any of those three rolls exceed the target AV, damage is dealt per the weapon damage. If all three rolls exceed the target AV, those three penetration dice are rolled again at a -2 penalty and the process is repeated. Axes receive a flat +1 bonus to each of their penetration rolls because they are "penetrating"; cudgels receive a flat +2 bonus because they are "rattling" and are less dependent on the defender's armor.

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Shields:
A shield only applies its AV value when a block is successfully triggered by way of the Shield Block skill, though the DV penalties always apply. You may only reap the benefits of equipping one shield at a time.

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Useful & Fun Things to Wish for:
Mutation Name, NPC name, Quest name, Zone name (for example, "Golgotha Surface"), recoilers, space-time vortices, stage 2 (levels-up to 12, gives mid-tier loot), notlost (removes lost status), taco suprema (super-food), monster hero 1 (For example, "snapjaw hero 1").
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Common Issues
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Backing up your saves
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The gamestate is saved in the following files:

\Caves of Qud\TestGame.sav
\Caves of Qud\ZoneCache

It is currently recommended that you back up these files on your freakishly-good characters.

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Updates and Save Compatibility
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You can run new versions of the installer to patch your game without breaking previous saves, although there's a minor cumulative risk of trouble each time that you do this. bbucklew should mention in the patch notes if a new version is guaranteed to break save-compatibility.

[Unormal]

One note is that there are a couple of ways to use the game from a UI perspective. You can use a standard windows console or a full-screenable OpenGL emulated console, using one of the two different shortcuts in the start menu folder. Or create your own shortcut to the executable with an "-opengl" parameter.

You can also edit the opengl shortcut (or make your own) place an additional "-filter" paramater on it to antialias the OpenGL graphics if you'd like a less blocky look.

I'd suggest using OpenGL, as all of the main issues have been resolved, and it gives a much more consistant display experience.

[Zehelvion]

How do you backup the save file in the steam version? The game still has some bugs here and there and I'd rather protect my character after spending a couple of days on it.

[DanielCoffey]

In Windows at least, the character save is in %appdata% \ LocalLow \ Freehold Games \ CavesOfQud

It is the folder with the long hex name. Whenever you die or quit without saving, that folder is erased so back it up somewhere. Put it back when you want to restore. I just made a desktop shortcut to that CavesOfQud folder for convenience.