Posted on: November 3, 2025
SunGodMicca
Verified ownerGames: 3 Reviews: 1
caves of qud
great, just the best ive played so far
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Caves of Qud
Description
Caves of Qud is a science fantasy roguelike epic steeped in retrofuturism, deep simulation, and swathes of sentient plants. Come inhabit an exotic world and chisel through layers of thousand-year-old civilizations. Decide: is it a dying earth, or is it on the verge of rebirth?
NOTICE: a complete development roadmap can be accessed here.
You arrive at the oasis-hamlet of Joppa, along the far rim of Moghra'yi, the Great Salt Desert. All around you, moisture farmers tend to groves of viridian watervine. There are huts wrought from rock salt and brinestalk. On the horizon, Qud's jungles strangle chrome steeples and rusted archways to the earth. Further and beyond, the fabled Spindle rises above the fray and pierces the cloud-ribboned sky.
You clutch your rifle, or your vibroblade, or your tattered scroll, or your poisonous stinger, or your hypnotized goat. You approach a watervine farmer—he lifts the brim of his straw hat and says, "Live and drink, friend."
NOTICE: a complete development roadmap can be accessed here.
Who are you?
Play the role of a mutant indigenous to the salt-spangled dunes and jungles of Qud, or play a pure-strain descendant from one of the few remaining eco-domes—the toxic arboreta of Ekuemekiyye, the Holy City; the ice-sheathed arcology of Ibul; or the crustal mortars of Yawningmoon.You arrive at the oasis-hamlet of Joppa, along the far rim of Moghra'yi, the Great Salt Desert. All around you, moisture farmers tend to groves of viridian watervine. There are huts wrought from rock salt and brinestalk. On the horizon, Qud's jungles strangle chrome steeples and rusted archways to the earth. Further and beyond, the fabled Spindle rises above the fray and pierces the cloud-ribboned sky.
You clutch your rifle, or your vibroblade, or your tattered scroll, or your poisonous stinger, or your hypnotized goat. You approach a watervine farmer—he lifts the brim of his straw hat and says, "Live and drink, friend."
What can you do?
Anything and everything. Caves of Qud is a deeply simulated, biologically diverse, richly cultured world.- Assemble your character from over 70 mutations and defects and 24 castes and kits—outfit yourself with wings, two heads, quills, four arms, flaming hands, or the power to clone yourself—it's all the character diversity you could want.
- Explore procedurally-generated regions with some familiar locations—each world is nearly 1 million maps large.
- Dig through everything—don't like the wall blocking your way? Dig through it with a pickaxe, or eat through it with your corrosive gas mutation, or melt it to lava. Yes, every wall has a melting point.
- Hack the limbs off monsters—every monster and NPC is as fully simulated as the player. That means they have levels, skills, equipment, faction allegiances, and body parts. So if you have a mutation that lets you, say, psionically dominate a spider, you can traipse through the world as a spider, laying webs and eating things.
- Pursue allegiances with over 60 factions—apes, crabs, robots, and highly entropic beings—just to name a few.
- Follow the plot to Barathrum the Old, a sentient cave bear who leads a sect of tinkers intent on restoring technological splendor to Qud.
- Learn the lore—there's a story in every nook, from legendary items with storied pasts to in-game history books written by plant historians.
- Die—Caves of Qud is brutally difficult and deaths are permanent. Don't worry, though—you can always roll a new character.
Copyright (C) 2015-2017 Freehold Games, LLC
System requirements
Minimum system requirements:
Recommended system requirements:
Time to beat
43 hMain
70.5 h Main + Sides
503 h Completionist
90 h All Styles
Game length provided by HowLongToBeat
Game details
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Critics reviews
Eurogamer
5/5
Densely imagined and as complex as you fancy, this roguelike RPG is brilliant.
Read full review »PC Gamer
94/100
Caves of Qud is a genre-defining achievement in play, story, and roleplaying freedom.
Read full review »Metro GameCentral
4.5/5
A staggering achievement in terms of role-playing interactivity and flexibility, that also manages to be both accessible and maintain a fun sense of the absurd.
Read full review »
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User reviews
Posted on: November 4, 2025
VstreetKid
Verified ownerGames: 77 Reviews: 13
FUN!
I haven't had this type of fun playing a game since I was a child playing Y's on my Sega Mastersystem. Something was lost over the decades and these developers resurrected it! Bravo!!! If you don't play this game you're doing yourself a disservice. Watching videos and reading about it doesn't come close to playing it yourself. You just have to try it.
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Posted on: October 9, 2018
Early Access review
whitemagejupiter
Verified ownerGames: 109 Reviews: 2
Procedurally Awesome!
I caught wind of Caves of Qud while watching GDC lectures on youtube, and was enamored with the idea of a game that not only procedurally generated it's world and moment to moment encounters, but also the lore of the gameworld itself. The number of strange character possibilities and wild adventures possible in Caves of Qud are staggering, and unlike the games it seeks to emulate or some of those who stand alongside it, it isn't needlessly obtuse, taking the opportunity to blend together just enough old school sensibility with just enough modern convenience to lead you into a fun and complex - but not overly so - first hour or so of play as you figure out the general mechanics and systems that go into it. It's a solid ROLE playing game, as well. The control you have over your character's abilities is amazing and fun and whether you have a favorite build stored in your library or like to play with the challenge builds offered during creation you'll always find a way to make a fun and interesting character, even if their design means they aren't long for the world. Add to that the charming tile graphics and incredibly atmospheric music and you've got a great night in of gaming (play it with the lights off and delve into a cavern! It's suitably spooky!) Long story short? I'm a four legged teleporting nomad who can distill her sweat into drinking water and occassionally summons a murderous evil twin into the world. A sublime experience.
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Posted on: December 25, 2020
Early Access review555777
Verified ownerGames: 87 Reviews: 4
One of the best games ever made
It is a roguelike that on the surface level just has cool abilities, mutations, cybernetics, visuals and soundtrack. Underneath it has some incredibly refined systems and the interactivity with the world is second to none. It is procedural generation done right. The enemy design is varied and exciting, as are the descriptions of them, and the descriptions of everything else. The bullshit with the devs doesn't matter. Just buy the game
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Posted on: January 23, 2025
bdvholmes
Verified ownerGames: 22 Reviews: 1
Many times deeper than I imagined
It's a game I keep coming back to. Not sure if i'm going to beat it or if it's going to beat me.
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