Complete Guide To Character Creation In Caves Of Qud

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Should You Play A Mutated Human Or A True Kin?

Mutations And Cybernetics

As complex and deep a game as Caves Of Qud may be, character creation is actually fairly quick and painless. Make a few selections, assign your stat points, and you’re good to go. The challenge lies in knowing what all those choices mean and how they’ll affect your run.

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Like most RPGs, Caves Of Qud is the kind of game where the right character build can make all the difference to your survival. Considering how lethal the game is in general, it pays to make choices that fit your playstyle and come together to form a competent character.

Should You Play A Mutated Human Or A True Kin?

Your first choice when creating a new character is whether you want to play a Mutated Human or a True Kin. This decision affects everything else that follows, from your initial abilities to how you’ll level up and become more powerful.

Mutated Humans start with several Mutations, which can take the form of physical transformation or psychic powers. These level up as you gain experience, and allow more customization at the start of the game.
True Kin gain more skill points when they level up, but don’t get any Mutations. Instead, they start with a single Cybernetic, and can install any others that they find while exploring. Additionally, True Kin usually start with several pieces of advanced consumables in the form of grenades and injectors.

Of the two,
Mutated Humans are a better choice for new players
as they tend to have an easier time staying alive early in the game.

Calling And Caste

Once you’ve selected your Genotype, you’ll be given a selection of classes to pick from. Mutants get Callings, and True Kin get Castes, but they function the same way. Each gives you a slight modification to your starting stats, as well as a few basic skills and usually some faction reputation modifiers.

Mutant Callings

Calling	Stats	Skills	Other Perks	Notes
Apostle	+2 Ego	Customs & Folklore Intimidate Proselytize	None	Excels at gaining faction reputation through the Water Ritual. Uses Proselytize to turn NPCs into loyal followers. High Ego is useful for powering Mental Mutations.
Arconaut	+2 Agility	Short Blades Tinkering Scavenger Acrobatics Spry	Starts with a random assortment of junk.	Dodge-based melee fighter. Use Scavenger to find usable parts for Tinkering when moving over trash. Remember to increase Intelligence for Tinkering skills.
Greybeard	-1 Strength +3 Willpower	Cudgels Berate Calloused	+100 reputation with bears (yes, the animal).	Willpower improves mental fortitude; put points into Toughness to increase physical defense as well. Increasing Ego allows Berate to be effective at debuffing enemies and using Mental Mutations. Strength penalty slightly lowers the effectiveness of Cudgels.
Gunslinger	+2 Agility	Pistols Akimbo	+200 reputation with Mysterious Strangers.	Excellent ranged fighter. Akimbo allows firing two pistols at once; keep an eye on your ammo reserves. Have a melee weapon or an escape option for when enemies get close.
Marauder	+2 Strength	Axe Dismember Charge Butchery	None	Armor-piercing melee fighter. Butchery allows you to get meat from animal corpses. Take the Carnivorous mutation for some free points, since you shouldn’t have any trouble getting meat to eat.
Pilgrim	+2 Willpower	Self-Discipline Fasting Way Iron Mind Wayfaring	None	Less likely to get lost. Good at resisting and recovering from status effects. Requires less food and can meditate to heal faster.
Nomad	+2 Toughness	Wayfaring Wilderness Lore: Salt Dunes Harvestry Weathered	+200 reputation with Issachari Tribe. Starts with a Recycling Suit equipped.	Good physical survivability, especially in harsh environments. Can scavenge plants for food. Resistant to temperature effects (both hot and cold).
Scholar	+2 Intelligence	Tinkering Physic Nostrums Tactics Customs & Folklore Harvestry 2 random Wilderness Lores	None	Jack-of-all-trades with no real starting specialty. Lots of progression options to pursue. High Intelligence means more skill points at each level.
Tinker	+2 Intelligence	Tinkering Lay Mine / Set Bomb Disassemble Repair Tinker 1	+100 reputation with Barathrumite faction. Starts with a random assortment of scrap.	Good at fixing broken technology. Makes heavy use of grenades, including turning them into mines or time bombs. Take the Scavenger skill early to find parts more easily.
Warden	+2 Strength	Long Blades Shields Shield Slam Bows & Rifles Pistols	+300 reputation with the Fellowship of Wardens.	Dedicated combat specialist. Take extra limb mutations to further enhance your combat prowess.
Water Merchant	+2 Ego	Short Blades Snake Oiler	+200 reputation with the Water Barons. Easier access to restricted settlements. Starts with an assortment of trade goods to sell.	High Ego gets better deals when trading. Use Mental Mutations like Beguiling to get NPCs to like you more and recruit followers. Short Blades use Agility, so focus on that and use Dodge to stay alive in combat.
Watervine Farmer	+2 Toughness	Cooking & Gathering Harvestry Axes Wilderness Lore: Marshes	+100 reputation with Joppa Villagers. +200 reputation with the Farmers’ Guild. Starts with an assortment of cooking ingredients.	Decent melee fighter. Good at wilderness survival.

True Kin Castes

Caste	Stats	Skills	Other	Notes
Horticulturist	+3 Intelligence	Cooking & Gathering Harvestry Axes Bows & Rifles Wilderness Lore: Jungle	+2 to resist bleeding.	Self-sufficient all-rounder. Put points into Strength and Agility to augment combat skills.
Priest of All Suns	+3 Ego	Cudgels Physic Nostrums Persuasion Snake Oiler Intimidate Wilderness Lore: Jungle	+2 to resist bleeding.	Can use Menacing Stare and Intimidate to frighten enemies away. Learn Proselytize to start recruiting followers as soon as possible.
Priest of All Moons	+2 Toughness +2 Willpower	Axes Butchery Lionheart Poison Tolerance Wilderness Lore: Jungle	+2 to resist bleeding.	Resistant to both poison and terror. Great defensive archetype.
Syzygyrior	+3 Agility	Multiweapon Fighting Multiweapon Expertise Wilderness Lore: Jungle	+2 to resist bleeding.	More likely to make multiple attacks with a weapon in each hand. Look for extra cybernetic limbs to install for more attacks. Weaker start, potentially very powerful later on. Focus on Short Blades and Pistols.
Artifex	+3 Intelligence	Tinkering Repair Disassemble Deploy Turret Tinker 1 & 2	+15 to resist cold.	Turret-based ranged fighter that can turn any held firearm into a turret. Requires a lot of scavenging for parts and constant tinkering.
Consul	+3 Ego	Inspiring Presence Proselytize	+15 to resist cold.	Focused entirely on recruiting NPC followers and inspiring them to fight for you.
Praetorian	+2 Strength +1 Toughness +1 Willpower	Long Blades Shields Shield Slam Bows & Rifles	+15 to resist cold.	Dedicated combat cyborg. Long Blades use a combination of Strength and Agility, so put points into both.
Eunuch	+2 Agility +2 Intelligence	Short Blades Hobble Pistols Weak Spotter Acrobatics Spry Tactics	+15 to resist cold.	Combined melee and ranged fighter. Focus on Dodge for defense. Hobble and Tactics make it easier to escape from a dangerous situation.
Child of the Hearth	+3 Strength	Cudgels Slam Heavy Weapons Calloused	+15 to resist heat.	Hard-hitting melee fighter. Put points into Toughness and look for opportunities to increase your Armor Value. Uses dazes and pushes to control the flow of battle.
Child of the Wheel	+1 Strength +2 Agility +1 Ego	Short Blades Axes Cleave Multiweapon Fighting Iron Mind	+15 to resist heat.	Wield an axe in one hand and a short blade in the other to penetrate enemy armor and inflict bleeding in a single attack.
Child of the Deep	+3 Toughness	Heavy Weapons Tank Endurance Wilderness Lore: Hills & Mountains Wilderness Lore: Canyons	+15 to resist heat.	Hard-hitting, highly-survivable melee character. Tank means you don’t have to be slow if you want to build for speed as well.
Fuming God-Child	+4 Willpower	Self-Discipline Fasting Way Lionheart Persuasion Intimidate Poison Tolerance	+15 to resist heat.	High resistance to mental effects. Put points into Ego and learn Proselytize to gain NPC followers.

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Assigning Attribute Points

Your character has six Attributes in Caves Of Qud; Strength, Agility, Toughness, Intelligence, Willpower, and Ego. Each starts at 10, and you can put extra points into them to determine your character’s initial abilities.

Mutants get
44 stat points
to distribute, while True Kin get
38
. However, True Kin get larger bonuses from their Caste than Mutants do from their Calling.

You can assign your Attribute points however you like. However, raising a stat above 18 costs two points rather than just one.

What Does Each Attribute Do?

Knowing which stats to prioritize for your character is critical to success in Caves Of Qud. Not only do they impact how your character interacts with the world, but most skills have a minimum stat requirement to unlock.

Attribute	Effects	Affected Skill Groups
Strength	Increases carrying capacity. Increases melee damage. Increases melee armor penetration. Increases resistance to forced movement.	Axes Cudgels Heavy Weapons Long Blades Shields Single-Weapon Fighting Multiweapon Fighting Tactics
Agility	Increases weapon accuracy (both melee and ranged). Increases Dodge Value.	Acrobatics Bows & Rifles Long Blades Pistols Shields Short Blades Single-Weapon Fighting Multiweapon Fighting Tactics
Toughness	Increases maximum hit points. Increases natural healing rate. Increases poison and disease resistance.	Endurance
Intelligence	Increases the number of skill points earned each time you level up. Increases your success rate when examining artifacts.	Cooking & Gathering Customs & Folklore Long Blades Physic Tinkering Wayfaring
Willpower	Reduces cooldowns on activated abilities. Increases natural healing rate. Increases resistance to mental attacks.	Self-Discipline Shields
Ego	Increases power of mental attacks via Mutations. Gets better prices when trading with merchants. Increases success rate of social skills like Proselytize.	Persuasion

What Is Attribute Rank?

Your Attribute Rank is a smaller number below the main stat, often used as a modifier to die rolls in game. If you’ve played D&D, Pathfinder, or Baldur’s Gate, it works in much the same way as Ability Score Modifiers.

Each Attribute’s Rank is equal to half the base score (rounded down), minus eight. This means that a score of 16 will give you a rank of zero, and hence no bonus or penalty, and every two points up or down from there will increase or decrease the rank by one, respectively.

You can usually get away with having one or two stats with a rank of -1 at the start, giving you more points to put into the Attributes that really matter. Be sure to plan ahead and make sure you aren’t locking yourself out of a critical skill, though! You don’t want to be a Carnivore without the required Intelligence 15 for Butchery, for example.

Mutations And Cybernetics

The last step is to choose your character’s Mutations (if they’re a Mutated Human) or select a Cybernetic (if they’re a True Kin).

Mutations

Mutations allow a huge degree of customization for your character. You can mix and match Physical and Mental Mutations, or you can choose the Chimera or Esper Mutations, respectively, to focus solely on one or the other.

You get 12 points to spend on Mutations. The more powerful a Mutation is, the more points it costs. You can also choose Drawback Mutations, which impose disadvantages,to earn more points to spend on beneficial ones.

When in doubt,
take Night Vision.
It’s only one point and it lets you see in the dark without a torch!

Cybernetics

True Kin characters get to choose a single Cybernetic from the list presented at character creation. There are more to find throughout the game, but you’ll have to explore ruins and other locations to find and install them.

Cybernetics work like equipment, albeit a very rare and specialized kind; you can see your installed Cybernetics in your inventory by pressing Ctrl+Tab, and pressing it again to switch back to normal gear.

Once you’ve made all your selections, enter a name, give your finished charater a once-over, and pick which biome you’d like to start in – the Caves Of Qud await.