Whether your character in Caves Of Qud is a Mutant or a True Kin, they’re going to need to rely on learning skills in addition to their genotype powers. The game’s skill tree is one of the few things that’s completely the same each run, and you can use that consistency to your advantage.
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Skills encompass just about everything you can do in the game, from crafting and exploration to combat and survival. There’s more to them than just spending a few points every time you level up, though; Qud has ways to circumvent the skill tree entirely.
How To Use Skills In Caves Of Qud
When you learn a new skill, it will give your character new abilities. This can take the form of either a passive bonus that is always on, or an active ability that can be used from the bar at the bottom of the screen.
Pressing the A key lets you set up the ability bar however you’d like.
Some passive skills can be toggled on or off by using their associated ability. This is usually a free action that doesn’t take any time.
When you activate an ability, you’ll usually have to choose a target, typically an enemy or a point on the map within range. Activated abilities, whether they come from skills, Mutations, or Cybernetics, have a cooldown measured in turns before they can be used again.
Your Willpower Attribute reduces the cooldown of your powers.
How To Use Harvestry, Butchery, And Scavenging
The Harvestry and Butchery skills from the Cooking & Gathering set, as well as the Scavenging skill from Tinkering, allow your character to instantly collect raw materials when they pass them on the map. These are all toggleable, but unless you’re nearing your carrying capacity you’ll usually want to leave them on.
- Harvestry lets you collect edible fruits and leaves from plants, such as Starapple Trees. The plant’s sprite will usually change to indicate that it’s been harvested.
- Butchery lets you convert an animal corpse into meat that you can cook with. Only certain animals, like goats and boars, can be butchered.
- Scavenging gives a chance to find components in trash piles when you move over them, though doing so makes noise that can alert nearby creatures.
Again, these actions are automatic as long as they’re turned on. If you have one or more of these skills, then all you need to do is move over a searchable tile to harvest, butcher, or scavenge an item.
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How To Learn New Skills
The most basic way to learn a new skill is to spend the SP that you gain from leveling up. Every character gets four SP times their Intelligence score per level, plus a bonus based on their genotype, as follows:
- Mutated Humans get an extra 10 SP per level.
- True Kin get an extra 30 SP per level.
SP Gain Per Level By Genotype
|
Intelligence |
Mutant |
True Kin |
|---|---|---|
|
10 |
50 |
70 |
|
11 |
54 |
74 |
|
12 |
58 |
78 |
|
13 |
62 |
82 |
|
14 |
66 |
86 |
|
15 |
70 |
90 |
|
16 |
74 |
94 |
|
17 |
78 |
98 |
|
18 |
82 |
102 |
|
19 |
86 |
106 |
|
20 |
90 |
110 |
|
21 |
94 |
114 |
|
22 |
98 |
118 |
|
23 |
102 |
122 |
You can spend SP to either unlock a new skill set or learn a new skill within a set that you’ve unlocked. The cost ranges from 50 to 200 SP. Unlocking a skill set doesn’t have any prerequisites, but the skills within a set all have minimum Attribute scores that you’ll need before you can learn them.
Every skill set includes a free skill that you learn automatically as long as you meet the Attribute requirement for it.
Once you’ve unlocked a skill set, you can learn the skills from that set in any order. There are a handful of exceptions that require other skills as prerequisites, but other than those, you don’t need to take the skills from top to bottom; as long as you have the Attributes and the SP, you’re good to go.
Learning Skills Without SP
If you’re playing a True Kin character, you can also learn skills by installing Skillsoft Cybernetics. These take up License Points, but as long as they’re equipped you’ll know the skill written on them.
You can also learn skills from NPCs by performing the Water Ritual if you have a high enough Reputation with their faction. The starting Village always has a skill to teach based on its biome, so after you’ve completed your initial quests you might want to consider offering water to the village leader and asking them to teach you their ways.
Like the skills that your character has at the start of the game, skills gained through either of these methods ignore the usual prerequisites; you can learn them regardless of whether your stats would normally prevent you from doing so.
