Where To Get Fresh Water In Caves Of Qud

In Caves of Qud, fresh water is essential in order to stay quenched and rich. While wandering around the map, you’ll take sips periodically, but you’ll also use the same water to trade with friendly NPCs that you find. As such, water is displayed with a dollar sign at the top of your screen.

So, how do you go about getting more fresh water in Caves of Qud? In this guide, we are going to take a look at how to do just that. This will cover the best ways to obtain water if you are looking to either make a big trek or purchase.

Types Of Water

Before we fully dive in on how to get fresh water, it’s important to note that there are a lot of water types out there. When exploring, you may come across a river; upon looking closer, you’ll notice that it is salty, which can’t be used to drink or trade.

You’ll also find brackish water, which can’t be used for drinking or trading either. On top of this, water can mix with other substances, such as blood. If you are in combat near water and either you or your foe bleed and then enter the water, it will become bloody. Bloody water may even trail behind them as they walk on land.

So, the lesson to learn from this is that fresh water isn’t as common as all the dirtier waters you can find in the game.

You can still pick liquids up,
such as salt water or blood. While they may not be used for drinking or trading, they can come in handy. For example, if you want to do a water ritual with a cannibal,
you’ll need to use blood instead.

How To Get Fresh Water

The simplest way to get more water is by trading with NPCs in settlements, such as Joppa. When trading, you’ll be able to either exchange goods, or use fresh water as currency to sell/buy items. Every item will have a price next to it; this signifies how many drams of water it’s worth.

If you just click on items to sell, then the NPC that you are trading with will “pony up” the drams of water to give you. If you have any valuable items on hand that you don’t need, try to sell them to NPCs and merchants that you find around settlements!

If you don’t have enough waterskin space, you won’t be able to hold more water. If this happens
, consider canceling the trade (as to not lose any potential dram) or getting a new waterskin (as well as any other container that holds water).

Can You Loot Water?

The short answer? Yes. This isn’t a reliable way to find water though. It can be a good way to collect some extra water while exploring, but we don’t recommend setting out with the sole purpose of looting water.

If you happen to kill an enemy that has fresh water on hand, you’ll also be able to loot this from them.

Fresh Water Pools

From time to time, you may also come across bodies of fresh water that can be gathered if you have the space in a container. If you aren’t sure if water is fresh or not, you can always take a closer look; if it says fresh, then you can gather it!

If the pool of water is big enough, try not to mix anything into it, such as blood. Like the previous water-obtaining method, this is a good supplement to get water if you supplement it with trade.

In
Kyakukya,
you can find some enclosed fresh water pools.

Can You Remove Salt From Water?

Lastly, you’ll be able to remove salt from water with the help of a Desalination Pellet. This is an item that you can add to water (either in a pool or in a container) to remove 200 drams of salt. So, if you were to use one on some salt water, then the salt would be removed and you’d have fresh water.

In order to get these, you’ll need to purchase them. Thankfully, ichor merchants (in the Stiltgrounds) and the NPC Hortensa (in Grit Gate) will always have a few on hand that you can buy for $25. Before buying these, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of spending water on a way to clean your water.

Desalination Pellets can be used to purify other liquids, but there is a chance that you’ll earn more fresh water if you just sell your items.