Caves of Qud

Caves of Qud

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What is your secret(s) ?
I've racked up I believe 28hrs of playtime, and the best I have managed to produce is a couple of 9th level characters, both True Kin (one priest of All Moons, one Praetorian) .... I see some of you guys on here posting about all of the exotic locales you are exploring, etc etc. -- what is the secret(s) of your success ? How do you do it ?
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Exibindo comentários 1630 de 30
Nick52763 30/jun./2019 às 14:49 
Caves of Qud version 182.1
Not sure if this counts as an exploit or just a clever way to play the game but it does greatly improve combat survival. Create a recipe that heals 15-20 hp whenever your health goes below 20%.
How to:
Get the Carbide Chef skill, get an ingredient with hp effects (such as any type of meat jerky), and get an ingredient with regeneration\healing based effects (such as Congealed Salve or Starapple Jam). For the Carbide Chef skill you will need to level up or explore to become "Inspired" to create a recipe. When "Inspired" go to a campfire, oven, etc and choose the two ingredients to cook with. Click through prompts until you see a menu of three recipe effects to choose from. The recipe effect you will want to choose will be "Whenever you drop below 20% HP, you heal 15-20 HP." If this recipe effect is not one of the three shown press ESC to cancel the cooking attempt and try again until the recipe effect is shown. Note: The effects for this recipe last for one in-game day whenever it is cooked.
Última edição por Nick52763; 30/jun./2019 às 14:50
mb3 30/jun./2019 às 23:26 
I have the simplest list for living a long time in COQ.

1. (Most important) If you see very tough mob you can't beat, 'Sprint' N' 'Run'
2. Always, Always, Always, take at least one mutation for defense.
Example: Teleport, (personal favorite) Force Field, etc, etc,... there are a lot more that can
save your life in a pinch.
3. Again, Run! Better to live and fight another day than loose your best character.
4. If all else fails, savor your character death because they make for good story telling.

-I've been burned alive by lava when I tried to carry some in a bottle, which ended up melting in my back pack and killing me.
-I made the mistake of caring around a bunch of thermal grenades when I had the create temporal clone and evil twin drawback...Suffice to say, I encountered my evil twin, we both used temporal clones, and every single clone started dropping thermal grenades at my feet. Boom, boom, boom, boom.
-I've bleed to death once when I walked into a thorn bush and I was a hemophilia.
-Crush to death by the weight of a Sun
-Beaten to death by a sentient door
-Decapitated by a fish

And on and on. :cozycastondeath:
CHOO CHOO 1/jul./2019 às 1:12 
Don't get into fights you can't run away from. Also don't run into places to fight critters; let them come to you that way you won't get ambushed when charging in.
mb3 1/jul./2019 às 15:09 
Escrito originalmente por CHOO CHOO:
Don't get into fights you can't run away from. Also don't run into places to fight critters; let them come to you that way you won't get ambushed when charging in.

Yes good point, use the terrain and look for natural choke points.
pEEtrs 13/jul./2019 às 17:04 
General rule of thumb is: Mutants are good (I personally don't like Espers, sure they are powerful, but that drawback they have (that spawns dimensional espers to hunt you is too much, they are not that problematic most of the time, but I had encounters with few that were impossible to kill, impossible to outrun, thus impossible to survive), but you can build super strong chimeras (or hybrids) and they all are fun to play.

It's the True-kin that trivialize the game, they are super OP. See points 4, 5 and 6 below. I'd take night-vision, high grade dermal insulation and pentaceps over any mutation any day.

1)
Get Tinker + Disassemble as soon as possible (my characters always start with Int 18 and I get both skills at level 6). Tinker 1 is enough, higher tiers are not worth it (perhaps Tier 2, that's needed to craft Eaters nectar). Modded items makes ones life far easier (woolly, reinforced, scoped, sharp, etc). It's also good to be able to craft fungicide grenades on demand (helps with purple mushrooms), although if you reach standing 400 with fungi, they will stop releasing spores if you get near them.

2)
Don't underestimate cooking and gathering, these are (after tinkering) second most powerful skills in game. You can get some serious foods out of this. Honey + Yukwheet foods trivialize Golgotha (you don't need to fear diseases). The +4 DV foods from Vanta petals are also amazing (farming Vanta petals is PITA though). Spicer is overkill, get everything else in this category.

3)
DV > AV ... played couple of AV characters and AV sucks, big time. You'll have such low DV in heavy armor that everything that can amputate limbs will do so. Who needs armor when mobs can't hit you...

4)
If starting True-kin, always take Night vision as 1st implant. There's no better choice. It also speeds up what's said below, just walk in the middle of screen and you'll cover whole area (nice combo with cooking, you'll be inspired often).

5)
When you get sniper rifle (can be done with desert rifle or carbine, but be prepared on water front, you will need to get close to them), loads of slugs (explore ruins near Grit gate, kill few turrets and you'll have enough of slugs for several lifetimes) and ~200 water to douse yourself when ignited.

Go and thoroughly explore desert, because:
1st) You level on those fliers there fast, they give 375 xp per kill up to iirc lvl 21.
2nd) You can get tons of eater-nectars from purple guys there (in my current game I also met trader that sold Zetachrome gear there). There's usually also lot of ruins where you can get lot of capital (books, implants, cybrnetic credits).
3rd) It's fast to explore.

Having both Ishashari banner and veil helps: some fire resists and it will also pacify raiders (they break auto-walk and don't have any worthwhile loot so don't bother with them).

Though this will probably work better with True-Kin, because Putus templars won't attack you and you'll be able to trade with them (and they usually have at least one nectar). It can be done on mutants too (you can farm Putus templar standing on snapjaws in mountains).

6) Don't fear deep underground, it's pretty easy down to level 25 (sniper rile is must, there are mobs that that should not get close to you) and between 25-30 you'll start to encounter Zetachrome items and Antimatter power cells. 30+ can be rough (mostly those pesky magnets that spawn there and also that's where Deathlands grade mobs start to spawn).

Again this will be much easier with True-kin, because of night-vision implant.
Última edição por pEEtrs; 13/jul./2019 às 17:28
mb3 13/jul./2019 às 19:28 
Nice post, but I have two comments.

"Quote"
3)
DV > AV ... played couple of AV characters and AV sucks, big time. You'll have such low DV in heavy armor that everything that can amputate limbs will do so. Who needs armor when mobs can't hit you...
"Quote"

I agree its nice to not even be hit when you have a high DV, but the problem with trying to go light armor dodger is, once you do get hit, because you have such a low AV, the attack will penetrate you 10-20 times deep, which means a simple 8 points of damage will do between 80 and 100 hit points of damage.

My other comment is just a personal preference, but one mutation I like much better than night vision is 'Enhanced Hearing' at level 10 you can hear and detect every creature on the map weather they move or not, you don't even have to be able to see them, so you can tell whats behind that door your staring at, or whats around that next corner....Its a must if your a ranged character and you want to keep mobs away from you.
zkiroel 15/jul./2019 às 0:59 
my best (5-6 lvls) runs I do with Sunder Mind // Phasing // Fly mutations :<
Última edição por zkiroel; 15/jul./2019 às 2:08
Torgairon 15/jul./2019 às 23:17 
the easiest builds to progress through the game and learn with are high toughness and/or high DV true kin builds.

- child of the hearth, 24 str 18 agi 20 toughness. start with carbide hand bones, these give you a mid-game weapon with high pen that maximizes your early-game damage potential. I usually stack AV with this character, it's a slugger that can go toe-to-toe with almost anything with barely any gear until you hit middle and late game.

- syzygyrior, 18 str 22+ agi 20 toughness. start with either translucent skin (+2 DV) or one of your favorite cybernetics, optical technoscanner is always high up for me. you want to dual-wield short blades, invest heavily in the short blade skills and aim for 20+ DV.

I start every character in the same place, the salt dunes village. why?
- salt dunes villages offer fasting way as their special skill, which is a massive quality of life boost for all characters.
- the salt dunes biome has the chance to spawn legendary dawnglider and salt kraken lairs, which are MASSIVE xp boosts if you happen across one. if you find a salt kraken lair at level 1, you basically skip the early game. if you discover one, load into the square for the xp reward and then gtfo before something eats you.
- salt dunes offer a fairly safe path to the six day stilt. your biggest danger is getting lost and finding screens full of dawngliders or issachari riflers, both of which you should stay away from until you are midgame or know exactly how to deal with them.

when I start a character, here is my early game flowchart:

- spawn in village, there are four contact points here: your two random village quests, the zealot with the six day stilt quest and the dromad trader. take the three quests, do the water ritual with the village chiefs to learn fasting way and check the dromad to see if he has any witchwood bark, then leave the village.
- do your two random village quests. these can vary wildly in difficulty and if you're going to lose a character, it will likely be in trying to finish these and getting in over your head. if you're having a really hard time, skip down to...
- rush to the six day stilt. you get a large xp reward for loading in, and the stiltgrounds are filled to the brim with useful merchants. I do NOT recommend murdering bookbinders and giving their books to sheba, the NPC in the middle temple, but you can do it for another large early game boost. I do recommend finding the NPCs that sell witchwood bark and buying all of it, it is shockingly cheap from merchants for being one of the only methods of healing.
- trek back to your starting village, resupply on water if you need to, and then head to red rock, the red peak-looking tile. do not load in; walk two tiles south into the marshes and load in. you are now in joppa, the OG starting village (or what's left of it!) walk to the northeast and examine the sultan statue. this statue is 100% guaranteed to have the information that you need to reveal a nearby historic site, which is a multi-floor dungeon with a randomly determined treasure at the bottom. the treasure can vary from totally useless (reflavored bronze dagger with 1% to dismember) to extremely powerful (bracelet with +to hit, +to carry weight, +to stats.)
- delve into the historic site. historic sites are filled with specific cults staffed by specific enemies, which is a long-winded way to say you'll be fighting 2 or 3 different types of enemy. they can be grindy, but only with specific late-game exceptions (♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ asphodelytes...) are they especially difficult. get your treasure(s) and get out.

if you survive all of this, you are likely level 8 to 12 and stacked with healing items, water and decent gear. your next main quest will be to head to grit gate, and from there you'll learn how to deal with golgotha, the real gateway to the mid-and-late game. useful stopoffs between that point can be to grind the flower fields or jungle, travel to kyakukya and visit the merchants and NPCs there, or do a billion other things that might mildly improve your chances of success! eventually, you will die or become so powerful you grow bored and in your hubris descend endlessly into the underground until you meet the really crazy denizens (and then die.) live and drink, friend!
Última edição por Torgairon; 15/jul./2019 às 23:21
Tom Baker's Arse 16/jul./2019 às 5:20 
Wow, I have not played CoQ in approx a couple of years. It seems like much has changed in that time. The fact you can start the game in different villages (and not just Joppa) is completely new to me. When was that implemented ?
pEEtrs 16/jul./2019 às 15:15 
Escrito originalmente por Tom Baker's Arse:
Wow, I have not played CoQ in approx a couple of years. It seems like much has changed in that time. The fact you can start the game in different villages (and not just Joppa) is completely new to me. When was that implemented ?

I don't remeber precisely, but ~1 year ago.
Luke 17/jul./2019 às 1:18 
Escrito originalmente por Torgairon:
- syzygyrior, 18 str 22+ agi 20 toughness. start with either translucent skin (+2 DV) or one of your favorite cybernetics, optical technoscanner is always high up for me. you want to dual-wield short blades, invest heavily in the short blade skills and aim for 20+ DV.

Syzygyrior or Arconaut are typically my go-to builds for high DV. High DV can be great, you can get to level 20 with it for sure, but it starts getting dangerous as anything that hits you will have a big penetration boost and then you're done.

If you are really wanting to max the DV, you can pick up two more points by putting a long-blade in your primary hand and using Defensive Stance. Then put short blades in all your other hands to take advantage of the AV bonus skills. Skill point cost works out about the same, as you can ignore all SB skills that require a SB in the primary hand, and give you a little more damage and penetration on your primary weapon.

Helps to have some sort of night vision since all your hands are full.
Poob 17/jul./2019 às 11:56 
save any books you find and turn them into the stilts to get quick exp for your early levels
pEEtrs 25/jul./2019 às 13:58 
Escrito originalmente por Luke:
Escrito originalmente por Torgairon:
- syzygyrior, 18 str 22+ agi 20 toughness. start with either translucent skin (+2 DV) or one of your favorite cybernetics, optical technoscanner is always high up for me. you want to dual-wield short blades, invest heavily in the short blade skills and aim for 20+ DV.

Syzygyrior or Arconaut are typically my go-to builds for high DV. High DV can be great, you can get to level 20 with it for sure, but it starts getting dangerous as anything that hits you will have a big penetration boost and then you're done.

I would not say so, high DV build are nearly invincible. Only dangerous things are stun / freeze and any form of explosions (basically all the stuff that negates DV or gets around it entirely). I'm not sure what AV I usually have on my AV toons pre-zetachrome, but I think you can easily get around 12 and that's more than enough for that occasional hit you get (once in a long while), but then they have much higher DV, zetachrome is not really DV gear :)

Also on the topic of Espers, I just tried one and oh boy, they suck :D Although Glimmer is not that big problem as I thought it (and remembered from back when this was introduced), but the toon does not offer anything special than average damage and amazing shop prices. Anything that gets to you will kill you easily and you will have problem killing anything when your powers are on CD. You'll have big problems with carrying capacity, etc. On the other hand, they are very good at farming desert (so leveling them to 20+ is not as hard as on other types of characters (that are limited by best available ranged weapon when they don't have ability to fly). I would also not try to level them up in the jungle river (another favourite source of good and fast xp ... the pyranhas there give 375xp for rather long time iirc). I also thing they would pretty much suck in deep underground (I can't imagine how you deal with gels / magnet towers / etc), which is my favourite endgame source of xp (but maybe they wil be all about killing your 1st dervish to get his gear, almost forgot about psionic weapons).
Última edição por pEEtrs; 25/jul./2019 às 14:06
Luke 25/jul./2019 às 14:28 
its about desired play style, too.

If you've got an esper with clairvoyance and sunder, you can level it up so that you can see the entire map and remote-sunder anyone on it. combined with precognition, you can never ever die as long as you play safe.

But that sounds super boring to me, and I'd never run a character like that. I do enjoy espers sometimes, but I don't go for the safe / invulnerable builds because I just don't have the patience for it.
pEEtrs 27/jul./2019 às 9:45 
Yea, I played a bit that latest esper of mine and I'm starting to think that the Glimmer is actually buff rather than hindrance. I'm as usual leveling in desert and once I got Glimmer to high number all manner of tasty mobs began spawning as body guards of the Glimmer mobs and I made tons of xp through that. Currently level 24 and ego 49, explored around half of the desert so far.

I now regret putting points into ego during early leveling, I should have put them into Willpower, I'm starting to be very limited by cooldowns now.

But I definitely find the play style bit boring, I prefer melee True-Kins (pentaceps FTW :)).
Última edição por pEEtrs; 27/jul./2019 às 9:46
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